Shamgar is a man who is mentioned only twice in the Bible but he is a model for Christians today.

Maj. Otis Corbitt, chaplain U.S. Army, used Shamgar’s example to motivate and challenge those who attended the Troy Exchange Club’s “One Nation Under God Breakfast” Thursday morning at First Baptist Church of Troy.

Corbitt said little is known about Shamgar except what is found in two scriptures.

“Judges 3:31 tells us that Shamgar once killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad, thereby saving Israel from disaster,” Corbitt said. “An ox goad is stick. That’s all Shamgar had but he did what he could, where he could with what he had and he did it for a righteous cause.”

Corbitt used Shamgar as an example of a man who was being used by God for the purpose God designed for him.

“Shamgar was ready when God needed him,” he said, and that, is the lesson we all could learn from Shamgar.

At best, all Shamgar had was the first five books of the Bible to guide him.

“We have the entire Word of God available to us,” Corbitt sad. “We have all we need to deal with the problems of today. All that is asked of us is to do what we can, where we can, with what we have.”

Corbitt said God’s people are called to stand up and be counted for causes that are righteous.

“We are called to stand in the gap,” he said. “That phrase comes from the way the shepherds took care of their sheep in Biblical times. They made corrals of thorn bushes but there were no gates, so the shepherds would sleep in the gate – in the gap– to protect their sheep.”

Standing up and being counted, standing in the gap is not always easy but Corbitt said, if that is God’s call, then “do what you can, where you can, with what you have.”

“Take what God has given you and put it into practice,” he said. “If you will follow him, you will make a difference. Sometimes all we can do is pray but prayer is powerful. But do what you can, when you can and with what you have and you will make a difference.”

The annual “One Nation Under God Breakfast” was initiated in the 1950s when President Dwight D. Eisenhower added the word, “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

“President Eisenhower began having a prayer breakfast at the White House and the National Exchange Club followed his lead,” said Otis Stone, Exchange Club secretary/treasurer. “In the late, 1970s, the Troy Exchange Club began having the ‘One Nation Under God Breakfast’ and I think these breakfasts are one of the most important things we do for our community. We need to come together as a community to pray for our community, our state, our nation and all the world. That is what we, as a club and a community, can do.”