Church of God, New World Ministries

The Greatest Miracle In Your Life

As I grew older and more mature in life, I became increasingly more aware of the marvelous Creation of God all around me and it began to reveal to me just what was really important in life. I believe this Great God wanted me to “stop and smell the roses ” once in a while. Most of us go through life, hurrying along, without ever really stopping long enough to ask: What is the reason for my being here? Is there any real meaning to life? What is the purpose of my life anyway? Most are too busy with their trivial pursuits to ever think about the deeper questions of their existence. I certainly never did.

Now this does not mean to stop living a full, exciting, happy, invigorating and productive life! I hope all you young people can enjoy all the multiple and enjoyable pleasures of life that I have, and still do! I don’t mean the sinful, lustful and hurtful ways that always brings great disappointment and grief. I swim, boat, water ski, fish, play a little golf (poorly), I might add. I rode nice motorcycles for several years. I’ve had nice, neat, “cool” and good performing autos nearly all my life. I’ ve had Cadillacs, Lincolns, convertibles, even “hot rods”. But still there was a void in my life, that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I took flying lessons and flew “solo”. I even enjoyed some minor success in the music business, performing on a local radio program for about five years. I “rubbed shoulders” with some of the very successful entertainers, at one time. But all these “ things” do not fulfill! I found out, on a lesser scale of course, what king Solomon found out. Ecclesiastes 12: 8 “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher (Solomon) ; all is vanity.”

Missing Dimension

What I didn’t know at the time, was that something was missing in my life. There was another “dimension” that I had never even heard about. It turns out, that the “ missing dimension” was God and His Holy Spirit. It took a Great Miracle in my life to change my way of doing things; even changing my way of thinking. I want to stress here that it was not just age , that gave me this new and wonderful outlook on life that I never had, before a transformation took place. I was only about thirty years old when this change began. So young people can have this same experience. I believe Timothy was a teenager when God began to work with him, through the Apostle Paul.

I want to read excerpts from an article I recently read that would have passed right over my head when I was “going through the motions” of living, before God awakened me to what was going on around me.

“Nature’s” complex devices

Quoting from a science article in the Knoxville News Sentinel; Source: Nature Magazine, by David Perlman: “A University of California engineer, entranced by the uncanny ability of insects like dragonflies and bumblebees to peer in all directions at once, has for the first time created microscopic versions of their compound eyes in the laboratory.”--- (ibid) “ The bulbous compound eyes of many insects contain thousands of individual lenses, each of which sees in a single direction, but whose images are melded into a single, wide-angle view that allows the insect to survey its entire neighborhood at once. Lee confesses he can’t figure out how nature could develop the complex devices that function so well in living organisms , but the team’s success in creating a synthetic fly’s eye, ----is only the beginning, --”

I want to candidly ask a question about what we ’ve just read above: Where did the life come from in the organism, the insect? Mr. Lee states “the team’s success in creating a synthetic fly’s eye, is only the beginning. What about the original beginning? Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattle and the creeping thing (including insects), , and the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

Undoubtedly Mr. Lee has not been introduced to this Great Creative God at this time, but some day, he will be. One final quote from the science article: “I’m always fascinated by how nature makes these complex things; I don’t understand it, but I think engineers need to use nature as a model to make such useful devices in the laboratory. ”, Lee said. Quite an admission!

Change Comes in the Way We View Things

In the beginning of the subject, I spoke of a transformation that had taken place in my life that gives me a new perspective in how I view things. Things I thought were important before the change took place, became irrelevant, compared to what I now desired.WHAT CAUSED THAT CHANGE?

In just a few weeks, The Church of God, Worldwide Ministries will be observing the Feast of Pentecost. It is the key to God’s life changing MIRACLE. It is THE GREATEST MIRACLE IN YOUR LIFE! Without it, we could never, ever understand what life is all about.

It is the begettal of GOD LIFE, God’s MIND in you. (For more information on Pentecost read our article “God’s Master Plan of Salvation.”)

