« Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 21 | Main | THIS BLOG HAS MOVED! »

July 23, 2010

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 22

Bloody hands. David said to Solomon, "I wanted in the worst way to build a sanctuary to honor my God. But God prevented me, saying, 'You've killed too many people, fought too many wars. You are not the one to honor me by building a sanctuary—you've been responsible for too much killing, too much bloodshed." 1 Chronicles 22:7 (MSG)

I've got the gift of teaching and preaching. I don't know why God gave it to me, and I don't always understand His designs for it in my life, but I've got it. I'm not a gifted singer, even though I'm envious of those who are gifted singers. I'd love to open my mouth and have a voice eminate that stops people in their tracks, but that's not me. I'm a decent singer, and I can belt out a decent tune, but I was never the first choice to sing the solo (or the second or third, for that matter).

Along the journey I've had the opportunity to speak and to preach along side some very gifted musicians and worship leaders. I've noticed a pattern. Many of them really wanted to be gifted teachers and preachers, but they weren't. They were gifted singers. I really wanted to be a gifted singer, but I wasn't.

I recall one weekend I was doing a series of messages. The worship leader, knowing that I secretly wanted to sing, let me try my hand at a solo. It wasn't embarrassing, but it wasn't great, either. Everybody knew it. During the worship set, the worship leader went off between songs into a long teaching introduction. There was nothing wrong with what he said, it just didn't fit. I'll never forget that evening, After the service I remember saying, "I won't sing if you don't preach. You stick with singing. I'll stick with preaching. It'll be better for everyone."

As much as David wanted to build the temple, he wasn't the right person person. He was a warrior. His job was to make way for the building of the temple, which would be done by his son, who was a man of peace, knowledge and wisdom.

We all have our gifts and our part to play in God's kingdom. The key is to identify our gift and use it well.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and kypkanomin

Note: My blog is moving to http://tomvanderwell.wordpress.com. Please visit the new site and subscribe or book mark it in your favorites. This site will soon be shutting down.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451710a69e2013485a36dfe970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 22:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.