Expect A Miracle

With today being the official first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, our weather here in Oklahoma did not disappoint but greeted our morning walk with a frost covered golf course and temperatures in the low twenties!  And while I was bundled up with my thermals and cold weather insulated coat and gloves… Fiver bounded around like a kid at an amusement park!  With his thick Great Pyrenees coat, he thrives when the thermometer plummets!

He has a routine each and every morning that never varies.  After my morning coffee and Bible study time, I feed the dog and head for the shower… and as soon as I turn off the water and step over the tub… he appears at the slightly ajar door* and begins to dance around the bedroom and bark… knowing that our morning walk will begin as soon as I get myself ready for the day!

It's actually kind of funny and I play along with him by pretending to bark and say things to excite him even more.  I don’t think that I could find a better example of someone’s EXPECTATIONS bursting forth with the anticipation of an upcoming event!  And low and behold… if I should drop the leash after putting his harness on him to return to the kitchen to get my keys… he’ll literally stick to my side by pressing against me until I return to and open the front door!

The EXPECTANCY that Fiver places in me to take him on a walk each morning brings to mind the same EXPECTANCY that the angel of the Lord gave to everyone with whom he shared the joyful message of the birth of the New Born King… Christ the Lord.

From Isaiah’s prophecies some 400 years before the actual event, to the revelations given to Simeon and the prophetess Anna and his personal appearances to Zacariah, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds tending to their flocks in the fields near Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord presented to the world an EXPECTATION of the WONDER-FILLED, Prince of WHOLENESS coming to revolutionize the world’s way of thinking and bring eternal salvation to mankind.

In Isaiah 9:6 the Prophet lit the fires of EXPECTATION within the hearts of the Jewish people in Judah by declaring:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government (rule/dominion) shall be upon his shoulders: and his NAME (singular) shall be called WONDER-FILLED, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of PEACE (Wholeness and/or Satisfaction).” (KJV/MSG) 

According to Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, the word translated WONDERFUL literally means “MIRACLE, MARVEL or a MARVELOUS THING.” The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions defines it as an “EXTRAORDINARY, HARD TO BELIEVE (with the natural mind) thing.”

In one respect, the angel of the Lord was heralding to mankind a message of an event of the birth of someone through whose actions (on the cross and beyond) would open up a totally new horizon to the way we think, speak and act!  To get ready to activate the strength to believe and receive the EXPECTATIONS of God’s supernatural powers and abilities to live and function in our lives… and through our actions of faith in Him and the truth of His Word… positively affect the lives of people around us.

The world renown evangelist Oral Roberts coined the phrase “EXPECT A MIRACLE” that became the rally cry for all of us Charismatics during the 70’s and 80’s and is still heard today through Brother Robert’s books, at Oral Robert’s University here in Tulsa and the world-wide ministry of his son Richard Roberts.  I believe that it is the statement of faith and the way of life that the angel of the Lord presented at that first CHRISTMAS on that cold and starry night, around that tiny manger in the little town of Bethlehem a few thousand years ago.

I believe that it is the message of daily EXPECTATION that the Lord is still teaching us today as we listen to, learn and follow the teachings found in our Bibles and Christian study books and other aids.  It is the MIRACLE MINDEDNESS that He wants us to keep active in our lives 24/7… no matter where we are or who we are with.

I believe that it is the call that JESUS is renewing for us in THIS CHRISTMAS that we are celebrating right NOW in 2024.

It’s the message that the angel of the Lord originally brought to the world at the birth of the baby Jesus as he encouraged them and continues with us today, to live out our daily lives in such an awareness of being MIRACLE MINDED and NOT fear focused!  To believe for GOD’s BEST and fully EXPECT to see it in all that we do.

SO… what about you?  Will you yield to the call that we revisit each Christmas as we read the Christmas Story with our families? (See: Luke2:1-38) 

When you step out your front door today… will you EXPECT A MIRACLE?

I believe that you will!  Have a blessed, warm and meaningful Christmas… and continue to EXPECT A MIRACLE for the rest of this year and beyond into 2025 as well…!

 

*When Piper started having seizures back in 2009, I got in the habit of keeping the bathroom door slightly ajar when I shower because she had a seizure when I was showering one morning and I wanted to be able to hear her.

Wonder-Filled

I have always enjoyed collecting cars.  As a kid I had boxes over-flowing with Matchbox Cars.  But these cars were not to be placed untouched on a display shelf, but pawns to my over-active imagination as I spent hours on end playing with the cars and making up extravagant adventures as I went along.  I could be anyone and go anywhere as I imagined myself behind the wheel of my favorite cars in my ever-growing collection.  In Junior High I found a new hobby and began building 1:25 scale plastic model kits of 1960’s Muscle Cars.  I never took the time to paint the completed models, so I had matching white cars on every available space in my bedroom!

By the end of my days at Santa Rosa Junior College, I had met the gal I would eventually marry and together we delved into our joint joy of Hot Cars and began collecting the real ones!  Through the next forty some years we owned everything from two-seater English and Japanese sports cars, to four-wheel drive trucks, to hot station wagons, and onward to one of each of the three most popular Pony Cars… Challenger, Camaro and Mustang!  And today I find myself reverting back to my younger years as I have begun, once again, collecting 1:25 scale, precision diecast model Pony cars!

As a kid I can still clearly remember the WONDER and excitement that I would feel when I would find a small (approximately 2”) box wrapped under the Christmas tree.  My mom had a tradition of slowly adding wrapped presents under the tree each day during the week proceeding Christmas Eve, when we normally opened most of our presents… and since she usually started with the smallest ones first… you can imagine of how I was ready to burst with anticipation as we gathered around the tree on Christmas Eve!

