Lee Strobel Investigates Miracles, an interview by Greg Laurie - II

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by harvest partners, helping people everywhere know God check out virtue our website for Christian women go to harvest.org/virtue you know the Bible so you have no because you may be, in some cases that we've not seen that miracle we seem to simply build more today. Pastor Greg Laurie speaks with best-selling author Lee Strobel about their happening or not you really expect crisis with the miraculous. Well, you don't expect to be surprised. Open eyes are for you to see how see you around were on guard for the deal but seems too good to be true. The phone. Maybe a telemarketer spam email will moderately Strobel same skepticism about miracle decided to investigate today on a new beginning.

Pastor Greg Laurie discusses what he found it at the end of the program or something you may have never heard in your life you find a mirror what is a miracle you know there's a lot of definitions and people throw around that term you will say miracle I got a parking place you in the I think the best definition comes from Richard Portillo.

He was philosopher and he defined it this way, said a miracle is an event brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature for the purpose of showing that God is active in history in and in my book I interview a physicist who does work in the big supercollider in Switzerland. He's a well-known is a PhD from UCLA. He is a professor of physics at a major American secular University and I interview my two chapters of my book where he lays out the scientific evidence for Genesis 11 being true that God did create the heavens and the earth in the beginning and the scientific evidence that we found over the last 50 years supports that in the evidence points toward a God who is powerful, who is personal, who is creative, who is caring who is meticulous and and smart and Occam's razor tells us it would be just one creator and so we have scientific evidence for the beginning of the universe. It points toward a creator who matches the description of the God of the Bible. Well, if that's true, if God is created the universe. Then of course he can heal someone of course you can intervene not overturn but intervene in the laws of nature to make his will accomplished you know that you've mentioned that when it came to miracles. You're a bit of a skeptic as you press the subject, but your report so many stories documented stories of full on miracles in your book. So how skeptical are you now I know is really transform my personal faith in many ways, you know, I believed I had a strong faith ever since I spent two years investigating the miracles of creation and the miracle of the resurrection, both of which are what help bring me to faith in Christ. But the fact that we live in a world where God is still active, where he still doing amazing things has really caused me to step back and even more wonder at the power and the presence and the glory of God. Minutes will. Miracles do they point us toward God. They point us toward his love.

They point us toward his power. Even skeptical people who say all yeah but what if there's another explanation, you know there been some recent scientific studies that have pointed toward the reality of miracles. You know we we have examples for instance of a lot of Miracles Take Pl. in Third World countries where the gospel is just beginning to break-in and got often uses miracles in those settings to point people toward him and so there was a outbreak of the miraculous in Mozambique and there's a woman with a PhD from Harvard just scientist and a and a and a theologian of the name of God. Dr. Candy Gunther Brown. She's a professor at a major secular University.

She wanted to test this is something really going on.

Can we find out scientifically so she sent a team of researchers to Mozambique. They went in the remote areas in villages in Mozambique and they said bring us all your deaf and blind and people with profound hearing and vision loss. They brought these people forth. So this team of researchers tested them scientifically what is their level of hearing what is their level of vision they got all that established scientifically. Then they were immediately prayed for by Christians who can have a track record of God using them in this way and they laid hands on them and pray for their healing in the name of Jesus Christ and then immediately after that the scientists measured them again. They tested them again. And guess what, they found virtually everyone who was prayed for had an improvement in their health situation. Some so dramatically, like for instance a woman named Martin when they encountered her, she could not hear the equivalent of a jackhammer next door and yet after prayer in the name of Jesus Christ and hands being laid on her and being anointed and oil. She could hear a normal conversation. Now they were so stunned by this.

They went to see if they could replicate this to Brazil. They went to Brazil and they did it again and they got the same results. Now here's the important thing this study has been published in a scientific peer-reviewed secular medical journal. This is a valid scientific study and what is it Seles. It tells us something is going on. I interview Dr. Brown I said what does this tell you and she said it tells you something is going on. She said this isn't for this is trickery. This isn't an allusion that she said something is going on.

Well, that's her reserve nature is a PhD, truth is what is going on. God is showing up and doing something remarkable and you know there been some estimates that 90% of the growth of the church of Jesus Christ in China is attributed to people who themselves have been healed miraculously or they know someone who's had a miraculous healing and so often we see it in these remote areas and people say all you will that's in Mozambique that's in China. Where's the evidence will now we have the scientific evidence. You know the Bible says you have not because you ask not.

