Get your feet wet

“We say to God, ‘Why don’t you part this river?  And God says to us, ‘Why don’t you get your feet wet?’ “- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 10 of The Circle Maker by expanding on this statement: “God is great, not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is to small for Him.”  If we would learn to obey God’s promptings, especially regarding small things, we’d find ourselves in the middle of miracles far more often.

Pastor Batterson adds that we need to be looking and listening for miracles.  Talking is the easy part of prayer.  Listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit is much harder.  When the Israelites were standing on the bank of the Jordan River- the Promised Land on the other side- God gave this command to the priests (Joshua 3:8): “Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go stand in the river.’ ”

Mark admits he’d much rather have God part the river so then he would step into the miracle.  If God goes first, you don’t have to get your feet wet.  You need to take a step of faith, perhaps in an area where you feel most self-assured.  Mark offers this prompting:

“Now let me ask you a question.  Where do you feel like you need God least?  Where are you most proficient, most sufficient?  Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability. . . . And it is God’s strange and mysterious ways that renew our awe, our trust, and our dependence.”

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, where do you need to get your feet wet?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The litmus test of trust”

Get your feet wet

The by-products of answered prayer

Mark Batterson begins Chapter 9 (“The Favor of Him Who Dwells in the Burning Bush”) of The Circle Maker with a discussion of the by-products of answered prayer.  Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, a community outreach ministry of National Community Church, is the result of eight years of praying hard and circling.  God miraculously made it possible for NCC to purchase a former crack house and transform its prime location.

The rooftop of the coffeehouse is Mark’s favorite place to pray because he feels like he’s praying on top of a miracle.  Mark writes:

“. . . the faith to pray hard . . . is one of the by-products of answered prayer.  It gives us the faith to believe God for bigger and better miracles.”

With each answered prayer, we draw bigger prayer circles.  With each act of faithfulness, our faith increases.  With each promise kept, our persistence quotient grows.

The process of persistently praying hard stretches your faith.  When you have to pray for a long time, there is no temptation to take a miracle for granted.  As Mark commonsensically notes, if it doesn’t take a miracle, it isn’t a miracle.

Pastor Batterson cites Matthew 18:18- Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.”  The word bind means “to place a contract on something.”  Mark notes that is precisely what happens when we pray.  If you are praying in accordance with the will of God, when you pray for something in the earthly realm God will bind it in the heavenly realm.  God loves to keep His promises.  He is actively waiting and watching for us to take Him at His word.

“The Lord is watching over His word.”- Jeremiah 1:12 (ESV)

Today’s questions (from Mark): Do you have a favorite place to pray?  A place where your mind is more focused?  A place where you have more faith?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The greatest moments in life”

The by-products of answered prayer

Lessons about unanswered prayers

In Chapter 6 (“You Can’t Never Always Sometimes Tell”) of The Circle Maker,  Mark Batterson discusses valuable lessons about unanswered prayers that he has learned.  The learning began when Pastor Batterson almost said no to a miracle.

A married couple, new members of National Community Church, wanted to talk to Mark about church government.  Pastor Batterson was reluctant because he had little margin in his schedule.  After ninety minutes of questions, Mark finally was able to passionately share his vision for NCC.  The couple said they wanted to invest, but gave no dollar amount.

During a phone call appointment a few weeks later, they pledged $3 million dollars because Mark had vision beyond his resources.  Several years earlier, however, when Mark had tried to manufacture a miracle, that human effort resulted in personal financial loss.  As Mark states, “When God doesn’t answer our prayer right away, we try to answer it for Him.”

Pastor Batterson then shares three valuable lessons about unanswered prayer:

1.  Our prayers are often misguided simply because we’re not omniscient.  If we were absolutely honest with ourselves, we’d have to admit the main objective of most of our prayers is personal comfort, not God’s glory.  Such prayers actually would short-circuit God’s purposes in our lives.

2.  No doesn’t always mean no; sometimes it means not yet.  Our deadline may not fit God’s timeline.  Maybe “no” simply is a divine delay.

3.  We shouldn’t seek answers a much as we should seek God.  Once we’ve prayed through, we need to let go and let God.  God will answer when we’re ready for it.

