DISCOVERING AND USING OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS

First of all, we all have spiritual gifts:

·       To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

We are commanded to use these gifts:

·       As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)

But how do we discover our gifts? I think that there are several ways. Most importantly, we must commit ourselves fully to God. As we commit ourselves to Him in obedience – and this includes meditating on His Word day and night (Psalm 1) - He will begin to make things clear to us:

·       Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

When our Lord is #1 in our lives, He grants us discernment and wisdom through His Word. When He is not #1, we inevitably harden our heart against His pleadings, and when we do this, we also harden our hearts against His illumination and wisdom.

Here is another way that we can discern His calling. If we are performing labors for the Lord that are drudgerous, these are probably not our giftings. Instead, God wants us to be cheerful in our service to Him and therefore gives us gifts that are pleasing:

·       Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)

These verses suggest that God will give us gifts that we can perform cheerfully. If instead God gives us gifts that are displeasing, we will not be able to persist long in them. Instead, God gifts us in a way so that we can joyfully persist and perfect our gift.

Others can also help direct us in discovering our gifting. We are to seek godly counsel. Their counsel should be able to direct us to discover and use our gifts.

Most importantly, we need not worry about discovering our gifts. Why not? Because our Lord has a blessed plan for our lives:

·       For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

We need not worry. The doors He opens for us, no one can close

·       “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” (Revelation 3:7)

We need to remember that God is in charge. He has even ordained the number of hairs we have on our heads, as Jesus had explained to His agitated Apostles:

·       And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:28-30)

Our God cares even about the little things in our lives. How much more our using the gifts He has given us for the edifying of His Church!

Therefore, we need not worry about discovering and using His gifts. We should be concerned about only one thing – that He is #1 in our lives:

·       Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ [or even ‘What are my gifts?’] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)

When our Lord is #1, everything that we need will be given to us!

HOW CAN WE DISCERN WHICH MUSLIMS WILL RESPECT US AS FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS?

This is a critical issue. Many Westerners claim that they have good Muslim friends. They therefore reason that Muslims are just as respectful as other people. But is “friendship” a reliable test? Perhaps not! There are numerous Koranic verses claiming that Muslims cannot be friends with the non-Muslim:

•                  [Surah 3:27] “Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah unless it is done [deceptively] to guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully.

•                  [5:54] O ye who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other.

•                  [60:1] “O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies (i.e. disbelievers and polytheists) as friends, showing affection towards them, while they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth”

•                  [60:4] “Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Ibraaheem (Abraham) and those with him, when they said to their people: ‘Verily, we are free from you and whatever you worship besides Allaah, we have rejected you, and there has started between us and you, hostility and hatred for ever until you believe in Allaah Alone’”

How do Muslims understand these verses? One commentator writes (www.koranqa.com; fatwa 59879):

•                  “Undoubtedly the Muslim is obliged to hate the enemies of Allaah and to disavow them, because this is the way of the Messengers and their followers.

•                  “Based on this, it is not permissible for a Muslim to feel any love in his heart towards the enemies of Allaah who are in fact his enemies too. Allaah says”:

•                  “But if a Muslim treats them with kindness and gentleness in the hope that they will become Muslim and will believe, there is nothing wrong with that, because it comes under the heading of opening their hearts to Islam. But if he despairs of them becoming Muslim, then he should treat them accordingly.”

How then can we tell which Muslims will not hurt us or approve of those who do hurt us? It is clearly difficult to tell!

WILL LOVE CONQUER ALL?

 A battered woman was encouraged to return to her husband with the advice that, “Love conquers all.” However, she was found dead several months later.

Perhaps love will not conquer all. One woman suggested that the wife simply had failed to love completely enough. In other words, the fault was hers and not the batterer’s.

On another occasion, a young professional woman confidently informed me that if we truly practiced love, we would not need the police or even the military. Love would overcome the hardest of hearts. No reminders of serial killers, Hitler, Genghis Khan, or Stalin would convince her otherwise. It seemed that she was convinced that, because love has meant so much to her, it can cure everything. One size fits all.

Well, if it is as simple as that, why hasn’t the “love message caught on?” Why are there still wars and criminals? She was convinced that greed and corruption had undermined attempts at loving. However, I didn’t get to ask her my next question: “Why hadn’t love overcome the ‘greed and corruption?’”

