Ordinary People

My wife and I decided to take a little 2 hour trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania. As I crossed the state line, suddenly memories of my maternal grandparents flooded my mind. Elwin and Ginger Brennan served almost 34 years in Brazil as missionaries, raising seven children. My mom was the oldest child. They learned to survive on very little and most of their support came through churches in America. They have since passed away, but their children and their children are still serving the Lord in Brazil and other places in the world. It's a testament of God's faithfulness in very ordinary people. Their faith planted in these lives are producing fruit almost 3 generations later!

God is not looking for polish and perfect people. No, beloved, he's looking for those have prepared their heart to do whatever God tells them do. And in their weakness they launch out into the deep into uncharted waters believing God is leading them onward.

It's the rough, uneducated, and boastful Peter who on the day of Pentecost preached a very powerful sermon excelling the knowledge of the best religious teachers of his day. As a result, 3,000 souls were ushered into the kingdom (see Acts 2:41). It's the cowering and fearful Gideon who required sign after sign before going to war, but God won a great deliverance through him for Israel(Judges 7).

And it's a young Esther, an orphan, who hid the fact she was from a nation in exile, broke the law to step into the king's court. I believe she didn't have much of a plan, but God gave her wisdom. She smiled while feeling the veins in her neck constrict, "What about a party? Oh, and invite Haman, please." (Esther 5:4). As result, the enemy of God's people was defeated. History was changed forever as Esther become a co-regent with the king who help overturned a law. A law that once decreed was pretty much set in cement.

Beloved, if you live your life but restricting your abilities or inabilities because of your ordinariness, you will miss a blessing. The blessing of God taking the foolish, the despised, the weak things and making them into something extraordinary that shuts the mouth of the world and the devil! (See I Corinthians 1:27-28).

(A short interview with my grandparents can be found at http://www.ntm.org/ntmhomes/retirees_archive.php#brennanelwin)