Category Archives: Miracles

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June 5, 2023

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, God's Plan, Miracles, Trusting God

LUCK

We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall. [Proverbs 16:33 (NLT)]

blue-eyed daisyWhenever we play Yahtzee, my younger grands blow on the dice to ensure their good luck. Like Yahtzee, life often seems a game of chance where sometimes we’re lucky and sometimes we’re not. Luck, however, has nothing to do with it. For example, King Ahab seemed to have incredibly bad luck when a soldier randomly shot an arrow and accidently hit him right between the joints of his armor. In spite of appearances, however, that wasn’t because of Ahab’s bad luck. Before going into battle, God had pronounced the evil king’s doom through His prophet Micaiah.

It wasn’t luck that caused the sleepless King Xerxes to read about Mordecai saving his life just moments before the evil Haman wanted a death sentence pronounced on the Jew. It was God’s hand that caused the king’s insomnia and turned his attention to that specific event in Babylon’s history. It wasn’t just a lucky break that, out of all the fields in Bethlehem, the widowed Ruth ended up gleaning in the fields of Boaz (who just happened to be Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer). Our sovereign God was firmly in control then and it was He who directed those seemingly chance events.

On the other hand, rather than cause something to happen, God sometimes allows them to happen. He allowed Satan to plague Job, David to take a lustful look at Bathsheba, and He’s allowed me to make a number of bad decisions. While I would prefer attributing their consequences to bad luck, I can’t. They simply were the result of my foolishness, pride, pigheadedness, or disobedience.

As the creator of the universe, God also set a certain number of “laws” in place that keep our lives somewhat predictable. Principles like the laws of gravity, motion, and conservation of energy determine how things will operate in our world. We have twenty-four hours in a day, the sun sets in the west, water flows from a higher to a lower elevation, and if a equals b then b equals a. There even are laws of probability!

These “laws,” however, can be broken by their creator. For example, it wasn’t luck that kept Joshua from running out of sunlight while battling the Amorites; God prolonged the day at his request. Although time may have stopped for Joshua, God made it move backwards for Hezekiah and Isaiah when the sundial’s shadow moved back ten steps. Natural laws were suspended when a three-day plague of darkness descended on the Egyptians (but not the Israelites) and when the Red Sea parted for the Israelites but consumed the Egyptians. Surely turning water into wine broke some laws of chemistry and Jesus and Peter walking on water broke the laws of flotation. None of these, however, were the result of luck.

While we see the practice of casting lots in the Scripture, nothing really is known about the lots themselves. The Israelites cast lots when dividing land among the tribes and when determining positions and duties in the Temple. After Achan wrongly took prohibited plunder from Jericho, it was by casting lots that he was singled out as the guilty party. In Jonah’s story, the sailors cast lots to determine who brought God’s wrath upon their ship and the eleven disciples cast lots to determine who would replace Judas. In those cases, there is no doubt that God stepped in and determined the outcome.

As for my grands and the dice—if He so wanted, God easily could have them throw five of a kind every time but that wouldn’t be luck; it would be God’s will. Nevertheless, I doubt God is going to interfere in a friendly game of Yahtzee. I suspect He’ll allow the dice to fall where they may according to His laws of probability—in which case the end result still will be according to God’s will!

Even though much of life seems random, we live by God’s sovereignty and not by luck. There is no force of good luck that can be coaxed into finding us a parking place, turn lights green, or roll a yahtzee nor is there a force of bad luck that we can blame when those parking places are filled, the lights are red, and we can’t even roll a pair. Whether God is actively causing something to happen or passively allowing it, nothing is a matter of luck. As for the favors and blessings of life—let’s always give credit where credit is due—not to our good luck but to the grace of God.

Nothing whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God’s ordering and permission. There is no such thing as “chance,” “luck” or “accident” in the Christian’s journey through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God. And all things are “working together” for the believer’s good. [J.C. Ryle]

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. [Romans 8:28 (NLT)]

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. [Isaiah 46:10 (NLT)]

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April 17, 2023

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Knowing Him, Miracles

HIS PRESENCE

During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. [Acts 1:3 (NLT)]

COMMUNION CUPBy now, the visiting family has returned home; the jelly beans, Peeps, and chocolate eggs have been eaten; the Easter lily has wilted; the baskets and bunny décor are back in their boxes; and the hardboiled eggs are long gone. While Easter has been put away for another year, its message didn’t end with the resurrection.

