Today I'm gonna live. Today I'm gonna try. Today I'm gonna be.
Let's look at the evidence, friends. God uses broken people, the ordinary, the imperfect, the foolish to confound the wise, evil for good, cracked pots, the weak, what the world would call the worthless.
So, today I'm gonna live. Today I'm gonna try. Today I'm gonna be.
William Seymour was a poor, one-eyed black man with a severely
scarred face. He was uneducated, totally unknown and constantly up against the
cruel prejudice and rejection that was part of being physically deformed and
also being a black man in that era. Yet, he was one of those heroes whom God
drew from the hidden places and he became the apostle of the Azusa Street
Revival.
Smith Wigglesworth is another example. He began as a poor, uneducated plumber who couldn't even read.
Yet in his lifetime he became an evangelist who was used by God to shake the
nations. Amos was also a simple, ordinary man. He wrote about
himself… "I'm not one of your professional prophets. I
certainly never trained to be one. I'm just a shepherd and I take care of fig
trees. But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, 'Go prophesy to my
people in Israel'" (Amos 7:14-15 NLT). Amos obeyed and God used him to impact generations.
God uses fishermen to preach the gospel, tax collectors to write the Gospel, the blind to heal the lame, the deaf to heal the blind.
Today, I'm gonna live, try, be.
The examples of God using the obscure are many. But the best of them all is the man we call Jesus.
A re-writing of an old piece describes it this way:
Jesus was born in an obscure village as the child of a
teen-age peasant woman with little money and only a bit of hope..
He grew up in another village where He worked in a carpenter shop or as a stonemason like his earthly father until He was thirty.
Then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher, with no salary, no pulpit.
He never wrote a book, invented a Nook, Kindled a fire in the hearts of readers..
He never had an office, ran for an office, held an office or officiated at a wedding, although He certainly livened up Lazarus' funeral.
He never had a family or owned a home., but he called us all brothers and sisters, and he said his father had a magnificently large home that he was preparing for us all.
He didn't go to college, not even Notre Dame.
He never visited a big city, not even Rome.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born, was never appointed to a church, was never hired by a church, and though He fed the first megachurch, he lost those members rather rapidly.
He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. Never preached at the inaugural, never baptized a baby, never owned a Cadillac or bought the Astrodome.
He grew up in another village where He worked in a carpenter shop or as a stonemason like his earthly father until He was thirty.
Then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher, with no salary, no pulpit.
He never wrote a book, invented a Nook, Kindled a fire in the hearts of readers..
He never had an office, ran for an office, held an office or officiated at a wedding, although He certainly livened up Lazarus' funeral.
He never had a family or owned a home., but he called us all brothers and sisters, and he said his father had a magnificently large home that he was preparing for us all.
He didn't go to college, not even Notre Dame.
He never visited a big city, not even Rome.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born, was never appointed to a church, was never hired by a church, and though He fed the first megachurch, he lost those members rather rapidly.
He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. Never preached at the inaugural, never baptized a baby, never owned a Cadillac or bought the Astrodome.
Yet, He shook the world at its very foundation, conquered the greatest army on the planet without firing a shot
and became the Savior of us all.
So, today I'm gonna live the life He has called me to live like I'm on borrowed time, like I'm on fire for the Lord instead of smoldering ash, living to remember I've been pardoned not found not guilty. I'm gonna live like I understand salvation has been given to me, an abundant life has been presented, a look through the veil has been offered, and I'm gonna live like I know the way to the Father.
I'm gonna try to be better spiritually, try to be the one He sends, try to be the one who knows Him, try to think more of others, worry about what next we should do about the homeless, the marginalized, the hurting, the poor, the ones in spiritual need. I'm gonna try to offer the truth to everyone I come in contact with, knowing the truth is not mine to give but His.
I'm gonna be a disciple today, a church today, a Christian, a loving husband, father, grand-father. I'm gonna be more the answer and less the problem. I'm gonna be a believer in the life, given not earned, accepted not grabbed.
Today. Just today. Can't even speak to the time after lunch, maybe I can't guarantee myself and my actions more than an hour. But as Spring packs its bags and heads our way and the temperature becomes as mild as the coffee I love best, today I offer the one thing I'm fairly certain I can offer Him.
Today I give me, my life, my trying, my being.
Today I love Him more than I love sin. That's who I am. He knows it's the best I can give...today.
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