Moses's Staff

 If you read the Book of Exodus you will read that Moses had a staff that did with it miracles. The Book refers to it as a staff given to him by God. I think his staff was a futuristic instrument not yet discovered even today given to him by UFO intelligence. That staff did wonders. It turned into a serpent, it splits a sea, it healed people and changed river water into red. Moses had a superpower in his hand. Yes, he was an old man with a superman power. Exodus was the first Superman comics ever written. 

Are Miracles Only Found in Holy Books?

As a starter, I am not a theologian, nor a minister or a priest. I am a common guy who occasionally reads the Bible for fun. Yes, I enjoy reading the Bible. I bought a few years ago the Orthodox Study Bible, and I have read it several times. It has fascinating stories, and some of them are unbelievable.  Many of the unbelievable stories are miracles. Dead people are risen, Christ walked on water (mind you, it was stormy at that time, with waves and all), three guys were placed in a fiery furnace and came out alive untouched, and the Israeli army winning against massive enemy armies in battles because the Lord was fighting on their behalf, and so on. It is not strange to read about miracles in holy books, but do miracles still happen in our time, to us? My answer to that is yes. Each one of us needs to look at his own life, past and present. You will find instances and events in your life that their occurrence was not possible by any human measures, they were miracles. Read the news about other people and you will find many unbelievable stories. People may call it luck, success, "nothing sticks to this man," attitude, Teflon skin, power, influence, money, rich, very rich, very very rich, and so on. Miracles still happen. You just need to keep watching life around you. In fact, they happen by the dozens daily. 

The Damascus Miracle

Miracles?

All illnesses have their natural history of progression. Many of them progress toward a point of reversing the disease state--or a point of complete healing. The period of this process may vary between a few days (e.g., cold) to a few years ( e.g., cancer). If some type of interference has occurred during this natural process of disease progression, we often attribute the power of healing to that treatment, and in highly dangerous illnesses the healing treatment may be referred to as a miracle. So, miracles are simply lucky events that happened to be in the right place and the right time. Medications often can shorten the healing path for the disease; herbal treatments may do the same; but the true healer is what the good Lord has put in all of us, that is, an inner ability to heal ourselves.

No Miracles Today

The day is almost over. Do you think you've encountered a miracle today? As for me, the entire day was a miracle. I traveled at least three hours in the car...no accidents. I had an important meeting concerning a family matter...no problems. Despite the cold temperature...no rain or snow. I managed to eat, drink coffee, chat with people, and write this blog...no obstacles. My health is fine...not even a sneeze. The sky had a full moon tonight...awesome view. The sun was shining in the sky during the day...no sunburn. No wind, not even a breeze to give me the chill. People everywhere were happy shopping for Christmas. Today was a miracle. Have you had yours yet?

Wisdom

"What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect generally happens." Benjamin Disraeli

Miracles

Miracles are out of ordinary events. Things that make people puzzle. Acts that have no explanation to them. Occurrences that people wonder how could that happen; it is impossible. Or, is it? Everything in life can happen. There are certain things that occur rarely, thus not everyone is familiar with them. If unfamiliar person encounters them, then there are labeled as "miracles". Miracles are just events that are ordinary, however the probability of their occurrence is minuscule, and they still occur on their own. Physicians are all aware of something called in medicine as "spontaneous healing". The spontaneity of healing is just that it occurs on its own, but rarely. Cancer, headaches, infections, heart disease, and others can all disappear on their own, in very rare cases. Magicians, miracle workers, TV preachers, and charlatans pretend that they are exercising certain power over matter, in particular when it comes to healing the body or the mind. Most of these so-called "healings" occur when one does not know the exact nature of the illness; it is simply stated by often biased, spiritually "drunk" individuals. Never under-estimate the power of suggestion over the body and the mind. So called maladies are in fact borderline hallucination of some psychosomatic disturbances the person has. With the power of suggestion from the "healer", the person becomes filled with the "spirit" of the moment and begins shouting and proclaiming a "miracle" has happened. Whereas in fact what just happened is a state of hallucination imposed by the power of prayers and the immediate environment the person is in. I am still waiting for one of those healers to grow a new limb for someone who had lost one. Perhaps a new hand or a foot would do. Alas! I am still waiting. Those who are portraying such miracles in the name of God are false witnesses to the power of the Almighty. He and He alone can heal the broken hearts. I do not think God is in the business of healing the body. He alone has that power of healing anything. He has given this power to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord transferred the same power to his immediate disciples. And, that where the end of that era occurred. It had a purpose in mind. It was meant to attract people to God through Christ. It does not exist anymore. We have everything on this planet to heal ourselves. Artificial limbs are true miracles that clinical scientists have invented to help the amputees. I am hoping for more miracles to happen in the future when man begins to realize that God has already provided us with the biggest miracle of all, our brain. Let us use it and create more new "miracles," and stop being false witnesses to God. Amen.

An Argument for God

I am noticing as I am aging by the second that more and more people are turning away from the belief that there is a God. It used to be that teenagers and some college kids were the one to loose faith, but frequently I find more adults are loosing interest in believing in a deity. I heard an argument last week from a friend of mine that he did not belief in religion or a God because he felt that everyone has lied to him when he was growing up about the existence of God. I told him how about the miracles that were performed by Jesus or the other Prophets. He replied that these were not really "miracles", but were mind-over-body type of things. He said that a true miracle would be for someone to grow a new arm or a leg after he became an amputee. He believed that gaining strength in what was apparently lost did not constitute a miracle. How about those who apparently came back from death. Well, may be they were not dead after all. They were comatose and came back spontaneously as if they were risen from death. The argument about growing a new arm or leg is an interesting one, and frankly speaking I do not have an answer for it. How come there has not been a single "miracle" such as this? Perhaps I will ask the preacher on TV the next time when he is doing his "mind-over-body business" of healing. I do not doubt that there is a strong placebo effect of "healing power". We tend to believe in things that we were told over and over and over that they worked. And who would argue with someone who is speaking on behalf of God. I certainly wouldn't. Next time the TV evangelist wants to heal someone with some "emotional, vague, and unproven" illness, ask him to grow a new arm to the person who is standing next to you and who is without an arm. Of course, the TV preacher would tell you that God is capable of doing that and more. Yes, if you believe it.

A Great Advise

From the book of Sirach:

"Envy and anger shorten one's life, worry brings on premature old age." Sirach 30:24

I heard someone once said "95% of the things we worry about they never happen, the remaining 5% if they happen they would be miracles."