Ordinary People

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13, NIV 1984).

“The owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to streets and alleys and make them come in, so that my house will be full.’ ” (Luke 14:21–23, NIV 1984).

My Musings – God takes the ordinary and makes them extraordinary. But often (not always) the extraordinary (by worldly standards) cannot be used extraordinarily. It must make God sad (if not angry) that there are extraordinary people in the world who are not (refuse to be) useful for the Kingdom. But He must take delight when the “ordinary, unschooled“, “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame,” taken from “the streets and alleys“ are.

“Why, anybody can have a brain. That’s a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have “unschooled, ordinary men [and women] filled with the Holy Spirit,” called disciples. They think deep thoughts and speak spiritual truths with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got: ‘these men [and women] have been with Jesus.‘” (Adapted from “The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum).

My Advice – Think you are just ordinary? Not if you have the “one thing.” God can and will use you. Just spend more time with Jesus.