Miracles Reimagined

Miracles reimagined

What is a miracle?

― Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

“We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.”

“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”
— St. Augustine

The whole purpose of miracles is to point us to God through His goodness to His purposes and plans.

Faith and Science: A Complementary View

“The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”
— Albert Einstein (widely attributed)

Documented studies by organizations like the Templeton Foundation and reports from medically inexplicable healings suggest that even within scientific rigor, there’s space for the miraculous. (https://www.templeton.org/news/what-can-science-say-about-the-study-of-prayer)

Dr. Candy Gunther Brown writes:“Science can’t prove or disprove miracles. But it can document changes that defy explanation—and there are many.”

John 11: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,

• When we pray, we can’t always see the big picture; but God sees the beginning and the end of the situation before it happens.
  + Click to add your own note
• How do we fix a disappointed heart?
  + Click to add your own note
• Put our trust in God and believe that he is at work no matter what.
  + Click to add your own note

Sometimes, we want to tell the Lord how to answer our prayers

Isaiah 40:13 Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to be his teacher or counselor? NLT

Philippians 4:6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. NLT

11 … “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

• There is no such a thing as pointless or purposeless pain. God is allowing these things to happen, and they have divine purpose.
  + Click to add your own note

Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• Delay does not mean denial—it may mean development.
  + Click to add your own note

“God’s delays are not God’s denials. They are His perfect timing at work.”
— Corrie ten Boom

Jesus still does miracles

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

• Speak honestly with God.

The Pain of Waiting

“He who counts the stars and calls them by name is in no danger of forgetting His own children.”
— Charles Spurgeon

22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus still performs miracles.  The biggest and most important is eternal life. This statement that Jesus makes goes well beyond a earthly miracle.  It is His declaration of His power over death.  Are you afraid to die?  As christ followers we realize that we do not have to fear death. Because death is simple the door to real life, without pain suffering sorrow.  Death does not end it for us, it begins it.

God invites you to have hope again.

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

GOD PURPOSE AND PLANS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR IMMEDIATE WANTS AND NEEDS.

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

Your story is not over until God says it’s over.  If your not dead, God is not done.

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

• God wants to bring life to the dead areas of our lives.

Do you have unresolved faith issue because of a past miracle you were hoping for?

Your story isn’t over.

 

Romans 4:17 “God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”

John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”Jesus,

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday , today, and forever.”

God still does miracles. He hasn’t forgotten you. He’s calling your name today.