Congratulations ... You're Gifted!: Discovering Your God-Given Shape to Make a Difference in the World (invert) - Softcover

Fields, Doug; Rees, Erik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310277256 ISBN 13: 9780310277255

Verlag: Study Resources, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

Are you confused about who you are or where you’re headed? Does your life seem cluttered and chaotic? Do you wish you understood God’s plan and purpose for your life? Do you want to uncover your God-given strengths? If you said yes to any of these questions, you’ve come to the right book. The first step is to know who you are. Remember, you’re a child of God—created by him with your own unique heart, abilities, personality, and spiritual gifts. God brought all those elements together in you so that you could serve him and the world in your own unique way. Inside the pages of this book, you’ll discover the place where your God-given passions and strengths intersect, and you’ll find the way you’re designed to serve. With interactive exercises and questions for you to answer, you’ll learn more about your: • Spiritual Gifts • Heart • Abilities • Personality • Experiences Understanding each of these areas of your life, you’ll begin to see who you are and how you’re designed to serve. You’ll stop serving because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do, and start serving from the depths of your heart and soul because it’s what you were created to do.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Doug Fields has been a leader in youth ministry for over 30 years. In addition to being a youth pastor at two churches for 11 and 20 years, Doug is the founder of Simply Youth Ministry, the co-founder of Downloadyouthministry.com, the author of more than 50 books, and is currently working with Youth Specialties & Azusa Pacific University (HomeWord’s Center for Youth/Family). More information about Doug is available at www.dougfields.com.

For over 15 years, Erik Rees helped people discover and direct their God-given S.H.A.P.E. at Saddleback Church. After the loss of his twelve-year-old daughter Jessie to cancer in 2011, Erik used his pain to help other families and is the CEO of the Jessie Rees Foundation. Through Erik’s leadership, Jessie’s mission to encourage every kid fighting cancer to “Never Ever Give Up” is becoming a reality. He and his wife, Stacey, live in Orange County, California, with their children, Shaya and JT, and their two dogs.

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Are you confused about who you are or where you're headed? Does your life seem cluttered and chaotic? Do you wish you understood God's plan and purpose for your life? Do you want to uncover your God-given strengths? If you said yes to any of these questions, you've come to the right book.

The first step is to know who you are. Remember, you're a child of God--created by him with your own unique heart, abilities, personality, and spiritual gifts. God brought all those elements together in you so that you could serve him and the world in your own unique way.

Inside the pages of this book, you'll discover the place where your God-given passions and strengths intersect, and you'll find the way you're designed to serve. With interactive exercises and questions for you to answer, you'll learn more about your:
• Spiritual Gifts
• Heart
• Abilities
• Personality
• Experiences

Understanding each of these areas of your life, you'll begin to see who you are and how you're designed to serve. You'll stop serving because that's what you're “supposed” to do, and start serving from the depths of your heart and soul because it's what you were created to do.

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Congratulations ... You're Gifted!

Discovering Your God-Given Shape to Make a Difference in the WorldBy Doug Fields Erik Rees

Zondervan

Copyright © 2008 Doug Fields and Erik Rees
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-27725-5

Contents

INTRODUCTION WELCOME TO AN EXCITING ADVENTURE!.................................7CHAPTER 1 CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'RE AN ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE......................11CHAPTER 2 YOU'VE BEEN GIFTED...................................................25CHAPTER 3 YOU'VE GOT A BIG HEART...............................................43CHAPTER 4 YOU'VE GOT TALENT....................................................57CHAPTER 5 YOU'VE GOT PERSONALITY...............................................69CHAPTER 6 YOU'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SHARE........................................87DISCOVERING YOUR GOD-GIVEN SHAPE: A SELF-DISCOVERY PROFILE.....................99CHAPTER 7 YOUR UNIQUE KINGDOM IMPACT...........................................113CHAPTER 8 YOUR TURN TO SERVE...................................................131CHAPTER 9 YOU'RE BETTER TOGETHER...............................................147CHAPTER 10 CHANGE YOUR WORLD...................................................157APPENDIXES.....................................................................167A SPECIAL NOTE FOR YOUTH WORKERS...............................................187

Chapter One

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'RE AN ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE

ONLY YOU CAN BE YOU

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

A MASTERPIECE ... ME?

