Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 247). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now we may think we’re ready before God thinks we’re ready and that is where our trust in Him and His timing comes in.   Mark says, “Sometimes it’s because God in His grace is allowing us to mature so we’ll be able to steward it. Sometimes He waits so we don’t miss the point. And sometimes God waits to punctuate His power.”   He has a plan, and He has a purpose and that is where our trust comes in.   He also says, “Most miracles take longer than we want, but the longer we wait, the more we appreciate them.” God had a plan for Jesus’ life when He sent His Son to earth and it didn’t just happen.   What if Jesus in His confining human body had stopped somewhere in the 30 plus years in that body and said “OK I’m done and I’m ready to come back home.  

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 244). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We are looking here at the story in the New Testament where Jesus heard that a good friend of his was about to die but Jesus waited for four days to go see him but he dies before he gets there.   When he finally gets there the man’s two sisters ask Jesus why He hadn’t come earlier?   One of them, Martha said in John 11:22-23, “Lord . . . if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”   The word, but showed that she held out some hope even a little bit in this situation. What about you?   Maybe you are at the end of something in your life, a sickness, a relationship, a job.   Remember, “Faith inserts a comma, even at the end of a death sentence.” Mark says, “Faith often looks lik

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book,   The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible . (p234). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) We look at life and something happens and we think that life as we know it is over.   It could be a lost job, a divorce, a sickness, a decision, a sin, a death and we think it’s over.   I n this story that Mark is looking at in this section, the story of Jesus friend, Lazarus’ death “that’s precisely how Mary and Martha felt. Their brother was gone for good. And their lives as they knew them were over.” But Jesus finally comes and He brings Lazarus out of that tomb alive.   He gave Him back his life. Jesus was truly The Grave Robber.   Now Mark says, “This miracle doesn’t just foreshadow Jesus’ own resurrection. It foreshadows yours! It’s not just something Jesus did for Lazarus. It’s a snapshot of what Jesus wants to do in your life right here, rig

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 228). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) The miracle that Mark is dealing with here in this section is the healing of the man who was born blind.   The method that Jesus used was a gross one.   He spit on the ground and made mud, He put the mud on the man’s eyes and then sent him off to the Pool of Saloam to wash it off.   After the man found the Pool He washed the mud off and then he could see.   Our tendency would be to start having the method for healing to have mud involved but the key was obedience.   The man obeyed and was healed. I like how Mark puts it.   He says, “I’m not entirely sure why Jesus had this blind man go and wash, but I’m guessing that he had lived a relatively helpless life. He depended upon everybody for everything! So Jesus didn’t just heal his blind eyes. He restored

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book,  The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible  (p. 226). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And those four words were, “Let there be light.” Genesis 1: 3.   And even now we are finding that the command is still being lived out.  Mark says, “Less than a century ago the prevailing opinion in cosmology was that the Milky Way galaxy was the sum total of the universe. Nineteenth-century Austrian physicist Christian Doppler had theorized an expanding universe, but there wasn’t much tangible evidence to back up his belief. Then an astronomer named Edwin Hubble spied several spiral nebulae that were far too distant to be part of the Milky Way galaxy. The announcement of his discovery on January 1, 1925, was an astronomical paradigm shift. He discovered that the degree of redshift observed in light coming from other galaxies increased in propor

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 202). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Mark continues, “Psychologists refer to this ability to create and catalog mental images as representational intelligence. Like a slow-developing Polaroid, those internal images are developed in the darkroom of your mind’s eye. The first internal image is mom, which develops at about six months of age. Dad doesn’t enter the picture until about eight months. Give children a few years, and their entire vocabulary will have a matching picture. But if your eyesight doesn’t develop normally, neither will your mind’s eye.” And that is true in so many areas in our development even spiritual.   I was fortunate that I was raised in a home that took me to church at a very early age.   Of course my dad was a minister so that was my life and going to church w

A thought by Mark Batterson (2014-09-02) from his book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (p. 220). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) That is so true.   Have you learned to use that as a way to enjoy life instead of endure it? Look at what Mark says, “Let’s say you’re at a restaurant waiting for a date that you were supposed to meet at 7: 00 sharp, but forty-five minutes later he or she is a no-show. At some point you need to explain to yourself why the person isn’t there. Here are some possible explanations. You might think, “He stood me up,” causing you to become mad. You could jump to conclusions and think, “She doesn’t love me anymore,” causing you to become sad. You could assume, “He was in an accident,” causing you to feel anxious. You might imagine, “He’s working overtime so that he can pay for our meal,” causing you to feel grateful. You could speculate, “She’s with another ma