The Miracle of Bible Teaching

I thank God for little miracles and precious events He brings into my life. You know, like the child that finally warms up to you and you know you have a friend for life. Or the day you see that guy walk into class who you have been praying for over the course of several years. One of my favorite miracles is when that lesson you prepared makes a life-changing connection to someone’s heart. It’s funny, you pray as usual, you prepare the same way you always do, but somehow on that day, at that moment, the message touches a life.

The miracle is a miracle of God’s doing. It isn’t you, it isn’t me, it isn’t the lighting in the room or the seating arrangement! God makes it happen! In fact it always amazes me that the lesson or message that I think is a total flop is the one He chooses to bless. I’m convinced that He does it just to show me that it is all Him! I cannot or would not take any credit for it. Somehow, through His divine touch, He takes my pitiful offering and uses it to convict a heart or transform a mind or melt away years of bitterness right before my eyes. It is absolutely amazing!

It’s a miracle of faithfulness. I’m convinced that God is using that preparation and desire in our hearts to learn and grow. He sees our faithful praying and our diligent study. He is aware of the phone calls and letters and emails we send out. There are weeks that it seems that all the work we put into a lesson is futile, but God sees our faithfulness and He is pleased to one day bless it with His supernatural touch and a life is transformed for eternity. Our faithfulness to Him is never wasted. We will one day reap of the faithful sowing of spiritual seed by His power and grace.

The miracle is a miracle of the Word. The Book we handle, the Book we pray over and weep over and study over, is God’s Book. It has power to crush hardened hearts like a sledge hammer crushes a rock. His Word has supremacy to comfort and guide and encourage like nothing else does. No book of mere mortals can make such a change. It has the muscle to wrestle with a man’s heart and come forth with the victory. What a joy and privilege we have of wielding the Sword of the Spirit and seeing it bring a person to that point of spiritual breakthrough.

I remember reading about two hardened criminals who were in prison. One day the inmates were given Gideon New Testaments. The man in one cell was mocking the little Gospel presentation he found near the front flyleaf of the Bible. He began to read the verses that told of God’s love. He sneered as he read about man’s sin and need for forgiveness. He laughed when he read of our need to repent and place our faith in Jesus Christ. He was about to throw the little Testament into the trash, when the man in the next cell asked, “What does it say you do next?” The scoffer’s reply was, “Why? You don’t believe that stuff do you?” “Just tell me,” was the reply, “what does it say?” Reluctantly the scorner read, “It says, ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ and then it says to pray a prayer to invite Christ in your life.” Even though the reader had no love for God or His Word, he was dumbfounded to see the man in the next cell praying to Jesus Christ, surrendering his life to the only one who can save from sin. In spite of the reluctance of the witness it happened again—the glorious miracle of Bible teaching!