....nobody

Get a sheet of scratch paper out of your memory bank and see how well you do with the following questions:

  1. Who taught Martin Luther his theology?

  2. Who visited Dwight L. Moody at a shoe store and spoke to him about Christ?

  3. Who was the wife of Charles Haddon Spurgeon?

  4. Who was the elderly woman who prayed faithfully for Billy Graham for over twenty years?

  5. Who refreshed the apostle Paul in that Roman dungeon as he wrote his last letter to Timothy?

  6. Who helped Charles Wesley get underway as a composer of hymns?

  7. Who were the parents of the godly and gifted prophet Daniel?

Okay, how'd you do? Before you excuse your inability to answer these questions by calling the quiz "trivia," better stop and think. Had it not been for such unknown persons - such "nobodies" - a huge chunk of church history would be missing, as we know it today. 

                                                       

Nobodies...

What a necessary band of men and women... servants of the King... yet nameless in the kingdom! Men and women who, with silent heroism, yet faithful diligence, relinquish the limelight and live in the shade of public figures. As Jim Elliot, the martyred messenger of the gospel to the Aucas once remarked: "We are a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody."

We're among that elite group mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12: "some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary... So God has put the body together in such a way that extra honor and care are given to those parts that might otherwise seem less important" vv. 22, 24. If it weren't for the heroic "nobodies," we wouldn't have top-notch officers to give a church its leadership:

   - or quality sound when everyone shows up to worship 

   - or janitors who clean when everyone is long gone 

   - or committees to provide dozens of services behind the scenes 

   - or mission volunteers who staff offices at home 

   - or work in obscurity overseas with only a handful of people.                                           

Nobodies . . . exalting Somebody.

Are you playing a behind-the-scenes role? Thank God for giving you that opportunity.  It's the "nobodies" that "Somebody" chooses so carefully.  And when He has selected you for that role, He does not consider you a nobody.  Be encouraged!

Remember, Were it not for a lot of unknown "nobodies," a lot of lives would remain untouched today!!!

- charles swindoll