Month: October 2016

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The Parting Of The Red Sea:

6th October

The ImPossible Miracle

“Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!”

Exodus 14:21-22

Be honest with yourself, when you read the above verse, did it fill you with wonder and praise or did you just read it as a familiar Biblical story? The truth is, we can have that tendency, to take for granted the wondrous miracles of the Bible that changed history forever. This is why the ‘Passover’ festival is celebrated every year by the Jewish people. It is to remind them of how God freed them from slavery from the Egyptians and liberated them as a free nation, when they walked through the Red Sea and into the promised land God had given them.

Throughout the Bible we read of hundreds of miracles, both in the Old and New Testament. Yet we should not let the familiarity of those stories, take away the significance of them, as both evidence of who our God is and what they meant in their original context. If we constantly remind ourselves that God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, then when we are faced with a ‘Red Sea’ of our own, we will be assured that God too, can part our seas and cause us to walk through unscathed. Our God is the God of miracles, both then, now and forever more. Do you trust Him?

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Salvation:

The ImPossible Miracle

5th October

“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.””

Matthew 19:26

If you were asked, ‘what is the greatest miracle of all’, what would you say? Jesus’ calming of the storm, being raised from the dead, the Red Sea parting or perhaps a breakthrough in your own life? Yet the biggest miracle of all, one which the angels of Heaven rejoice in1, is the miracle of salvation; when a person is saved from their sins, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Why? Because this is God’s work alone.

Jesus, in Matthew 19, is approached by a very rich man who asks what is needed to gain eternal life. Jesus begins to list some of the 10 commandments to the rich man to which his reply was, ‘I’ve obeyed all these commandments…. what else must I do?’ Jesus then said to to the rich man, ‘go and sell all your possessions and then follow Me’. The man left very despondent as he had many possessions and this teaching was hard to accept. See what Jesus was really saying, is not you have to obey this law and this law to get to Heaven. He was implying that salvation is a heart issue not a ‘works’ issue. The man clearly had his priorities in the wrong place. His assurance, his security and his ‘guarantee’ was not in God’s grace but in his wealth and in his ‘good works’.

Jesus clearly says that, actually, salvation is not something we can achieve by buying or earning our way into Heaven. It is a gift of God. Jesus adds that ‘it is impossible’ to even try to get into Heaven by doing good. The only way, is to surrender our hearts to Him; to make Him number One priority in our life and to accept His free gift of grace and mercy. With man gaining salvation is impossible but with God, everything is possible!!

1In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. Luke 15:10

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Jesus, The Miracle Worker

4th October

“Then the leading priests and the Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This Man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow Him to go on like this this, soon everyone will believe in Him….””

John 11:47-48a

Did you know that the Pharisees knew that Jesus was a miracle worker? Just read today’s verse as one of the pieces of evidence that prove that statement. Jesus was no ordinary man, and they knew that. A few verses earlier we learn that Jesus miraculously raised Lazarus from the dead, showing His power over death and sin. Yet instead of rejoicing in such a wonderful miracle, the Pharisees plotted to have Jesus killed because they feared that if everyone started to believe in who Jesus said He was, the Roman army would feel threatened and would need to take action by overthrowing the nation of Israel. Yet what is particularly interesting is the Pharisees own confession that Jesus did perform miracles and that His miracles led people to a belief in Him as the Son of God.

Jesus’ miracles today have the same power. Firstly, they prove who Jesus said He was and is and secondly, they lead people to Him. The question or challenge we need to ask ourselves is the same question the Pharisees asked each other, “What are we going to do?” Do we join the bandwagon of doubters and proclaim that miracles are just coincidences or do we confess that indeed “This Man”, this Jesus we serve, does perform miracles and is who He says He is?!!

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Miracles: God, The Coordinator Of Incidences

3rd October

“You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate You awesome power among the nations.”

Psalm 77:14

We worship the God of miracles. God is alive and is as active today as He was in the Old Testament and even before the world began. His wonders or miracles, are evidence of His existence; And because He exists and is actively at work in our world, we can put our trust in Him with our lives and problems too. Many brush off God’s miracles as co-incidences or chance, but as Andrew Ollerton put it in the ‘Why Believe’ series, miracles are not chance or co-incidences at all. “You can put that (miracles) down to co-incidences, but the funny thing is, the more we pray, the more ‘incidences’ happen.”1 He claims that things don’t just happen but are orchestrated by God, as if to say, God, is the coordinator of incidences.

Just as the Psalmist beautiful reminds his readers, so we too need reminding of how great, how big and how miraculous our God is. When we are going through tough times, when there is un-certainty about the future, when we don’t know how we are going to get out of the situation we are in, lets join with the Psalmist and declare, “You are the God of great wonders”. Let us have the attitude that says ‘my problems may be big but ‘i re-call all You have done, O Lord; I remember all Your wonderful deeds of long ago.’ I remember that You are the God of miracles, and You orchestrate all things to work together for the good of all who are called to You….!

1‘Why Believe’ series, Kingsgate Community Church

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Intercession For Our Leaders

1st & 2nd October

Weekend Edition

“Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by Godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”

1 Timothy 2:2-4

What a great privilege we have to be able to influence the future of our younger generations by interceding for our leaders. Imagine if our current world leaders had a revelation of who Jesus is, because the Christian’s worldwide were interceding for them. Imagine what change would come into our world. Imagine what the future would be like. Furthermore, praying for our leaders, ushers in a spiritual dome of peace over the world we live in. Imagine a world that is peaceful; where there is no war, no starvation, no suffering, and no fighting. Yes this probably is a picture of Heaven, but didn’t Jesus Himself say that we should pray ‘for His Kingdom to come and will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’?

Paul specifically encourages Timothy by saying that God ‘wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.’ We can participate in this too by interceding for those who have authority and influence over us. We can pray that Jesus would reveal Himself to our leaders. That He would save them. That He would give them Godliness to rule with dignity and peace. Is it too much to pray that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un would come to know Jesus? Is it too much that Putin, Obama, Merkel, Abe and other political leaders would find salvation? No it is not. God wants all men to be saved. Let’s start today, interceding and praying on their behalf. If we don’t pray for them, who will?