Claimed, gathered and sent

For my devotional time this morning I was reading Hebrews 12, you know the chapter that starts out, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses..." (Heb 12:1). What powerful imagery, how moving. It makes you feel like you can hang in there with this great throng that has preceded you in the faith. It is the second half of the verse that I was meditating on this morning. "... let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1b). Several thoughts came to mind. First of all, "the race that is set before us." My son, Christian, was a distance runner from middle school through college. He did best of all at the mile. He did very well at longer distances like cross country races or road races. He did ok at slightly shorter distances, but the mile was where he shined. That was his race. When he ran the race set before him, that he was best built for, he succeeded. What about us? Do we look at others' walks of faith...

Have you ever wondered what your spiritual gifts are? In my class on leadership, we were required to take the following test to determine those gifts. See what yours are. Romans 12 Motivational Gifts Test http://www.gifttest.org/

I just finished my summer courses, one of which was Ministry Communication. On the final, we had a choice of several scriptures for which to produce a sermon outline. One of them was Psalm 23 and this is my outline. Following the Shepherd Introduction Have you ever felt so desperate, alone and helpless that you just wanted to be taken care of? When I was divorced, before I met my husband, Ray, sometimes I just wanted to be taken care of. I remember how it felt when I bought a good used car from a Christian brother that had been advertising on the local Christian radio station. He was so honest and forthright. He did not try to take advantage of me or talk me into a vehicle I could not afford. When I took the vehicle in for servicing, he made sure everything was done right. All I could say was that I felt taken care of. I had not felt that way in a long time. This man was a stranger, except for the fact that...