Gifted ??

Exodus 28
1-5 Consult with the skilled craftsmen, those whom I have gifted in this work, and arrange for them to make Aaron's vestments, to set him apart as holy, to act as priest for me.

Have you ever tried to do something that you thought you could do but in reality you could not? Or how about this, have you ever consulted with someone that you knew before hand they really didn’t know what they were talking about and about half way through the conversation your blank stare gave it away?

Lisa and I are about to finish up a project that has taken us a month to build. At the start of the project we had our son-in-law, Allen come over and do the work. He is very skilled and precise in wood working. As for Lisa and I we have our own way, this is evident as the project is nearing it’s completion. Allen built the first two section of this deck, then Lisa and I decided we really enjoyed the time we had together in doing this. So, each night for the past few weeks we would get home from work and build for a few hours together. Saturday, after an early morning round of yard shopping and picking up a few good deals we started on the project. We were just a cutting and hammering.

We move over to the entrance way where Allen had worked on the right and left sides, his work is beautiful, I knew we could never get ours to look that good so we thought of a way to hide the imperfections. During us cutting these boards, Danny stopped by and ask "how are you cutting those, you ain’t got no square. I responded that we just draw a line and cut the board. He being skilled in this area went to his truck and got me a square. This turned out to be a very useful tool. Not that I had never used one but just thought I could do without it. With the guidance of these skilled craftsman the entrance way looks beautiful.

I find myself more times than I like to omit working on things I know nothing about. This was a fun project for Lisa and I. We enjoyed being together and working. It turned out looking great to us and that’s all that matters in the end.

To apply this story to us and to our lives is a challenge. The text says to "consult with". Who are we consulting with in our life? Do we run to Jesus first or do we find ourselves all over the place crying the blues looking for direction. I have seen and heard people talking about things they know nothing about, they were not skilled in the area of which they were talking. We do a lot of things in the name of Jesus. Thinking we are doing something good but in reality we know nothing about what we are doing or saying. Sometimes we find ourselves in conversations we really don’t need to be in, what you say will have an effect, positive or negative. I do believe our flesh is like the paraná, that flesh eating fish. We take anything we can get and eat it up while making our entrance way look beautiful, hiding all of our own imperfections. God has blessed us all with gifts, use them for His Glory and not our own.

George Beasley