The Miracle

 The other Saturday the world watched, 

and in a small way we felt like part of The Royal Wedding!

 

Have you believed, testified your faith publicly, been baptized?

 Has there been a seat reserved for you in the Great Wedding Banquet with the King of kings

and Lord of lords in a castle not made with hands?

If yes, praise the Lord who has wrought a miracle in you,
(the gift of salvation is the saving, NOT the baptism!
Baptism is the outward sign of the inward 'miracle')

if  your answer is'no', I pray you will come to the place where you too will

"confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord 

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, 

(and) you will be saved." Rom.10:9

I pray you will experience The Miracle still waiting to happen

before the call; Behold, the Bridegroom comes!"

He is no stuntman who performs

The fete that shapes Time’s day to day

He gives and takes away at Will

The storm and calm His Voice obey

Nor does He freely save a soul

Just to create a spectacle

But when our faith has made us whole

Ah, Faith precedes The Miracle

Futile to try to explain faith

To one who has no faith or fear

Of He who hung the stars in space

And if we ask Him, He draws near

But when belief unveils the love

Of Mercy’s Divine oracle

Then faith in Unseen is enough

As faith precedes The Miracle

He does not strut across the sky

To prove his existence and such

He waits and waits for you and I

To hear His voice, to feel His touch

A Touch that heals a void within

And no one else can ever fill

As we repent He forgives sin

For faith precedes The Miracle

© Janet Martin

 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

Luke 17:19

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” After Jesus had entered the house, the blind men came to Him. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” He asked. “Yes, Lord,” they answered. Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”…

Matt.9:27-29

Hebrews 11 

(I was going to pick the best verses of this chapter to share; it turns out they are ALL best verses!)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  

 This is what the ancients were commended for. 

 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, 

so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. 

By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. 

And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death:

 “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”

For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.  

 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.

By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, 

obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  

By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.  And so from this one man, 

and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky 

and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,  

admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 

People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  

If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. 

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. 

He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,  

even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.^"  

Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, 

and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, 

and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt

 and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, 

because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  

He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God 

rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.  

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, 

because he was looking ahead to his reward.  

 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; 

he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.  

By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, 

so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; 

but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies,

 was not killed with those who were disobedient.

 And what more shall I say?

 I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, 

about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith 

conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; 

who shut the mouths of lions,  

quenched the fury of the flames,

 and escaped the edge of the sword; 

whose weakness was turned to strength; 

and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.  

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. 

There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released 

so that they might gain an even better resurrection.  

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  

They were put to death by stoning;

they were sawed in two; 

they were killed by the sword. 

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—  

the world was not worthy of them. 

They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 

since God had planned something better for us 

so that only together with us would they be made perfect.