In this issue:

i) Face of Victory - J. Carattini

ii) Spiritual Gifts - Part 1 - C.E. Wigg

Face of Victory

Jill Carattini

On March 1, 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones stepped into the gondola of a hot air balloon and lifted off from the Swiss alpine village of Chateau d'Oex. Nineteen days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes later, traveling 28,431 miles, they landed in the Egyptian desert. Their journey successfully marked the first nonstop flight around the world in a balloon, earning them the distinction of a world record, a book deal, and a million dollars from the sponsoring corporation. Their victory photograph now rests in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum beside the "Breitling Orbiter III" itself.

As with all successes in life, the accomplishment of Jones and Piccard's journey is memorable. Like the trophies on our shelves or the moments we remember as crowning, the successful passage of the Breitling Orbiter III is the story we celebrate--a story that seems to begin at Chateau d'Oex and ends in Egypt. But this trip, like most of our memorable achievements along the road of human development, was not quite the linear move from start to finish we imagine it to be. In fact, the journey that would end with a world record actually had three hopeful starting points and two frustrated finishes.

The often miry course of human history is similar. I have long understood the need for will and volition in the healing process of our personal histories. There is a reason Jesus questions the paralytic by the pool in John chapter 5; we must first want to be well. But thinking of this call for help as being inherently present within the human developmental process has only recently entered my perspective. What if every pang of trust or mistrust, every cry for autonomy or cry of shame, was the call of the spirit to that which is beyond it? Theology professor James Loder offers a perspective well posed: "It is evident that human development is not the answer to anything of ultimate significance. Every answer it does provide only pushes the issue deeper, back to the ultimate question, 'What is a lifetime?' and 'Why do I live it?'"

Such are the questions we wrestle with in the twists and turns, stops and failures through this journey called life. How incredibly helpful to know there is a reason. God is not merely the God who comes near in the midst of the pain of adolescence or the cries of an adult for understanding; He is the creator of the spirit that leads us to crisis and guides us through certain pains. It is not merely, as one developmental psychologist writes, the "capacities of the human psyche" that "make spirituality possible." It is the Spirit of God who makes the human psyche capable of knowing Him. "You did not choose me," said Jesus, "but I chose you" (John 15:16).

As its name suggests, the success of the Breitling Orbiter III was built upon two previous attempts. The original Breitling Orbiter launched in January of 1997. Only a few hours after take off, the balloon was forced to land when the crew was overcome by kerosene fumes from a leaking valve. One year later, the Breitling Orbiter II stayed in the air 9 days longer than its counterpart, managing to navigate from Switzerland to Burma. To the dismay of all, their flight was cut short when they were refused permission to use the airspace over China. Yet from the finish line, there is little doubt that these set backs contributed to the development of the system and strategy that would allow Piccard and Jones to pilot their balloon across the Pacific.

Whether our days are marked by victory or crisis, progress or a call to turn around and try again, the Spirit goes with us, reinforcing that God has been there all along. To discover that there is a face inherently present behind many of the failures we long to forget, a Spirit within the crushed and wounded scenes we try our best to put behind us, and a voice that speaks over and above the cries that have indelibly marked our journey is to experience the restorative hope of the creator who intended us to discover Him. The words of the psalmist describe waking to this knowledge: "It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them" (Psalm 44:3). Our days are marked with the intention of one who loves us. Our winding journeys are a means to his face.

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[Copyright(c) 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission.]

Spiritual Gifts - Part 1

Charles E. Wigg

[Our study from the Book of Deuteronomy is temporarily interrupted to discuss a very important topic - Spiritual Gifts. No issue in Christendom has caused such a wide interpretation and misunderstanding as that of the exercise of the spiritual gifts. We are grateful to Bro. Charles Wigg (Appachen) to write a short but comprehensive study on the subject. Please continue to keep both Bro. Charles as well as his wife in your prayer as both of them have physical problems that require continuous care and medication. After the current series, God wiling, we will resume our study from the Book of Deuteronomy - Chapter 24. - J.Ben]

First Corinthians chapters twelve to fourteen deal with the above matters and the purpose for which those gifts were given. John Gill’s expositor gives the following summary of the chapter that we are about to expose, and I quote in full.

"Introduction to 1 Corinthians 12: In this chapter the apostle discourses concerning spiritual gifts, showing the author, nature, use, and excellencies of them; compares the church to an human body, and in a beautiful manner sets forth the symmetry and subservience of the members of it to one another, being set in different places, and having different gifts; and enumerates the several offices and gifts in the church, and yet suggests there is something more excellent than them. He intimates, that spiritual gifts are valuable things, and should be taken notice of; nor would he have the saints ignorant of them, and therefore gives the following account, 1Co_12:1 and yet he would not have those that have them be proud of them, and lifted up with them; for which reason he puts them in mind of their former state in Heathenism, to make and keep them humble, 1Co_12:2 and points out such who have the Spirit of God, the author of all gifts and grace; not such who call Jesus accursed, but they that call him Lord, 1Co_12:3 which Holy Ghost, who is called Spirit, Lord, and God, is the author of the different gifts bestowed upon men, 1Co_12:4 the end of bestowing which gifts is the profit of others, 1Co_12:7 of which gifts there is an enumeration in nine particulars, 1Co_12:8 of each of which the Spirit of God is the worker and giver, according to his sovereign will and pleasure, 1Co_12:11 and which are all for the good of the whole community; which is illustrated by the simile of an human body, which as it consists of many members, and is but one, so Christ mystical, or the church, though it consists of divers persons, yet they are all one in Christ, and all their gifts are for the service of each other, 1Co_12:12 which unity is proved and confirmed by the saints being baptized by one Spirit into one body, the church, and by drinking of him, or partaking of the same grace, 1Co_12:13 and in order to show the usefulness and profit of every spiritual gift, even the meanest, to the churches of Christ, and that none might be despised, he enlarges upon the metaphor of the human body he had compared the church to, and by it illustrates the unity of the church, and the members of it, 1Co_12:14 and shows that the inferior members should not envy the superior ones, or be dejected because they have not the same gifts: and conclude from hence, that they are not, or deserve not, to be of the same body, 1Co_12:15 seeing it is convenient and absolutely necessary that there should be many members, and these set in different places, and have different gifts and usefulness; and particularly what should make them easy is, that God has placed them according to his will and pleasure, 1Co_12:17. And, on the other hand, he shows, that the more noble, and excellent, and useful members, ought not to despise the lower, meaner, and more ignoble ones, partly because of the usefulness and necessity of them, they cannot do without them, 1Co_12:21 and partly because of the honour put upon them, 1Co_12:23, and all this is so ordered, that there be no schism, but that there should be a mutual care of one member for another, and that they should sympathize with each other, 1Co_12:25. This simile the apostle more plainly and particularly accommodates and applies to the church, the body of Christ, and the members of it, and of one another, 1Co_12:27 and gives an enumeration of the several officers and offices in the church, set there by God himself; and there are no less than eight of them, some greater than others, most of them proper and peculiar to the primitive church, though some perpetual, and which still continue, 1Co_12:28 but in the times in which they were all of them in being and use, every member of the church was not possessed of them, only some, though all had more or less the advantage of them, 1Co_12:29. Wherefore, he concludes with an exhortation to the saints to covet the best of those gifts; and yet observes that there was something more excellent than them, and preferable to them, which he was about to show them, 1Co_12:31 and hereby he makes an easy transition to the next chapter, in which he recommends charity, and prefers it to gifts."

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[Reproduced by permission of the author]