Miracles
Preaching
Life Everlasting
The Essential Book of Funeral Resources
Object:
He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.
Many of us no longer believe in miracles. I am not among those. I believe God's power is such that miracles can occur whenever and wherever God chooses. I certainly possess no formula for cajoling God into performing one for me. Nor do I have any clue about the why's and wherefore's of who gets a miracle and who doesn't. But in spite of my inability to get a handle on miracles, I still believe God does, in fact, do them. After all, without at least one miracle, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, my faith is pretty meaningless. Use this text to preach miracles.
Taken out of context the passage points to the power of God to do the miraculous, but the rest of Psalm 78 is an indictment against Israel for not putting their trust in the God who had done so much for them. The point being, I think, life is much richer lived in the glow of trusting God, than lived in the shadow of the emptiness of a world where there is no God or where God has been so demystified, so boxed in, that there is little reason to believe.
Psalm 78 says, "Look, there is plenty of reason to believe. Look at what God has done. And if this isn't enough to help you to believe...."
Many of us no longer believe in miracles. I am not among those. I believe God's power is such that miracles can occur whenever and wherever God chooses. I certainly possess no formula for cajoling God into performing one for me. Nor do I have any clue about the why's and wherefore's of who gets a miracle and who doesn't. But in spite of my inability to get a handle on miracles, I still believe God does, in fact, do them. After all, without at least one miracle, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, my faith is pretty meaningless. Use this text to preach miracles.
Taken out of context the passage points to the power of God to do the miraculous, but the rest of Psalm 78 is an indictment against Israel for not putting their trust in the God who had done so much for them. The point being, I think, life is much richer lived in the glow of trusting God, than lived in the shadow of the emptiness of a world where there is no God or where God has been so demystified, so boxed in, that there is little reason to believe.
Psalm 78 says, "Look, there is plenty of reason to believe. Look at what God has done. And if this isn't enough to help you to believe...."
