Van Diest - Miracles All Around Us

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

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Cover by Knail

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Published in association with the Van Diest Literary Agency, David Van Diest, Agent, PO Box 2385, Redmond, OR 97756.

For Prisoners, and Yet the authors name was changed for security reasons.

MIRACLES ALL AROUND US

Copyright 2016 by John Van Diest

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Van Diest, John.

Miracles all around us / John Van Diest.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-3803-7 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-4233-1 (eBook)

1. Miracles. I. Title.

BT97.3.V36 2016

231.73dc23

2015025424

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This book is dedicated to

John and Ann Booth : Friends whose monumental doctoral dissertation in seminary explained how and why God used the special revelation of miracles to accomplish His purposes. John lived a life of obedience to his Savior.

Paul and Pam Johnson : Friends whose life commitment and counsel God has used to encourage many in the faith, including me.

Rod and Deanne Morris : Editors par excellence, regularly taking the scribblings of authors and making written mosaicsthank you, Rod, for using your God-given skills reflected over scores of years on hundreds of books!

Adrian Rogers : Friend whose God-given gift of preaching drew thousands to pursue the miracle of Jesus.

Bruce H. Wilkinson : Friend whose pursuit and passion to experience miracles daily is refreshing and encouraging.

CONTENTS

T his is my second book on miracles, and Ive often found myself pondering the question, what is our fascination with miracles? I have concluded that in a world becoming increasingly more violent and uncertain, we want to believe in somethingor perhaps someonebigger and more powerful than ourselves.

If you believe in miraclesor want toconsider this poll published in Newsweek :

Most People Believe in Miracles

Percentage of Americans who believe in divine miracles: 84%

Percentage of Americans who believe in the reality of miracles described in the Bible: 79%

Percentage of those who have personal experiences with miracles: 48%

Percentage of those who know people who have: 63%

Percentage of those who have prayed for a miracle: 67%

Percentage of those who believe God or the saints cure and heal sick people who have been given no chance of survival by medical doctors: 77%

(Newsweek, May 1, 2000 )

So youre not alone in your desire to believe in miracles! Heres what some well-known Christians have to say about miracles:

Evidence from the Bible as well as personal experience convinces us that guardian angels surround us at times and protect us.

Billy Graham

We wonder, with so many miraculous testimonies around us, how we could escape God.

Max Lucado

Witnessing a miracle doesnt make it any more understandable. But I have witnessed one, and I know that miracles dont just change the course of events, they change hearts.

David Hanson Bourke

A true miracle is something beyond mans intellectual or scientific ability to accomplish.

Charles Ryrie

Someone once said, Coincidence is Gods way of performing a miracle anonymously and yet, ultimately, miracles are about God. Listen to what He says to Moses: How long will they not believe in me, despite all the miracles I have done among them? So a word of caution, lest we too easily dismiss them: Believing in miraclesand perhaps experiencing a miraclehas a lot to do with our hearts.

Speaking about miracles, C.S. Lewis said, Seeing depends upon where you stand. My prayer for you as you read Miracles All Around Us is that you will be able to truly see.

John Van Diest

I have been suspected of being what is called a Fundamentalist.

That is because I never regard any narrative as unhistorical simply on the ground that it includes the miraculous.

C.S. Lewis

S ome miracles seem to have short-range benefit; others seem to have long-range importance. The destiny miracles produce consequences that set the stage for major or larger purposes. This progressive unfolding of individual miracles in the Gospel of John leads toward a greater purpose than each of the individual miracles (John 20:31).

In such cases the degree of significance of a particular miracle may be in its contribution to the larger purpose. If Gods love for us is paramountand it isthen it is no surprise that significant events and miracles are designed to express that love.

Most likely the accounts of miracle stories in this section, while individually important, have a larger destiny purpose for us to discover.

W e want to decipher hidden codes and unlock great mysteries. We want to find buried treasure and know the inside scoop. Whisper the word secret and people pay attention.

Maybe thats part of the reason that a book called The Secret became such a national phenomenon, remaining on the New York Times s bestseller list for years and selling zillions of copies. Written from a New Age-y perspective, it explores unseen dimensions of the universe and how they connect with events in our lives. It describes how our attitudes can help determine outcomes.

As psychologist Dr. Henry Cloud has put it, the enormous success of The Secret is intriguing on two counts. First, it shows the deep longing of so many in the world; they yearn to understand the universe and its mysteries. Second, it reveals peoples hunger for principles and practices that make life work.

Like Dr. Cloud, Ive followed the huge response to The Secret . Im particularly intrigued by it because my pastoral ministry for the past 40 years has been centered on what I call the Four Spiritual Secrets.

Oh, great, you say. Here comes an evangelical pastor puffin his own ideas, trying to catch the coattails of someone elses successful book. Hes probably running around the country, preaching to happy-clappy crowds, trying to climb on the secret bandwagon.

Not really.