Acts 4:13 – Now when they (the religious leaders) saw
the boldness of Peter & John, & perceived that they were uneducated,
common men, they were astonished. & they recognized that they had been with
Jesus.
It’s human nature to disqualify ourselves &/or come up
with reasons why we can’t respond to Christ’s invitation to follow Him as His
disciple. The excuses run the gamut:
We’re ashamed of ourselves. Too sinful. Too broken.
Unworthy. Insufficient & inadequate for the task.
2 great examples of this are Moses & Simon Peter. In
Exodus 3-4:17, Moses responds to God’s call to bring freedom to the Israelites
enslaved in Egypt, & to lead them to the Land of God’s promise using the
excuses:
I’m a nobody
I don’t have the authority to do this on my own.
They won’t listen to me.
I can’t talk very good in public.
Then, in John 18 & 21, we see Peter, ashamed at his
failures, short-comings, & denial of Christ, left behind the life of a
disciple of Christ & returned to the life he’d known before the call of
Christ: fishing.
In both of their situations, these men were looking at
themselves to try to find something within that would enable them to be &
do what God called them to be & do. And they couldn’t find it. Instead, God
PROVIDED everything they needed in order to be able to do what He called them
to BE & DO.
Because God doesn’t choose & call us because we’re
awesome. Especially gifted. Extraordinary.
He chooses & calls who He does to show what HE can do in &
through normal, everyday, ordinary people. People who spend time with Him. And
who will obey His words.
This coming Sunday, we’re starting a series called “Ordinary
People” to explore what it looks like for us to be Jesus’ disciples, to BE with
Him, & to follow wherever it is that He leads.
Blessings, grace, & peace to you
