Food for soul! 4

Luke 11:29-32

29 As the crowd swelled, he took a fresh tack: "The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody's looking for proof, but you're looking for the wrong kind. All you're looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you're going to get is the Jonah - proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. 30 What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age. 31" On Judgment Day the Ninevites will stand up and give evidence that will condemn this generation, because when Jonah preached to them they changed their lives. A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about 'proofs.' 32 On Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will come forward and bring evidence that condemns this generation, because she traveled from a far corner of the earth to listen to wise Solomon. Wisdom far greater than Solomon's is right in front of you, and you quibble over 'evidence.'

Food for soul!

We all tend to like looking for God in the extraordinary, in the miracle; we like to go where they say miracles happen. We have all over the place church miracles and miracle churches. As Jesus put it, "Everybody's looking for proof, but you're looking for the wrong kind. All you're looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles." People want what is sensational; what is emotional; what is entertaining; what's extraordinary. This is what Jesus is condemning. Why? Because God is not in the extraordinary but in ordinary, just as He did in Jesus of Nazareth. If we had the eyes of the queen of Sheba or of the people of Nineveh, we would see God all in all the ordinary. Yes, God is not only in the churches but everywhere, including in our offices, homes, streets and neighbourhood.

It is not that miracles are not there; it is that we've grown dull of miracles. If you have eyes that see, you can observe a thousand miracles every day, or you can see nothing. Like the people in the gospel, Jesus was standing right before their eyes; the people were looking at him but could not see the miracle. He even gave then a hint, "A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about 'proofs.' Wisdom far greater than Solomon's is right in front of you, and you quibble over 'evidence.'"

Our big opportunity is right where we are now. As someone once said, we are, at this moment, standing right in the middle of our own acres of diamonds!  To some people, the world is desolate, dull, and empty; to another the same world looks rich, interesting, and full of meaning. Indeed, the eyes that look are common; eyes that see are rare. All eyes look, only a few see!

Do you realize that what we see depends mainly on what we look for? If you begin the day expecting failure, failure is what you get. But if you expect success, success is what you will get. Some people complain because roses have thorns, instead of being thankful that thorns have roses. In other words, any fact facing us, any problem and challenge before us, is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our successes or failure.

You and I do not see things and people as they're. We see things and people as we are.

“Some people think supernatural events, such as miracles, are needed to prove God’s existence. But natural processes and the laws of nature may be merely methods designed by God for His continuing creative purposes. When new laws are discovered by human scientists, do they not merely discover a little more of God? “Each of us every day is swimming in an ocean of unseen miracles. For example, each living cell is a miracle; and the human body is a vast colony of over a hundred billion cells. The miracle of this body includes both our ability to recognize it as well as our inability ever to exhaust the true significance of it.” — John M. Templeton.