This week, I continued my reading of "Accidental Pharisees" by Larry Osborne. I progressed to the end of the book this week, and it has been a very interesting, and challenging read.
I read part 3 this week, called "Gift Projection", which essentially talks about the various "gifts" associated with Christianity (some people are gifted evangelists, others gifted to lead the missional front in other countries, some gifted to be pastors and preachers, etc.).
The author reveals a view of these gifts that I have heard very little of before, and would venture to guess many in the Christian community would not be thrilled about the ideas that he presents. He suggests that "gift projection" happens when people with a given gift, such as being a missionary project this onto all Christians, creating an environment where missionaries are held up as "ideal" Christians that everyone should strive to emulate. He argues that different people are given different god-given gifts and that suggesting that one is superior to another produces an environment of guilt that does little to help and, he suggests, is not biblical.
The author also discusses another idea that was new to me, calling it "gift-envy." This is when we see someone around us who has a certain gift and feel envy towards them becomes we don't have the same natural gift. This typically happens with high-profile gifts like bible-teachers, missionaries, and spiritual risk-takers. Some people are blessed with the ability to crave taking risks and living moments where if God doesn't come through, they will be in big trouble, others prefer more security--the author suggests that neither of this is wrong if it fits your God-given tendencies.
All of these idea, like much of the rest of the book, presented new and challenging ideas that have caused me to re-evaluate how I view the topics discussed. This book certainly has presented ideas in a way that counter that which I was grown up being taught as right, so it is always a challenge to try to discern between the truth of the new ideas and those which I have been raised with.
Reading Log:
Monday- 8:30-9
Tuesday- 8:30-8:45
Wednesday- 8:30-9
Thursday- 8:30-8:45
Friday- 8:30-9
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