Today’s question: Which of Mark’s three valuable lessons about unanswered prayers resonate most with you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Predictably unpredictable”

 

Lessons about unanswered prayers

A landscape of joy

“Anyone who can be in a landscape of joy while maintaining immunity to it hasn’t come to the end of himself.”- Kyle Idleman

Kyle Idleman concludes Chapter 6 of The End of Me by observing that the miracle of the paralyzed man’s healing should have a happy ending.  The Pharisees, however, make sure this miracle story ends on a sour note.

Even though the Pharisees had just witnessed a miraculous cure, their shortsightedness causes them to nitpick the fact that the man lifted his mat on a day of rest.  As Kyle quips, “the Pharisees wanted to make a citizen’s arrest for unauthorized use of a bedroll.”

Pastor Idleman encourages us to experience how good the good news really is.  He states we:

“. . . should see that someone else’s victory over hopelessness is our own victory, because Christ has brought the same liberation to every single one of us willing to say yes, to stand, to walk.”

God’s favorite time for us to ask for help is . . . now!  God not only has no time limits, He has no limits at all.  No matter how long our desert, land between time, God’s favorite time is now.  Kyle concludes:

“It’s not too late and never has been.  And there’s never been a better time, a more perfect time, than the present moment.  That’s always the one in which he wants to meet you.”

Today’s question (from Kyle): What are your thoughts on the idea that the more helpless you are, the better?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Disqualified to be chosen”

 

 

 

 

A landscape of joy

Irreversible moments

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”- John 11:21-22

In Chapter 22 (“The Grave Robber”) of his book The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson begins his discussion of Jesus’ seventh miracle recorded in the gospel of John- Jesus raises Lazarus.  Pastor Batterson observes that there are those irreversible moments in life that leave a hole in our heart forever.  Our  ministry downsizing or vocation loss would be a prime example.  We wish we could turn back the hands of time.

Mary and Martha thought life as they knew it was over.  Yet, as Jesus demonstrated in raising Lazarus from the dead, it’s not over until God says it’s over!  Jesus went toe-to-toe with death itself, and death lost. Raising Lazarus didn’t just foreshadow Jesus’ resurrection, it foreshadows ours.  It’s a snapshot of what Jesus wants to do in our lives in this present moment.  Jesus is calling us out of our tomb.

Lazarus got a second chance, a second life.  Mark states that Jesus wants to do the same for us:

“And The Grave Robber wants to do for you what He did for Lazarus.  But He doesn’t just want to give back the life that sin and Satan have stolen.  He came that you might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).”

Today’s question: From what tomb is Jesus calling you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Holding pattern”

Irreversible moments

Climbing out on a limb

“Faith is climbing out on a limb, cutting it off, and watching the tree fall.”- Anonymous

In Chapter 18 (“Cut the Cable”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson states that modern skyscrapers are possible as a result of Elisha Otis’ invention of an elevator braking system that ensured the elevator’s safety.  With this braking system, the sky literally was the limit.

To convince people to purchase his elevators, Otis conducted a demonstration at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1854.  As Otis stood on a platform governed by his braking system, he gave the command to an axman to cut the cable.  The braking system halted his freefall.

Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on water notes that Peter took a water walk as well.  Pastor Batterson believes that Peter felt the mixed emotions of fear-faith, yet he got out of the boat.  As Mark explains, the logical mind doesn’t consider all options:

“The logical mind can see only two options when stepping out of a boat in the middle of a lake- sink or swim.  That’s why most people stay within the comfortable confines of the boat.  That’s also why most people never walk on water.”

Mark concludes that miracles are glimpses of God’s providential care: “They are intersections where power and compassion parade God’s glory.”

Today’s question: In what area(s) of your life do you feel God’s prompting to step out of the boat?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Beaten by the waves”

Climbing out on a limb

Less is more

“Give us this day our daily bread.”- Matthew 6:11

“When God gives a vision, He makes provision.”- Mark Batterson

Commenting on the above petition from the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of Chapter 14 (“Lord Algebra”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson wryly observes that we really wish the word daily was replaced with weekly, monthly, or yearly.  However, depending on God on a daily basis has us right where He wants us.  Mark then comments on what does not define spiritual maturity:

“Spiritual maturity is not self-sufficiency.  In fact, our desire for self-sufficiency is a subtle expression of our sinful nature.  It’s a desire to get to a place where we don’t need God.  We want God to provide more so we need Him less.”

