The Greatest Miracle

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 156-159.

Opening Thought: We have come to the end of Nick Vujicic’s devotional and I am pleased. I usually find devotionals daunting because I have a large spectrum of interests in my faith and devotionals are usually designed to merely uplift. Nick’s unique story and disability made him very qualified to share more that just an uplifting devotional, but a devotional with some real gems and new perspectives. I recommend this devotional to anyone looking to give their faith life a kick-start.

This week’s devotional speaks of miracles. Vujicic shares something that I also have experienced, when you enter into ministry occasionally you hear people speak of the miracles that happen in their lives. I’m not just talking about the blessings we all have experienced, like good family, community, and faith, rather more like the miracles that happen in the Bible. Miracles that have a hard time being explained other than by acknowledging a higher power. I recently had my own experience which has got my brain reeling, reeling because even with my extensive background with religious studies and faith, my mind has very much been programmed by what we would call empirical scientism, where if it can't be explained by science it can't exist. Yet the more and more I think about my experience and the stories I hear from others the more I marvel at the mystery of God and the power of His revelation.            

The devotional begins with: John 10:37-38

Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Second Thought: In one of my philosophical theology courses in university a read somewhere, (and sadly I forget the author who inspired the thought), miracles are not their to show us that God can disrupt the order of things, rather that God is the order of things. It is His will that defines what is, so if you do encounter a miracle it is with God’s plan for you to see it and know that God is in control. Very profound to think of the order of things in that manor. The laws of the universe set to the will of God.      

Continual Work: Look for the miracles in life but the natural and supernatural, don’t be surprised if you find God’s goodness working in ways you wouldn’t have imagined.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: My miracle was an experience of healing, I won’t go into the details, but know it shook me to my core. As someone who suffers from chronic pains, having this happen was very interesting, because the healing did not take away all my pain, rather one in specific. Keeping in mind that God controls the order of things, this reminded me that my chronic pain is allowed by God to inflict me. That may sound like a frightening thing, but as I have said in other posts my disability has given me an outlook on life and a disposition towards faith that I don’t know if I would have come to if my pain had not been there. Maybe it was the very thing I need to find my way to God.

Scripture time: John 11:43-44

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Christ raised Lazarus and the dead man came out, no longer dead of course. Not everyone rises from the dead in the bible, and not everyone will get a miracle (well, at least a supernatural one). But there is one miracle we all are welcome to partake in, the restoration of our hearts and being made anew by Christ. Let the Logos reignite your purpose, restore your being and you too will become a living miracle.

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close: Closing this with a quote from Limitless by Nick Vujicic from page 159.

 

“All of our names and numbers are in the Book of Life. We just don’t know when God will decide to take us home to be with Him. Love each other as if it’s your last day on this earth. Live life to the fullest and appreciate every day that you wake up and take a breath.”

 

Thanks Nick Vujicic, for this book.

 

 

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