Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940513.TXT
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OUR DAILY BREAD                        Friday,  May  13,1994
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READ: Romans 12:1-8

  "BRICKLAYERS AND VIOLINISTS"

 Having then gifts differing according to the
 grace  that  is given to us, let us use them.

       - Romans 12:6

A concert violinist had a brother who was a bricklayer.  One
day  a  woman  began  talking  to  the  bricklayer about how
wonderful it was for him to be in the  same  family  as  the
noted  musician.  But then, not wanting to insult the brick-
layer, she added, "Of course, we don't  all  have  the  same
talents,  and even in the same family some just seem to have
more ability than others."

The bricklayer replied, "You're telling me!  That  violinist
brother  of  mine  doesn't know a thing about laying bricks.
And if he wasn't able to make some money playing that fiddle
of  his,  he  couldn't hire a guy with know-how like mine to
build his house.  If he had to build a house  himself,  he'd
be ruined."

If you want to build a house, don't look up  "violinist"  in
the  yellow pages.  And if you need someone to play the vio-
lin in an orchestra, don't hire a bricklayer.  No two of  us
are exactly alike, and no one possesses every gift.  In that
way, houses get built and music gets played.

In the church, God has gifted us in different ways too.  Our
responsibility  is  to  exercise the spiritual gifts that He
has given us.  When we do, we build each  other  up  in  the
faith, and there is harmony in the body of Christ.

Author:  Haddon W. Robinson

 It matters not what others do,
 It is my task to see
 My  life is  patterned  in  the  mold
 The Lord has planned for me.  - Beers

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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There are  no  unimportant members in the body of Christ.

The Bible in One Year:  Psalms 97-99
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