NO ELIMINATIONS IN THE KINGDOM

Romans 3:23  "....for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"

I watch a number of programs, mostly cooking type shows, where someone is always eliminated for not being quite good enough, or falling short of the talent of the other contestants.  I am so happy I am not judging these shows, as the ones I think should go are usually not the ones that get eliminated.  See, there are people that are so good at what they do, so much more qualified in their field than I, they see the things that I overlook in the offerings of the contestants.  But, eventually, someone gets cut, chopped, eliminated.

The wonderous grace of our Lord, of our God, secures a place for all of us in His kingdom.  No one is left out.  We all can come to Him with our various styles, thoughts, talents and there is a place for each of us.   Each of us has a talent, a gift that we have been given before we were born.  It is there inside of us.  It will lay dormant, however, until we surrender our lives to the Lord and look to Him for His will for our lives.  Once we let the Lord take control of our hearts, giving all to Him, those gifts begin to open up inside us and start to produce what the Lord intended.  There is no choosing one over the other, saying one gift is better than the other, as each gift, each talent is designed for that one child of God.  The gifts I have been given, my talents may fall short of someone elses talent.  There talent, their gift, demands their heart.  Mine is suited to me alone.  Our Lord, our Creator, knows what will suit each of us.  He will not give a talent to someone that will not be able to enjoy the gift, to appreciated the uniqueness of it for them.  Not all of us are suited for each talent.  I do not know if I could prophesy as some of the annointed people of the Lord.  I know there are times that the Lord gives me a word for someone, and I am faithful to give that word, but I have never felt like this was a special gift to me.  I could be wrong, but the Holy Spirit would have to truly show me that.

It is like a basketball player would not exactly be a good horse jockey.  Two different ends of the scale.  Each of us has been made, designed by the Lord, to perform the work He has equipped us to do.  There are some works that we are all equipped to do. Love the Lord with all your heart and soul.  Love one another. And  one that leaps up high on the scale......WORSHIP the Lord with all that is within you.  These are for all of us.  But to some....teachers, pastors, evangelists, prophets, apostles.  Each a gift, each a talent given.  There are so many more gifts that the Lord gives to us all. 

Talent......remember the story of the master that gave his servants talents, five, two and one.  The one with five and the one with two produced. The one with only one talent hid his, in fear he hid his talent.  This is typical of some of God's children today.  In fear of different things...fear of man, fear of failure, fear of ....yes, even fear of God, they hide the gift, the talent that the Lord gives them.  And there it lays inside of them, dormant, useless, wasted.  And they grow embittered, never realizing their potential, looking at others with envy of their talents and gifts, while letting theirs go silent.

Father, this is going so much deeper than I thought when beginning.  I know there are reasons You have me write things, I pray this is understood by Your children.

The beginning of this writing tells of those eliminated for not being as good as the next person.  But in the Kingdom of God, none of His children are eliminated, all are given grace to begin again.  The Lord, our Father, wants that none of us fall short of His glory.  He sent His Son, our Savior, to secure our position with Him, as His children.  When your children fall short, disappoint you..... even though you are disappointed in what they did, you still fold them into your arms and give them that love, that no matter what, they are your child and you love them.  Grace redeems them with you, just as the Lord's grace, His mercy redeems us to Him.  He gives us another chance to let Him develop that talent in you, so you can be used to glorify Him, to use those special talents and gifts designed for just you to bless His children, to bless Him.

There is no elimination.....no cuts.....all are the best.  There is a perfection in each of us that was placed there by our Creator.  Open your hearts, surrender yourself to the will of our God and let Him bring out the very best in you.

03-10-12