Today's Passage: 1 Corinthians 12

I am a huge action movie buff.  I especially love movies that involve teams of people going in and getting a job done.  One of the things I've noticed about these types of movies is they always have the same 6 basic team-members: A leader with some sort of past mistake that makes him a good leader; A big guy that is almost always carrying the largest weapon humanly possible and it seems like nothing can stop him; A crack shot sniper that never talks or when he does he is some sort of philosophy guru; A twitchy explosives expert that is always looking for an excuse to blow something up and does all kinds of socially awkward things; A medic or communications guy that is really a scaredy cat and you don't even know why he would be in the military to begin with; And finally a rookie that no one knows and everyone is a little suspicious of but he ends up saving all of them in the end to show that he is worthy to be on the team.

I share all of that because this is basically the model that God gives, in this chapter, for His team (the church).  Like any good action movie all of the members of the team are used in their specifically gifted area and the team is successful.  Granted there are the occasional variations in our "team-members" but basically everyone is blessed with a gift and a role and it is when we all work together that we can accomplish the God sized tasks of the church. 

Here are a couple things to focus on in this chapter:
- We have all been given our role on the team from God, to specifically achieve His plan (verse 18)
- God has no room on His team for deserters or loners (verse 21)
- No matter what part of the team we are, we are to share in all suffering and celebration (verse 26)

What an awesome thing to be a part of!?!  We have a great leader in Christ and if we all were to find our giftedness, our role on the team, there would be nothing that God couldn't do through the body of believers.  I encourage you, if you don't already know, to seek out your spiritual giftedness.  There are tons of resources that can help you find your role on the team and with you serving where you are gifted the whole team will be blessed.