The resurrection miracle continued for the next forty days during which Jesus was seen, not just by the disciples, but by hundreds of people. Able to appear in a locked room, the resurrected Jesus seemed less limited by time and space than when He was a man. Although Scripture tells us that He wore the scars of His crucifixion, He talked, walked, ate, drank, and could be touched just like anyone who hadn’t endured crucifixion, death, and burial. Can you imagine what it was like for those fortunate enough to spend time in the presence of the resurrected Jesus? No wonder their faith was so strong that they were willing to endure terrible persecution and horrific torture rather than deny their Lord.

While we can only imagine what it was like when people were in the presence of the risen Christ 2,000 years ago, we can come close to that experience when we share in the Lord’s Supper. Most Communion liturgies include Jesus’ words, “Do this in remembrance of me,” and, upon hearing those words, we recall that last supper in the upper room and Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. Nevertheless, I think we do the Eucharist a disservice when we think of it as little more than a rite to remember an event long past.

Although most Christians believe that Jesus is present in some way during the Eucharist, there is serious disagreement about how and in what form His presence takes; theologians have argued this point of contention for centuries and will continue to do so until the end of time. Nevertheless, while they disagree on things like transubstantiation and consubstantiation, they do agree that in some mysterious way the Lord is present when we eat the bread, drink the wine, and remember His death and resurrection. About this conundrum John Calvin wrote, “It is a mystery too sublime for me to be able to express, or even to comprehend; and to be still more explicit, I would rather experience it, than understand it.”  C.S. Lewis wisely added, “The command after all, was ‘Take and eat,’ not take and understand.”

One day, we will dine with Jesus in His kingdom but, until then, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we are as close to touching the body of the resurrected Jesus as we will be here on earth. When we eat that bread and drink that wine or juice, it’s almost like breaking bread with Jesus in Emmaus, being with the disciples in that locked room Easter morning, or having breakfast with Him beside the Sea of Galilee.

In actuality, the miracle of Jesus’ resurrected presence didn’t end when He ascended into heaven forty days after Easter. In some inexplicable way, He’s with us every time we celebrate the Eucharist.

We should come to the Lord’s table with the confident expectation of meeting Christ there, of receiving there a blessing. [Rev. Chas. A. Savage]

And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. [Matthew 28:20 (NLT)]

Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. [Revelation 3:20 (NLT)]

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April 6, 2023

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Bible Stories, God's Grace & Love, Holidays & Holy Days, Miracles

TWO IN ONE

Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now? [Matthew 26:52-54 (NLT)]

stations of the cross - loretto - santa feThere is a fancy term for how God the Son, Jesus, took on human form and yet remained God: hypostatic union. Sounding like why my socks cling to my t-shirts in the dryer, knowing the term doesn’t help us understand it. I’m not sure anyone can wholly comprehend how Jesus always existed and yet was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, and became man. When pondering Christ’s incarnation, I can’t help but think of an old ad for Certs Mints. Since they were both a breath mint and a candy mint, their commercials ended with the catch phrase: “Certs is two, two, two mints in one!”  Fully man and fully God at the same time, Jesus, like Certs, had two distinct natures in one.

When Jesus walked the earth, He was not a human who once had been God; He was God in a human body. When He put on skin and became a living breathing man, Jesus didn’t cease being God or lose His godly attributes. For the most part, however, He voluntarily limited himself to the restrictions of humanity. As God, He could be everywhere at once but, as a man, Jesus only could be one place at a time. God is eternal and transcends time but the man Jesus had both a beginning and an end and was confined to a twenty-four-hour day. Nevertheless, there were moments when Jesus exercised His omniscience, omnipotence, and authority. For example, He knew the scandalous history of the woman at the well, the thoughts of the Pharisees, and who would betray Him. He used His divine power and authority to cast out demons, walk on water, give sight to the blind, and forgive sins.

Jesus, however, never resorted to His godly attributes to make life easier for Himself. As God, He never experienced weariness, hunger, or thirst but, when living in a man’s body, He grew tired, hungry, and thirsty. When fasting in the wilderness, the man who fed thousands with a few fish easily could have turned stones into loaves of bread, but He deliberately chose not to do so. God doesn’t feel pain, bruise, bleed, or die but, as a man, Jesus chose to do just that. The man who could still storms, change water into wine, and cast demons into swine could have stopped the flogging, mockery, and beating he endured that dark Friday. The man who cured lepers, healed a bleeding woman, and raised the dead certainly had the power to endure crucifixion without agony or to survive it unscathed. But, He didn’t!