During my freshman year of college, I took an art class. I wasn't interested in art at all-but I was very interested in this cute girl who "just happened" to be an art major. Our first class assignment was to go to an art gallery and study different works of art. Even though the cute girl didn't want to go with me (I'll save that story for when I write a book called Congratulations! You're an Idiot) I made the trip to the fancy art gallery so I wouldn't fail the class.

Upon arriving I was greeted by the gallery director, who enthusiastically told me how to get the most from my experience. I was definitely a fish out of water. I remember noticing one cool sculpture made entirely out of scrap metal, but mostly I didn't "get it" when it came to art. I'd look at a painting and think, "That's nice" or, "What was he thinking?" or, "If I swallowed a lot of paint and then threw up on canvas it would look like that one there." You know, really insightful art comments.

The highlight of my visit was meeting a middle-aged artist named Ray. I was immediately blown away by how much passion he had for his work. He showed me some of his paintings with a sense of pride in his ability and confidence in his calling to be an artist. He spoke with conviction that his creations were clearly one-of-a-kind originals. I was amazed by all he could see in his art, since I could see only a bunch of different colors and shapes. But like other artists, Ray viewed each piece of art he made as unique-not meant to be reproduced. Every time he picked up his brush, his goal was to create a masterpiece that was totally original. I learned more in that one afternoon about art and masterpieces than I'd learned in my previous 19 years of life. (But apparently I didn't learn enough to get higher than a C+ in the class.)

A few years earlier, when I was in ninth grade, I had met another artist who changed my life. This other artist was even more passionate about his own creations. His love for me and every one of his creations far outweighed any human artist's love for their work. I'm referring to the God of the universe as the Artist who changed my life.

God and his amazing craftsmanship shaped me into the man I am today and inspired me to want to make a difference with my life. Check out how the Bible describes God's awesome work in the life of a human:

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. (Psalm 139:14-16, NLT)

These verses make it clear that you and I are special creations of God, the Artist! God didn't create you to take up space or just hang around or become excess baggage on this planet. God created you to spend your life loving him, loving others, and making a difference while you're alive. God began crafting you into his masterpiece while you were still in your mother's womb. Your mom and dad played a part in your creation (I know, sick thought-that's another chapter of another book called, Congratulations! Your Parents Had Sex-Doesn't That Seem Gross?), but God himself is the One who breathed life into you.

God is the ultimate Artist, and he doesn't create anything without value. He designed you specifically and originally so you could do something unique with your life, something no one else would do just like you. In fact, God is smiling right now thinking of you as you learn for the first time, or the thousandth time, that you are his original masterpiece. Here it is from the Bible: "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago" (Ephesians 2:10, NLT).

Though we may not know each other, I'm assuming you don't want to waste your life. I've never met any teenager who has said, "My goal is to be a loser and do nothing with my life!" Most teenagers have dreams of greatness and want to do something significant. How about you? Have you given it much thought? It's realistic that you may not know what you want to do with the rest of your life, but whatever it is, I'm betting you want it to be good ... even great.

If that's true, then I welcome you and invite you to spend some time trying to discover something about your uniqueness. I encourage you to read this book and discover more about the particular way God has shaped you into his masterpiece. Even if you don't like reading, your time with this book may be very helpful to you. Once you discover who you are (God's work of art), then you can start figuring our what God might have planned for you and the specific way he designed you to make a difference in the world.

ONE OF A KIND

Like the artist who takes scrap metal and turns it into an amazing sculpture, God takes the pieces of your life and shapes them with his own loving hands to be a one-of-a-kind original masterpiece. Congratulations! There is no one else on the planet just like you! Six billion people walking around-and billions before them-and no one is just like you. No one! That's mind-blowing! Think about it for a minute. Try to get your mind around the truth that there never has been and never will be someone identical to you. Only you can play the role of you!

As you continue to read, I'd love for you to imagine we are going to meet at a nearby Starbucks (easy to imagine since there seems to be one on every corner). At this Starbucks you and I order some drinks, grab a couple of comfortable chairs, and pull them by a small, window-side table. I'm drinking a large iced tea (iced tea because I hate coffee, and large because I know we'll be together for a while) and you're drinking a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Study Resources
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0310277256
• ISBN 13: 9780310277255
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 191
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland