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Bulletin 133 Date : 19th May 2008
Ordinary Day at the Office

I sometimes wonder if I am guilty of over-glamourising the Bible when I read it. When I read accounts from the Gospels, I wonder whether I see them as so detached from my everyday experience that I miss the significance of them for my own life. When Jesus called his first disciples, was there a magic ingredient in the air which compelled them to ‘down-tools’ and follow or was it more mundane and gradual than that?

Take another example – Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus 3:1-7. For Moses, this was just another ‘ordinary day at the office’ when he was going about his normal duties of tending the flock. And yet something caught his attention in a bush. He would see bushes every day of his life and never bat an eyelid and yet on this occasion, something grabbed his attention – so much so that he was deeply moved and sensed the awesome presence of God (v5). Do I expect to be overtaken by a sense of awe and wonder as I type on my computer, browse the internet or prepare a sermon?

And then there was Simon Peter in Luke 5:1-11. Again, Peter was having another ‘ordinary day at the office’ on the Sea of Galilee when this carpenter has the audacity to tell him how to catch fish (v4). And yet, in that everyday moment, Peter senses something beyond what he would normally expect in a situation like that and recoils as he sees, in Jesus, something he had never seen before (v9).

At the start of each day, when we prayerfully invite the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us through the day, do we really expect anything out of the ordinary? It is striking to notice that these special moments for both Moses and Peter were intensely personal. We don’t see others rushing towards them asking what has happened. It was, like John Wesley’s ‘heart-warming’ experience in Aldersgate Street, a private moment. And yet in all three cases, it was a moment which transformed their lives.

I was pleased to hear the testimony of Frances Finn, a Radio Nottingham Presenter and Christian who was miraculously healed at a Christian meeting recently. She had one leg longer than the other because of an operation on her broken leg some years before. She was prayed for at the meeting and her legs were normalised. You can even see it on video on the internet - click here. I was particularly taken by the testimony she gave, which you can also listen to on this page – especially how sceptical she was when everyone gathered round to watch the healing taking place. I suppose that this was, for God, just another ‘ordinary day at the office’.

I remember some time ago singing the child’s song ‘Expect a miracle every day’ and thinking to myself – I wish! As I have spoken to Christians across the years I have been surprised at how many miraculous events do take place which never get publicised – experiences of God in the most unlikely places and situations.

Oh well, it’s time for another ‘ordinary day at the office’.