DEVOTION: Ordinary People, Extra-ordinary Results ~ by Shirley Corder.

Moses was born under a death threat. Pharaoh had ordered the death of all male baby boys born to Israeli women. His mother, an ordinary Jewish woman who loved her new baby and trusted God, used ordinary tools to weave a tiny watertight basket. She placed her beloved baby in that vessel and lowered it into the River Nile. We know the results. He was rescued by Pharaoh's princess, and brought up by his own mother for the first three formative years. One day God used Moses to lead the Israeli people out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. An ordinary woman performed an ordinary task which produced an extra-ordinary result.

God planned to wipe humanity from the face of the earth, but he chose Noah to continue the human race. Noah, an ordinary but righteous man, obeyed God and built an ocean-going ship such as was never seen before. He used ordinary tools and skills he had obviously developed through his ordinary work on earth. The result? An extra-ordinary vessel that survived the biggest storm the earth has ever seen. And the human race and all the animal and bird species of the world were saved from extinction. An ordinary man, using ordinary tools, performed an extra-ordinary task.

The Scriptures are full of such stories. David, the ordinary young shepherd, who took up five ordinary pebbles, and killed an extra-ordinary giant. Rahab, an ordinary Canaanite woman, who hid ordinary Israeli spies in an ordinary way, and thus saved not only her family but brought herself into salvation and the extra-ordinary line of Jesus Christ. 

Fishermen, tax-collectors, religious leaders, men blind from birth, lepers, prostitutes . . . ordinary people. When they turned their lives over to Jesus, they used ordinary tools such as dinner parties, fishing boats, pens or quills and scrolls, walks on the dusty Palestine roads and chats along the way, to bring about extra-ordinary results in the lives of those with whom they came into contact.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, an ordinary Albanian-born woman suffered from the ordinary disease of tuberculosis when she received a call to follow God. She went on to achieve many extra-ordinary results under the name of Mother Teresa.

William Franklin (Billy) Graham was born into an ordinary Scottish family in Carolina. He had an ordinary education and was nearly expelled from Bible College. He suffered from hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer.Yet he has used his ordinary speaking ability with extra-ordinary results, to become indisputably the greatest evangelist the world has ever known.

Please note none of these were born with the expectations of being extra-ordinary. They were all ordinary people. Like you and I.

I am not worthy of being added to this list of remarkable people but I include this story to show it is not only the "greats" of our world that God can use. I am a very ordinary person. I wrote a very ordinary book using an ordinary computer. Yet I keep hearing from people who write to tell me about the extra-ordinary blessings they have experiences through reading the words of Strength Renewed. I know there are countless authors who have similar stories to tell.  

Are you an ordinary person? 

Oh good. Then you no doubt have ordinary tools and skills. Ask God today to show you which tools He wants you to use and what task He wants you to tackle. Then prepare to see some extra-ordinary results! And be sure to write and tell me about them.   

Do you have an extra-ordinary story to share with us? Please give us a brief summary below. We'd love to rejoice with you.  

SHIRLEY CORDER lives an ordinary life on the coast of South Africa with her husband. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer continues to bring about extra-ordinary results for readers in the cancer valley. 

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook. 

DEVOTION: What Noah Found by Ray Hawkins

Read Genesis 6:1-22

Imagine being on board the ark. Tossed around by the cataclysmic weather outside; feeding the animals; cleaning their stalls for a year and maybe enduring sea-sickness--eight people living in a confined space and dealing with inevitable friction.

All of this after the high pressured work of building the ark, assembling the animals, warning the people and being emotionally drained. Noah found grace but not comfort. He knew security but not idleness. Sadness at the people’s unbelief and judgement would be mingled with gratitude to the Lord for His ark of refuge.

God’s call to Noah was challenging and often unpleasant. It was however worth the price!

Christians know they are saved by Grace. They have found peace with God and safety from Judgement. What hasn’t been promised is a smooth journey. Christ’s words to the original group, still rings true, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” John 16:33.

The disciples of Jesus are witnesses, spokespersons and co-labourers in the Gospel. All have their gifts and abilities and are placed in various circumstances to be God’s sign-post, helping hand or messenger. His grace is tested in the ruggedness of obedience not the smoothness of the ride. The journey with Jesus will have its high and low experiences but His companionship and the destination makes it all worth while.

Ray Hawkins is retired after 30 years as a minister. 

He is author of three books of Biblical meditations;

for Children, Marriage, and the Cross. 

Check the website he shares with his wife, author Mary Hawkins.