As Mark reminds us, while everyone wants a miracle, no one wants to be in a situation that necessitates one.  Yet, God is gracious to put us in situations where enough isn’t enough.  In other words, less is more.

The book of Numbers tells us that when God miraculously provided manna for the Israelites, He provided just enough.  Daily manna was a reminder of their daily dependence on God.  Mark concludes:

“So while we may want a one-year supply of God’s mercy, His mercies are new every morning. If God provided too much too soon, we’d lose our raw dependence upon God, our raw hunger for God.  So God usually provides enough, just in time.”

Today’s question: What Bible verses, Christian books, or Christian songs remind you of your raw hunger and dependence on God?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The Giving Game”

 

Less is more

Cloudy with a chance of quail

But Moses said (to the Lord), “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot and you say, ‘I will give you meat to eat for a whole month.’ “- Numbers 11:21

“Your job is not to crunch numbers and audit the will of God.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 13 of The Grave Robber, he references the time the Israelites were in the wilderness and complained about eating manna every day (Numbers 11).  When the Lord promised the Israelites meat for a month, Moses did the mental math.  The numbers didn’t add up.

Pastor Batterson then asks what we do when the will of God doesn’t add up.  In Mark’s experience the will of God rarely adds up.  God’s output always exceeds our input.  Mark states that, by definition, a God-ordained dream always will be “beyond your resources and beyond your ability.”

The author truly believes that as long as we keep our eyes on thing near and dear to our heavenly Father’s heart, He will take care of the bottom line.  Although Moses couldn’t fathom how God would deliver on His promise of meat, Moses cashed in on that promise.  The quail were piled three feet deep over an area of approximately 700 square miles.  That providence, Mark notes, was a miracle of biblical proportions.

As Mark summarizes, recorded in the book of Numbers is a miracle that doesn’t add up: “But with God, it’s always cloudy with a chance of quail.”

Today’s question: What Scriptures have strengthened you trust in God’s provision?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation. “Z marks the spot”

Cloudy with a chance of quail

The drop in the bucket effect

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”- John 6:9

In Chapter 13 (“Two Fish”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson begins his discussion of Jesus’ fourth miracle, feeding the five thousand (John 6:1-13).  Pastor Batterson believes that the catalyst for this miracle was the boy’s willingness to give up his meal of five small barley loaves and two fish.

Mark notes that in the natural world it’s easy to assume that if you give more, you’ll have less.  The lesson embedded in this miracle is quite simple, as Mark explains: “if you put what you have in your hands into God’s hands, He can make a lot out of a little.”

Our natural inclination is to let what we aren’t able to do keep us from doing what we can.  Psychologists call this the “drop in the bucket effect.”  Mark describes the drop in the bucket effect this way:

“If we feel overwhelmed by the scale of a problem, we often don’t do anything about it because we don’t think we can make a difference.”

The amount of food the boy gave Jesus to feed the approximately twenty thousand men, women, and children present was a drop in the bucket .  Mark comments on the significance of the boy’s action:

“. . . he didn’t let what he didn’t have keep him from giving what he did have to Jesus.  And that is the precursor to many a miracle.”

Today’s question: How has the drop in the bucket effect played out in the aftermath of you vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Cloudy with a chance of quail”

 

The drop in the bucket effect

Second-order change

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were on when we created them.”- Albert Einstein

“Vision starts with visualization.”- Mark Batterson

In Chapter 12 (“The Rule Breaker”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson observes that Jesus chose to heal the invalid by the Bethesda pool on the Sabbath knowing it would rile up the Pharisees.  By trying to keep what they thought was the letter of the law, the Pharisees broke the spirit of the law.  There’s a world of difference between following Jesus and following man-made rules.  Sometimes we have to break the rules to experience the miraculous.

Mark states that, according to cybernetic theory, there are two types of change:

1.  First-order change is behavioral- it’s doing things differently (matter over mind).

2.  Second-order change is conceptual- it’s seeing things differently (mind over matter).

Mark posits that most of our problems are perceptual: “The solution isn’t doing something different.  It’s thinking about the problem differently.”

