Out Of The Ordinary
Every time God performs an extraordinary thing He works through ordinary people.
He does so for a reason, i.
e.
that His grace might be magnified.
The extraordinary shines best against a backdrop of the ordinary.
When God does amazing things through us we, and others, are so conscious that it has nothing to do with us that He gets all the glory! Paul said, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us...
"" (2 Cor.
4:7).
The word 'excellence' means that which excels or goes beyond the ordinary, i.
e.
the extraordinary.
God deposits the potential for doing the extraordinary in human vessels, clay pots that have been baked in the sun (and some are only half-baked!) No Superstars In The Kingdom Of God Some churches pursue famous Christian personalities, such as sports stars, actors, singers, etc.
, and pay them handsome fees to share their testimonies, believing that their notoriety will impress the unsaved, resulting in salvation.
Their logic seems to be: Look who we've got on our side! Now do you want to become a Christian? How different to the way Paul viewed things! (see 1 Cor.
1:26-29).
God says, "I don't do champions; I don't do superstars; I just do ordinary people.
'" In the kingdom of God there are no extraordinary people, only an extraordinary God who does extraordinary things through ordinary people.
The way into the extraordinary is through the ordinary.
God uses ordinary people.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "God must have loved the plain people because He made so many of them.
" One of the things I love about the Bible is that its characters are never portrayed as anything other plain, ordinary people.
Oliver Cromwell, when having his portrait painted, asked that he be painted exactly as he was, "warts and all".
That's how the Bible presents its characters - warts and all! Yet God used them in amazing ways.
The Snare Of Success The problem is that when an extraordinary God does extraordinary things through ordinary people, those ordinary people sometimes start believing they are extraordinary! A bishop, who obviously thought he was someone special, was once invited to speak at a local church.
Hardly anyone turned out, so during the service he said to the vicar, "Didn't you tell your people I was coming to speak today?" The vicar replied, "No.
But obviously the word got out!" Jesus Was An Ordinary Person Jesus was just an ordinary person.
Don't get me wrong, Jesus always has been, is, and always will be God.
Yet on earth He didn't live as God but as a man, a very ordinary man.
He did not draw crowds because of His physique, charisma or charm.
He lived every moment in total dependence upon the extraordinary working of His Father through Him.
He freely admitted His inability to originate any miraculous work or life-changing truth.
His words and works came from the Father.
He said, "Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son does in like manner" (Jn.
5:19).
Every day He presented His humanity to the Father as a vehicle through which God's life could be poured.
Every extraordinary thing Jesus did came out of the ordinary.
It is in this way that we are to imitate Christ.
Feel comfortable with your weaknesses.
Feel comfortable about being ordinary.
Because the way into the extraordinary is through the ordinary.
He does so for a reason, i.
e.
that His grace might be magnified.
The extraordinary shines best against a backdrop of the ordinary.
When God does amazing things through us we, and others, are so conscious that it has nothing to do with us that He gets all the glory! Paul said, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us...
"" (2 Cor.
4:7).
The word 'excellence' means that which excels or goes beyond the ordinary, i.
e.
the extraordinary.
God deposits the potential for doing the extraordinary in human vessels, clay pots that have been baked in the sun (and some are only half-baked!) No Superstars In The Kingdom Of God Some churches pursue famous Christian personalities, such as sports stars, actors, singers, etc.
, and pay them handsome fees to share their testimonies, believing that their notoriety will impress the unsaved, resulting in salvation.
Their logic seems to be: Look who we've got on our side! Now do you want to become a Christian? How different to the way Paul viewed things! (see 1 Cor.
1:26-29).
God says, "I don't do champions; I don't do superstars; I just do ordinary people.
'" In the kingdom of God there are no extraordinary people, only an extraordinary God who does extraordinary things through ordinary people.
The way into the extraordinary is through the ordinary.
God uses ordinary people.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "God must have loved the plain people because He made so many of them.
" One of the things I love about the Bible is that its characters are never portrayed as anything other plain, ordinary people.
Oliver Cromwell, when having his portrait painted, asked that he be painted exactly as he was, "warts and all".
That's how the Bible presents its characters - warts and all! Yet God used them in amazing ways.
The Snare Of Success The problem is that when an extraordinary God does extraordinary things through ordinary people, those ordinary people sometimes start believing they are extraordinary! A bishop, who obviously thought he was someone special, was once invited to speak at a local church.
Hardly anyone turned out, so during the service he said to the vicar, "Didn't you tell your people I was coming to speak today?" The vicar replied, "No.
But obviously the word got out!" Jesus Was An Ordinary Person Jesus was just an ordinary person.
Don't get me wrong, Jesus always has been, is, and always will be God.
Yet on earth He didn't live as God but as a man, a very ordinary man.
He did not draw crowds because of His physique, charisma or charm.
He lived every moment in total dependence upon the extraordinary working of His Father through Him.
He freely admitted His inability to originate any miraculous work or life-changing truth.
His words and works came from the Father.
He said, "Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son does in like manner" (Jn.
5:19).
Every day He presented His humanity to the Father as a vehicle through which God's life could be poured.
Every extraordinary thing Jesus did came out of the ordinary.
It is in this way that we are to imitate Christ.
Feel comfortable with your weaknesses.
Feel comfortable about being ordinary.
Because the way into the extraordinary is through the ordinary.