After tempting Jesus in the wilderness, Luke tells us Satan left Him “until the next opportunity came.” Without a doubt, an opportunity came at Golgotha when the enemy made a last-ditch effort to stop God’s plan of redemption. He may have tempted Jesus with words like these: “Smite them; they dared to spit on you!” or “They’re beating you cruelly—show no mercy, strike the mortals down!” As Jesus suffered on that cross, Satan may have whispered, “You’re God, you don’t have to suffer like this. Break free and step down!” Being divine, Jesus easily could have come down from the cross unmarked by His ordeal. Instead, our all-powerful God deliberately chose to limit Himself to the indignities, pain, and weaknesses of a mortal human body. Submitting Himself to God the Father, He chose to endure torture, suffer, and die a miserable death as a man. Why? Because He loved us.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. [Philippians 2:6-8 (NLT)]

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. [John 3:16 (NLT)]

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December 5, 2022

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Bible Stories, Miracles, Salvation: A New You

MIRACLE AT CANA – Part 1

It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. [Galatians 6:15-16 (NLT)]

monarch butterfly
It was while Jesus was a guest at a wedding in Cana that He quietly performed his first miracle and turned water into wine. Wine making, however, seems an odd choice for the Lord’s first recorded miracle. Later in His ministry, He healed lepers, gave sight to the blind, walked on water, fed thousands, calmed storms, and raised the dead. Simply turning water into wine with only a few people even knowing what He did pales in comparison with those other impressive and public miracles. Granted, His act of compassion saved the wedding’s host from humiliation and embarrassment, but Jesus was the Son of God and tasked with the greatest mission in the world. Nevertheless, there He was, at a wedding reception, playing the role of caterer and quietly telling the servants what to do as He turned jugs of wash water into vintage wine.

John tells us that this miracle in Cana was the first time Jesus “revealed his glory” and that His power over creation confirmed the disciples’ belief that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus, however, didn’t have to be at a wedding to demonstrate His divine power for the disciples; that could have been done anywhere. Jesus never did anything by happenstance and, with only 37 miracles recorded during His ministry, there must have been a specific reason for this miracle and for its inclusion in the gospel. But, since its purpose never is stated, what are we to make of it?

The miracle at Cana, however, differs from the other ones in which Jesus healed, restored, enlarged, provided, controlled nature, resurrected the dead, and made nothing into something (when a coin appeared in the mouth of a fish). Cana’s miracle was one of transformation; Jesus converted one substance (water) into an entirely different one (wine). Throughout His ministry, the One who transformed water into wine transformed the lives of all who came to believe in Him when He converted sinners into saints! He continues that transformation in the lives of His believers today.

The servants brought Jesus jugs of wash water which were transformed into vintage wine. Just imagine what He can do with us when we bring Him our lives!

The same Jesus Who turned water into wine can transform your home, your life, your family, and your future. He is still in the miracle-working business, and His business is the business of transformation. [Adrian Rogers]

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)]

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September 5, 2022

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, God's Grace & Love, Miracles, Thanks & Praise

ONE OUT OF TEN

ducks
Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine?” [Luke 17:17 (NLT)]

In the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew word tsara’ath and its Greek equivalent of aphe lepras are translated as leprosy. In Biblical times, however, leprosy had a much broader meaning than the condition we now call Hansen’s disease. It included any skin condition that spread over the body. Along with Hansen’s, it could have been anything from psoriasis and dermatitis to impetigo, scabies, or alopecia and, unlike other ailments, it was believed to have been caused by sin. Anyone considered a leper was shunned as an outcast and required to live in camps outside the city. Lepers had to tear their clothing, leave their hair uncombed, cover their mouths, and warn people of their presence by shouting out “Unclean! Unclean!”

On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing between Galilee and Samaria when, rather than shouting, “Unclean!” ten lepers called out, “Master, have mercy on us!” In response to the lepers’ pleas, Jesus simply told them to go and show themselves to the priests. While this seems odd to us in the 21st century, it made perfect sense to the lepers. It was the priests who inspected afflictions and decided whether someone was diseased or healed and could return to society. Being told to see the priests meant they were cured of their affliction. The healing, however, only began when the lepers showed enough faith in Jesus to depart and head into town.

All ten obeyed Jesus by starting out for the priests and they were blessed for their obedience by  healing. Unlike blocked arteries or diabetes, skin conditions like leprosy are recognizable so these men didn’t need to see the priest to know they’d been healed. Imagine their conversation as they walked down the road. After glancing at a fellow leper, one might have exclaimed, “Hey, Uri, wasn’t there a big abscess on your leg? I don’t see it now.” Perhaps Uri responded, “You’re right! And I can feel my toes again and my nose is no longer bleeding. Look at your arm, Asa, what happened to those scabs? Jacob, your eyes are clear and you no longer limp!” Although they needed a priest to officially declare them clean, their clear skin and strong limbs told them they’d been miraculously healed.

