27 Stories

A curious thing happened the other day. Someone questioned me as to why there are 27 stories in God's Little Miracle Book and God's Little Miracle Book II.

I replied, "I couldn't think of any more at the moment and declared it 'done.'"

My inquirer is a Hebrew teacher and explained, "Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a number assigned to it. Letters also have words associate with it. The number twenty-seven is the number for 'kindness.' In Hebrew it's spelled 'checed' (which sounds like hesed in English).'"

I went to blueletterbible.com and looked up "kindness." It references, goodness, kindness, faithfulness.

I sat in awe. Each of the stories in this book demonstrates the kindness, goodness and faithfulness of God to us. It's so fun to write guided by the Holy Spirit!

After 48 hours on free download God's Little Miracle Book sits in #2 in sales on Best Sellers, Christian Meditations category. It downloaded for free 9,913 times.

2.God's Little Miracle Book (God's Little Miracle Books)Sally Jadlow5.0 out of 5 stars (9)Auto-delivered wirelessly $2.99

HEALING

In God’s word, the Bible, He promises us certain things. Many times it’s a two-way street. If we’ll do certain things (meet His requirements) then He promises to fulfill His end of the agreement. The problem often lies with us. We fail on our end and then accuse Him of not being faithful.

I was drawn to one such promise the other day. It reads, “And He said, ‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I, the Lord, am your healer’” (Exodus 15:26). We have to do four things in order for His promise to be fulfilled.

Deuteronomy, chapter 28, gives a very accurate list of blessings and curses. Each is qualified with that big, little word “IF.” If you would like to read it, click this link: http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Deu&c=28&v=1&t=NASB#1 Pretty comprehensive list, isn’t it?

I think it’s very helpful to look up the original Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) words when examining a scripture. It’s really easy to do. Go to http://www.blueletterbible.org/ Type a scripture, and click the little number beside any word you want to know about. An original meaning will pop up.

Here’s an example of the word study I did on Exodus 15:26. The words in parenthesis are the expanded meanings. I chose the New American Standard Bible, (NASB).

Exodus 15:26
And He said, “If you will give earnest heed (listen to, obey, perceive, hear with attention or interest, yield to, to sound aloud (musical term), make proclamation,) to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to (hear, listen, be obedient, harken) His
commandments, and keep (guard, observe, give heed, protect, save life, watch for, wait for, observe, retain, treasure up in memory,) all His statutes, (ordinances, prescribed action, decree, law, civil enactments prescribed by God) I will put (lay upon, set in place,) none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I, the Lord, am your healer (to heal, make healthful, physician of men, of hurts of nations, individual distresses, national defects or hurts).

I wonder what would happen if we would set about to DO what He says?

Forgiveness

I heard a quote recently that bears repeating. "To refuse to forgive someone is likedrinking poison and expecting the other person to die."Neglected forgiveness, whether intentional or unintentional, tends to eat us up while theother person is unaffected. When we forgive someone, we’re not discounting the wrong. We’re only releasing themfrom our judgment so that when we wrong another, we too, may receive forgiveness.If you’ve ever prayed the Lord’s prayer you’ve asked for that. (Forgive us ourdebts and we forgive our debtors.)Corrie tenBoom called that , “Keeping short accounts with God.”

God's Little Miracle Book: Fasting Prayer

God's Little Miracle Book: Fasting Prayer

Fasting Prayer

I grew up in the church but had only heard whatever snippit the pastor chose to preach on that Sunday. Besides, I didn’t speak King James so the Bible was always hard to understand.When I was about 30 I decided to buy a Living Bible and read it through, Genesis to Revelation, even if it killed me; and I was pretty sure it might. After all, if I called myself a Christian, I better know what the book said.It was a real revelation to me when I got to the part that said, “And when you fast . . . ” not if. Me? Fast? As a kid, I never thought much about fasting. My Catholic friends talked about it some, but it was never part of my practice. I figured that was something monks did. I decided I’d give it a whirl.At that time I’d wanted to play the autoharp. I borrowed one from my friend. When I played it, it sounded akin to cats on the back fence in a fight. A friend at prayer group said if you fasted you needed to have a stated purpose for the fast. Maybe I could make this my purpose. I’d ask God to help me learn to play the autoharp.The first day of the fast was terrible. My stomach growled. I though about food all the time. On the second day, my stomach gave up and decided no food was on the horizon. As I prayed and practiced the autoharp, I began to see certain cords like C, F, and G seemed to work together pretty well.I broke my fast at the end of the third day. By then, I had figured out some of the other patterns. I could actually play a simple chorus; not as quickly as it should go, but at least I picked it out.My family bought me an autoharp for Christmas and I continued to learn to play. To this day I’m no accomplished musician, but I can play simple choruses.Over the years I’ve fasted for different purposes. God never fails to teach me more each time I take time apart with Him.I still haven’t figured out how fasting prayer works. I just know it does.