Francis A. Schaeffer

Most Christians take an honest look at themselves and conclude that their limited talents, energy, and knowledge mean that they don't amount to much. Francis A. Schaeffer says that the biblical emphasis is quite different. With God there are no little people! This book contains sixteen sermons that explore the weakness and significance of humanity in relationship to the infinite and personal God. Each was preached by Schaeffer at L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland to the community that gathered there to work, learn, and worship together. The focus of this collection is the lasting truth of the Bible, the faithfulness of God, the sufficiency of the work of Christ, and the reality of God's Spirit in history. The sermons represent a variety of styles-some are topical, some expound Old Testament passages, and still others delve into New Testament texts. No Little People includes theological sermons and messages that focus specifically on daily life and Christian practice. Each sermon is a single unit, and all are valuable for family devotions or other group study and worship. Readers will be encouraged by the value that God places on each person made in His image.

No Little People (Introduction by Udo Middelmann)

rachel 🐚

While all religious and secular standards judge a person by his or her accomplishments toward the end of life, the God of the Bible gives value to the person from the beginning. 

We alone are persons, actors, and creators through the choices in our lives.

He saw a similar continuity between creation and redemption, between life now and after death and then after the resurrection. He said, The same meaning to life exists at this tick of the clock as in eternity." For truth is true to both God and man, in history now and later. There are no separate messages worlds or separate truths.

…as there are no little people in God's sight, so there are no little places. To be wholly committed to God in the place where God wants him—this is the creature glorified. 

Again, Jesus said, "But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is vour Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). This does not mean there is to be no order in the church. It does mean that the basic relationship between Christians is not that of elder and people, or pastor and people, but that of brothers and sisters in Christ. This denotes that there is one Father in the family and that his offspring are equal. There are different jobs to be done, different offices to be filled, but we as Christians are equal before one Master. We are not to seek a great title; we are to have the places together as brethren.

First, we should seek the lowest place because there it is easier to be quiet before the face of the Lord. I did not say easy; in no place, no matter how small or humble, is it easy to be quiet before God. But it is certainly easier in some places than in others.

So in order to communicate to us that He is a personal God who acts into space-time history, God uses the image of the hand of God." […] He is telling us an overwhelming yet basic truth: that He, without physical hands, can equal and surpass in space-time history all that we men can do with physical hands.

God never looks at any Christian through rose colored glasses. God calls a person as he is and on the basis of what he can be as he lets Christ produce fruit through him.

Christian leadership does not relieve the call to Christian living.

The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Iesis Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lords wotk in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.

No Little People (Introduction by Udo Middelmann) quotes

Join the club