Daily Devotion #2

Do you Believe?
 
"And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased."  John 6:2
 
I really want to know if you believe in miracles, because I do.  Miracles can be as small as you getting a $20 for your empty gas tank or as great as you being delivered from a bad situation or being healed.
 
Back in the summer of 2004, I was out in Sacramento, in a research program at UC Davis.  We took weekend trips nearly every weekend.  I volunteered to drive that day; I had learned to drive a stick and I thought I'd take my cousin along with me so she could get out of the house.  We were going down to Berkeley to tour the lab.  So I was ecstatic, one to really put my driving skills to the test, and two to go to BERKELEY!!!  So on the ride down there, I noticed some little quirks with how the car was driving.  I just felt, "Something's wrong, maybe the car is running hot.  Lets just get there and park it for a few hours."  MInd you, the car had been serviced the day before.  So we got there, after I had a panic attack driving up one of those Bay Area hills…lol.  We toured the lab and had a great time.  On the ride back, I notice the same quirks and funny issues with the car.  I keep hearing something tell me, "Get off the highway.  Something is wrong with the car."  I got really scared–mind you I was in the inside lane with four-five people in the car, and lots of other cars on the highway.  So I get off, call my advisor and my cousin.  My advisor comes back, and offers to wait with us for a while.  But I send her along, my cousin is on the way.  So he finally arrives.  We get in the other car, and he test drives the car.  No problems.  I'm like, something was wrong, I know I'm not crazy.  So we get back on I-80 and head back up north.  I get maybe two exits ahead before he calls me back to him.  We get to the car and the front driver's side tire had flown off.  The service center did not tighten all the lug nuts and I think they left some off.  My life flashed before my eyes and I was really shaken up; it would have been very tragic.  Little did I know that it was good ole God, saving my life!  Had I kept driving…I don't even want to imagine. 
 
That's just one miracle I've experienced…not to mention several near death experiences like my plane skidding across the runway, terrible turbulence, almost receiving a biopsy that could have killed me, nearly being run off the road by an 18-wheeler, and just my being here is a miracle.  Hey hey hey, I'm not accident prone or anything, but the devil does not like people that put God first so why not try to kill them?  I've had little miracles too, trust.  I don't know about you, but I believe in Jesus, and I follow Him because of the many works He has done in my own life.  I may be as fortunate as the multitudes to witness the miraculous healings of the people, but I know what He can do, simply because of what He has done in the lives of those close to me.  I ask "Do you Believe?" because that is important.  For many, they have to witness a thing, see a thing to believe.  I just had to see what He is capable of myself–I only had one recommendation submitted for school on Jan 14–mind you the deadline was the next day, the day I had surgery and couldn't really concentrate to call people.  But obviously that is what God wants because He made it happen.  God will bring to pass whatever you ask in His Son's name and He is still performing miracles.  I take God everywhere with me, so even when I'm riding solo, He's guiding the little red car all the time lol.
 
Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.  Matthew 4:23

Daily Devotion

You Didn't Know Any Better
 
"So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then."  1 Peter 1:14
 
Hey everybody!  Sorry I have not posted a devotion…quite honestly I don't really have a good enough excuse.  I have been super busy with work, traveling and all.  But on to the good stuff!  I have been reading the book of John, slowly at turtle speed.  But today I finished the 15th chapter, actually more than that.  But John 15 is a really good chapter.  It has one of my all-time favorites–I know I say a lot of scriptures are my favorites, but don't you have some like that?  I would hope so!  That scripture is John 15:7–"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."  Jesus is talking to the Disciples in this chapter, right before He is betrayed by Judas Iscariot.  But I noticed some really important scriptures here. 
 
John 15:22, 24 say the following:  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin." ESV 24"If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father." NLT
No excuse.  That's powerful.  Basically there are two kinds of people:  the people that know Jesus and the people that do not know Jesus.  Then among the people that know Jesus, there are two more kinds of people:  the people that know Jesus and acknowledge what He did and try to live right, then the others are those that know Jesus and just sin anyway.  When we sin as if there is no consequence, we are fooling ourselves.  Everything has a consequence whether it be good or bad.  Consequences are not bad!!  They are just results!  If I go to bed late, 9 times out of 10, I'm gonna wake up late and then cause everything else to be late.  That's the consequence–the result of my being a night owl.  If I spend more money than I'm supposed to, 9 times out 10 I'm gonna be crying about it later.  Jesus said the people that heard Him teach and saw Him perform miracles had no excuses for their sin.
 
When you were little, you tried something until you learned that maybe you didn't like it.  You tried to touch something that you shouldn't have, and maybe you got spanked, got shocked, burned yourself…anything.  But until you knew better, you did it. Until you were taught different, you thought one way.  Then you had no excuse if you got hurt or got in trouble.
 
We all sin, we all "fall short of the glory"–but God grants us forgiveness and the promise that He will forget.  But for those who just completely disregard directions, those that know better and keep doing the same things without learning or repenting what happens?