"No Little People, No Little Places" - Francis A. Schaeffer

“As a Christian considers the possibility of being the Christian glorified (a topic I discuss in True Spirituality), often his reaction is, “I am so limited. Surely it does not matter much whether I am walking as a creature glorified or not.” Or, to put it in another way, “It is wonderful to be a Christian, but I am such a small person, so limited in talents—or energy or psychological strength or knowledge— that what I do is not really important.” The Bible, however, has quite a different emphasis: with God there are no little people.

One thing that has encouraged me, as I have wrestled with such questions in my own life, is the way God used Moses’ rod, a stick of wood… Just a stick of wood—but when Moses obeyed God’s command to toss it to the ground, it became a serpent, and Moses himself fled from it. God next ordered him to take it by the tail and when he did so, it became a rod again. Then God told him to go and confront the power of Egypt and meet Pharaoh face to face with this rod in his hand. Exodus 4:20 tells us the secret of all that followed: the rod of Moses had become the rod of God…

Watch the destruction of judgment which came from a dead stick of wood that had become the rod of God. Pharaoh’s grip on the Hebrews was shaken loose, and he let the people go. But then he changed his mind and ordered his armies to pursue them. When the armies came upon them, the Hebrews were caught in a narrow place with mountains on one side of them and the sea on the other. And God said to Moses, “Lift thou up thy rod” (Ex. 14:16). What good is it to lift up a rod when one is caught in a cul-de-sac between mountains and a great body of water with the mightiest army in the world at his heels? Much good, if the rod is the rod of God. The waters divided, and the people passed through. Up to this point, the rod had been used for judgment and destruction, but now it was as much a rod of healing for the Jews as it had been a rod of judgment for the Egyptians. That which is in the hand of God can be used in either way. Later, the rod of judgment also became a rod of supply…
There was nothing in the rod itself. The rod of Moses had simply become the rod of God… The rod also brought military victory as it was held up. It was more powerful than the swords of either the Jews or their enemy (Ex. 17:9)…

Consider the mighty ways in which God used a dead stick of wood. “God so used a stick of wood” can be a banner cry for each of us. Though we are limited and weak in talent, physical energy, and psychological strength, we are not less than a stick of wood. But as the rod of Moses had to become the rod of God, so that which is me must become the me of God. Then I can become useful in God’s hands. The Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God. There are no little people and no big people in the true spiritual sense, but only consecrated and unconsecrated people. The problem for each of us is applying this truth to ourselves: is Francis Schaeffer the Francis Schaeffer of God?...

The people who receive praise from the Lord Jesus will not in every case be the people who hold leadership in this life. There will be many persons who were sticks of wood that stayed close to God and were quiet before Him, and were used in power by Him in a place which looks small to men.

Each Christian is to be a rod of God in the place of God for him. We must remember throughout our lives that in God’s sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment. Those who think of themselves as little people in little places, if committed to Christ and living under His Lordship in the whole of life, may, by God’s grace, change the flow of our generation. And as we get on a bit in our lives, knowing how weak we are, if we look back and see we have been somewhat used of God, then we should be the rod “surprised by joy.”

Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, No Little Places

http://static.crossway.org/excerpts/1581345186.1.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=f-uy7hbFCh8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=No+Little+People&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

What are the true motives for holiness? - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:12-14

“Do you long to be holy? Do you long to have victory over sin in your mortal body? How can you do so? First, understand the doctrine. You cannot work out ‘therefore’ unless you are clear about the doctrine…Understanding the doctrine – that is the place to start. You must not say ‘I am not interested in doctrine; all I do is to look to Christ & allow Him to live His life in me’. The ‘therefore’ insists that you must understand the doctrine. Then, having understood it, you must remind yourself of it constantly. ‘Reckon’ – go on reckoning, keep on reckoning, realize it, apply it to yourself, & then draw the inevitable deductions from it…
What are the true motives for holiness? They are not just a reaction against the evil nature of sin, they are not just the desire to be happy. These are a part of it, but not the chief motive. Still less should we seek to be holy in order to make ourselves Christians; & still less merely because we are afraid of hell & the punishment of hell. Our motives must be entirely positive. Why must I not allow sin to reign in my mortal body? Because I am a man who claims to know what God’s purpose is for me. And what is God’s purpose for me? It is that all the works of the devil shall be undone in me. God made me in His own image, He made me perfect; & His whole purpose in salvation is to bring me back to that state. I believe that, I know that, I realize that; therefore I cannot allow sin to reign in my mortal body. That is my motive. I know what God’s purpose for me is, & all He has planned, & all He has brought to pass. That is my grand motive, but there are others.
I know what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me. Knowing this doctrine, I believe that the second Person in the blessed holy Trinity left the courts of heaven & came into this world, & not only lived as a man but humbled Himself so as to come in the likeness of sinful flesh. I believe that He went to Calvary & bore my sins in His own body on the tree, & suffered the agony & the indignity of it all for me. Why did He do all that? That we might continue in sin? No! but ‘that He might redeem us from all iniquity & purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works’ (Titus 2:14). So how can we go on with sin?
These are the motives, this is the way in which I become sanctified. It is because I know these things that I will not allow sin to reign in my mortal body. I therefore go on to draw this deduction, that the very honour of God, & of the Lord Jesus Christ, is involved in this matter of my behavior…
It is the truth that sanctifies: ‘You shall know the truth & the truth shall make you free’, said our Lord to the people (John 8:32). The truth that makes us free is that which tells us who we are, what we are, what has been done for us, & how the whole honour of the family is, as it were, in our hands.”

- Martyn Llloyd-Jones, Exposition of Romans Chapter 6: The New Man