I am so glad that God uses ordinary things to produce extraordinary results. This afternoon, I am preparing to teach the children of Sunrise Bible Church a lesson on how God works in our world through His church. One of the points I will be emphasizing is how most church activities are rather plain and ordinary: ordinary and plain like vanilla ice cream in the midst of a hundred other choices. The
primary activities of a local church, as described in the Bible, include preaching and teaching the Word, singing songs of praises to God, fellowshipping with other believers, exhorting each other, and observing the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. Local churches have been doing these things for nearly 2000 years. They are plain and ordinary.
Sometimes people forget plain and ordinary things. Others take them for granted. Still others think we need so much more. Yet we know in all sorts of areas of our lives that plain and ordinary things can produce extraordinary results. Almost every day I leave my house. I do so through the front door. The front door of my house is a steel door that is rather heavy, yet I can push it open with one finger. In fact, my nearly one year old son could move it with his tiny hands if the door was unlatched. How could such a thing happen? The answer is simple: ordinary door hinges. They are very simple devices. You or I could buy them at a hardware store for a few dollars. But they do something amazing. Imagine if we did not have them how hard it would be to try to move a door in an out of its opening each time we wished to enter or exit?
The simple and ordinary things of the church can also easily be forgotten, taken for granted, or thought to be not enough for what we need in our spiritual lives. Yet I find that God produces extraordinary results through these ordinary things. Each week as I gather with other believers – whether during Sunday morning worship, in weekly Bible studies, or in believers’ homes – I find that God through the Holy Spirit uses those things to transform my life and the lives of others.
I praise God for ordinary things. He uses them to produce extraordinary results.