Jesus changed the invalid’s life by changing the rules.  Whereas convergent thinking looks for one right answer, divergent thinking comes up with multiple solutions to a problem.  Mark explains:

“Divergent IQ is the ability to look at the natural and see the supernatural.  It also goes by another name when anointed by the Spirit of God: faith.”

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, has first-order change or second-order change characterized your thinking?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Critical realism”

Second-order change

Supernatural synchronicities

Mark Batterson states in Chapter 7 of The Grave Robber that it’s God’s job to set up supernatural synchronicities.  Our job is to see them and seize them.  In order to do this, we must love people when they least expect it and least deserve it.  We must be willing to do someone a favor without asking for one in return.  That will be a catalyst for many a miracle.

Pastor Batterson lives in Washington, D. C.  There the key card that swipes the door of opportunity is your social network.  That scenario was much the same for the royal official who sought Jesus’ help two thousand years ago.  On the political level, this official had access to the who’s who of the Roman Empire and Jesus was subject to his authority.  But in the spiritual realm, the authority of the King of King reigned supreme.

While it might seem that the royal official had every earthly thing he wanted, his power could not control and his money could not buy his son’s health.  He recognized that only Jesus had what he needed.  Applying this realization to us, Mark notes:

“Miracles are way beyond our human ability, but they are well within our authority as the children of God.”

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how have others been able to witness your faith in the Jesus they need?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Holy confidence”

New addition to Crown Jewels: “Four traits of gratitude”

Supernatural synchronicities

One nudge

In Chapter 6 (“One Nudge”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson observes that in most instances we miss the miracle that is right at our fingertips because we’re too close to the situation.  Most miracles are initiated by a nudge, most effectively from someone with whom we have a relationship of trust.  Yet, it’s easier to believe God for a miracle for others than it is to believe God for a miracle for ourselves.  We need a nudge from a fellow believer.

Mark adds that, whatever situation we find ourselves in, God has us exactly where He wants us- even if it’s not where we want to be.  Mark cautions us not to “look for the exit before you look for an opportunity.”  God is setting the stage for us.  So when the Holy Spirit give us a nudge, we need to obey it.  If we don’t, we’ll never know what we missed.  If we do obey, the Wild Goose chase begins.  Pastor Batterson notes that Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit An Geadh-Glas, or “Wild Goose.”

Discerning those small nudges is the first key to experiencing the miraculous.  For the wedding couple at Cana, the third day of their wedding had to be the defining moment of their lives.  When they  reminisced about their wedding reception, Jesus’ miracle of turning their water into wind jogged not only their memory, but also their faith.  That is what miracles do.

Today’s question: During your desert, transformational journey, what nudges have you received from the Holy Spirit?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Divine appointments”

One nudge

God"s anointing

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!"”- Abraham Kuyper, Dutch theologian

Referencing the all-encompassing anointing John speaks of in his first epistle (1 John 2:27), Mark Batterson states that “it doesn’t matter what you do, God wants to anoint you to do it.”  And this anointing isn’t just for ordained clergy, it’s for everyone.  As Mark explains, the anointing is the it factor in any endeavor.

Pastor Batterson emphasizes that we simply need to ask for God’s anointing to receive it.  He adds these words of advice:

“And you can’t just seek the anointing.  You have to seek God.  Get into God’s Word and God’s presence.  The closer you get to God, the closer you’ll get to His anointing.”

Mark observes that Jesus used the most basic building block in nature as the raw material for His first miracle, a profound reminder for us that Jesus needs little or nothing to work with.  Anything is possible with God.  We need that object lesson because we tend to grossly underestimate God.  He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).  Mark concludes:

“He [Jesus] is the catalyst for any and every transformation, whether it’s turning water into wine or sinners into saints.”

Today’s question: Do you currently feel God’s anointing in your life?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “One nudge”

 

God"s anointing

God ideas

“But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.”- 1 John 2:27

Mark Batterson continues Chapter 5 of The Grave Robber with the story of Steve Stewart.  Steve was asked by the Water4Foundation to design a water pump that could work anywhere in the world for less that $50.  This was despite the fact that Steve had zero experience in the field of hydrodynamics.  Yet, confronted with this challenge to his engineering mind, Steve replied: “I didn’t know it wasn’t possible.”

