A SHOE SALESMAN

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with

God all things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who

felt God's call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some

friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and

consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, "The world has yet to see

what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and

wholly consecrated to Him." Moody was deeply moved by these words. He

later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that

meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, "The world had

yet to see!...with and for and through and in!...A man!" Varley meant

any man! Varley didn't say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or

anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, he'd be one

of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he'd

never realized before. It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing

that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He

not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at

the Master's feet and say to Him, "Send me! Use me!"

D.L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly

committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary

man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He

founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends

out men and women trained in service for God.

Are you an ordinary man or woman in whom God wants to do extraordinary

things? God desires that for every child of His. Ask God to do

extraordinary things in your life. Begin today to trust Him to

accomplish great things for His Kingdom through you.