As I write this on the 4^th of July my thoughts go back to the days when Independence was declared from Great Britain. The eighteenth century was not just a time of political and 
military significance for this country, but also a time when spiritually there was a strong faith in God and an adherence to his Word.

In 1776 John Wesley was still preaching both in Britain and here in America. The great George Whitfield had been dead just 6 years but the effects of his powerful evangelistic ministry was still remembered vividly. The church building was the most important one in every community and the majority of the people were God fearing.

America was unique. The people that came here did so with the goal of living for the Lord in a way that was pleasing to Him and being free from the Religious tyranny that tied them to a corrupt State church.

In 1776 after years of struggle, political Independence became a reality.

Sometimes little things cross our paths and make an impression on us. Little things that cause us to think about other things that have greater significance.

As I left the house one day this week I saw a turtle making his way along the path. Thinking that I was doing a good turn, I lifted the little fella up and placed him gently on the grass.

A few minutes later I returned to the house to get something and looked to see where the turtle was. To my surprise he was about a hundred yards away and moving right along towards his eventual destination.

I watched him for a while as he slowly but consistently went on his way and it was then that the personal significance of what I was seeing started to capture my imagination.

My thoughts drifted to how, like that turtle, the journey that we are on has more to do with slow steady progression than in spasmodic, inconsistent sprints that are no more than a series of stops and starts that ultimately get us nowhere.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”( Heb 12:1).

In the preceding chapter of Hebrews we are told that Moses “Persevered because he saw Him who is invisible” (Hebrews11:27).

One of the great facts about the Christian church, is that throughout it’s existence, the Lord has chosen to use very ordinary people to do his work. It seems as if the He delights in taking folk that would perhaps escape the attention of everyone else and yet use them in ways that surprises everyone.

If any one of us was asked to pick twelve men that could change the world, I doubt that we would have chosen people of the kind that the Lord did when he chose the twelve apostles. They were ordinary working folk who according to the Pharisees were “Ignorant and unlearned men” Nonetheless these uneducated commoners, were not only pivotal in taking the gospel all over the Roman Empire but were also responsible for writing several of the books in the New testament.

Church history is full of examples of men and women like that. People who may well have been disregarded by the wise of this world and yet chosen by God to do great things in His service.

I think of William Carey, the cobbler, who as an apprentice, was invited to church by a fellow apprentice and there gave his life to Christ at the age of seventeen. At the age of thirty two, he set sail for India and that nation was transformed by his ministry and the missions organization that he spearheaded. One man said, “The Christian church owes more to William Carey and his mission than any one person since the Apostle Paul. Yet when he was seventeen everyone who know him would have said “This is just a cobbler”. They said of Jesus “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” Oh how little the carnal eye sees.

Who would have thought that a Pharmacist’s son from Barnsley in England, would after becoming a Christian at the age of seventeen, go on to form the “China Inland Mission” but that is what Hudson Taylor did. During his fifty one years in China, he was responsible for bringing 800 missionaries to that country, starting 125 schools and seeing 18000 people coming to Christ.

Those are just two examples of very ordinary people that the Lord used in amazing ways. Never doubt the potential that you have for being used by God. He can see something in you that no one else can........ not even you. Remember God doesn’t always call the qualified but he always qualifies the called.

The orphanage

A number of years ago two men sat together on a train. As they sped along, one of them appeared to markedly enjoy the passing scenery. He declared now and again, in a fairly loud voice, “Wonderful . . . wonderful!”

May the Lord Answer You

Back in 1978, The publishers of the Good News Bible in the United Kingdom sponsored a project to make some of the passages into songs and then record them on an album. Their idea was to have all of the established Christian musicians that were in full time ministry, to take a passage from the Good News Bible and put a melody to it.

I hope that you can check out my new album “A Wineskin in the Smoke” if you don’t have it already. It's now available at CD Baby and on itunes amongst other digital sites. My previous album, “The Wind and the Flame” can also be bought or downloaded through these sites right now. If you haven't downloaded and installed itunes yet you can download it there : www.apple.com/itunes/overview/. On itunes you can here music samples, purchase individual songs or complete albums.