Do miracles occur in the 21st century? It has been a question that’s been boggling my mind a lot lately. As a Christian, and by Christian I mean true follower of Jesus, I ask myself that question every time I come across Bible incidents where Jesus does a miracle and everyone is in awe and is greatly affected. I wonder: if people see miracles today, Would they be moved? Would they surrender to Jesus?
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
After reading this passage where Jesus does a miracle and allows Peter to walk on water, I wondered if I could have had the courage to step out of the boat in the first place! Peter had a strong personality and showed great courage to step out of the boat in obedience to walk on water. He was the only person to ask Jesus to tell him to come on the water! Moreover, when Jesus said, “come”, Peter did not think twice about his moves and got out of the boat and into the water, and started walking towards Jesus. “Mathew 14:28-29”
But before I continue commenting on Peter, (I could go on forever, especially that I feel that i’m the opposite of his character!), imagine yourself in that boat, in the stormy weather, waves so mighty that they try to sink that boat! What would you have done if you saw someone walking on water? If I were engaged in such a scene, i’m sure that I would probably have said, “that’s superman!” (Haha, I just love the Marvel movies and wish the characters were real). Moreover, if you are like the fishermen you would have said, “that’s a ghost!” What else could it have been! No man with magic powers could walk on water! They trick us into thinking they could move things with their minds and make them even float in thin air. However, none could walk on water and that’s because no human can.
Peter was now on water when suddenly, he started drowning! He probably came to his senses and thought: “What on earth am I doing in the middle of a storm, standing on water? I should head back to the boat before the waves crush me!” Now, that is only my imagination of what could have happened back then, but to be honest I do not know what went on in his head that lead to his drowning. The story continues by saying that Peter called out to Jesus and Jesus saved him.
I’m going to stop here for now, because again, my commentary could go on and on and on! But, I really want to state that if Jesus did miracles in the past, then He still can and does miracles today (and everyday), no? “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, God, “Who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8). He is always there, from the beginning of time till the end of the age. He shall remain. He did not change and surely will not change in the future! The God of yesterday is still working in our lives today and wants to make a miracle in your life! In fact, the greatest miracle of your entire life is that Jesus is able to save you today, and He is more than able to do a miracle in your life. The question is, have you taken that first step in giving Him your life?
Something to think about:
Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you trust that He remains a God of miracles forever?
If yes, do you believe that He wants to make a miracle in your life today?
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never turn away.” John 6:37. Joseph Toubia
I was healed of asthma as a teenager. I still remember the prayer and the moment it happened. All too real. Nobody can take it away from me!
If god is responsible for miracles then he must also be responsible for the horrible and tragic things that occur that cause so much suffering in the world, or at least he has the power to prevent it, and if that is the case then god is not a savior, god is a masochist. Or perhaps the more logical thinking is that miracles are simply coincidence.
we open our OWN doors to illness - drinking too much, over eating, unforgiving someone, etc. God can help us, but we need to also open that door. Stop drinking, over eating, staying bitter,judging others, etc. Hope you come to know the truth -it's a great life!!
I agree that people should exhibit control over their own life and how they live it which can be quite satisfying, but frankly no god is needed for this, you can do it all by yourself. However, what I was talking about are tragic things that one cannot control, such as things like a natural disaster, disease, children starving, or being brutally attacked by another, terrible things that happen to good people... god has the power to prevent these things, so why doesn't he? Either he is not able to, or he doesn't actually care, or he doesn't exist. If he does exist, he's an asshole and I would never worship such a being. However, logic tells us the most likely answer is that we just made this stuff up as means to control the masses. Hope you come to know the truth - thinking for yourself is a great life!!
This is very easy to explain. All of heaven is watching while God allows Satan to try to prove his rebellious point. God could squash Satan, but instead allows him to run the planet and screw things up royally.
Now, if while Satan is screwing up, God were to step in and fix things, well then He would be helping to keep Satan from failing.
So this mess will continue and get worse and worse until it is obvious to all Heaven that Satan has failed. Then God will finally step in, press reset, clean house and start over, having proved his point to all His Creation.
You think that bad things happening in this world are important. It sure seems that way if you think that this world is all there is. But everything here is throw-away expendable, including the short lives we have been given.
Remember the day you graduated from High School? Suddenly everything that was so important a day ago didn't matter at all any more.
Ever quit a job? Same thing.
Once you realize that leaving this life works the same way, you stop putting so much emphasis on why it isn't perfect.
It isn't perfect because humans decided to do things Satan's way. And God said, "Go ahead, knock yourselves out!"
Now we have to do it the hard way.
I have shared my limited understanding of what God has revealed in the Bible. It is entirely possible that my understanding has holes in it. But the only way I can know anything at all about God is if he chooses to reveal it. No doubt some of that is classified until the test is over. :o)
It's a good and convenient analogy which helps to explain a particular contradiction but still seems to be a masochist type behavior to watch his children suffer through no fault of their own to prove a point to his kingdom or Satan or whatever... not to mention that I don't see how you would even know this stuff as it seems rather arrogant that humans could possibly understand the will of god or even know what is going on in the supernatural realm, nor have they demonstrated in any reliable way that such things even exist in the first place.
Also, back to the original topic , if god wants us to do things the hard way via his "boot camp" then why is he providing miracles? Doesn't make sense.
Matthew 4:8-9
(8) Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. (9) And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
Satan's power is over all the nations of the earth. That could be very frightening when we realize he can influence men in such a way that they are not even aware that they are being influenced toward evil. His power is so extensive that he is over all the nations of the earth. Jesus calls him the ruler of this world (John 14:30). He affects people's attitudes by moving our reasoning processes toward satisfaction of the self. He gives disinformation and stirs up our spirit.
Here is what is so perverse about this: It is not evil for one to take care of himself. What is evil is to make the satisfaction of the self more important than God or others. We are to serve God before all else (the great commandment), and the second is like it—we are on an equal par with others physically. Nowhere are we given the right or privilege by God to make ourselves greater than or more important than God or other human beings.
We can imagine the direction Satan is going to move us toward—to the point that satisfaction of the self becomes more important than conforming to what God says is the limit of our authority. In other words, he will push us toward making ourselves greater or more important than righteousness or truth.
Ah yes Satan, you seem to be saying here that Satan is more powerful than God since God is not able to control the nefarious activities of Satan. Why is God such a weakling, I thought he was supposed to be all powerful?
In addition, why must god require worship? Is god such a needy narcissist that he will only help those that worship him? This does not sound like a forgiving, tolerant, loving god - this sounds like an ego maniac who requires constant validation from his inferior subjects.
Your problem is that you don't understand what is going on here. Sure, God could wipe out all the weeds in his garden in an instant. But that would harm the crop He is growing. You think comfort and safety in this world is important but that's just a tiny blip in all eternity. Everything that happens here is for the purpose of selecting those who get to be members of God's family for all eternity.
Here, think of it this way. Do the Marines try to make the recruits comfortable during boot camp? Of course not. They try to make it as uncomfortable as possible so that the weak are washed out and the strong are made stronger by overcoming the stress they are subjected to.
It is no different with God. This world is boot camp. Don't complain about boot camp being tough. You are expected to fail. Remember that, and don't!
Jesus said, "Let the little children come unto Me, for of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven."
So a newborn child born into poverty and gets a deadly disease has failed bootcamp? Sorry but god is a real dick.