Nevertheless, before they could return to their community, they needed a priest to declare them clean and the process, described in Leviticus 13 and 14, would take over a week’s time. After the priests examined the men outside of town, an elaborate ritual involving two birds, a cedar rod, scarlet string, hyssop, a sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood would be performed. Still not officially clean, the men needed to wash their clothes, bathe, shave, and stay away from their homes for seven more days. It was not until the eighth day, when they made five different offerings and were anointed with oil on the right earlobe, thumb, and big toe that the lepers would be declared clean!

The lepers had several days of rituals ahead of them before returning to society but Jesus and the disciples were just passing through the area. Jesus wouldn’t be around in eight days to receive their thanks. Instead of rushing to the priests, the healed lepers should have turned around and rushed back to thank their healer. It was only one leper, a Samaritan, who thought to return to Jesus and thank the rabbi from Nazareth who showed mercy on him. Anxious to enjoy their return to health and community, the other nine thought first of themselves and kept going.

I don’t know to what the nine attributed their miraculous recovery but the tenth rightly attributed it to God. Shouting “Praise God!” he threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him. Nine congratulated themselves on their clear skin but one gave all the glory to God. The Samaritan didn’t need a priest to declare him clean—Jesus did that when he said, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” Moreover, it wasn’t just his leprous body that was restored to health—so was his very soul!

When our lives are blessed, do we thank God or do we just move on with our lives? Are we in such a rush to enjoy our blessings that we fail to thank the Giver of All Gifts? My mother never let me play with any of my birthday or Christmas gifts until I’d written a thank you note to the giver. What if God did the same thing?

What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? [attributed to Max Lucado]

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. [1 Chronicles 16:8-10 (NLT)]

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August 4, 2022

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Bible Stories, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Miracles, Nature, Wisdom & Guidance

WHICH CAME FIRST?

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. … Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. [Genesis 1:3. 2:7 (NLT)]

hen and eggs

Years ago, The Jerusalem Post published a joke about human arrogance. After considering all of humanity’s scientific progress, a group of scientists decided that God no longer was necessary. The chief scientist explained to God that man’s ability to clone people, manipulate atoms, build molecules, fly through space, create body parts with 3-D printers, and perform other miraculous feats meant God was unneeded and could be replaced by man. After patiently listening to the scientist, God suggested a human-making contest with only one rule: “We have to do it just like I did in the Bible.” Saying that was easy, the arrogant scientist bent over to pick up a handful of dust. “Put that down!” said God, while adding, “To do it my way, you have to make your own dust!”

Our vacation home in Idaho came complete with chickens and hen house. Every morning, the littlest grands would trek out to the hen house, check for eggs, and return with the makings of an omelet. I was relieved they never asked the age-old unanswerable question of “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” We need a chicken (actually two) to have a fertilized egg but we need a fertilized egg to make a chicken. This seemingly futile question has been discussed for thousands of years. The Greek philosopher Aristotle considered it but evaded the answer by saying that both egg and chicken went infinitely backwards and always existed. The oldest fossilized eggs are 190 million years old and the oldest fossilized birds are only 150 million years old so paleontologists might say the egg came first. A strict reading of Genesis, however, would lead us to conclude that the chicken came first because animals appeared on the 5th day of creation. It’s a silly question but people ask it because they want to understand how something can come from nothing.

When making the children’s omelets, we still needed the raw ingredients. Along with the eggs that came from chickens (that came from eggs), we needed butter and cheese from cows, salt from the sea, pepper from the drupe of a pepper plant (Piper nigrum}, and green peppers and onions that came from seeds sown by a farmer, as well as a frying pan, whisk, spatula, and gas stove. Although my seamstress friend creates stunning clothing, she needs the silk from the silkworm (that came from an egg) or the cotton from the cotton bush (that came from a seed) to do so. My wood-working friend creates beautiful furniture but he can’t do it without the wood that comes from an oak tree that comes from an acorn that originally came from the oak! This begs the question, “Which came first, the oak or the acorn?” As the arrogant scientist learned, mankind can’t create something from nothing!

God, however, created everything from nothing. He had no eggs for the chickens, acorns for the oaks, seeds for the apple trees, or pollen for the flowers. He had no hydrogen or oxygen for water and no sodium or chloride to add to the water for the sea! Simply put, God spoke all creation into existence. That’s a rather unsatisfactory answer for those who want a technical explanation but the Bible is a book of theology that tells us the who and not a book of science that tells us how. We’re not about to get any more details as to how chaos turned to order, a void came to be filled, and nothing became something. Whether it was the chicken or its egg that came first will always be a conundrum.

The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command. [Psalm 33:6-9 (NLT)]

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