I recently listened to Louie Giglio's presentation from the 2006 Catalyst Conference (for more information on Catalyst, follow the Catalyst Conference link on the sidebar of this blog).  Louie's challenge was to raise up people who would use their God given talents to go out into the world and bring people to God

One example given was Cana's Feast wine.  This was the 2005 Oregon Wine of the Year.  The wine's name refers to the wedding feast at Cana where Jesus turned water to wine.  Every bottle of the wine tells the story of the wedding feast on the back.

There were several key phrases that stood out to me : 
     - "There is something in you that is a God-wired passion and you need to go for it with all you have. There’s no distinction between sacred and spiritual when you are a child of God. Do what you do in the name of Jesus for the glory of God.".  If you know how to make rubber bands then you should make the best rubber bands you can for the God's glory (paraphrase).

    - "We have to translate the love of God to people who don’t get it – we need to get in their worlds for God."

In reading the passage in John 2:1-11, it was clear to me that the wine that Jesus created was not ordinary vintage but was the best. 

This drew parallels to a Bill Hybels presentation (entitled "Leadership Excellence") from the 2000 Willow Creek Leadership Conference in the role that excellence plays in the story.  The Bill Hybels talk was based upon Malachi 1.  Bill's point in his lecture was that God requires excellent sacrifices from us.  In Malachi 1, by sacrificing lambs that were blind, crippled and diseased, the Israelites were giving tainted sacrifices, and they were not pleasing to God.  In fact, God preferred receiving no sacrifice at all to receiving sacrifices that were not the best lambs.

The excellence theme was been something that I have been drawn to of late.  Jesus didn't have to make the absolute best wine at the feast in Cana, as everyone else would have served ordinary wine at that point as the guests were already drunk.  In fact, it was already a miracle that the water had been turned to wine; let alone that the water had been turned into the very best wine.

Are you giving your best to God in your time, talents, and treasures?  When you serve in your church, are you giving your best effort or are you giving a blemished sacrifice?  Are there talents that God gave you that you are not using in His service?  Are you being the best steward of your financial blessings?  Do your actions draw people closer to God or push people away from God?

I know that I am not always living up to my full God-given potential, so these verses were a wake-up call to me.