"I Believe in Miracles"

Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe God steps into our realm of space and time and does the impossible? I do. Without any hesitation, I believe. I guess, I have seen too much evidence not to believe. Let me share with you four recent miracles in the life of our church family:

1) I believe in miracles of life transformation. So far, in 2008, eighty-eight people have made personal decisions to follow Christ. Praise God! That alone is a miracle! But I am more interested in what happens after the initial commitment...here is one example...he and his wife came to Living Hope for the first time in September. He has some church background and she none. After the service he said to me, "I need God to make a lot of changes in my life." We talked, he prayed, God came into his life. He said, "as we prayed it was like a weight was lifted off of me." His wife then prayed and Jesus showed up in her life as well. It is now December and they are here very Sunday, but more than that God is doing the miracle of life-transformation in them. Not only they, but those who know them best can see the difference. There is no greater miracle than one person finding God's love and hope personally. I believe in miracles!

2) I believe in miracles of physical healing. Regularly, people come to the Gathering or write the Prayer Chain for us to pray for them for specific needs...often those needs are physical and often we have seen specific answer to prayer. For instance, last Wednesday at the Gathering a women asked us to pray for her. She was having surgery the next day. One of the big concerns were pre-cancer cells on 9 different cysts. The surgery happened the next day and the doctor saw her after to share that he could not explain it but all 9 cysts and their pre-cancer cells were gone. They were there and then they were not. I believe in miracles!

The same kind of thing happened this week. One of our members asked the Prayer Chain to pray because tests revealed an aneurysm on her sister's aorta. Today the doctor called to say what was there, is now gone. How did that happen? My answer is...I believe in miracles!

3) I believe in miracles of peace and calm. Every bit as powerful as a change of circumstances, such as a physical healing, is a change of one's spirit, when the circumstances do not change. For instance, someone called this week and said, "Chad, its been three weeks now of peace and joy. When we did the service about accepting what was in our control and putting into God's hands, what we cannot control, I did just that. I fully gave the situation to God. The situation is still going on, but I am not worried and upset. I have peace and joy." The person can even begin to see how God could change the situation. I believe in miracles!

Luke 1:37 comes from the Bible's Christmas story. It says, "For nothing is impossible with God!" The Christmas story is all about the greatest miracle in the history of the world: Our God came down to us to do for us what we could not do for ourselves...he came to give us relationship with himself so that we can truly live now and even live after we die. The only questions is...do you believe?