Reflections from a Miracle

Reflections from a Miracle

By Bob Miracle

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Bob Miracle
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-3532-7

Chapter One

January 1

Joshua 3:3

You have never been where you are going now.

In this instance, Israel was poised on the banks of the Jordan River, getting ready to go into the Promised Land. This was something they had been working toward for years. They were physically going somewhere they had never been before.

Something even more exciting than going somewhere physically you have never been before, is going somewhere spiritually we have never been before. If we are walking in faith and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, God will continue to take us to spiritual depths we have never before plumbed.

January 2

Luke 8:18

Be careful how you listen.

When we encounter the word of God, either through daily Bible study or from hearing the minister lay it out before us from the pulpit. How do we respond? Are we halfway listening while we are planning the rest of our day?

The word of God is the most important thing in the world. It is the most important thing in our life and God expects us to respond in the way that He has planned for our life. Once we receive a truth from the Holy Spirit, we are accountable for what that truth means to our life. We are given truths to further God's plan for our life and if we expect to get further truths from God, we need to use the one He just gave us first.

January 3

Joshua 24:15

Decide today whom you will serve.

The Israelites had just taken possession of the Promised Land with the help of the mighty hand of God. Joshua is now giving them both a warning and a calling. His warning was twofold. First, they were in a land where the people did not serve the one true God, so his warning was to make sure they remembered who had brought them here. Secondly, it was a warning to not be satisfied with what they had done. Asking them not to stop where they were but to continue on becoming what God had in mind for them.

The calling was to a new commitment to God. We would do well to read this everyday and remember who brought us to where we are.

January 4

Joshua 24:13

I gave you land you had not worked for and cities you did not build. I gave you vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.

Are you impressed with what you have? Are you proud of what you have accomplished?

Initiative is important and hard work is to be commended but God is our provider and protector. Look back at your life and count the times that God has made special provision for your life. Based on what we see that God has done in our past, why are we afraid of the future?

God cautions us about looking back and I think the reason is, is because when we look back, we have a tendency to bring pride into the picture. We want to think that we got all that we have by our own hand. We must be careful to give God the glory for all that we have because it is only on loan.

January 5

II Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the earth looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward Him, so that He can show His great power in helping them.

In our quest to be near God and to be actively involved in doing His will, we think that the quest is solely ours. We think that it is up to us to find God's will and it does require our supreme effort. We are not, however, the only one looking. God is also searching; He is looking for those with a perfect heart. So if we are to be found by Him, let's work at letting Him make our heart perfect and then we will have access to His great power.

January 6

Matthew 2:14

That same night he left for Egypt with Mary and the baby.

Jesus was here on earth barely two years before people were trying to take His life. God knew their plans and sent an angel to warn Joseph. Why did He send the angel to Joseph?

Mary was the one that had received the divine visit and exclaimed those beautiful words, "Be it unto me". So why not send the warning to her? Perhaps it was because Joseph was the head of the family, so protection and guidance for his family was to come from him. Thank God for not only his obedience but also his immediate obedience. He did not stew or fret or wonder if he had heard the right words. Instead, he got that beautiful mother and child ready and left the same night he heard from God. Do you respond that way?

January 7

Matthew 28:20

Be sure of this, that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples, whose count was now eleven, and made this promise to them. I am with you always. He even emphasized it by saying, be sure of this. We can be sure of it, because God cannot lie and Jesus is Himself God. He even told how far He would go with us, to the end of the world. He didn't say I'll be with you until you're 65 and then Medicare will have to take over. He didn't say I'll stay with you until you're married and then your spouse will take over. He didn't say I'll be with you until you have children and then I'll have to go. He is with us for the long haul. Good times, bad times, times we don't even know he's there. He will always be there.

What about us though? Do we "leave" Jesus at certain times? Do we say it's O.K. for Him to go to church with us but not other places? Do we "leave" Him when we go to work, or other places that we think He might not fit in? Maybe we can turn that verse around and say "We will be with You always Lord no matter what".

January 8

Philippians 4:11

For I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little.

