From: christlife+noreply@googlegroups.com
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:04:21 +0000
Subject: [ChristLife] Digest for christlife@googlegroups.com - 1
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Today's Topic Summary
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Group: christlife@googlegroups.com
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/christlife/topics
- Planning on miracles [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/christlife/t/231f3333f4abdaff
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Topic: Planning on miracles
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/christlife/t/231f3333f4abdaff
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---------- 1 of 1 ----------
From: Jacob <jninan@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 03 06:05PM -0700
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/christlife/msg/d9cd3fe653c58d19
When God does a miracle we see that as an extraordinary act of
intervention on the natural processes that run our lives. If miracles
take place every day, they will no longer be considered as miracles
but as normal events. Anyone who knows the God of the Bible and
believes in Him knows that God can do miracles easily--raising a
stinking four day old corpse back to life is nothing for Him. But does
anyone expect all corpses to be raised up, all sicknesses to be healed
through prayer alone, all financial crises to be dissolved through
fasting and prayer, all marital problems to be sorted out by a
prophet's blessing, etc.?
The problem we have here is this. We believe in a God who can and does
miracles. Shall we wait and look for miracles--foregoing all kinds of
natural reasoning and planning--or we should plan ahead based on what
God has taught us?
We see two types of miracles in the Bible--those which God initiated
on His own, and those which He did in response to prayers. The first
kind of miracles are totally unexpected, and we won't know when they
will come. But based on what we know about God and His love,
compassion and power, we ask God many times to do miracles for us. He
obliges us sometimes, but unless He tells us specifically that He
would do something special for us, we cannot presume on that. This is
because God works with us in different ways to teach us new things and
according to our ability to learn. If we don't take this into
consideration, we might expect miracles to happen every time and not
realise that this time God may want us to learn new things. Sometimes
this can also be disastrous.
When the Egyptians came against Israel at the Red Sea, God wanted
Israel to stand by and watch the salvation of God (Ex.14:13,14). Can
we make this a rule for our lives for all time? This same God told
Israel the next time to fight with the enemies, with different
strategies each time. Since Moses and Joshua were in touch with God
they were able to hear what God wanted them to do each time. What
would have happened if every time they chose to 'believe' and just
stood by waiting for God's salvation!
We like it, don't we, if we have to just stand by and watch, without
having to get into any fight with the enemies? But we would never grow
that way. Our spiritual muscles are to be strengthened through
exercise (He.5:13,14). Every truth that God teaches us and every
experience that we go through, equips us to deal with life's
situations. Finally God wants us to stand strong in His grace so that
we can take action (2Ti.2:1). He doesn't want us to be like dumb
animals to be directed in every step, but He wants us to learn from
Him, 'think' based on that, and go forward (Ps.32:8,9). We use our
mind under the leading of the Spirit and expect God to do miracles (Ep.
3:20).
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