Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

Paul did not say, ‘Not any’ but “Not many.”

‘That was my bedroom’, I said to my youngest sister, as we sat in her car outside a bungalow in Hindley Green last week. Although she too lived there she can’t remember it. She was probably only around three years old when our family moved to another part of Wigan.

It occurred to me only a little while later that this was also the room where I knelt by my bed and gave my life to Christ as a boy of 7,8. That changed everything for me.

But what was I when Christ called me? An anonymous nobody. A shy, sickly, weak boy who was often the object of ridicule and regularly bullied. My education was of a pretty average Secondary Modern Variety. I got a handful of O’ Levels and a couple of poor grade A’Levels, and later on a University Diploma in Theology. But I have never been anyone great or significant in the world.

The bottom line is this: I have nothing about which I can “boast.” But God called me to Himself, put me into Christ, and I believe He has graciously used me through the years. For this I am eternally grateful.

It is good for us all to remember where we came from and what the grace of God has done with us.