The youth, especially, are convinced that the answer is simple – love. However, even adults believe this way. Just today, I read:

• The Bishop of Stockholm has proposed a church in her diocese remove all signs of the cross and put down markings showing the direction to Mecca for the benefit of Muslim worshippers. 

It is not that she is unaware of the problems. In the same article, Chief Superintendent Torsten Elofsson illustrated that the red carpet need not be rolled out for the Muslims. On their own, they are making themselves quite comfortable in Sweden:

• “Years ago you could go with two officers, no problem. Now you have to send four officers and two cars – if the fire brigade want to go, they have to take a police escort. They throw stones and try to stop the fireman from putting out fires.

• “They sabotage the police cars. You can’t leave them unguarded – when you come back to it you find the windows smashed and the tires deflated. It isn’t quite a no-go zone, but we have had to develop special routines to go there”

Politicians are very aware of these disturbing facts. However, they have managed to convince themselves that love will overcome. Just make the Muslims feel accepted and loved, and they will reciprocate with love. Never mind that we find no examples of this in the Western world or even throughout history. Faith in the power of love seems to be impervious to any evidence.

We now treat our children with “unconditional positive regard.” Schools refuse to do anything that might bruise their self-image or feelings. Shame, let alone corporal punishment, is entirely rejected in favor of love – the carrot without the stick. However, as many have reported, we are raising a generation of heathen. Disciplinary problems are accelerating.

From where did this emphasis on love come? Not from the Romans and the Greeks. Historian Rodney Stark commented that their love was very limited:

·       “Classical philosophy regarded mercy and pity as pathological emotions—defects of character to be avoided by all rational men. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice.”

Love and mercy has been a central theme of the Christian Church. The Christian theologian Tertullian (200AD) claimed that:

·       “We Christians have everything in common except our wives. It is our care of the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Look,’ they say, “how much they love one another.’”

Aristides of Athens added:

·       “If the brethren have among them a man in need and they have not abundant resources, they fast for a day or two so as to provide the needy man with the necessary food!”

Even the pagans commented on Christian love. Lucian (190 AD) observed:

·       “The earnestness with which people of this religion help one another in their needs is incredible. They spare themselves nothing for this end.”

Emperor Julian, an opponent of Christianity:

·       “Ordered the creation of hospices saying, ‘It would be shameful, when the Jews have no beggars, when the impious Galileans feed our own people along with their own, that ours should be seen to lack the help we owe them.’” (How Christianity Conquered the World)

Julian was not alone in noticing Christian love. The Western world has become convinced of the primacy of love.

From where did the emphasis on love among Christians come? Jesus, in concert with the teachings of the Hebrew Bible (Lev. 19:17-18), taught:

·       Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (Matthew 5:44-48)

However, Jesus also taught that love had to be accompanied by wisdom and discernment. In the same Sermon, He warned that love had its limitations:

·       "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6)

There were times when love would not conquer all, when the disciples would have to pack up their pearls and move on:

·       If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:14-16)

His disciples would have to be “shrewd” about giving their riches. They would have to exercise discernment, because love would not overcome all obstacles.

The disciples were not to naively “hang in there” with indulgent love, expecting that it would conquer all. Instead, they had to be mindful of the dangers:

·           Then He [Jesus] charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven [teachings] of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." (Mark 8:15)

Jesus didn’t instruct his disciples to merely befriend and love the Pharisees until they’d come around to the truth. Instead, there were people from whom they would have to flee, because love would not prevail with them:

·           "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

The New Testament often acknowledges that love will not conquer all. In such cases, the believer is counseled to depart (Rom. 16:17; 2 Tim. 3:5-6; 2 Thess. 3:14; 2 John 1:10-12).

Love is powerful, but it must be guided by wisdom. When it is not, it becomes indulgence and enablement. Secular culture has embraced the idea of love but not its accompanying and necessary wisdom. This has brought upon the West the fruits of decay and destruction.

Discernment and Discrimination: A Case for Christian Love

How does the Christian respond to the question of bringing Muslim refugees into the West? Doesn’t love require that we do not discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving? No! Instead, Christian love must be discerning and discriminating. Even when it is applied within the Church, it is discriminating.

For one thing, the Church is mandated to discriminate between the repentant and the unrepentant.

• It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife… you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)

The unrepentant were to be excommunicated. Love is discerning. Paul argued that to do nothing would negatively impact the entire church along with the offender. What was the best thing that could be done for the unrepentant offender?  Cast him out in hope that he would repent of his sin!