As Pastor Batterson points out, Steve was halfway to a miracle.  For ten weeks he worked eighteen hour days.  Running out of ideas, Steve stumbled on a five-hundred-year-old Leonardo Da Vinci sketch of a water pump in a book he’d purchased in Italy ten years earlier.  Steve ultimately solved the problem at a cost of $17.84.

We might think Steve’s solution was a good idea.  But his solution was more than that.  It was a God idea.  God ideas change history.  Mark emphasizes that the key to this kind of miracle is the anointing:

“It’s a mysterious intangible that is difficult to define, but is supernaturally enables us to function beyond our ability. . . . It’s providential timing that results in supernatural synchronicities.  It’s divine favor that defies human explanation.  And the net result is that we become better than our best.”

Mark continues his discussion of this all-encompassing anointing in the next blog.

Today’s question: What God ideas have you experienced following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God’s anointing”

God ideas

Miracle within a miracle

“Awake, awake!  Rise up Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger.”- Isaiah 51:17

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 5 of The Grave Robber by stating that every atom in our body or in the universe is subject to God’s overriding authority.  Yet we need to remember that the laws of nature are miracles in themselves.  Pastor Batterson asserts: “So when God overrides a law of nature that He originally instituted, it’s really a miracle within a miracle.”

Mark is a lifelong asthmatic.  While he continues to pray for a miraculous healing of all his symptoms, he is thankful for the daily miracle of albuterol.  The drug literally has saved his life countless times.  Mark treasures his miracle within a miracle.

The miracle at Cana foreshadows Jesus’ last miracle.  At the Last Supper, Jesus “turned an ordinary cup of wine into a bottomless glass of grace.”  Jesus shedding His blood for us is the ultimate transformation.  Grace is the greatest miracle of all.

We drink the cup of blessing because Jesus drank the cup of wrath to the dregs.  Mark cautions that some of us sample God’s grace the way people sip wine at a wine-tasting.  We sip as if His supply of grace is small.  The only way to get intoxicated with Jesus’ love is to drink it to the dregs.

Today’s question: Do you believe the grace of God is big or small?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God ideas”

Miracle within a miracle

Thank God for water

“Joy is not getting what you want.  It’s fully appreciating what you have.”- Mark Batterson

In Chapter 5 (“Six Stone Jars”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson begins with the observation that water is the most basic chemical compound on earth.  Yet it also is the most vital.  But when is the last time we thought to thank God for water?

Pastor Batterson tells of the time he was on a trail in the Grand Canyon, about two miles from Phantom Ranch on the canyon floor.  His group ran out of water.  The temperature was 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!  When Mark finally reached a water supply, he savored every sip of the tasteless liquid.  For the first time in his life, he saw water as a miracle from God.

Mark states we don’t appreciate God’s day-to-day miracles because “God is so good at what He does we take it for granted! What God does best . . . we often appreciate least.”  If we recognized these miracles, we’d live in constant wonderment and crack the joy code.

As we pray to God for a miracle, He hears our heart more than the words we choose.  Faith, not vocabulary, elicits His response.  Verbosity is not an indicator of trust.  In fact, Mark states, the more trust we have the fewer words we need:

“You don’t need to know what to say.  You just need to know where to turn.”

If we seek God first, before we need a miracle, He won’t be our last resort.

Today’s question: How would recognizing God’s day-to-day miracles during your desert, land between journey help you break the joy code?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Miracle within a miracle”

Thank God for water

Catalyst for a miracle

“The right word at the right time can be the catalyst for someone else’s miracle.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 4 of The Grave Robber, he reflects on another defining moment in the life of Jesus- His visit to the temple when He was twelve years old.  Luke 2:47 (ESV) states: “And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding.”  Pastor Batterson notes that we never can “underestimate the power of one well-timed compliment.  It has the power to change a person’s entire perspective on life.”

When we fixate on our sin rather than on Jesus’ forgiveness, it’s all too easy to forget that we are the apple of Jesus’ eye.  By changing water into wine at Cana, Jesus reveals how much God cares about the minute details of our lives, as Mark explains:

“God is great not just because nothing is too big.  God is great because nothing is too small.  If it’s a big deal to you, it’s a big deal to God.”