There are many things to admire about Paul but this is one of the harder to imitate. Being content in any situation demands the help of Christ and the allowing of our mind to depend on Him.

My Dad came as close to this art as anyone I know. Just one example is when he and I had gone to my father in-law's farm to cut some firewood. The truck we were driving was not a four-wheel drive and we drove into a soft spot before we knew it. We were some distance from any help and from where we were going to cut wood. We finally decided to cut up the closest down tree and carry it to the truck to get some weight on the rear of the truck so we could move on. As we were carrying the wood to the truck, every time I would pass Dad, he was whistling. While at the same time I was frustrated and grumpy because we had to carry the wood so far. It almost made me mad at him because he was happy and I wasn't. It wasn't the distance I had to carry the wood that was the problem. The problem was that I had not found that deep down strength and peace that Christ brings to all situations.

January 9

I Samuel 25:14

The life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God.

What a beautiful statement about the strength and faithfulness of our God. What a wonderful place to be - in the bundle of the living - protected by God. Not only in the bundle of the living but to be bound there securely by the power of God.

We as Christians must remember that Jesus Christ was the one that secured our place in the bundle of the living and that there are a lot of people that are still not in that bundle. It is our duty to tell them that there is such a place and that the opposite of being in that bundle is a place that none of us want to be.

January 10

John 17:24

Father I want these you have given me to be with me where I am.

If Jesus, who is God himself, wants us to be with Him when we die, who is going to stop us from being there? The answer is, no one. God wants us there and He will see to it that we are there.

When we want someone with us, we will go to great lengths to make it happen. We will also make it as easy as possible on the one we want to be with us to join us. That's why we need have no fear of death. God is going to make it easy for us to join Him. If He wants us with Him, do you think that He would put something frightening in the journey from this world to the next? Of course not. It will be a safe, joyous journey into His presence.

January 11

Matthew 17:2

As they watched, His appearance changed, so that His face shone like the sun and His clothing became dazzling white.

If you have ever wondered what it is going to be like in heaven, this gives a short clue. Jesus appearance changed; His face went from normal skin color to shining like the sun. How does the sun shine? It is so bright we can't look at it and must wear sunglasses if we are going to be exposed to it for extended times. If you remember, when Moses spent time with God on the mountain, his face was shining when he came down (Ex.34: 29). He was not even aware of it but everyone else was. So if a human picked up the glory of God just from spending time in His presence, imagine what our body will look like when we become as He is. You've heard that expression "my future is so bright I have to wear shades", count on it.

January 12

I Samuel 17:37

The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the Philistine.

Goliath had been taunting the Israelite army for over a month when David showed up at the camp. When he saw Goliath, he was not daunted by his size or remarks. All he had to say was "Who is this man that he should defy the armies of the living God?" Then he said, "Don't lose heart on account of this guy - I will fight him". Saul tried to talk him out of it by telling him that Goliath had been a man of battle since his youth but David was determined. To him it was all the same, Goliath was the same as the wild animals that had attacked his father's sheep. God had delivered him from the animals and He would deliver him from Goliath.

God can deliver us in any circumstance; we just have to believe it.

January 13

Deuteronomy 11:13

If you will carefully obey all of his commandments that I am going to give you today, and if you will love the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls, and will worship him -

In my opinion, one of the problems surrounding our church and our families today is a lack of commitment. The dictionary defines commit as that which we obligate or pledge ourselves to.

There is a quote of unknown origin that says if you had ham and eggs for breakfast this morning - the chicken was involved but the pig was committed. There is a difference between being involved and committed.

Marriage involves a lifetime commitment that more and more people are declining to make, choosing instead to live together. But what is hard to figure out is that these same people who choose not to commit to marriage will both sign a 40 year mortgage in order to have a home to live in.

Jesus does not just want us to be involved - he wants us to be totally committed to him.

January 14

Philippians 3:20

Our citizenship is in heaven.

