You are truly welcome here!

Right In Front Of Our Faces

Yesterday I took a break from office work and meetings to give my son an opportunity he's never had before. I took him to get a ski lesson at a local ski run. He's six, and he's never been on a set of skis before. In fact, until last month, he'd never even seen much skiing.

He did great. In a matter of three hours he could ski down the green runs. He still falls a few times down the hill, but for his first day he was fantastic. I hope that he loves to ski like I do. It is my prayer that he can enjoy this and many other wonderful hobbies that take advantage of the magnificence of God's creation around us.

As I think about our experience, however, I can't help but think of the people I've met in the various places I've lived that have never experienced many of the wonders outside of the town where they live. There are many people in this area that have never skied. When I lived outside Sequoia National Park in California I met several people who had never seen the big trees.

I love taking people to new places and showing them things they have never seen before. To me it is a way to help them experience the love of God in a new way. God made all of creation and then gave it to mankind to take care of and rule over. Some things can only be explained as God giving them to us for us to simply say, "wow"!

These people who don't explore much outside the comfort zone of their towns or neighborhood remind me of most of the rest of us. We have been given a life to live, and we have been charged with being good stewards of this life, but we seem content to do the same things week after week and never try anything new.

We are called to use our spiritual gifts to serve God. but many people I know can't even tell me what their spiritual gifts are. Do you know what yours are?

One of the best ways to find out what our spiritual gifts are is to try new things. Are you good at visiting the sick? You'll never know until you try. Are you good at telling strangers the great news of Jesus' salvation? Practicing this art is a great way to find out. We have a life that we have been given, but many of us are only living a shadow of that life because we are too afraid to try to find out what spiritual gifts we've been given.

When you find some way to serve God that brings you great joy then you'll have found one of your many talents.

I want to encourage you this year to find out what God has created you to do. Maybe you'll run a company in a way that shares the messages of grace and love with its employees and customers. Maybe you'll find that giving to the church or other ministries brings you joy. Maybe you'll take a trip to another country to do mission work only to find that you were ministered to even more. Maybe you'll teach a class or say a prayer or sing a song. Whatever you do, you'll be taking steps to finding the purpose God has created you for.

May you find out the life God has purposed for you. May the kingdom of God grow because of your newfound fervor. And may you be blessed richly because you got out of your comfort zone to try something new.

God bless you. If there's anything you'd like to discuss concerning this or any other topic, feel free to contact me at 505-334-6626 or via email at jddobbs@verizon.net.