Ordinary People #1 - Disciples

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