What is the best thing that we can do for the Muslim refugee? It is certainly not to enable him to impose the oppressive shariah law on the infidel and to kill and rape those who do not go along with his program. Even now, as dependent and needy refugees, they are intimidating Christian refugees to the point where they are forced to flee for their lives. What then will happen once they are established and more confident!

At the very least, Western nations should demand that any Muslim refugees first denounce the various forms of violence and intolerancetaught by their faith. Otherwise, they ought to choose live in countries where shariah is already practiced.

Is it un-Christian to give to some and not to others? Certainly not! Certain people are to be punished, while the innocent protected. And what about those who believe in violence against the infidel?

Tony Blair now admits that even though only a small percentage of Muslims join ISIS, a great percentage of Muslims are supportive. If this is so, such subversives should not be given shelter in the West.

Instead, Christian giving and Christian love must be discriminate and discerning. The Church was not to give to every member. Instead, indiscriminate giving could breed sin:

• As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. (1 Tim. 5:11-14)

Would giving Muslims shelter enable them to sin? Well just look at Western Europe with its many Islamic rape gangs. Certainly, it would bring disrepute upon the Church if we were at all instrumental of unleashing such horrors upon our neighbors! Instead, there is nothing wrong with exercising discernment in giving:

• If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need. (1 Tim. 5:16)

When we give indiscriminately, we violate Scripture:

• For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)

We also violate Scriptural priorities. Charity must begin with our families and the household of faith:

• So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10) 

In The Compassionate Conservative, Marvin Olasky argues that discriminate giving has helped the needy to a far greater extent than our indiscriminate entitlement programs:

• A century ago, before the federal government ever became involved, thousands of local, faith-based charitable agencies and churches around the country waged a war on poverty much more successful than our own... faith-based groups a century ago helped millions out of poverty and into homes. Local organizations had the detailed knowledge and flexibility necessary to administer the combination of loving compassion and rigorous discipline that was needed.

A discipline that requires moral responsibility in exchange for charity is loving. A giving that enables slough is unloving. For example, giving should never undermine our responsibility to care for our own families:

• But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

Sadly, many Christians have backed away from these teachings, fearful that they will be accused of showing favoritism. However, favoritism is embedded in humanity, let alone in Scripture. We should show favoritism to our families, children, and spouses (Ephesians 5:22-31) and only very cautious giving to our neighbor’s spouse.  

Even Jesus showed favoritism. He elevated His brethren above the rest:

• And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” (Matthew 13:10-14)

He identified so closely with His Brethren that when they suffered, He too suffered:

• “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

In fact, according to Jesus, we must love one another is a special way, for one thing, because the world will not:

• “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you… If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:12, 18-19)

• I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you [Father] have given me, for they are yours. (John 17:9)

This certainly does not mean that we do not love the Muslim. However, we must love them in a way that will not promote violence and the abuse of our neighbors and brethren. We must also bear in mind that Muslims believe that they are called to rule the world, even violently. Ibn Khaldun, the 15th century Tunisian historian, states:

• In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.

Here’s the Koranic basis for this:

• “Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion (Islam) reigns supreme, (Koran 8:37)

• “When the Sacred Months are over, kill those who ascribe partners [like Jesus] to God wheresoever ye find them; seize them, encompass them, and ambush them; then if they repent and observe prayer and pay the alms, let them go their way’.” (Koran 4:5)

• “…kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” (Koran 2:191) and “murder them and treat them harshly” (Koran 9:123), and “Strike off the heads of the disbelievers” (Koran 8:12, cp. 8:60).

Emigration is also a means of Jihad for the Muslim:

• He who emigrates (from his home) in the Cause of Allah [Jihad], will find on earth many dwelling places and plenty to live by. And whosoever leaves his home as an emigrant unto Allah and His Messenger, and death overtakes him, his reward is then surely incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And when you (Muslims) travel in the land, there is no sin on you if you shorten your Salat (prayer) if you fear that the disbelievers may attack you, verily, the disbelievers are ever unto you open enemies. (Koran 4:100-101) 

In light of this, giving must be performed with great discretion and wisdom. It must be conducted in a way that doesn’t endanger the innocent. Bringing an extra tens of thousands of Muslims into the USA is a sure prescription for violence and antithetical to Christian love. Instead, our hearts must go out first of all to the Christian refugees - the ones who will make a positive adjustment to the West.