God can do it again

Early August 2010 I took the four loads of wet laundry to the laundromat some time at night. Our dryer was dead. I folded and stacked the laundry one at a time back in the baskets. After putting it all away I went to bed. Waking up the next morning my back would not straighten without excruciating pain. Somewhere near the bottom of my back something was out of wack. 

I took so many painkillers that my insides started to pour blood. After fourteen days the doctors took cat scans. They could see nothing wrong and surmise it must be arthritis. In which case I will have to learn to live with it. The painkillers they gave me, made my brain useless. I stopped using it during the day and only took it at night. I kept working through all this.  For thirty days I cried through the night and grind my teeth through the days.

 Last Sunday in August I went to a country church. A person got up and ask for prayer for a bad back. While the pastor prayed I said inside of me:" Lord, if he opens it up for anyone I k o  It's for me." Sure enough the pastor asked if anyone else needs a miracle in their back. My hand shot up. He called me.to the front. A couple of ladies started to cry and wanted to pray for me. They laid hands on me and said a simple prayer. I bend down but did not feel any different. 

The next morning I woke up for the first time in thirty days with no pain in my back. It has been pain free ever since. I do laundry carry heavy buckets of mail around, pick up my grandkids and still my back is fine.

God Is still in the miracle bussiness. 

The Mystery of Salvation.

I have had a conversation recently with a mother whose children were born again at a young age and now as adults lives like heathens. The absolute pain of seeing our children who were raised in the church, in Christian homes, being born again and yet choose to follow the world into the abyss is excruciating. It brings a person to re-evaluate what you belief.

The mystery of salvation is probly as mysterious as the mystery of natural birth. We all know the mechanics of making babies, carry them inside for about 9 months and then giving birth. That is the general idea. Hopefully the kid survives childhood, including the parent's ignorance, and grow into a responsible adult that contributes to life. That is the idea in the natural. The mystery is why some who seemed to have the best of everything still end up a giant flop and others who seem to have every obstacle possible thrown at them, survive and thrive.

Spiritual birth have so many mysteries to it. We all know the basic mechanics to it. A person believes the Word of God concerning Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross as well as His resurrection. This faith causes the life of God via the Holy Spirit to enter the person's spirit and cause a new life from within. Therefore the term: "born again". So where is the mystery? It is in the ones who do not make it despite all the effort from those around them and in those who made it even though they are  tossed aside and not taken care of like the allegory in Ezekiel.

Why does some people just get a hold of God and refuse to let go while others are ready for any excuse to quit on God? I honestly don't know. As many others I can surmise but there are so many variables. Suffice to say that I am convinced, absolutely 100% certain that God - in three persons - is fantastic. I know that does not sound very theological or religious. But really. He is the biggest adventure anyone can ever engage in. He is the most endless love , true love, to get lost in. I cannot imagine why anyone would choose anything above a relationship with Him.

Why do they? Maybe they never truely were born again. Maybe they never really got to know Him, and was left with the lies they saw lived out in the people who were supposed to mentor them. Maybe their heart were hard like a road, or covered with worries and shame or maybe they lost their faith somewhere in their pursuit of what this world can offer... and there is surely more maybe' s.

What can we do about this? I do believe that every prodigal can come home. I do believe God's grace is enough. I do believe there is power in prayer, love and forgiveness. I do believe that He who begun a good work in them is able to complete it. And I belief God who saved them will bring them back into a relationship with Him, if we can believe and ask Him in that faith.

Can anything be too hard for God?