Would God choose to use you?

The devil, whom Jesus described in John 8 as a “liar”, is quick to place into the mind of the believer the thought that God would never choose to use the likes of someone like them because of their great sin past. Truth be told, there are days I am amazed that God would use me. I relate to what Paul said about himself when he said he was the “chief of sinners.” So let me ask you a question. Do you really think, in light of all the sin you have committed throughout your life, that God could or even would, choose to use someone like you? Consider the following story.

There was a man who was born on August 19, 1843 near Clinton, Michigan. When he was 17 years old he moved to his sister’s home in Tennessee where he enlisted in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He got out of the army a year later in 1862 and he went to St. Louis to study law. On September 21, 1866 he married his wife, Loentine. In 1869, he and family moved to Kansas where he practiced law. He then entered politics and served in the Kansas House of Representatives. President Grant appointed him United States District Attorney for Kansas in 1873. But he resigned within six months under suspicion of misuse of his office for personal gain. He began to drink heavily. His wife gained a legal separation from him and then eventually divorced him. He returned to St. Louis and reentered law practice. But during this time he sunk into a life of stealing and drunkenness. And then, in 1879, a man named Thomas McPhetters witnessed to him and he got saved; he trusted in Christ alone as his Savior.

He immediately became active in Christian ministry. He assisted in the evangelistic crusade ministry of D. L. Moody in St. Louis that year. He joined the Pilgrim Congregational Church.

He was licensed to preach by the St. Louis Association of the Congregational Church shortly thereafter. And then he organized and pastored the Hyde Park Congregational Church in the city. In 1882 he accepted a call to a mission church of the denomination in Dallas. He started the church with fourteen people. Thirteen years later, the church reached a membership of eight hundred.

He was also involved in Bible teaching and theological training. He helped start several schools, including Southwestern School of the Bible in Dallas, Northfield Bible Training School in Massachusetts, New York School of the Bible, and, finally, Philadelphia School of the Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University).

When it came to missions, he founded the Central American Mission in 1890. And he presided over its direction for nearly thirty years.

He was a voluminous writer. He authored countless pamphlets and books on numerous biblical subjects. And he mentored a young man named Lewis Sperry Chafer who went on to become the Founder and President of Dallas Theological Seminary.

So, who is this man? Who is this one-time divorced drunk and thief who went on to do such great things for God? The man’s name is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield—C. I. Scofield—the author of the Scofield Reference Bible—the study Bible that has helped me and countless others gain a clearer understanding of the deep truths and riches of the Word of God.

Now, if God can use a repentant divorced drunken thief, then He can use you. And He can use you in a wonderful way. The choice is yours.