Tuesday, January 4, 2011
No Superheroes
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." —2 Corinthians 4:7
A little girl was asked in her Sunday school class what a saint was. Thinking of the saints in stained glass windows, she replied, "Oh, those are the people the light shines through." She was right. That is exactly what a saint is: someone whom the light shines through. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). According to Scripture, a saint is a true believer.
When God became a man and walked among us, then went to a cross and died and rose again, He commissioned 12 disciples. They didn't have modern technology to help them reach their culture, yet in a relatively short period of time, they reached their ancient world. And they did so primarily through word of mouth, person-to-person, telling others about Christ.
When we think of these great men of God, it is hard for us to think of them as human beings. But when we read their stories in Scripture, they are very candid and honest. We see their shortcomings and missteps and even their sins. I think the reason for this is so we can see that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people.
These men that God used were quite ordinary. They weren't superheroes. They were very human. They were not called by God because they were great. Rather, their greatness came as a result of the call of God. God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
As 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." God goes out of His way to find ordinary people to work through—people like you and me.
Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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