I have to admit that this Holiday Season has been the toughest for me yet, since the passing of my wife six years ago.  But I was pleasantly surprised the other day, when I felt that familiar old spark of WONDER and excitement perk up in me as I began to study the prophet Isaiah’s foretelling to the Jews in Judea of the coming of a Savior many hundreds of years in their future.  He boldly declared to a downcast nation,

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called WONDER-FULL, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (KJV)

You’ll notice that I split the word translated WONDERFUL into two words.  I did that because it was the way that I first read this very familiar verse this year.  I became aware that the scripture does not automatically combine the words WONDERFUL and Counselor… like I’ve always read it and heard it preached.  It is actually two separate Anointings, Characteristics, Roles, Positions or Titles given to the coming Savior.

And it made me literally jump for JOY with the anticipation of the WONDER of Jesus filling my life!  The Sermon Bible Commentary makes a point of importance when it states that WONDER “is the first title which the prophetic herald assigns to the new born prince.”  Explaining in detail, that Jesus is WONDERFUL in His nature, in His offices and in RELATION to His people.

I would summarize the commentary in John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible for WONDERFUL in this verse by stating that Jesus is full of WONDER in every aspect of His being, in every aspect of His name and in every aspect of His Word.  Dictionary.com defines WONDERFUL as “to think or speculate curiously, to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe, and to feel WONDER at.”  I had to pause and laugh at this definition because it reminded me of the way I always felt about my wife, Piper.  She had a way of keeping things in our relationship fresh, fun and exciting… and enjoyed keeping me in anticipation of her next unexpected, humor-filled action!

And you know… that is very similar to the way that I like to live in my relationship with Jesus!  I’ve come to the point in my life where I don’t EVER want to lose the sense of WONDER, anticipation and expectation that I feel when I read and study my Bible, pray and allow my faith to be a witness of His WONDER in the daily routines, events and human interactions of my life. 

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Let’s do something together this CHRISTMAS season… Let go back and remember the WONDER and excitement that we felt in our childhood years when it came to anticipating and then tearing open the presents under our family tree… and then think of the WONDER that Jesus promises to bring into our lives in the here and now… at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.

My confession is that I am coming ALIVE and will THRIVE in 2025… why don’t you join me in fully EXPECTING the manifestation of the WONDER that was brought with the baby Jesus that Isaiah prophesized about… to be STIR-ED UP, ACTIVE and ALIVE in our lives… starting RIGHT NOW… TODAY!

Hummm… Less the 2 weeks til Christmas… are you ready?

Let Me Introduce You...

I used to love it when my wife would come to visit me during my 20 years combined stint with Hewlett Packard and later their spin-off company Agilent Technologies.  I would get a call from the guard at the lobby from which she entered the building, and they would let me know that I had a visitor.  And it was a sure-thing every time.  By the time I made it down to either of the two public lobbies, she and the guard would have big smiles on their faces and be talking like they were old buddies!  She had an uncanny way to make anyone relax and feel special around her.

The real pleasure for me though, would come when we made it over to my work area and I would get to introduce her to all the folks working in my department within the fabrication area.  I guess that I used to talk about her a lot, for when my team would meet her in person, they acted like they had known her for years!  They knew that I was crazy about her and most likely wanted to meet the women that made their supervisor smile so much!

And so, with that personal example in mind… I want to introduce you to a special friend this Christmas…

As I have been studying (and writing about) the gift of God’s PEACE that He gave to us, it only seemed logical that I would be led to turn back in the Old Testament, to a well-known prophecy that foretold of the coming of a special child of Whom is the reason of the Christmas Season that we are celebrating this month.  The prophet Isaiah brought hope to the about-to-be-taken-under-siege inhabitants of Judah, some 700 years before the actual event was to take place, by introducing them to a coming Savior, by announcing in Isaiah 9:6,

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of PEACE.” (KJV)

Now I know that you’re probably thinking… “What’s he talking about?  I already know about Jesus.  What is Pastor Jim trying to pull here?”

Well… I want to introduce you to a new side of Jesus.  A revelation that some of you may not have considered before!  And I discovered this personality as I read Isaiah 9:6 from the modern paraphrase Message Bible where the translator/writer of this edition, Eugene H. Peterson, properly captured the ancient Hebrew meaning of the word PEACE (Shalom) by accurately stating the names of Jesus, writing that,

“His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of WHOLENESS.”  (Shalom)

So… Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, allow me to introduce you to:

Jesus, “THE PRINCE OF WHOLENESS!”

The Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries (FIRM) reports that,

“The root word of Shalom is ‘shalam’… and that the ancient Hebrew meaning of shalam was ‘to make something whole’. Not just regarding practical restoration of things that were lost or stolen. But with an overall sense of fulness and completeness in mind, body and estate.”*

The Oxford Online Dictionaries informs us that the legal word “estate” refers to “All the money and property owned by a particular person.”

You know… It is very much like the folks I worked with who already knew about Piper, but got to know her in a deeper way when she came in person to my place of work.  Most of us already know Jesus (or at least about Him)… but there is always a deeper revelation to learn and then put into practical application in our lives.  If you’re anything like me… a greater revelation of Jesus only works to make me hungry for more of His promises and goodness in my life.

And like the title of my blog… It definitely makes me want to EXPECT more of God in my daily activities and then empower me to be a greater blessing to those around me!  I want my entire life to be WHOLE… physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally as well as financially… DON’T YOU?

I’m EXCITED… AREN’T YOU?  There is always more of Jesus to be known and activated in each of our personal lives.  I pray that each of you will join me in introducing JESUS, THE PRINCE OF WHOLENESS to everyone around us during (and after) this wonderful holiday season!

After all… He IS the reason for the season!

 

*https://firmisrael.org/learn/the-meaning-of-shalom/