OCTOBER 7 "WILL A MIRACLE REALLY WORK?"
"IN spite of all this they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe." As we have learned (I hope) with our children, spoiling them and showering them with gifts does not lead them to love, respect and obey us. God himself has seen that giving people what they want and working miracles in their midst has not converted their hearts, one iota! Question to ask then is this, "if God spoiling and doing miracles doesn't change a sinner's heart, what does? Isn't that what we pray for, for God to do a miracle in a family member, whether it be a financial miracle or a miracle healing of a fatal disease. Then we and the family member, that we were praying for, witness for ourselves this prayer answered, the miracle happens, they are healed or receive a miraculous blessing and we think now they will "get saved" and serve God, but yet to our amazement, they do not!
What are you praying for, concerning your family, co-workers and friends? Are you praying that God would do a miracle in their lives; that they would know that He is real, that He really does exist, is this what they need? I know in my own experience the miracles came after I surrendered my life to Jesus, not before. I read today of an anti-religious poster an atheist put up at my friend's work place, it said "funny if you're an individual who believes in an invisible person you call him crazy, but if you can get many people to believe in that invisible person you call it "Religion". Pretty witty, I must say! Only problem is God is not invisible to the millions He has chosen to reveal himself too. If God is invisible, He's only invisible to those whom he chooses to make himself invisible to. I have seen God many times. I saw God when my wife's enormous cyst on her wrist, after prayer to the "invisible God" completely vanished away and all pain along with it went away. I saw God when my son's leg grew out a quarter of an inch and he saw and felt it too. I could go on and on about how many times I have seen "the invisible God" but unfortunately to many, I saw God after I made a decision to repent. Even Jesus said, "you sinful and adulterous generation, you want to see a miracle to beleive and the only miracle you're going to get is so as Jonah was in the belly of a whale, 3 days and 3 nights so will the Son of Man be ......" in other words, Jesus was saying the only miracle the unrepentant will get is Jesus Christ dieing on the cross (for them) and raising from the dead. Once the unbeliever can appropriate this to their life, then the confirming miracles will follow. The angel explains to the rich man in Sheol that even if someone was to rise from the dead and appear to them (unsaved family) they would not repent.
In our text we see that God has gone out of his way to cater to these people, but yet their hearts have not changed. It is not the miracles that convert, it is the miracles that keep us, after we convert. So what causes a man and/or woman to convert, that is a mystery. Why there are two thieves on a cross, both witness the same miracle of Jesus Christ, one repents, converts and the other man's heart only hardens more. Two people can witness the same miracle, yet one converts and the other does not. If all it took was miracles to convert, the church of Jesus Christ would be exploding with growth. Conversion is an issue of the heart and why one heart repents at the sight of God's miracles and another heart does not, only God knows. We can say the difference is "one chose to believe and the other chose not to" but if this is the case than we can take credit for our salvation and the bible says we cannot take any. The bible says even the faith we had to believe was given to us by God. Thence, salvation is a mystery that remains with God, but we know one thing for sure, from our text, that God has tried in the past, to lavish humanity with miracles in hopes that they would turn from their sins, believe in him and serve him, but they have not. So if you're praying for God to reveal yourself to your unsaved family, friends and/or co-worker, through a big, great miracle, you may want to re-consider your prayer or you may be disappointed when the miracle comes and yet they do not convert.
What are you praying for, concerning your family, co-workers and friends? Are you praying that God would do a miracle in their lives; that they would know that He is real, that He really does exist, is this what they need? I know in my own experience the miracles came after I surrendered my life to Jesus, not before. I read today of an anti-religious poster an atheist put up at my friend's work place, it said "funny if you're an individual who believes in an invisible person you call him crazy, but if you can get many people to believe in that invisible person you call it "Religion". Pretty witty, I must say! Only problem is God is not invisible to the millions He has chosen to reveal himself too. If God is invisible, He's only invisible to those whom he chooses to make himself invisible to. I have seen God many times. I saw God when my wife's enormous cyst on her wrist, after prayer to the "invisible God" completely vanished away and all pain along with it went away. I saw God when my son's leg grew out a quarter of an inch and he saw and felt it too. I could go on and on about how many times I have seen "the invisible God" but unfortunately to many, I saw God after I made a decision to repent. Even Jesus said, "you sinful and adulterous generation, you want to see a miracle to beleive and the only miracle you're going to get is so as Jonah was in the belly of a whale, 3 days and 3 nights so will the Son of Man be ......" in other words, Jesus was saying the only miracle the unrepentant will get is Jesus Christ dieing on the cross (for them) and raising from the dead. Once the unbeliever can appropriate this to their life, then the confirming miracles will follow. The angel explains to the rich man in Sheol that even if someone was to rise from the dead and appear to them (unsaved family) they would not repent.
In our text we see that God has gone out of his way to cater to these people, but yet their hearts have not changed. It is not the miracles that convert, it is the miracles that keep us, after we convert. So what causes a man and/or woman to convert, that is a mystery. Why there are two thieves on a cross, both witness the same miracle of Jesus Christ, one repents, converts and the other man's heart only hardens more. Two people can witness the same miracle, yet one converts and the other does not. If all it took was miracles to convert, the church of Jesus Christ would be exploding with growth. Conversion is an issue of the heart and why one heart repents at the sight of God's miracles and another heart does not, only God knows. We can say the difference is "one chose to believe and the other chose not to" but if this is the case than we can take credit for our salvation and the bible says we cannot take any. The bible says even the faith we had to believe was given to us by God. Thence, salvation is a mystery that remains with God, but we know one thing for sure, from our text, that God has tried in the past, to lavish humanity with miracles in hopes that they would turn from their sins, believe in him and serve him, but they have not. So if you're praying for God to reveal yourself to your unsaved family, friends and/or co-worker, through a big, great miracle, you may want to re-consider your prayer or you may be disappointed when the miracle comes and yet they do not convert.
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