Pastor Batterson argues that simple, everyday miracles don’t happen more often because we’re not dialed in to the Holy Spirit’s still, small voice.  We must learn to tune in to the Holy Spirit and obey His promptings.  And when we do, no matter how ill-timed or insignificant those promptings may be, Mark states that we are moments from a miracle.

Today’s question: What Spirit-inspired promptings have been a catalyst for a miracle in someone’s life, including yours?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Hello Dave”

Catalyst for a miracle

The miracle of restraint

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”- Graham Greene, English playwright

In Chapter 4 (“The Wine Maker”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson opens with this statement: “There are days.  Then there are days that define the rest of your life.”  Some days are ordinary or mundane (predictable), others change life dramatically (unpredictable).  Either way, Pastor Batterson notes, you aren’t the person you were before.

Whether it’s a planned event like marriage or an unplanned event like a vocation loss, Mark notes that “the bridge to the past is forever destroyed, and the future rushes in like a flash flood.”  The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) was that new day for Jesus.  The Carpenter’s son from Nazareth performed His first miracle.

Pastor Batterson wonders how hard it was for Jesus to stay His miracle power for thirty years, especially when skeptics scoffed or bullies provoked- or to willingly stay on the cross to die for our sins.  The fact that Jesus held His hand may be the greatest miracle of all.  While Jesus’ miracle-performing power is impressive, His willpower not to use that capability is even more impressive- the miracle of restraint.

There is a lesson here for us.  As Pastor Batterson writes, “sometimes the greatest miracle is restraint.”

Today’s question: What Bible verses have been foundational in establishing the miracle of restraint in your life following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Catalyst for a miracle”

The miracle of restraint

The single greatest miracle

“Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.”- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 3 of The Grave Robber by stating that the single greatest miracle is the forgiveness of our sins, made possible through the crucifixion and resurrection of the sinless Son of God.  This miracle of salvation, however, is not the finish line.  It is the baseline.

Pastor Batterson then lists the seven miracles found in the gospel of John that are the foundation for this book:

1.  The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11)

2.  Jesus Heals an Official’s Son (John 4:46-54)

3.  The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath (John 5:1-9)

4.  Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (John 6:1-15)

5.  Jesus Walks on Water (John 6:16-21)

6.  Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind (John 9:1-11)

7.  Jesus Raises Lazarus (John 11:32-44)

Pastor Batterson notes that, while the exploration of these seven miracles will stretch our mind, John’s original intent was that such exploration would stretch our faith.  Speaking about those miracles, Mark adds:

“They don’t just reveal what Jesus did, past tense.  They reveal what He wants to do in your life, present tense.”

The seventh miracle John describes is not the epilogue.  Rather, it is the prologue to the miracles Jesus wants to do in our lives.

Today’s question: How do you think this in-depth discussion of Jesus’ miracles will impact your life?  Please share.

Coming Monday: the new Short Meditation, “Hello Dave”

Tomorrow’s blog: “The miracle of restraint”

The single greatest miracle

Two trip wires

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 3 of The Grave Robber, he wants his readers to clearly understand that only God can perform miracles.  God gets all the glory.  Yet, Mark adds that almost every miracle has a human element.  And while some miracles take a single step of faith, others require multiple attempts.

Pastor Batterson states that there is an invisible, impassible fence dividing the natural and the supernatural.  We can’t dig under it, climb over it, or walk around it.  But there is a gate in that fence, and His name is Jesus!

However, there are two trip wires Pastor Batterson has identified that keep us from stepping into the miraculous:

1.  Subliminal skepticism.  Because miracles, by definition, violate natural laws, we instinctively object.  Miracles defy logic.  We tend to explain away what we cannot explain.  Mark defines skepticism as a “predisposition toward disbelief that is prejudiced by past experience.”  Discernment is filtering or distinguishing what is false from what is true with the help of  Scripture and the Holy Spirit.  Falsehoods don’t negate truth.

2.  Dormant disappointment.  When our prayer for a miracle aren’t answered or miracles don’t happen the way we want, disappointment is our knee-jerk reaction.  As Pastor Batterson states, “we pull back on the reins of faith because we don’t want to feel the sting of disappointment again.”  If we want to experience the miraculous, we have to confront the dormant disappointment in our past.

Today’s question: Have you experienced subliminal skepticism or dormant disappointment?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The single greatest miracle”

Two trip wires