I draw your attention to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians. It has a lot to do with communication and relationship. Our first relationship should be with God, then with the people around us. Jesus died to restore our access to Father God, which was lost when Adam sinned, and also the power to join Jew and Gentile into one body.
1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
Christ’s body is made up of many members, no matter what your background, no matter what your strengths and weaknesses are.
1 Corinthians 12:4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
Yes, we have diverse giftings, different ministries, different activities, but we are all one in the Spirit of God. Which leads me to the book I’m reading this week. I met Dayna E. Mazzuca on LinkedIn. She did a two week zoom seminar on defining which of the five ministry gifts you belong to and mentioned her book, Write to be Read, Speak to be Heard A Communication Guide To The Five Filters. As a writer, I was interested!
1 Corinthians 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
Dayna introduces you to The Scholar, The Social Connector, The Change Agent, The Adventurer, and The Mystic. Each of these types of readers has a filter they use when they read or listen. If you want your writing or speaking to be relevant, you need to know how these filters work, for yourself as well as them. The book is written in three sections. The first defines the types of readers, the second describes how these filters work in each type. The third section gives you a checklist to use when deciding how to reach your reader.
I quote two things Dayna points out at the end:
The onus is on you, the person aiming to be heard, to accommodate your various listener’s filters.
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Communication is an art, but it’s also work. The work of a committed soul hoping to reach another soul.
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Dayna Mazzuca has a passion to help us communicate with each other, to help us fulfill 1 Corinthians 12 by understanding what God has given us, how it fits with what others have been given, and using it to build up the body of Christ. This is a short 84-page book I recommend as a teaching and a tool, and you can get the Kindle edition for $2.99. Here is her website:
I leave you all with a photo of our yard with its latest snow, which has already melted, and encourage you to read through 1 Corinthians chapter twelve this week. Be blessed and be a blessing!
Musings along life's journey 