Many human beings are born with artistic, academic, or industrial abilities. These are our human endowments. We may spend much or all of our life in such employment. Moses devoted forty years to tending sheep. Whatever we do we should do in faith as to Christ, looking to Him for wisdom and strength in every aspect of our lives.

When we are born again we receive our eternal calling. Our spirit becomes one with the Spirit of God. We enter the ranks of God's elect. We are formed as an eternal part of the Body of Christ, the Servant of the Lord.

We are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of the Anointed Deliverer. Then the Holy Spirit gives to us one or more of the talents of the Kingdom of God. As we put our talents to work we are given more talents, depending on our diligence and wisdom.

The talents of the Kingdom of God are of the Spirit of God. They are supernatural in origin. However, whatever is before us to do in assisting the work of the Lord, whether it be giving, serving, building, helping, is considered a talent for which we will be held responsible even though it is not a spiritual gift. Musical ability is included in the category of nonspiritual gifts.

But the gifts of the Spirit of God are supernatural in origin, not inherited as are human "talents."

Many people of the world are highly gifted. Such gifts and talents are of the soul. The gifts and talents of the members of the Body of Christ proceed from the Holy Spirit of God, not from the soul or training of a human being.

In our day, the human talent of music has been employed so widely in the work of the Gospel that it is viewed as though it were the work of the Holy Spirit. The truth is, music often is used to compensate for the lack of the Spirit of God.

Any true gift of the Spirit will build up the Body of Christ. However, an oratorio or solo, no matter how expertly performed, may do nothing more than entertain the believers and lead them away from the Spirit of God.

Music plays an important role in the activities of the Christian churches just as it will throughout eternity in the Kingdom of God. In our day the Holy Spirit is adding pageantry, mime, drama, and other artistic expressions because of the need for a more active participation in worship, a more vibrant and demanding expression of the things of the Gospel. Because of the intensity of evil in our environment a church service must consist of much more than the routine singing of a few hymns from a hymn book followed by a lecture from the pulpit. There must be increasing fire and life during the assemblings if the saints are to stand spiritually in the present darkness.

Artistic, triumphant expression will strengthen and guide the worshipers only if it is guided by the Spirit of God. It is the responsibility of the elders of the assembling to carefully observe every activity, endorsing and strengthening that which they discern to be of the Spirit of God and preventing that with which they feel uncomfortable. Satan and his demons are always ready to add a few activities of their own, following on the heels of that which the Spirit has provided.

To be continued.