Miracles
MIRACLES
Overcoming the World of the Spectacular
John 7:2-8
Jesus was fiercely tempted at the place of being spectacular. He had the power, could it not be used to impress people? Of course it would all be in the furtherance of the kingdom, and would it not therefore be right? But he turned down very decisively this temptation. He overcame the world of the spectacular. He would win by worth and service alone. Everything else was of the devil. He was right. Had he advertised himself, we should have forgotten him. His reticence was more vocal than his self-display would have been. He did not go to the pinnacle of the temple, but we put him on the throne of the universe for this very reason. He refused a miracle before Herod, and we denounce the asking and remember the refusal.
Victorious Living
(Week 18, Thursday)
Do Not Dress Up Negativism as a Friend
John 6:66-68; Galatians 5:1; 2 Timothy 1:7
No startling miracle of deliverance will happen unless we cooperate. The miracle of deliverance will work as we work, but only as we work. Don’t sit helplessly and expect either God or humanity to perform a miracle on you. But both God and humanity can perform a miracle through you if you cooperate.
Abundant Living
(Week 15, Wednesday)
God Guides through Mental Processes
Mark 12:29-30; Luke 12:57; 2 Timothy 2:7
Just as God uses guidance enough to show us God is there, but not too much to weaken initiative, so God works miracles, but sparingly. God’s self-revelation is not a magical but a moral revelation. Just enough miracle to fortify the moral.
The Way
(Week 41, Thursday)
In Everything God Works for Good
2 Corinthians 6:3-10
Affirmation for the Day: I shall not look for miracles today; I shall be one, a miracle of grace.
The Way to Power and Poise
(Week 23, Monday)
Romans 8:3-4
We must now look at the most stupendous thing this planet has seen: God being transformed into our image that we may be transformed into God’s image. The Incarnation is the miracle of miracles. Grant that central miracle, and all other miracles in the New Testament become credible in the light of this central miracle.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 2 Thursday)
The Nobodies Become Somebodies
Ephesians 4:22-24
Wherever the impact of the New Testament is made on life today the same miracles of changed lives appear.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 12, Sunday)
He Turned Beer into Furniture
1 Corinthians 1:17-18
A skeptic was heckling the Christians. “Do you believe that Jesus turned water into wine?” he asked. “Well, I don’t know,” said one man, “but this I do know, that in my home he turned beer into furniture.” The miracle of changed lives is taking place today in the degree that it is being tried. “Whosoever” (see John 3:16 KJV) works wheresoever and by whomsoever, whenever it is really tried.
How to Be a Transformed Person
(Week 18, Thursday)
Growth in the Fruits of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 1:20-23
Paul says there are nine [fruits of the Spirit]: “Love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22 Moffatt).
These nine qualities of life are the natural outcome of the Spirit within. Now note that every one of these is a moral quality and not a magical power. To be filled with the Spirit is often looked on as making one a seven-day wonder—healing the sick, stopping tornadoes, changing the weather—signs and wonders. The Spirit-filled person becomes a dispenser of miracles. Now miracles do happen in the Christian impact; the sick are healed, and unexpected things do happen, but nowhere as a central emphasis. They are byproducts of something deeper. When you emphasize the byproduct and underemphasize the product, you will lose both the byproduct and the product. The product is life characterized by nine qualities, all of them moral, not one of them magical. The emphasis therefore is thrown—and rightly thrown—on the moral and spiritual instead of the magical and wonder-working. This is sound. This keeps the Christian impact redemptive, functioning as moral and spiritual changes in character instead of miracles in nature.
Growing Spiritually
(Week 18, Sunday)
On Dividing What God Has Joined
Acts 6:1-6
One comment on speaking in tongues. My conviction is the Pentecost type of tongues—the power to speak effectively in other languages without an interpreter—has disappeared; but the Corinth type of tongues—needing an interpreter—appears here and there. They are not the same. Many come to India hoping to reproduce the miracle at Pentecost and speak in the languages of India without an interpreter or learning the language. It hasn’t happened. The wreckage of those hopes is strewn across India. You learn the language or use an interpreter, or you don’t get your message across.
This special miracle at Pentecost, for this special purpose, served that purpose and disappeared. For God performs miracles, but just enough, not too many. Too many would make us lazy. Too few would make us hazy.
Mastery
(Week 12, Tuesday)
The Unity of the Spirit
Ephesians 3:1-6
We have seen the . . . unities that came into being with the coming of the Holy Spirit. They are an amazing list: unity with God, with themselves as persons, among the inner circle—the twelve—unity of all believers, with enemies, and in material relationships. To these must be added some unities we have seen previously: unity of the secular and the sacred, of all classes, all races, all ages—old and young—both genders in a spiritual equality, the ministry and the laity. Everybody and everything were brought into a living unity, called the “unity of the Spirit.”
Mastery
(Week 18, Thursday)
By the Grace of God I Am What I Am
1 Peter 1:22-23
The eyes of the disciples and of the people were on Jesus as the source of the miracle. They weren’t seven-day wonders, dispensing miracles because of their divinity or their perfection; they pointed to Jesus.
Mastery
(Week 28, Saturday)
The Eternal God Becomes Like Us
Colossians 1:15-17
This is the central miracle: the Eternal God became like us that we may become like the Eternal God.
Christian Maturity
(Week 2, Sunday)
The Water I Give . . . Shall Become a Spring
[“The water I shall give him will become . . . a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).] This is a miracle of giving! To give to people and not weaken them or make them dependent is difficult. Here what Christ gives from above becomes a spring from beneath. He gives and produces initiative in the recipient. That is not only grace, it is also a revelation of the intention of grace; it is to produce creative personalities.
In Christ
(Week 15, Thursday)
He Hath Visited and Redeemed
Luke 1:67-68; 76-79
Jesus called on no power not at our disposal for his own moral battle. He performed no miracle to extricate himself from any difficulty. If Jesus had power, he had power to restrain power, holding it only for the meeting of human need in others. He never performed a miracle just to show power or to confound an enemy. Jesus lived a normal life, so normal that it became the norm. He dwelt among us as one of us.
The Word Became Flesh
(Week 3, Monday)