In the may be, in some cases that we've not seen that miracle we've not seen that divine intervention, because we've simply failed to ask the Lord and you know we read in Scripture that Jesus did no miracles in his hometown because of unbelief. I'm not saying that all miracles are happening as a result of our direct faith because our faith is weak at times and not as strong is about to be, but there is a place for our faith in you know, I wonder sometimes in some of these Third World countries leave these folks just have a simple childlike faith. They read the Bible.

They believe that the Bible says and they pray that God will intervene in here in the West we might be more skeptical of people he doesn't do that anymore. There could be an element of just simple childlike straightforward faith whether asking the Lord, believing that God can do it I think. Or something to that him and I think if we open our eyes to what God is doing around us, we begin to see things and evidence of his activity that may be we been oblivious to in the past. Maybe we been to safe in our faith.

Maybe we we go to church and we pray and so forth.

But we don't really expect God to surprise us with the miraculous. Well if you don't expect to be surprisingly not open to it.

If your eyes are looking for.

I can see it but if you do, I mean the number of cases in my book there been hundreds of cases documented by Dr. Craig Keener at Asbury seminary who's written a huge two volume I think it's an 800,000 word treatment on the topic of miracles, where he documents miracles from all around the world.

How can we missing these things.

I think maybe our faith is. You know, waning order or week and were just not expecting that the God of the universe is to show up in a remarkable way to Greg Laurie will have the second half of today's discussion, New York Times best-selling author Lee Strobel in just a moment. It's a privilege to bring these studies from Pastor Greg your way and it's encouraging to know that the program is reaching all parts of the world, including to this soldier in the Middle East yesterday. I'm not sure he'll get this email that I was walking through our morale, wellness and recreation center this morning and saw one of your messages on TV.

I saved a vacation Bible school in your church when I was five years old. My parents also dedicated me to God as a child at your church as well. Your book lost boy helped bring me back to a dark place in my life during college. Today I read that I recommitted my life to Jesus and have been following him ever since.

Thank you for continuing to serve in God's Army thought he would like to know God is using your ministry. Well, we sin, these daily studies for pastor grading the radio, satellite, or the Internet. Would you like to share how this ministry is made an impact on your life.

If so, just from Pastor Greg an email. It's great@harvest.org again, that's great@harvest.org where we continue now with our discussion of miracles. The most requested presentation by our listeners.

This past year. Pastor Greg, I remember hearing the story from you of you praying with your dad, Oscar Lori to accept Christ, and then a miracle happened shortly thereafter tells that story.

Yes, well, a David Lee Strobel, who is with us in studio right now my mom was married and divorced seven times and one of the guys she married was name Oscar Lori.

He was an attorney that lived on the East Coast.

He was different than most of the guys my mom married. She seemed to be attracted to sort of a guy who would hang out in the barn have too few, many buttons undone in his shirt. 10 hard drinker smoker and Oscar Lori didn't drink even smoky. He was a moral man and upright man underwent my mom's on him, frankly, joking there but anyway so you know he adopted me and I loved him as a father and then my mom left him and I didn't see them for the rest of my childhood when I was in my early 20s I was a Christian at this point I was pastoring the church I was speaking on the East Coast and I wonder does my father still alive and maybe you could contact them. Now this is the days before the Internet so I could just Google his name so I had a young lady in our church at work for the Bar Association that she found him quickly and I made contact with them and I and I went to see him after I spoken as it turns out, my father was in the 70s it had a heart attack and it blacked out behind the steering wheel and almost died. And so he was taking medication, and so forth and so I spent the weekend with them and I shared the gospel with them. He's a bit like you were leave very intelligent very well read very skeptical and and as I shared my story and told him the gospel story. He listened but but didn't really react in the next morning we were out walking because he had to walk to get exercise, or as Hardy said Greg I listened what you said last night, I said brightly is that I want to become a Christian.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I said what he said I want to accept Jesus Christ and the my life and so I went over it again, thinking maybe he didn't really understand what I said.

He says yes I want to do that right now.

I said well we need to pray that any drops to his knees were like on a walk in New Jersey he's on his knees. I got my knees and we prayed and then after we prayed for him to us. Jesus into his heart.

Lee he says to me. Pray for my heart. I believe God wants to heal my heart and think what this guys like two minutes old and faithfully wants to be healed now, so I prayed for his heart and eyes were tempering these as my doctors offices right over here. Let's go beat up I want to tell them Jesus is he'll be is it not that we don't know the real issue is no, let's go see and so we go over to its doctor's office. It is doctors a nice Jewish gentleman.

My dad walks in and says.this is my son Greg from California.

He's a preacher I just as Jesus in the my card and he healed me as well and think and oy vey it with this guys into thinking so the doctor said no Oscar.

