This week I am going to quote, without editorial comment, from "The Living Bible, Paraphrased" as published by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60187; Copyright 1971, Guideposts Edition.

From the 1^st Book of Corinthians, Chapter 12, verses 4 through 13. 

"Now God gives us many kinds of special abilities, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all.  There are different kinds of service to God, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are many ways in which God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work in and through all of us who are his.  The Holy Spirit displays God's power through each of us as a means of helping the entire church. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; someone else may be especially good at studying and teaching, and this is his gift from the same Spirit.  He gives special faith to another and to someone else the power to heal the sick. He gives power for doing miracles to some, and to others power to prophesy and preach.  He gives someone else the power to know whether evil spirits are speaking through those who claim to be giving God's message - or whether it is really the Spirit of God who is speaking.  Still another person is able to speak in languages he never learned; and others, who do not know the language either, are given the power to understand what he is saying.  It is the same and only Holy Spirit who gives all these gifts and powers, deciding which each one of us should have. 

Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together.  So it is with the "body" of Christ.  Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free.  But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body.  We have been baptized into Christ's body by the one Spirit and have all been given that same Holy Spirit."

These are the words of Paul from the 1^st book of Corinthians.  Thanks be to God!