Bestselling novelist Arthur Hailey (1920-2004) once said of his characters, "I don't think I really invented anybody. I have drawn on real life." When readers open a book by the British author, they encounter ordinary people whom the writer has placed in extraordinary situations.

In Acts 4 we find ordinary people, including the fishermen Peter and John, whom God placed in unexpected situations as witnesses to the reality of the risen Christ. These men, who had fled when Jesus was arrested, were now boldly facing threats and punishment for telling others about Him.

Even the authorities who opposed these followers of Jesus were astonished "when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men . . . . And they realized that they had been with Jesus" (v.13).

Most of us are ordinary people in a real life of work, relationships, and everyday circumstances. Our opportunities to demonstrate the reality of Christ may sometimes come disguised as difficulties, as they did for the disciples in Acts.

As ordinary people, we can have an extraordinary impact for Christ if we will trust the Author of our circumstances and rely on the Holy Spirit's power.
  — David C. McCasland