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Ordinary Means

The Bible is a book. Think about that for a minute. One of the primary ways God chose to communicate to humanity was through a book. Think about just how many books there are in the world. We have entire stores dedicated to selling books and government departments whose sole job is preserving books. Almost every culture on the planet, in some form or another, has used books. 

I think we often forget just how ordinary something like the Bible is. Is it inspired by God? Yes. Is it authoritative? Yes. Is it also a book? Yes. It amazes me more and more the more I think about it that God chose to communicate to us not by some miraculous arrangement of the stars or a telepathic message but rather through a book. 

Just like any other book, the Bible was written by ordinary people in their specific cultures, languages, circumstances, genres, styles, and purposes. God chose this ordinary, mundane thing to communicate eternal truth of the most fantastic sort. God took the ordinary and turned it into something extraordinary.

Think of other things we hold dear in the Christian faith. Baptism is just water. The Lord's Supper is just bread and drink. The Church is just people gathering together. Yet it is through these ordinary things God has chosen to work out his purposes in our lives. It is through the extraordinary ordinary things that we learn about and encounter God.

This isn't to say that God can't or doesn't work through the miraculous. Of course he does, but the point is that for the majority of us we encounter God through ordinary things that God has set apart and made extraordinary. We meet him in the water, we meet him at the table, we see him in the lives of others, and we encounter him in a book.

God's use of the ordinary for the extraordinary should give us great hope. I've known too many Christians who are sitting around waiting for some miraculous sign from God for great things to begin in their life. They wait for God to do something extraordinary in their lives when the truth is God more often than not makes use of the ordinary. 

This means that God is able to use our ordinary lives to extraordinary effect. It is in our daily conversations, encounters, small acts of mercy, simple prayers, and just doing life that God makes an impact. It is in small kindnesses and genuine love when no one else is watching that lives are often changed.

God uses the ordinary for the extraordinary. Moses was just a guy with a stick. David was just the young son of a shepherd. Esther was a woman who happened to be picked by a king. The Bible is a book. You aren't called to change the world and live an extraordinary life. You are called to Jesus in every moment, exciting or mundane, and it is Jesus who makes you extraordinary.

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