All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!” (Luke 4:36, NIV)
From the season openers in Hawaii, through the majors and the matches, all the way into the Fall Series, you will see it again and again. On the LPGA Tour, the European Tour, in college tournaments and high school matches, they’re there. Even among the rankest amateurs, they happen.
What are they? Amazing shots. Incredible golf moments that give voice to our own golf stories.
And yet for every sports fan who cries in delight when such a stunning shot—or goal or touchdown or double play—occurs, we must ask ourselves, “Where is the man, where is the woman, where is the child equally amazed at the wonders of Jesus?”
Maybe it’s that Jesus’ best work is perceived to be behind him. That is, he walked the earth in history, so what has he to do with us now?
Well, let it be said: What God has done, he can do. And what he can do, he may do again. In fact, believers around the world testify daily to the miracles of his hand.
If you’re a Westerner, this may surprise you. Even as Christ’s followers, we tend to fall back on reason and material proof, forgetting that the God we worship spoke into existence the heavens that storm above us, and that his Son neatly calmed those storms with his own voice. Indeed, Jesus repeatedly wowed those who lived with him both with his words of instruction and his words of command, for both gave evidence to an authority they had never witnessed among those who commonly led them, learned as these rabbis and priests were.
Perhaps it is time we go back to the gospels with fresh eyes. I once read of a woman who made a habit of reading one gospel each Sunday—something that most of us could do in 60 to 90 minutes. Start with one, and read it this way: Look to be amazed with each marvelous Jesus moment.
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Jeff Hopper
October 12, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.