Good Morning Friends,
I have concluded that miracles are important if for no other reason than they help us put in priority order God before all other things. The miracle of creation…the miracle of God having an active hand in the nation of Israel… our own wellbeing….and of course, the resurrection, and the very existence of God. Really, What More Evidence Do We Need To Believe?
Scripture: For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.
Deuteronomy 4:32-40 (NRSV)
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Matthew 16:24-28 (NRSV)
Message: The supernatural is real and is part of the revelation of God. And the beauty is that miracles prove that everything is completely under God’s control, even time itself, but especially love. And the thing is that these miracles are revealed for God’s purpose. Sure, laws exist related to what we know but God is not subject to them. Still God is moral. There are more miracles than we usually think. It is a miracle that the scriptures have been fulfilled. It is a miracle that we have been forgiven. It is a miracle that we can believe what we cannot see and sometimes what we can. Love is perhaps the greatest of miracles. It is a miracle when we willingly bear the suffering and burdens of others. Friends, we are to live a radical Christian life always on the edge extending our faith and love as Jesus did in facing death on the cross. And frankly, it is a miracle when we do, but also evidence that helps us to believe. Perhaps that is why we are to live lives that is not dull or boring or safe but always on the threshold of needing a miracle so that when it comes, the glory will be God’s but in a way that gives us hope. You see, when God is doing the driving, when we are moved by the Holy Spirit, we become wonderfully positioned to realize our full potential and to become the people God intended us to be when he said we were very good. Friends, we were created to believe in the miracles of God.
And So, from the very first verse in the Bible there is no effort to prove the existence of God and miracles. The Bible merely assumes that God’s existence is evident and asserts this as true. Part of the reason why we contend that God is real is that He has revealed Himself. Belief in God is not blind faith. Belief means having a firm conviction, not hoping it’s true or even imagining its true. Christianity is not a philosophical worldview based on our concept of what God is like. Rather, it is fact-based worldview based on God’s revelation of what God is like. And God is especially revealed not through religion but through Jesus Christ and our relationship with God incarnate in us. As we consider God’s revelation of Himself to us through His son, we learn about the miracle of God in three persons. We learn about the attributes of God. That God is sovereign and Holy and just. Loving, eternal and Omnipresent. That God is omnipotent, immutable and true. And all this is the greatest miracle of all…that such moral standard in threes would manifest themselves in Jesus and in acts of love that glorify God.
Pray we see the signs of God in the miracles of God. Pray we see the power of God validated in the presence of divine power in this world. Pray we experience the awesome evidence of the Kingdom of God ruling in our lives. Pray we have the faith and hope to believe. Pray our experience of God increases our faith and hope and love. Pray that God help us carry our crosses as we help carry the crosses of others. Pray we put God in the driver’s seat. Pray we follow Jesus and never complain when others perceive our conviction as tedious. Pray we identify our intentions. Pray we fulfill our intentions to God’s glory. Pray we endure the cross we bear because we truly love God and others. Pray we be a sign of hope for others.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 