The World Does Not “Get It”

Even the apostles and other disciples of Christ did not completely grasp what He was teaching them at the time He was with them. John 14:8 “ Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the father, and it sufficeth us. 9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast you not known me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” Continuing on in the same chapter:
Verse 15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments, 16. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, (means “One who goes alongside” or a “Helper”.) that he (it) may abide with you forever; 17. Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth (It) not, (It cannot be perceived by the five human senses because It is Spirit - It is invisible like the wind.) neither knoweth It : (It is not a third person of a trinity , but a Power or Essence , that can be poured out like water .) but you know It; for It dwelleth with you, and shall be in you . ”

This Spirit of Power and Truth Would Come Later

Luke 24:46 “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47.And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48. And ye are witnesses of these things. 49. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” “Tarry ” merely means “to sit or set down ” i.e. “wait” And they did -- until they had counted fifty days, beginning with the first day of the week (Sunday), following His resurrection on Sabbath (Saturday) at evening, during the days of Unleavened Bread. Want proof? Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas (Jonah) was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth ( the grave).” John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost (died, about 3 PM). 31. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,” (an annual Sabbath, the 1st Day of Unleavened Bread, following the Passover, not the weekly Sabbath!!!

Christ was slain on the Passover Day, which fell on a Wednesday, of the crucifixion year of 31 AD. You can ’t get three days and three nights in the tomb, from “good Friday” to “ Easter Sunday” morning, as traditional Christianityobserves it! This tradition is based on rank Paganism, if you care to check it out, by several sources. John 19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 42. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews preparation day; for the sepulcher was nigh at hand.”

This burial took place about 6-7 P.M., just before sunset, the same time of the day of His resurrection, three days and three nights later.

This Information Is More Important Than Most Believe

Why do I say this? Because if you don’t know when He arose from the dead, you can’t determine the correct day to begin your count, from the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, to the right day of Pentecost! And now, let’s continue in “The Greatest Miracle in Your Life.”

As I stated in the beginning of our subject matter, one of God’s annual Holy Days, Pentecost, is just a few days ahead of us. It, pictures the giving of the Holy Spirit of God to those who would willingly submit their will to God, by repenting of their sins, accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, be baptized (by immersion in water, as a type of burying the old person) and have hands laid upon them for the receiving of the free gift of the Holy Spirit. Do people really grasp what that means?

Without the addition of the Holy Spirit with our human spirit, we would be no different than Old Testament Israel. They failed utterly, when God called them out of Egypt. Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore ( as the Holy Spirit saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9. when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.10.wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.”

No, they didn’t have the right heart to be able to do what God desired of them: (Deuteronomy 5:29). But that was to change under the New Covenant! Hebrews 8:6 But now hath He (Christ) obtained a more excellent ministry , by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place been sought for the second. 8. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.”

Can you grasp the enormity of what you just read? We have the opportunity of having God’s Laws engraved in our hearts! And this is done through the Holy Spirit, that was given on the day of Pentecost! What a miracle God is performing on certain, called individuals, in our time. And of course there are prerequisites to having this performed on our hearts. Notice in: Acts 5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom (which) God hath given to them that obey Him.”

Another part of the miracle! Being granted repentance and forgiveness of all our sins! (But it requires obedience to His Holy Commandments!)

The Greatest Miracle of All

Perhaps the most awesome miracle of all, that began on the Day of Pentecost, is the one described in Romans, the eighth chapter. Read the following verses in the wonderful section of the Bible, written by the Apostle Paul, which describes life in the Spirit and the depth of God’s love. Romans 8:1--11, 12--18--23, 28--30, 35--39 Did you notice Verse 11? The most important Miracle of all, is that the Holy Spirit is the Agent, the POWER, the Means that God will use to GIVE US ETERNAL LIFE! We will become literal GODS! I John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

So you see why I equate the giving of God’s Holy Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost, as THE GREATEST MIRACLE IN YOUR LIFE. I believe it is the greatest Miracle that can occur to anyone. Some day, according to God’s Plan, it will be offered to all who have ever lived.

 
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