Every one of us can quote this verse from memory. We can also quote the beginning of the fourteenth chapter of John where Jesus says "There are many rooms in my Father's mansion" and He is going there to prepare a place for us. We know all this but it is so hard for us to grasp that we don't act like we know it. It's just too hard for us to get our arms around the fact that the God, who hung the stars and measured out the oceans in the hollow of His hand, loves us enough to actually have a place just for us. Not only does He have a place for lowly, nobody us, it is a place that He has personally prepared. If we could just see a portion of that heavenly home, there would be no other thing on our mind. We would be doing everything in our power to reach that home. But we can't physically see that home, even though we know it is there. That is why we return to Hebrews 11 and read that faith is being certain of things we cannot see. Our home is there and we can be certain of it, even though we cannot see it.

January 15

Philippians 4:8

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - think about those things.

True - noble - right - pure - lovely - admirable. All these words are lovely and point us toward Christ and away from the world. When Paul wrote these words he didn't have much to look at to draw his mind into other areas because he was in prison. The majority of us, on the other hand, are bombarded with worldly things that can fill our mind if we let them. T.V. and movies have a high sexual content. Advertisements entice us to desire new things that may not be bad in themselves but can enslave our time which is needed to pay for them. We cannot let the world take away our time that can be better spent thinking on the characteristics of Christ.

January 16

I Kings 17:4

Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to feed you.

Elijah appears out of nowhere and tells Ahab that it is not going to rain again until he says so. God always has people in training that no one is aware of and Elijah was apparently such a man. He was close enough to God to receive instructions from Him, but no one knew of him.

You have to admire Elijah's allegiance to God. His first job was to go to Ahab, the worst king yet to reign over Israel, and tell him that there was going to be a drought. As soon as he finished that job, God told him to hide by a specific brook and that ravens would bring him food. This should convince us that God is in total control and is able to provide for us in any situation. Birds cannot bake bread but the Bible says they brought Elijah bread and meat in the morning and evening. How they did this only God knows and this is a small thing when you consider the creation and the other mighty works God has done but it is a wonderful lesson nonetheless.

January 17

I Kings 19:4

"I've had enough," he told the Lord. "Take away my life. I've got to die sometime and it might as well be now.

Many times we feel the same as Elijah did. We feel we have failed and messed up things so bad we might be better off dead. It is times like these, we have to remember that it is not about us but rather it is about God. We must get up and keep going. II Corinthians 4:8 says we are pressed on every side by troubles but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they do but we don't give up and quit. Elijah was wrong here, as close to God as he was and with all the great things he had done, he was wrong. He said that he had to die sometime, so it might as well be right then but that was not true. He did not have to die. God took him to heaven in a chariot and let him sidestep death. So when we are at a low point and think we are of no value, remember that God still has great plans for us that we know nothing of.

January 18

John 13:33

Dear, dear children how brief are these moments before I must go away and leave you.

Every parent should have these words tattooed on his or her forehead. We think the time is so long and we have plenty of time to teach our children to fish or to talk to them about our love for God or to tell them we love them or to pray for them or with them. Then all of a sudden they are moving out and we find that they now have their own goals and own ideas and our influence has waned.

We are so slow to grasp the urgency of the moment until it is staring us in the face. When Jesus spoke these words, he had just finished the Last Supper, and Judas was on his way to betray Him. Jesus was trying to give the disciples some last minute instructions. He knew it was His last night on earth but we don't have that luxury. We must live every day to fullest and take advantage of every moment we have with our children and grandchildren.

January 19

Psalm 139:1-3

O Lord you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit or stand. When far away, you know my every thought. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am.

Do you ever fell alone, not sure where you are in life? Or has something happened in your life that was so bad that you just wanted to get as far away from it as possible? You just wanted to wash it out of your mind by a change of scenery or a change of mates or a change of jobs. Maybe you feel like God is as far away as the end of the world.

Take heart, some of the men that God used in the mightiest of ways felt that way but God knew exactly where they were. When Jezebel told Elijah she was going to kill him before the sun went down tomorrow, he ran until he ran out of civilization and then he ran a day further into the wilderness. He didn't know where he was but God did. An angel woke him up and there was fresh baked bread and a jar of water waiting on him. Every moment, God knows where we are.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Reflections from a Miracleby Bob Miracle Copyright © 2009 by Bob Miracle. Excerpted by permission.
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