How to invite miracles to happen

A traveling man came into a hotel to secure a room for the night.

Upon being informed that every room in the building had been taken, he was naturally quite perturbed, until a portly gentleman standing nearby kindly offered to share his room with him.

The offer was thankfully accepted.

Upon retiring, the portly man knelt and prayed, tenderly mentioning his guest for the night in his petition.

In the morning his host informed him that it was his custom to read a portion of the Word of God and pray before taking up the responsibilities of the day.

The effect upon the man was moving; a strange feeling came over him; something had been working in his heart all the night.

When gently pressed by this stranger to accept the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior, his resistance went down in a heap. A soul had been won for Christ!

But who is this humble ambassador of Christ, who so strikingly resembles a member of President Wilson's cabinet?

When business cards were exchanged before parting, to the guest's amazement he read, "William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State."

You see, by starting your day with God's Word through memorization and meditation, you're inviting amazing and miraculous things to happen around you.

With scripture memorization and meditation, you're basically saying to God..."Oh Lord, please take control of my day today!"

Most Critical Rescue Mission

I once heard a story by Gene Appel.

A family was out vacationing at the lake one summer. Dad had been puttering out by the boat house.

Two of his sons, a 12-year old and a 3-year old were down playing along the dock. The 12 year old was supposed to be watching his little brother, but he got distracted.

The 3 year old, little Billy, thought that would be a good time to check out the shiny aluminum fishing boat tied up at the end of the dock.

So he went to the dock and put one foot on the boat, and one foot on the dock. He lost his balance and fell into the water, which was about 5 or 6 ft deep.

The splash alerted the 12-yr old who let out a piercing scream. Dad came running from the boat house, jumped into the water, swam down, but unable to see anything, came up for air.

Sick with panic, he went right back down into this murky water, and began to feel everywhere around the bottom. He couldn't feel anything.

Finally, on his way up, he felt little Billy's arms locked in a death grip on one of the posts of the dock, about 4 ft under water.

Prying the boy's fingers loose, they burst up together thru the surface to fill their lungs with life giving air.

Finally when the adrenaline had stopped surging, and nerves had calmed down a little bit, the Father asked his son, "What on earth were you doing down there hanging onto the post so far under the water?"

And little Billy's answer was a classic, laced with the wisdom only a toddler could give. He said, "I was just waiting for you dad. Just waiting for you."

My friend, 2000 yrs ago, the God of the universe left the glory and the splendor of heaven, a place where there was no pain and no sickness, no accidents, no hurt, and no death.

And he plunged into this dark, murky world on a rescue mission, a rescue mission for...

...All of us who are drowning.
...All of us who are barely hanging on.
...All of us who are lost in the darkness.

Don't let the busyness of this world overwhelm you that you've forgotten how much God loves you.

Take scripture memorization and meditation seriously.
This is one way to remind yourself daily that He gave His Son to rescue you.

So get in a habit of memorizing and meditating scriptures and never again forget God's most critical rescue mission.

How to brake spiritual poverty?

Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool:

During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch.

With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills.

Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.

At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large.

In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.

And Mr. Yates owned it all.

The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief.

A multimillionaire living in poverty.

The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.

Many Christians live in spiritual poverty.

Simply because they don't take the time to read, memorize, and meditate scriptures.

They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright.

Today is the day that you break spiritual poverty though scripture memorization.

With just one verse at a time begin to memorize and meditate scriptures throughout the day.

If you've tried to memorize before and failed, there's no harm in trying it again.