We need to run some tests on you and and look into this. We don't know that your healed once it turns out they ran the test and he was healed awesome in Austin. That is like the faith of a brand-new believer. That is what a great it's an amazing thing and he lived another 15 years and serve the Lord is in heaven now such a great story that just made up my heart you hear that, you know, I was witnessing to a man. In fact, he's a kind of someone I've been reaching out to recently.

He's Jewish. He's a attorney and also an engineer and is retired and he's in his mid-70s and is interesting how God did little miracle in his life recently is what happened was his house flooded. We live in Houston and his house flooded during the hurricane and he was devastated and he and his wife were just so unhappy. What we could do were elderly in our house is Braxton. Nobody from the synagogue came to help them but people from a local church did home and and and her daughter and her daughters.

By the way, was named Grace, and so they serve this couple plate they made meals for them. They encouraged them.

They help to get their house back in order and this guy was so grateful that he started to go to church and that's where he heard me speak and we become friends and I'm continuing to reach out to him, but what happened was the, the woman who would reach out to him and there'd and the daughter sent him a card and just said you know is been so wonderful to get to know you, and they included a photograph and so he opens the thing and he sees this picture and he shows it to his wife and he says now why would they send me a picture of Jesus and his wife looks at it and says that that's not a picture Jesus that's a picture of grace and he looked at it again and sure enough it was a picture of grace the first time he looked at it, God caused him to see a picture Jesus had an MP. He had seen Jesus incense in the way the grace and her mom to serve them and so forth. But I just thought that's just a little cool little miracle to me that God just sort of winked at him and said yeah you know I sent her to minister to you this young woman named Grace and you see me in her because she is served you in my name and I'm looking forward to him coming to faith. He is right on the edge and continue to pray for him bully you mentioned in your book you quote a statistic.

In fact, you court a number of statistics from a survey that you commission with binary search. One of the statistics was that 38% of those in the United States have had some kind of miraculous experience. You say that something in on the order 94 million Americans are convinced that God is performed at least one miracle for them personally better.

I will that leaves 3/5 adults that haven't had such an experience you and among those maybe they've never even seen that kind of experience you. What can they learn from your new book, the case for miracles.

Well, I think when we see a couple of things. When we see number one.

Solid scientific documentation that Romans 11 is true that the evidence of modern cosmology and physics establishes a gene that that there is a supernatural creator behind our universe who matches the description of the God of the Bible.

And as the book also establishes God did the miracle of raising Jesus from the dead and thus proving that he is indeed the one and only son of God and and so those are miracles from history, things that happened in the past that we have good solid evidence for and we can believe are true and because of those miracles we can put our trust in Jesus Christ as our forgive her, and as our leader and then as we follow him and as we ask him to lead our ways to guide us to show us what he wants us to do with our lives and so I'm betting that if you are faithful to God and you are seeking his wisdom and guidance in your life.

He's going to show it in one way or the other. And that's why when you ask a Christian audience how many of you have had an experience in your life that you would say is a miracle. Almost every hand goes up and why. Well, that's because that's why the Christians probably because I see on the work of God in their lives and in the looking forward in the relying on him so when I try to do in this book is to document miracles to show that we have scientific evidence for them. We have documentation eyewitnesses. We have x-rays we have medical reports and so forth.

Many many many many cases that are I think any reasonable person will say must've been a miracle of God. You know it when you study law. When the things you learn about is what's called the reasonable man and what that means is when evidence is presented, the reasonable man will reach a conclusion as certain conclusion and I think reading this book, a reasonable person is going to say number one God does exist, he did create the world.

He did demonstrate to the resurrection of Jesus is the son and he is still active. He is still doing divine interventions into people's lives today so I can trust him. I can put my trust in my faith in him and I hope it encourages people to take that step of faith to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior to be in a relationship with God and to know that someday you know this God who did something so remarkable by creating the entire universe. You know, we see the Hubble space photos and we see this incredible University. He's created we can trust in this God in the next world is going to provide for us as his followers in ways that are just below our minds. Strobel Pastor Greg Laurie talking about miracles today here on a new beginning and don't turn away. Perhaps the most remarkable part of today's program is just ahead. We want you through all the research he's done on the subject in his book called the case for miracles. We have a limited supply of the books available here at a new beginning and you can find out how to get one by going to store.harvest.org. Just search for that title.

The case for miracles and if you'd like a permanent copy of Pastor Greg's discussion with Lee.

I hope you will contact us.

