Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.”

Various miracles happened on Pentecost. In the first place, God’s Spirit was poured out on the assembled believers. This is the one we all associate with the occasion. They spoke as the Holy Spirit enabled them to do so, (verse 4) but verse 6 says that each outsider heard the believers speaking in their (the outsider’s) language. As my Garrott grandfather (also a pastor) wrote in the margin of a commentary he owned that was passed down to me, was this not a miracle of hearing, rather than speaking? There are countless verified testimonies of people speaking in languages they had not learned, but at the same time, every pastor has experienced people in the congregation speaking of what they got from the message, when it wasn’t anything the pastor remembered saying at all. God can control both sides of that transaction! Another miracle was the way that Peter got up and addressed the crowd. He had been totally devastated by his own failure in denying three times that he even knew Jesus, but here he gets up and projects his voice to the point that over 3000 people can hear him and proclaims the divinity and Lordship of Jesus. (I personally find that impressive because I’ve taught vocal production to speech therapists for over 30 years, and I know what is involved.) And the last miracle is that Peter, an ignorant fisherman and not some rabbinical scholar, quoted quantities of very applicable Scripture in his remarks. To me, all of this points up the fact that God can do anything and use anyone He pleases. That’s why there’s no room for personal pride on the part of anyone who is involved, only gratitude that God would include them.

Of course this applies to me. I’ve been ministering in Omura for 42 years now, and God has done various things through me in that interval. There are other things I wish He would do, but that’s not mine to dictate. I am by no means a robot, but I do desire to be an available, willing vessel for Him to use any way He would like. At the moment that seems to include writing my autobiography, but it’s certainly not limited to that. Turning 75 tomorrow, my perspective has certainly changed as to what I expect God to do through me, but actually, nothing whatsoever has changed as to what He could do through me. The point is, it’s not me, but Him. Being in the position of Peter would get me a lot of attention, but being an anonymous member of the group of believers would be just as glorious. I am to strive to keep my eyes off of myself and fix them on Jesus, (Hebrews 12:2) because only then will I be fully available and not hold back from whatever He wants to do through me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. For whatever reasons, 75 is looming very big in my awareness. I’ve chosen to retire from secular teaching at this age, and I have the strong feeling that You have plans for me that I currently can’t see. Help me keep growing as Your child so that I may be fully useful to You for whatever You desire to do, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!