This week, I had the great
privilege to attend a Bible study taught by Dr. Henry Blackaby, pastor and
author of Experiencing God. Dr. Blackaby’s book has had an amazing
influence on my walk with Christ and has been a key to helping me grow in
faith. During his message, Dr. Blackaby emphasized that to grow in faith,
one has to believe that God is capable of doing extraordinary things through
the lives of ordinary people. If we submit ourselves to God’s plans for
us, and expect greater things than what we can do on our own, we will see the
power of God at work through our lives.

One of the ways we can discover how God can work through an ordinary person’s
life is to read about other Christians who had amazing things happen in their
lives. Here are some examples:

Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated shoe salesman in 19th century
Massachusetts. He felt the call to preach God’s word and believed that
God could do anything through someone who was fully dedicated to doing God’s
will. During his life, he preached in revival services across Britain and
America, founded the Bible Institute in Chicago, started seminary schools, and
organized Christian conferences. This poorly educated shoe salesman became of
of the greatest evangelists of his time and thousands of people accepted Christ
as their savior as a result of Mr. Moody’s work.

J.Hudson Taylorwas born into a comfortable English family in 1832.
He accepted Christ as a teenager and felt called to become a missionary
to China. At age 19, he sought to understand missionary life, so he moved
to a slum in England to prepare for his journey to China. He found that
God met all his needs as he committed them to prayer. At age 21, he made
the journey to inland China to bring the Word of God to the native
cultures. By his death in 1905, Hudson Taylor had created the China
Inland Mission, with 849 active missionaries and over 125,000 Chinese people
converted to Christ.

Mary McLeod Bethune was the 15th of 17 children born to parents who were
former slaves in South Carolina in 1875. She was uneducated for a portion
of her youth, but later went on to attend seminary, the Moody Bible Institute
in Chicago, and then became an educator. She said “Faith is the
first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible.
With it, nothing is impossible.” She had a heart to help educate the
poor African-American girls in the Daytona Beach area and opened a school in a
small house she rented for $11 a month with 5 students. This school grew
to become the Cookman-Bethune college, a fully accredited 4 year school.
Ms. McLeod Bethune went on to found the National Council of Negro Women and
served as an adviser under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration.

Angus Buchan was an ordinary, hot tempered immigrant farmer in Zambia
with an 8th grade education. He left a 3,000+ acre farm due to the unrest
in Zambia in the 1970′s start from scratch on a small plot of land in South
Africa. He was saved by Christ in 1979, and felt called to preach the
Gospel all over the world. He has visited dozens of countries and had
amazing successes in his farm work and evangelism. He had a vision of gathering
men at his farmland in South Africa to become mighty men of God. His
Mighty Men Conference had over 200,000 attendees in 2009 and over 300,000
attendees in 2010. He has preached to crowds of over 60,000 in soccer
stadiums, and has started an oprhange and day school on his property, serving
the needs of over 200 students.

George Muellerwas a rebellious young German man, who spent his
time gambling, drinking and committing petty theft. He was caught as a
young man staying at inns without paying and spent 24 days in jail. Upon
his conversion to Christ, he became a preacher and missionary. He felt called
to help the poor orphans in 19th century Bristol England. During his
life, he chose to take God at his word to provide for all of his needs.
George Mueller refused a salary as a pastor and missionary, and vowed
never to ask another human for money. Through the work of God in his
life, George Mueller established several orphan houses serving over 10,000
orphans and distributed more than 8 million dollars to the work.

Nick Vujicic was born in 1982 in Australia with no arms and no legs. As
a youth, he entered a time of severe depression as he thought about all the
“normal” things he would never be able to do, and considered suicide.
Soon he became a believer in Jesus Christ and found faith in God as the
key to overcoming any challenges we face. Nick has taken his message of
hope to millions all over the world as a motivational speaker, which he began
doing at the age of 19. Over 200,000 people have accepted Christ as their
savior through Nick’s ministry. Nick says, “If God can use a man
without arms and legs to be His hands and feet, then He will certainly use any
willing heart!”

In these examples, we see that God can use anyone to accomplish amazing things.
Education, wealth, age, physical ability, race, temper, habits,
circumstances – none of these things stood in the way of God accomplishing
extraordinary things in the lives of ordinary people. The common factor
in each of these lives was a heart willing to follow God above all else.

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About David Edmisten

David Edmisten is the President of justopenthebook.com, an
online ministry encouraging others to develop a closer relationship with God by
opening and studying His word. After
years of living in the world’s ways, this self- described “heavy metal guy” found
and accepted Jesus Christ as His savior in 2005. With God’s help, he has overcome addictions
and learned to live by faith to serve God.

After more than ten years in the financial services
industry, most recently as a Financial Advisor, David felt called by God to
leave the corporate world and start on online Christian ministry. A native Californian, David and his family
moved sight unseen to Cumming, GA
(north of Atlanta)
in 2008. David lives with his wife
Kristy and their 4 young children, where they enjoy homeschooling, outdoor
activities, music, games and family fun.
David has earned the Accredited Asset Management Specialist designation
from the College for Financial Planning and is a graduate of the University of California,
Santa Barbara. He is a member of High Tech Ministries in Atlanta and has led small
groups in men’s and financial ministries.
He enjoys playing guitar, writing, speaking, and sharing God’s
word. He is also author of the Faith
Takers blog (http://justopenthebook.com/faithtakers),
which is the journal of his walk of faith since leaving the corporate world to
follow God.Learn more at:
http://www.justopenthebook.com

http://justopenthebook.com/faithtakers

http://www.justopenthebook.com/forum

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