Many people did when this had previously it was the most requested presentation of the past year to get a copy on CD. Call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300 ask for the title Lee Strobel investigates miracles an interview by Greg Laurie or go online to harvest.org and were so excited about Pastor Greg's book on the life of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. It's a book that chronicles Johnny's spiritual journey. Following him through the ups and downs of his life uses the kind of book that we should give to a Christian who is struggling or is this also a message for somebody who's never even tried to walk with Christ before you did. I think it would connect with both people I'm I just think he's a thoroughly interesting character so colorful. There are so many interesting stories in this book, things you've never read about them before sulfuric Cash vendor gonna love it. But even if you're not a CAT scan think you will be at the end of the book especially be start listening to some of his music, but I think is you also learn more about his faith and how he used his platform for the gospel will have a greater appreciation for Johnny but Jill also learned some things about them. You probably didn't know some things and he did that he was ashamed of any faith. The consequences for so it is a very honest story but one that I think ultimately shows how God can redeem any live. So I think it would be an excellent book to give to any believer who is struggling or some Christian who finds himself in a backslidden state but at the same time. It would also be an excellent book to put into the hands of a nonbeliever because of connect with cash though. Find things in his life that that remind them of themselves. No doubt about that and I think it will connect to young and old alike. You know the interesting thing about Johnny is he's transcended time. Why do certain people transcend time. I don't know why but there are certain musicians entrance and time certain actors that do the same. Certain figures from history just sort of become timeless and Johnny is certainly one of those people you have written this new book Johnny Cash redemption of an American icon at the second in a series of three books that I've been doing and this is a man who had his life transformed by Jesus Christ and this is a brand-new book. It's a spiritual biography of a man who really was a living legend and now is larger in death. Even then he was in life, a true American icon is a story to tell. We want to offer you this book Johnny Cash, the redemption of an American icon. Yes, the kind of book you won't be able to put down as you read, you may see yourself in the story. Or maybe you'll see a friend or relative. It's a human story of success and failure of faith and forgiveness and you owe it to yourself to read this biography. Let us send you your copy of Johnny Cash, the redemption of an American icon call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org will Lee you've investigated so many miracles in writing your book as we close share one that really got your attention. Well, there is a preacher, a Baptist preacher by the name of Duane Miller, I joined was pastor of the first Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, and he loved to preach the word of God.

He loved to worship God. He had a beautiful singing voice. He wakes up one day. His voice is gone at just gone. He goes the doctor they say your voice is been vocal corpsmen paralyzed by a virus and there is no hope of ever returning to a normal voice is what it was. He said it was like I had a hand on my throat is clenching my throat and he went to 63 doctors over three years, including us delivery set. Yeah, a Swiss symposium of voice experts who examined him and the prognosis was it's never going to come back. I'm sorry. So he lost his position at the church as he could and preachy. He was so destitute financially going through a just a terrible time. Well, he one day gets a phone call from her first Baptist Church of Houston is former Sunday school class where he used to preach years earlier and they said would you comment just preach, force, and he said well it's really annoying to listen to me and they said well yet we know it's hard to hear you but do we love you and just do it once for us and so he goes to the Sunday school class and Duane gets up and he begins to preach and he's preaching from Psalm 103 which talks about God healing our diseases and so Duane is he's preaching sorry for us and and and and in the verse. It talks about God healing our diseases and he said I I'm preaching it, but I'm thinking in my mind, but why not me Lord, why have you not heal me, and then he gets to the verse that talks about the Lord redeems your life from the pit and he said you know all of us. If you know it one time or another pit experience, and when he said the word. He said it was like that. The hand came off his throat and in his voice began to return and people are stunned their shock. They can't believe this because I know him in and they've known all that is going through in an NSC continues to talk you hear his voice come back. Now here's the thing this was tape-recorded so we have the actual tape of him at that moment when God healed his voice so if you'd like I can play it for you.

Please, I really think you be an encouragement to people all outstanding.

So when the psalmist writes any heels all my diseases they say to you that I believe God still heals is not over so psalmist says I'm excited the Lord, O my soul's benefits. Is he heals all of my diseases in verse four he says any redeems my life from the pit and highlight that verse just a whole lot.

I have had and you have had in times past experiences with both, we've all had times when our life seemed to be in a grave and we didn't have an answer for the pit we find our selves in don't understand this right now. I found at the moment I'm not quite sure what to say or do I sound funny to say you lost for words thank you Lord.

Next time pastor Greg bring some good encouragement for those who need it most presents a message called hope for hurting heart.

Next time you're beginning Greg Laurie was made possible by harvest partners, helping people everywhere know God sign up for pastor great free daily email, devotions@harvest.org