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There's something that was said in church yesterday that was quite comical, but when you think about it, it really isn't.
The pastor said something along the lines of, identifying as a Christian and believing the stories in the Bible is already an act of foolishness, so you might as well continue in that foolishness.
Think about it, the same person who believes that the Red Sea parted for the children of Israel, that the waters stood like walls and the Egyptians were drowned in it. The same person who believes that manna fell from heaven for the Israelites to eat for forty years. The same person who believes that a young boy defeated a giant with a stone, that a man survived being thrown into a den of lions, and that another spent three days in the belly of a fish.
Now, that same person hears about the extraordinary things God is doing in people's lives today and suddenly becomes skeptical?
Interesting, isn't it?
I think sometimes we forget that the God we read about in the Bible is the same God we serve today. We read about His wonders, His power, His faithfulness and His involvement in the lives of men, and somehow, we have confined those experiences to the pages of Scripture.
It's almost as though we've unconsciously decided that God was capable of doing those things then, but when something extraordinary happens now, we immediately begin looking for ways to rationalise it.
Don't get me wrong, not everything that sounds miraculous is necessarily a miracle, and discernment is important. But there's a difference between exercising discernment and having a heart that has become so accustomed to God's works that it struggles to recognise His hand when it sees one.
The Holy Spirit isn't a historical figure, the power of God isn't a relic of biblical times, the God who parted the Red Sea, provided manna in the wilderness, raised the dead and worked through ordinary men and women is still at work.
And here's something I find particularly beautiful; we aren't merely reading about people who experienced God from a distance. We are people in whom His Spirit dwells, God lives in us and works through us.
So why do we sometimes find it easier to believe that God did extraordinary things through people thousands of years ago than to believe that He can do extraordinary things through people today?
We need to stop treating the extraordinary things God does today as though they are strange exceptions to a God who has already shown us who He is.
After all, the God who did it then is still God now.
Dearest reader, have you ever caught yourself believing God's wonders in Scripture but struggling to recognise or believe His workings in your present reality?
@favvy_Okwansđź–¤.
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