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

Intellectual idolatry

In Chapter 3 (“The Lost Miracles”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson notes that Thomas Jefferson invented his own abridged version of Scripture- The Jefferson Bible.  Jefferson’s version reflected his life biases as a child of the Enlightenment.  Because logic and reason were the ideals of the Enlightened mind, miracles had no place in Jefferson’s Bible and were cut out.

While we find taking scissors to Scripture’s sacred texts hard to imagine, Pastor Batterson asserts that we cut and paste nonetheless:

“We pick and choose our favorite verses while ignoring the texts we cannot comprehend or don’ particularly like.  We rationalize the verses that are too radical.  We scrub down the verses that are too supernatural.  We put Scripture on the chopping block of human logic and end up with a neutered gospel.”

By creating God in our image, we commit intellectual idolatry.  Rather than living a life resembling the supernatural standards of Scripture, like Jefferson we subscribe to an abridged version of the Bible bearing a remarkable resemblance to us.

Pastor Batterson emphasizes that we need to follow Jesus’ teachings as well as experience His miracles.  If we follow Jesus, we’ll do what He did, as Mark writes:

“You’ll seek to please the heavenly Father first and foremost.  You’ll care for the poor, you’ll wash feet, and you’ll offend some Pharisees along the way.  You’ll also traffic in the miraculous.  and it won’t just be as an eyewitness.  It’ll be as a catalyst. . . . you are someone else’s miracle!  To God be the glory.”

Today’s question: How have you been a catalyst of the miraculous?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Two trip wires”

Intellectual idolatry

Inattentional blindness

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 2 (“Miraculous”) of The Grave Robber, he discusses an experiment conducted by two Harvard University researchers more than a decade ago.  Popularized in the book The Invisible Gorilla, the researchers filmed students passing basketballs around in a circle.

In the middle of the minute-long video, a woman dressed in a gorilla suit walks in, beats her chest, and walks out- the entire sequence taking nine seconds.  Viewers were instructed to count the number of passes made by players in white shirts.  As a result, only half the test group noticed the gorilla.

The gorilla was missed due to a phenomenon called inattentional blindness.  Pastor Batterson defines inattentional blindness as “the failure to notice something in your field of vision because you are focused on something else.”

The first century Pharisees make a great case study.  Blinded by their legalism, the Pharisees couldn’t see past their religious assumptions.  They missed Jesus’ miracles.  Whether inattentional blindness is intentional or unintentional, Pastor Batterson notes that “it’s one of the greatest threats to spiritual vitality.  One of the truest tests of spiritual maturity is seeing the miraculous in the monotonous.”

Experiencing something for the first time is unforgettable.  Time seems to stand still in the presence of the miraculous.  We have to be vigilant so that the “cataracts of the customary”  don’t cloud our vision.  We need to maintain our awareness of the miraculous and the awe of God.

Today’s question: What has enabled you to see the “miraculous in the monotonous” during your desert, transitional journey?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Intellectual idolatry”

 

Inattentional blindness

Waiting on God

Waiting on God (Howard Books, 2015)

Waiting on God: Strength for Today and Hope for Tomorrow is the latest book from Charles Stanley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA since 1971.  He opens his book with the assertion that the word never can stir the deepest fear in the human heart.  Thus, the challenge of waiting on God is “the ability to keep hoping when the nevers of life bombard us.”  Dr. Stanley’s definition of waiting on the Lord provides the basic outline for this book.  Waiting on the Lord manifests an “expectant endurance that is demonstrated by a directed, purposeful, active, and courageous attitude of prayer.”

Our focus must be directed toward God, our Provider, rather than the object of our desire.  We need to center our thoughts less on our questions and more on the Father’s ability to answer them.  Even though we are tempted to figure out God’s plan and speed it along, we are to demonstrate confident trust that God is committed to seeing us through every trial we face and is raising up an answer to our prayers.

The second characteristic of godly prayer in waiting is being purposeful in pursuing the Lord’s plan.  When our main objective is a personal and intimate relationship with God, everything else will fall into place as the Holy Spirit directs us- bringing out the very best of who we were created to be.  God’s Word, prayer, and godly counsel are an integral part of this process.

Dr. Stanley notes that waiting passively is not what the Lord intended for us as believers.  While we are to be still in allowing the Father to work through our circumstances, we must be active in growing spiritually.  Perseverance is the key to receiving the very best God has planned for us and helping us endure the delay.

The fourth characteristic of waiting on the Lord, being courageous, is stretched and refined during our darkest times.  Yet, it is when we feel most unworthy and defeated that the Father is closest to us.  We are in a spiritual battle with Satan.  Our weapon is the sword of the Spirit- God’s Word.  The Father is “moving us toward the light on the most efficient and effective route possible.”  Confidently wait on the Lord, for the best is yet to come . . . always.

 

 

Waiting on God