Does God Like Hot Dogs?
God is big. I’ve tried to put God in a box and figure Him out. I can tell you, you can’t figure God out. I suggest you don’t try. I suggest you don’t try to put Him in a box either. He’ll burst out of it. Usually when He does, it leaves those of us who try to confine Him suffering from shock at the least.
So how big is God? The best answer is much, much bigger than you can ever imagine. God has been huge in my life. I have seen Him heal, provide and astound me. I can be pretty weak in my faith at times and yet there He is, He shows up and does amazing things.
Can you imagine what God showed how big He is by parting the Red Sea? We read those stories and even with the help of Cecil B. DeMille we still can’t fathom what that was like. I’ve never seen anything like that, but I have seen hot dogs multiplied.
We all know Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, but He can also multiply hot dogs. Several years ago the church I was involved with did an outreach. We had a hot dog cart and in addition to music, games, preaching, etc., we were giving out free hot dogs. The turnout was wonderful. Almost too wonderful, as we worried the hot dogs would run out. They never did. We should have counted for doubters but we gave out a lot more hot dogs than were put in that steamer.
It’s pretty amazing when you see God heal someone. Can you imagine being in the crowd watching Jesus heal? Wow, that would be amazing. Yet I have seen Jesus heal. A few years ago at a Bible study a woman asked for prayer for her back. Now the people there all believed God healed. Doesn’t everyone who believes in God actually believe that God CAN heal? It only surprises us when He actually does it.
The prayer was rather polite and pleading. Dee still in pain, thanked everyone. I was new to the group and said, can I pray? They said sure… why not? I don’t know what came over me (well I do, it was the Holy Spirit) but I decided to be uncharacteristically assertive with my prayer. Guess what? Dee got up and started walking around. She couldn’t believe it!!! No pain. God DID heal after all. Who knew?
Ok, So God is big. But when is He biggest? When does He absolutely out do Himself. He does it when He comes to live in the human heart. Here we are these fallen, sinful, willful, boastful, prideful – oh the list goes on and on – and yet the God of the whole universe comes to our hearts. He comes in, cleans us up, gives us a new life, gives us hope and a future, and gives us eternal life that starts now with life more abundantly – that’s Biblical language for a life that is AWESOME to say the least.
An old song says it very well:
How big is God? How big and wide His vast domain?
To try to tell these lips can only start
He’s big enough to rule this mighty universe
Yet, small enough to live within my heart.
(Stuart Hamblen, Copyright 1959, Hamblen Music Co.)
Joyce
ReplyDeleteI need to think of the bigness of God today. I have to admit to doubting that God will come through this time.
I never sent you that article...about a miracle for Melanie ...I wrote and was published. I have to do that.
I just thought of my mom being healed of kidney failure. She had to be put on dialysis after her kidneys stopped working a while after her stroke. Dialysis isn't a easy procedure that people have to endure at least 3 times a week " for the resat of their lives" unless they get a new kidney transplant. They have a VERY strict diet to follow and they can drink only the minimal amount of liquids. BUT it keeps them alive! So she had been on dialysis for quite a while and they always do blood tests to see if the adjustments are working and the dialysis is taking out the wastes. etc One day, ( this still brings tears to my eyes) around Christmas one year, her Kidney Specialist came up to her during one of her treatments and said "Sophie, "someone up there" must really like you because we have no explanation for this, but your kidneys are working normally. The Doctor said, this just does not happen.
She told my mother she wanted her to come back in a few days " just to make sure"...I asked one thing " Lord I want to be there when she hears the final good news"
So in a couple of days, we showed up for a tentatively scheduled session ( just in case it was a fluke) and they said " Sophie you can go home, you don't need to be here any more!" I cried and she cried not only for herself, but being the person that she was, she cried for John who was a 'dialysis friend" who was in the waiting room. She so wanted John to get the miracle too that she was granted. It was bittersweet for her in that way.
What a beautiful story - God is big and He always shows up. Reminds me of the amazing healing that my daughter had just recently as well. God is in the healing business and interestingly, we don't need to go to a big name healing ministry. All we need is God.
ReplyDeleteBeing a skeptic in the past of the Holy Spirit, healings, prophesy, and the super Natural works of God, I can't argue that it is not happening today. Quite the contrary.
ReplyDeleteAll that God does is alive and well in the 21st century just as it was in the Biblical times. My first hand experience has shown me that to be a fact. In two personal experiences with praying for others and laying of hands, I experienced the touch of the Holy Spirit and boldy prayed for Him to heal the issues with those people. Now I just have to learn how to cope with these new experiences in service to God.
I am not a skeptic any more but now I sense confusion and amazement as I learn of the super natural powers that God's grace through the Holy Spirit offer us in service to Him.
I apologize for even mentioning what happened to me feverishly praying for those people but it wa a revalatory experience.