JESUS’ MANY MIRACLES

May 13, 2010 . . . Waiting for Pentecost….

Reading for today:
John 20:30-31
John 21:25

We just acknowledged Jesus’ ascension back to heaven 6 days ago. In our parallel journey through Lent, to and then beyond the cross, the story is still unfolding. At this point in the disciples’ lives, they are meeting together intentionally, obediently praying for the promise Jesus left them with in his instructions for what was to come next. “Wait….” They are waiting – which means we are, too, intentionally following the day-by-day journey as they experienced it. Right now – all we have recorded is that they were told to wait….

God didn’t install me with as much patience as I sometimes wish I had. However, when someone tells me they are praying for patience I tell them that’s a dangerous prayer. The way God teaches us any lesson is through opportunities to practice it.

My lesson in learning that poignantly was when God told me we were going to work on my gentleness. When he told me that I thought, ‘Great. Now I am going to be like one of those sweet little ladies at church who just ooze gentle, caring love.’

Not!

Now – the absolute truth is: I love deeply and sincerely. I care. I have oodles of compassion. Gentleness – I’m still working on it….

God’s chosen method of teaching me gentleness was to throw me into situations where I had to practice it. Situations where I was treated abysmally unfairly – misunderstood, misjudged, maligned – and instead of reacting in ‘human’ nature to defend the assaults I had to learn to absorb them and pray for God to work in each situation. I spoke the truth – then had to let each go . . . even though unresolved. God gave me a promise that he would be my defender. In some cases I am still waiting. It’s his battle – not mine.

Over and over I got to take to heart my Potato Masher Parable about not getting upset with a frog for being a frog.

In the process of working on gentleness, which involves responding not reacting, I’ve also learned that forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. People can do some pretty awful things, say some pretty awful things – but we don’t have to be held hostage in their words or actions. When we forgive we release ourselves from being part of their issue. It is incredibly freeing. And – I can only do that through God’s grace. His grace is sufficient. Really, it is! And I have to trust that promise!

It isn’t always easy! Sometimes feelings of resentment for wrongs done against me try to creep in. I have to intentionally and carefully take those thoughts captive and submit them to God’s Word. He promised me that no weapon fashioned against me would stand. I stand on His promises, claiming them because His promises are true – knees shaking, lip quivering, soul determined. I put on my armor listed in Ephesians 6:10-18, and place my life in his hands. I want to trust him more and more. I’m still learning to do that.

We never arrive at some pinnacle of perfection in this life where nothing ruffles us. But the thing about being an intentional Christian is that we keep learning, keep pressing on, keep growing. His Word is our sword – and our guidebook.

His Word tells us everything we need to know – but still, these two verses in John intrigue me. After all of the amazing miracles that John recorded, he lets us know in two verses near the end of his writing of his testimony that Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples. The most intriguing statement is in John 21:25, when he says, “If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

That is such a ‘wow’ statement. It intrigues me. All the reports in the gospels of Jesus’ interaction with man during his three whirlwind years of ministry on earth represent only the tip of the iceberg. And, yet, it is enough. These are written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in his name.

I cannot help but reiterate - that we may have life in his name. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. None.

Right after Luke tells us that Jesus is the one who was the stone the builders rejected – who has become the capstone, he tells us in Acts 4:12: “…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus paid the price. He extends the offer of salvation through His blood – but we have a part to play. We have to reach out and accept the gift.

In my 38 years in the Presbyterian church there was a phrase that I grew to love – I am certain I have already shared it, but I will share it again. The phrase is ‘Saved and being saved.’ Salvation was made available by Jesus’ sacrifice – God himself, incarnate, coming to earth in the form of man to take on the sins of the world – but we have to make a choice to accept the gift. It isn’t imposed on us. And the gift has a price for us. It means that we die to self and become alive in God – that our life is no longer our own, but that we acknowledge our opportunity to have eternal life was bought with a price. In giving up our independence and becoming submitted to the Lord’s will, we begin a journey that continues throughout this lifetime – a journey of becoming more and more like him as he peels away the layers of our ‘self’ and guides us deeper and deeper into his truth.

I love miracles – but the miracle in a changed life is the greatest miracle of all. Saved and being saved!