Impact

Acts 4:13:

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus."

Peter and John were preaching in Jesus the resurrection from the dead with a great deal of boldness. If you take a look at this story, you can see that some 5000 men came to believe in Christ through their preaching. So all the elders, chief priests, and scribes were all ticked off about this and told them to give an account of what they were doing. And they did.

What is so encouraging is that Peter and John were being used so mightily by the Lord to advance His kingdom...and these were uneducated and untrained men. These were just normal, average fishermen. And do you remember what Jesus told them when He first called them? "Don't worry, for from now on you'll catch men." And here we see the fulfillment of Christ's promise to them (or at least one instance of it).

The reason that they had so much impact is the fact that they had been with Jesus. I can only believe the same is true for today. There is nothing that qualifies people more for leadership than that they spend time with Jesus Himself. Of course, if someone has the opportunity (and the calling), college can equip people greatly. But really, it isn't the college that equips; it's Jesus. People who spend time with Jesus know Him and His mission, and they accurately represent Him and His heart to a lost and dying world.

So I guess the questions to ponder are:

Do you spend time with Jesus? Do you know Him? Do you really know Him? (Jesus wants to hang out with you!)

Are you just an average, ordinary person? Do you want to have an impact for the kingdom? If you're average and ordinary, then you're a great candidate to impact the kingdom!