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Miracles
ZekeSr:
Miracle—According to Webster:
1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment.
How many of us, in the course of our lives, have experienced this “thing” we call a miracle and wondered if it really was one. I know I have. And I’ve been left with the question of whether or not it was definition number one or number two. Of course I’m not talking about something quite as dramatic as the parting of the Red Sea or the gushing of water from a rock in the desert, but in our own lives it may be just as significant.
Here are two of my experiences:
#1
About forty years ago, after living a rather raucous lifestyle, I started to become involved with the Worldwide Church of God, but not yet a member. I was tithing and even had a couple of representatives visit my wife and me in our home. I must add, at this point, all during my “conversion period” I was having a problem with a perpetually sore throat with no obvious physical cause. After I attended an evening bible study held in Bethlehem, PA (which is about an hour’s drive from where we live), we were invited to attend their Sabbath service held in the same location. I was nervous, and my wife was reluctant. A few miles from our destination, my wife broke out in hives all over her face, neck and arms. To make things worse, at about the same time, the car started slowing down, bucking a little and missing something awful. I wasn’t sure if it would make the distance before breaking down completely. As we approached the center where the service was held, I saw from the highway what I assume were two attendants closing the double doors to the auditorium entrance by the parking lot. Disheartened, I pulled into the lot and turned around to hopefully go home or perhaps find a service station. My wife’s hives almost immediately disappeared and the car started to run as well as it ever had. We drove home. It wasn’t too long after that episode when we ran into one of our old friends. That was the night we “officially” went back to living the way we had in the past. And my throat cleared up literally in a matter of minutes. I don’t really remember how long it was when the news broke about the scandals in the church, but I think it was quite a while.
#2
One day, we were driving down a local boulevard when a speeding pickup truck ran the stop sign of a cross street. There was no way it could miss T-boning the passenger side of our car. But it did “miss.” I cannot explain the split second in which our time seemed to change as this vehicle passed by in front of us. Believe me, it was on a dead certain collision path and did not loop around. The only way I can describe it is that it was as though we floated in time while, in the same fraction of a second, the truck moved in front of us and went roaring out of sight on the other side of the street. I wonder what Einstein would have to say about this experience and relative space-time.
I realize there are possible scientific and psychological explanations for every event. But I’ve never stopped wondering and waffle back and forth. How many coincidences constitute a miracle? My wife is absolute on the subject. A miracle is a miracle. Perhaps I question it because to believe is a difficult and fearful thing.
Mar 9:23 And Jesus said to him, If you are able to believe, all things are possible to the ones believing.
Mar 9:24 And immediately crying out, the father of the child said with tears, Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!
Mike
Dave in Tenn:
What a great post, Mike. :D
With apologies to Mr Webster, "2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment." is also "divine intervention in human affairs." And that's just not limited to miracles. There are no human affairs without Him.
Neither have I experienced anything quite so physically obvious as the the parting of the sea. And I also question hard accounts of modern-day miracles of that sort, partly because I've been bamboozled before.
The night I came to BT the first time is one of my "miracles". I was "looking for" just the opposite of what I found. Related to that, I forgot to bookmark the page and stumbled onto the browser "history" function--something I'd never used or knew how to use. Then there were many times I had a concern/question pop into my mind and the very first link I opened at "random" answered it.
Granted, those last two, at least, don't much compare to your driving experience. If that actually, physically happened like you've described it, that takes a little of the shine even off the parting of the sea. ;D
Most other (and there aren't a lot) of "extraordinary" occurrences in my life I probably can understand directly with "scientific" or "psychological" explanations. But that doesn't mean God is not at the center of them. Maybe that's how He has helped my "unbelief". I don't know.
indianabob:
Friends Dave and Mike,
I loved your stories.
Can't help it but during reading each of your messages what came to mind is God creating the Earth in one day.
Hard to understand and very difficult to believe... So? What good is it to be God if any feat is impossible?
After all what is the globe, the earth, the planet? Isn't it just a conglomeration of atoms with various differing mass that God created in the first place? What could be simpler for God once HE made the first atom? What's an atom? Isn't it just some form of electrical energy surrounding 99.999% space?
If God can make one atom with His mind...why not a whole bunch of them all at one time?
I know that this is gross speculation, but I can visualize it in my mind and so may you eventually; because we are being made in the image of God.
Are we not? ::) ;D
Ole Indiana bob
ZekeSr:
Dave,
Thank you for your kind words. I too have experienced some of the things you described. Perhaps it is the small miracles that are truly profound. The ones that lead us little by little. I must admit to having been hesitant when it came to writing of our experience with the accident that didn’t happen. I know it could easily be taken as a pile of lying B.S.
I hope this is not the case, as I tried to be as accurate as possible in my description. Even now I wonder if I should have shared it and still wonder…did this really occur and why us. But all I can say is… yes, it did occur as described.
Bob,
You’re right, Bob. We effectively consist of almost nothing rather than mostly something. It’s a proven scientific fact. And I’ve read and listened to the arguments of whether or not the earth and the entire known universe was formed in a matter of days or billions of years. That, of course, leads us to the issue of mindless evolution vs creation—religion vs science.
Now, try this as a thought to ponder: A photon of light formed in the core of a star can bounce around and take up to 100,000 years to work its way out to the surface before it escapes into space. Now, when you look up at night, that star’s photon of light may have taken millions of years to reach your eye and be absorbed. That time frame is from our human perspective. But light itself travels at the speed of light. The faster you approach the speed of light the more time slows down. In fact, at the speed of light time stands still. There’s Mr. Einstein again. Therefore, from the perspective of that photon, the instant it was formed is the same instant it was absorbed by your eye—in no time at all.
James 1:17 every act of good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no change or shadow of turning.
2Pe 3:8 But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is "as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
I’m not going to challenge anyone’s beliefs on the subject. But I do contend the “argument” may be a moot point.
Mike
Dave in Tenn:
Hi again, Mike. I'm not doubting your account of the missed accident. It's just like you said there strange things going in in our own perception of things--call that "psychological" or maybe just "brain-science"--so I'm definitely not calling you a liar. It happened, but I can no more explain to you WHAT happened than I can explain how Jesus walked on water. And Peter too. Was it the water? The bodies? Both? Neither?
I'd like to ride one of those photons sometime. The passage of time depends on relative position and movement, though, if I'm understanding it correctly.
Bob, nobody is saying it is impossible for God to create an earth in one 24-hour-day. That's not what the scripture says, and it would be more pointless for Him, in doing so, to have stacked the evidence so strongly against that. Personally, I prefer a God who is patient and long-suffering (that IS the fruit/works of the Spirit of God) over the other type. I think would marvel a billion times more over the former (if I was capable of such marvel) than over the latter.
Regardless, we'll know when we know and not a nano-second before that. Scripture is alive and will endure regardless of the true and factual information of ever-evolving science. They're not done yet, and neither is He. Babylon, on the other hand, will fall.
I'm one of those that, if forced to choose between "science and religion", would choose science. You don't want to make me stumble, do you? :)
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