Could We Handle Massive Miracles?

The Bible is chalk full of miracles. What is a miracle anyway? The wise Noah Webster defined it like this:

1. Literally, a wonder or wonderful thing; but appropriately,
2. In theology, an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event. Miracles can be wrought only by Almighty power, as when Christ healed lepers, saying, "I will, be thou clean," or calmed the tempest, "Peace, be still." (taken from 1828-dictionary.com).

They happen all over the place and the Bible recorded tons of them. What is interesting is that most of the miracles in the Old Testament are massive, large scale ones mainly impacting groups of people. Examples included the deadly plagues in Egypt before the Exodus, fire raining down from Heaven and consuming sacrifices offered to God, an angel from heaven rescuing Israel by wiping out an entire army, the sun standing still for an entire day, and much more.

The ones recorded in the New Testament that Jesus and the disciples performed were much more subtle: individuals getting healed or resurrected, water getting turned to wine at a party, thousands of people getting fed because of a little boy's lunch, a bunch of people praising God in languages they didn't even learn, and much more.

I say subtle because they still did cause awe, but at the same time they caused a different kind of attention. Instead of massively and instantly causing an entire group to turn to repentance, the miracles of Jesus caused some very different reactions in some people. For example, in the New Testament there were people who believed, but there were also people who either doubted, got logical, got angry, or even got scared. When two thousand demon possessed pigs ran off a cliff, the people in that village politely asked Jesus to leave. The Pharisees also saw Jesus' miracles and just got more upset! One of the first remarks out of people's mouths when they heard the disciples speak other languages was: "These people had way too much wine!"

In our Western American society that loves science, we try to rationalize every miracle we see, attempting to put it in this box, hoping to solve it with some complex formula. Television specials on the plagues of Egypt, for example, tried to through science put together this extremely unlikely series of events to try to solve how these plagues happened.

I've seen YouTube videos of people getting out of wheelchairs and walking or crippled people dancing, and then I look down at the comments and they are chalk full of people saying things like, "This kid is faking it..." or even things like "It's a type of hypnosis the preacher is using...."

It makes me wonder how people would react to the large-scale miracles nowadays as well. For example, if an angel came down from Heaven and wiped out an entire terrorist training facility right before American soldiers invaded it, would they get down on their knees and repent to Jesus, or just stand in awe at the time and then later try to rationalize the whole situation saying, "The government was just trying a new weapon...I guess it worked!"

Is that why miracles are hard to find in our society nowadays? Have our "advances in technology and thought" really caused us to be dumber in regards to how we look at miracles?

So let me ask you, if you are someone who wants a miracle to happen in your own life....Would you believe it if you saw it? Or even more importantly....Would you give God the glory? Would it change how you looked at Him, related to Him, and served Him?

Because that's what God's goal is in His miracles....yes, it's for our blessing, but it's also for His glory. Usually, those two things are pretty synonymous. God wants to be glorified, not rationalized. God wants people to stand in awe of Him, not ignore Him more and just explain Him away with science.

I could be way off on this, but it's just something to think about....Any thoughts? Post them on here. Don't be shy!

God bless you!

Steve

"All to Jesus, I surrender...."

"All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now."

Deep words from a classic hymn. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas remembering the birth of our precious Savior Jesus Christ.

Something I love doing is beatboxing. It's just a lot of fun to be able to try and make the same sounds that you hear out of a turntable or a mixer in your mouth. One of the things I do from time to time to help inspire me in that area is I watch some amazingly talented beatboxers performing on YouTube. Some good ones I know of are Beardyman, Eklips, Rakim, Schlomo, and the beatboxing duo Humanism from Japan. These guys all have a wonderful talent. Look them up if you want.

But let me ask you this....does their talent matter? Does it seriously matter that these guys are some of the hottest beatboxers out there? Does it matter that day in and day out these guys practice their craft, molding it and shaping it; perfecting it? Does any of that stuff matter?

Our life on this planet is short. Like it or not, you're going to die soon. We're all going to die soon. It could be tomorrow or it could be in 60 years, but eventually we all are going to be dead, buried and gone. Our legacies won't last very long either. Probably at the very most a few hundred years if we leave that big of an impact.

Here's an excerpt from a man who was probably the richest person materialistically speaking on the planet. He had everything he wanted and more: big houses, hot women, lots of gold, popularity, and this guy was smart too. He had wisdom that could make any wise man's jaw drop. Probably the wisest guy who ever lived. This is what this guy wrote. You ready?
"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun." -Ecclesiastes 2:11

Meaningless? Really? This man was King Solomon. This man by the world's standards had everything and more and it meant absolutely nothing to him. It left him empty, cold and alone.

Michael Jackson recently passed away this past year. There were millions of people all over the world mourning and weeping over his death. There was a movie put out about him and everyone was saying how revolutionary this guy was to pop music and performance. Yes, I agree he was. He was one talented performer and had an energy to his performance that changed how people viewed pop culture.

But that brings me back to this question....Does it matter?

No, not really. Michael Jackson's legacy will vanish in a few decades at least.

This isn't a "how will people remember you" message at all, because honestly people won't remember you, or me, or anyone. People won't be "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" over these blog posts in the next few hundred years, I guarantee it.

Do you want to do something that matters? Surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Lay down your life before Him. Give Him everything and call Him Lord.

Why? What has Jesus Christ ever done for me? Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. What is Christmas?

"This is mind blowing, the God of the universe,
Knows every star in the sky to my human hurts.
Made the trees, made the breeze, made the seas,
Emcees like Jay and me.
But let me tell you what amazes me:
That He came as a man who was made to need."
-Lecrae in "Who Is He" by Json

Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ, a man who went on a rescue mission to save mankind. Man rejects God in every way, shape and form. You're a man? You reject God. You don't love Him. Your nature is to hate Him. It's in your blood. It's called sin. It will ultimately kill you if you hold onto it.

God could have rejected man. You know what He did instead? He sent His Son, Jesus Christ humbly as a servant into this world. He lived as a righteous man and blessed a lot of people during His life. He wasn't some big rich man like Solomon. He was actually poor by the world's standards. His first bed was a feeding trough that horses ate out of. His first house was a barn in a small town called Bethlehem. He lived His life humbly and simply as a carpenter by trade. At times, He was homeless and lived constantly on the move. And then one day, He died.

He wasn't a victim at all in His death because He willingly gave up His life going through the most brutal execution method ever invented: crucifixion. What was even worse though was that God the Father turned His back on His Son, the righteous man. Why? Because on that cross Jesus Christ became sin. He became every bad thing we have ever done.

Why did He do this? He did this for us! The God of the universe who is A LOT bigger than us and sees us as worthless specks, especially after we decided to reject Him, was and still is filled with love and compassion for us. This can only be explained by the fact that He chose to be that way. He chose to be with us and to rescue us, not because we're so great and valuable, but because we're not.

He rescued us. We're set free. That's what matters. We are set free when we make Jesus Christ Lord. Beatboxing doesn't matter, fame doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, drugs don't matter, Christmas presents don't matter, NONE OF THAT MATTERS!

Jesus Christ matters.

Give your life to Him. Please....Don't live your life thinking that "you're fine with the big guy" because you're a "good person" who does "good things". Maybe you do good things. But they don't matter if they're not for Jesus. Please, give your life to Him. He gave His life for you. That is your Christmas present. Now give Jesus Christ His.....you.

Merry Christmas,

Steve