March 12,1997
Dear Br. Herbert:
A know a minister, a man of God, who has one of the most wonderful spiritual gifts, at least Sevilla and I think it is wonderful for we benefit from it on numerous occasions.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul lists 27 gifts of the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit, of course, is God in the same way that
Jesus Christ is God. He, the Holy Spirit, gives gifts to individual
Christians for building up his church on earth. Each gift is given
as He sees that we can make use of it to glorify Christ, to build
the church, to strengthen and encourage the brothers and sisters,
and to minister to the saints, and witness of Him and His love.
The particular gift I am referring to is the gift of helps or
service. This pastor has a singular desire and ability to help
everyone he can. He rises early in the morning and begins his
day of service by 7:30 A.M., and spends much of the remainder
of each day either visiting people to encourage them, driving
them where ever they need to go, or providing whatever other help
they may need. This is the spiritual gift of helps.
He is a most unusual person. Quiet, reserved, unobtrusive, not
self-assertive or loud, he tends to blend into the background,
yet he is friendly, outgoing, knows how to carry a meaningful
conversation, something I have trouble doing, and he is always
ready with a smile, a friendly handshake, a warm greeting and
a nod of recognition, for he knows almost everyone in this small
community of Del Rio.
The gifts of the Spirit are only given to those who know Christ
as their personal Savior and who live up to as much spiritual
truth as they understand. As we advance in understanding the truth
God has placed in the Bible for our edification, and as we use
our gifts for the Lord’s cause and He sees that we are making
the best use of them we can, He often gives us more gifts and
abilities to use for His cause on earth.
This pastor is well known in the community and is genuinely liked
in his small church. Just as an aside, I think this is one of
the nicer churches I have seen in this part of the country. Situated
off the main road, almost inconspicuous, it sits unobtrusively
in an out of the way corner of the county. It is not ostentatious,
like many of the big city churches, does not have a steeple to
proudly announce its holiness; I wish churches would dispense
with steeples, they are so artificial and ostentatious and add
nothing to the reverence or holiness of the worshipers. It is
only an external decoration that churches could dispense with
and not suffer any loss in spirituality.
His congregation is well represented every Sunday morning. Sevilla
and I attended there once when my older sister was visiting. They
seem to have a large number of children and a good representation
of youth, so he, that is the pastor, seems to be able to retain
or attract the youth to the church which is always a good thing,
even though he is near retirement age.
But there is something missing from this idyllic seen. His influence,
in the community is positive, yet his example of helps does not
seem to have rubbed off on any one else. Each of us has an influence
or atmosphere that we carry about us, most of the time it is unconscious
but when we are conscious of it, we tend to become obnoxious or
boring as we seek to overplay our influence.
But, as I said earlier, his influence is quiet and unobtrusive, yet every one knows or sees his spiritual gift yet his example is seldom imitated. It is no excuse to say that I don’t have the spiritual gift of helps, therefore, I am absolved from helping others. No! This type of logic or reasoning is no excuse, for we learn by the example of other Christians how to live or not to live for the Lord.
Several months ago, you talked to me about how hunting dogs learn
to hunt, by watching adult dogs and imitating their example. Yet,
we humans have less common sense then a dumb animal. (No offense
intended to dogs, but sometimes I think we have less intelligence
then animals.)
If we were as quick as those hunting dogs to learn our trade or
lessons, we would learn from this pastor and other Christians
how to be better people, to be Christ-like, but we often have
less common sense then animals, for we observe people, such as
this pastor, then blithely go our way and never learn from his
example.
If Christ were alive today, I wonder if the same thing would happen
with him as happens with this pastor. Many people might follow
him because of the miracles he could perform, because they could
be healed from their sicknesses, and because of the food he could
give them, and because he could walk on the water, but would these
same people follow him because he had a sinless character, because
he loved everyone he met, because he spoke without swearing or
cursing, because he radiated the peace and harmony of heaven?
I doubt it.
God gives us examples of good and bad people that we may discern
the difference and pattern our lives after the one and shun the
other. His teachers are often unconscious of their influence over
others. We would do well to become more astute at observing human
nature and respond with greater alacrity to the good while avoiding
the bad, yet it is more often true that the reverse is the norm.
Let us all strive to cram as many good works into our lives as
possible. While good works, including the exercise of the spiritual
gift of helps by this pastor, will not save us, for we are not
saved by what we do but by whom we believe, we can never enter
heaven without good works, for what we do is a manifestation of
who we follow, Christ or Satan. By doing good, we manifest that
our example is Christ, by doing bad we indicate to all that our
leader is Satan. When the good predominates over the bad, we are
headed upward, but when the bad predominates over the good, we
are hell-bound. As I said, good works don’t save us but they
are an accurate indicator of the direction of our lives.
May the Lord encourage you with a desire to do good things because
you love Christ and desire to advance his kingdom on earth. Your
brother in Christ.
Allen A. Benson