I am the most average guy on the planet. I am not a Pastor, or Theologian, in fact I have no seminary training at all. I am just a man that has experienced God’s forgiveness and mercy. I did not come to accept Christ until my late twenties, but my life was changed from that day on. I am a dad, and husband and coworker. I am your neighbor and friend.
I always thought of myself as basically a good guy and hoped that the good would outweigh the bad. I never really thought much about heaven or hell. I thought of God as a pretty distant concept that ruled the universe. I never considered that God might care about me personally. I certainly never understood that the Bible might have instruction for us today.
I have attended Calvary Chapel my entire adult life and have listened to the best Bible teacher I know patiently explain the meaning of God’s grace. I have experienced the love of Christ through the men and women in my church home and have been humbled to tears. I have come to understand that God desires a personal relationship with me. I have learned that God is perfect and I am not. I have learned that Jesus Christ was born fully man and fully God.
Most importantly, I have learned that Christ was crucified for me, not mankind, but for me. I personally understand Romans 5:8, which says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. He first loved us, now we have a choice to believe it or not. God gives us each free will.
I just started a new job and began emailing a friend in need my thoughts on what I read in my personal devotion before work each morning. I began in Matthew Chapter 1, and just continued. A curious coworker asked what I was writing so early. I tried to explain, but she asked me to include her too. Without any plan to create a ministry, it became a chapter by chapter study through the Bible that I began to email to anyone that asked.
I have come to believe that God’s Word was written for the common man and applies to our everyday situations. It is filled with instruction, encouragement, exhortation and correction. It is for us, today. It balances God’s perfection with God’s mercy.
God has been able to use the ordinary events in my life to help teach other ordinary people. God is perfect, I am not. God’s Word has the answers to every problem under the sun, I do not. For some reason God uses my Average Guy experiences to illustrate lessons that seem to apply to others. My only prayer is that I do not get in the way of the truth of God.
In truth, my wife handed me a pocket sized Bible on the way out to my first day at the new job. I gave no more thought than that. After years of use, I also researched and found that though there are dozens of translations, the NIV is probably the most current.
I do not think there is any such thing as an “Authorized Version”. Many older translations use archaic old English words that have little meaning to us today. Every version is a translation from a language I do not read, nor understand. The closer we can get to the original understanding, the better. I desire to understand what God was saying to the original writer.
Jesus was a carpenter. His disciples were fishermen, tax collectors and “they were unschooled, ordinary men” (Acts 4:13). I have worked in almost every type of job there is. I have done hard physical labor and been a student. I have been a laborer and I have been in positions of responsibility. I have known hunger and I have known success. I am the Average Guy.
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~ Ed Nolan