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- Apr 25, 2006
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28 April 2007
Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
Do people really gain anything from their work? I saw the hard work God has given people to do. God has given them a desire to know the future. He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what he is doing. So I realize that the best thing for them is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. God wants all people to eat and drink and be happy in their work, which are gifts from God. I know that everything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to what God has done, and they cannot take anything away from it. God does it this way to make people respect him.
What happens now has happened in the past, and what will happen in the future has happened before. God makes the same things happen again and again.
Do you believe in miracles?
In the movie 'Pulp Fiction', Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have a discussion about miracles after another character has shot at them from close range, but somehow has missed with all 6 bullets. Jackson asks the question, "Do you know what a miracle is?" and Travolta replies, "I guess it's when God makes the impossible possible."
Is that what makes a miracle? If so, what is impossible? In Luke 1:37, the angel Gabriel told Mary that "nothing is impossible with God".
Maybe this is the key to understanding miracles: in Pulp Fiction, Jackson goes on to say, "Whether or not what we experienced is a [genuine] miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt God's touch. God got involved".
Miracles do happen - and they happen when God gets involved. This means they are happening all the time, because God is always involved in his Creation. The Creation wasn't a one-off event. God didn't create the universe and then sit back to let us get on with it. God is always active in his Creation. Look at the language in the above passage:
"Everything God does will continue for ever. . . God does it this way . . . God makes the same things happen again and again". It is all written in the present tense - God is doing these things right now.
Do you believe in miracles? I do. I see miracles every day in the ordered world which our God has created. The miracle of the sun rising each morning. The miracle of the blossom on the trees in springtime. The miracle of a newborn baby. The miracle of God at work in his Creation. Enjoy these miracles, and look for God getting involved in your own life.
Use the following hymn, written by Folliot S. Pierpoint, as your prayer for today:
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light:
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above;
For all gentle thoughts and mild;
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For each perfect gift of Thine
To our race so freely given,
Graces, human and divine,
Flowers of earth, and buds of heaven;
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
Written by Capt. Chris Routledge CA.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
Do people really gain anything from their work? I saw the hard work God has given people to do. God has given them a desire to know the future. He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what he is doing. So I realize that the best thing for them is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. God wants all people to eat and drink and be happy in their work, which are gifts from God. I know that everything God does will continue forever. People cannot add anything to what God has done, and they cannot take anything away from it. God does it this way to make people respect him.
What happens now has happened in the past, and what will happen in the future has happened before. God makes the same things happen again and again.
Do you believe in miracles?
In the movie 'Pulp Fiction', Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have a discussion about miracles after another character has shot at them from close range, but somehow has missed with all 6 bullets. Jackson asks the question, "Do you know what a miracle is?" and Travolta replies, "I guess it's when God makes the impossible possible."
Is that what makes a miracle? If so, what is impossible? In Luke 1:37, the angel Gabriel told Mary that "nothing is impossible with God".
Maybe this is the key to understanding miracles: in Pulp Fiction, Jackson goes on to say, "Whether or not what we experienced is a [genuine] miracle is insignificant. What is significant is that I felt God's touch. God got involved".
Miracles do happen - and they happen when God gets involved. This means they are happening all the time, because God is always involved in his Creation. The Creation wasn't a one-off event. God didn't create the universe and then sit back to let us get on with it. God is always active in his Creation. Look at the language in the above passage:
"Everything God does will continue for ever. . . God does it this way . . . God makes the same things happen again and again". It is all written in the present tense - God is doing these things right now.
Do you believe in miracles? I do. I see miracles every day in the ordered world which our God has created. The miracle of the sun rising each morning. The miracle of the blossom on the trees in springtime. The miracle of a newborn baby. The miracle of God at work in his Creation. Enjoy these miracles, and look for God getting involved in your own life.
Use the following hymn, written by Folliot S. Pierpoint, as your prayer for today:
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light:
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above;
For all gentle thoughts and mild;
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
For each perfect gift of Thine
To our race so freely given,
Graces, human and divine,
Flowers of earth, and buds of heaven;
Father, unto Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.
Written by Capt. Chris Routledge CA.
