Ordinary Disciples, Extraordinary God

I want to share another excerpt from my new book To the Edge. Here is one of my favorites. If you missed yesterday's excerpt, be sure to check it out. A special thanks to those of you who have shared that you are presently reading through the book! Please send me your feedback and consider posting a review at Amazon.--------We want to start with the extraordinary. Iron Man. TheIncredible Hulk.“We want the high caliber, high capacity-type to leadthis ministry. For apart from these we can do nothing. Wewant Superman, not the Greatest American Hero!”We want to use the extraordinary to reach the world.“If only our church had some outstanding leaders,then we would be better poised to reach the four billion.Unfortunately, global disciple making will have to waituntil we can find just one.”We want the extraordinary because we think they arethe way to accomplish the extraordinary.“Kingdom work is a daunting task, please send us somestrong leaders to enable our church to be about such work.”But . . . what if the way to reach the nations is notthrough the extraordinary? What if in our Father’sKingdom economy the primary way to accomplish the extraordinaryis through the ordinary?“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,and perceived that they were uneducated, common men,they were astonished. And they recognized that they hadbeen with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).Do you catch that? The ordinary doing the extraordinary.Yes, our Father uses the extraordinary to accomplishthe extraordinary but not in the way we have come to believe.For the extraordinary is found in Jesus and not Hisfollowers’ intellect, leadership capacity, experience, degrees,or charisma.What about your church? Do you have any memberswho are common, ordinary people? Are you an ordinaryperson? If so, then you and your church are in a good positionfor the Lord to do the extraordinary through you.“But ordinary people can’t engage in extraordinaryKingdom work!”Really? What is your definition of extraordinary?“With all that they have going on with work and family,they can’t organize, administrate, lead, preach, andconduct church ministries like I do.”Then maybe you need to revise your understanding ofwhat is necessary for a healthy local church to exist and beinvolved in our Commission?The way to accomplish the extraordinary is throughthe ordinary. The ordinary disciples of Jesus confoundedthe religious leaders of the first century. These ordinarymen were accused of turning the world upside down (Acts17:6). These ordinary people were responsible for the Wordof the Lord going forth everywhere (1 Thessalonians 1:8).And it was through the service of the ordinary thatyou and I eventually came to faith in the Extraordinary.Stop looking for the extraordinary among people. Lookfor the ordinary who are filled with the Extraordinary . . .if you want to accomplish the extraordinary.