1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Spiritual Gifts | Page 5

been given by God the gift of craftsmanship. These buildings, many that are sadly empty
today, were used well at the time that they were built, and they did, I am sure, bring much
glory to God as his people exercised this gift of craftsmanship. I cannot help but look
around the church today and see that even our church is evidence of people using this gift
to the utmost. These are the people who may not be able to preach a sermon with words,
but they can certainly do that with their hands. We thank God for the people with the gift
of craftsmanship.
CREATIVE COMMUNICATION
THE divine enablement to communicate God’s truth through a variety of art forms.
Creativity is something that has always been at the heart of God himself. When you read
Genesis 1 – 2, you see God’s passion to create, but notice too, that within God’s creative
ability there is always place for variety. I find it amazing to look at creation and see within
the animal kingdom, every animal eating something different. God’s variety is incredible.
Why didn’t he make us all eat mud – that would have simplified things, but he didn’t; even
within the human realm, there are so many differing things. So too, God has blessed the
church with creative people; people who can use drama, art and music to reflect so much
of the beauty of the heart of God. Just think for a moment of King David. We all think of
him as being a great warrior, but he is also noted as being a great worshiper where, using
his substantial gift of music and poetry, he wrote for us many of the psalms that we read
and sing today. It is the people with creative gifts that take that which could be so boring
and bring it to life. They are the ones who add to our church by utilising their gift of music
and drama. There are artists amongst us who have painted beautiful pictures and we view
through their gift of communication, with great variety, the beauty and nature of God
himself.
There is however, a sad note to all of the above and that is that so often people have
become prejudiced towards those who have a different preference to these creative arts.
These issues are all issues of preference and because we are all so different, we all have
different likes and dislikes. It is sad that so often in the church today these people disagree
on the style of creative communication, but at the end of the day, the style doesn’t matter
at all because it is only God who judges and he always judges the heart. Thank God for the
beauty of variety. May he make us more understanding and supportive of the preferences
of other people.