My Great Grandfather Harris

As I wrote about Miracles yesterday, I thought more on examples of true Miracles.

My Great Grandfather Harris was quite a man, he lived much of his life in Shirley, Indiana.
He was well know in town, as Happy Harris, and Happy he was.

Unfortunately much of notoriety was not one based on admiration. He was the town drunk.
He served in the Spanish American war, and traveled to Philippines, as well as Hawaii during his service. He could play almost any stringed instrument quite well, and often played for his drinks.

He had a little dog, he loved that dog, I did not think much of the dog, nipped at my heels as a very young child, the dog out lived him, but I doubt that the dog drank.

My Great Grandmother was a wonderful lady and I'm sure struggled with Happy's drinking.

The town taverns were his hangouts. But after many years of drinking, he found himself at home in the early evening, haven fallen asleep.

My Great Grandmother left and went to a special evening church service just a few steps from the house.

Happy awoke, startled by the music that drifted into his room. He got up to check out where it was coming from, and ended up in a church less than 1/2 a block from home.

That night changed Happy life forever. He heard the old pastor tell about the love of Jesus, and the forgiveness of sin, which I'm sure he knew had accumulated more than a few.

That night he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

Knowing who Happy was, it would have been easy to see the transformation in his life, as so they did.

He never drank alcohol again. The taverns lost a good customer that night. A few days or weeks later Happy was walking past one of his old hangouts, and the owner said Happy come on in and have one, and Happy said no, I won't be back. And he wasn't. It was even reported that his former drinking buddies placing bets on how long he would last, forever is a long shot but he made it.

You see not only could others see the transformation in him, he could tell that he wasn't the same man any more.

I share this story with you to say, this is not the natural order of life, most who have fallen into a life of drink never stop until their liver stops them.

My father shared this story recently and though I had heard it before, it seems like this is a wonderful plan that God has for our redemption.

Miracles

Miracles:

I've heard people talk about Miracles in a rather casual way. Not that they don't think they're special but none the less, without much to do or notice except at a specific time frame.
So what is a Miracle? What sets it apart from other so called special situation.

I believe there is only one source of a miracle, and that is the move of the creator of the universe, GOD, the great I AM, not Alla, or Buddha, or one of the thousands of Hindu gods. There is only 1 GOD. And one day you and I will stand before him.

If you can't acknowledge this fact then you will never find the source of any miracle, or probably believe there are miracles. I have seen magicians make thing happen, with so called magic, by illusion, slight of hand. I think of David Blaine doing card tricks, and pulling coins out of the air. All illusions. What I'm taking about has nothing to do with illusions of sight or mind.

GOD has set forth in the universe a natural order of things, we experience this on a daily bases whether you want to attribute this to GOD or not, it exist, and you nor I or any man can change that.

This natural order of life is set, and it has to with all life as well as death. No man escapes this. Even those who would like to disprove, operate under these same parameters.

When were happy we laugh, when were sad we cry, when were sick we look for solutions, we live, love or not. Whether were happy or sad, our lives follow some sense of natural order.

We most often hear of Miracles when there are crisis of one sort or another, with health, or life or situations.

What do you think, when a man or women goes to the Doctor and they give the patient the news, that they have found a tumor,  or they think they have cancer. Quite devastating, but they need to check it out to make sure. They run the test and come back and say yes you need to have surgery or chemo or ... but a week or month later they check again and nothing, no sign of what the Doctors saw before. I have heard reports of this stated several times during my life. I don't know what took place, don't know the people, or the Doctors, However something took place, when they have a photo of a tumor, and it gone in weeks, something happen. So at least we probably could agree, it's not an occurrence of a natural order.

People have reported of being very ill and they very quickly get well, that's not part of the natural order. I don't know ... but it's not life as normal.

There are reports of (Miracles) whether they are, I don't know, but I will share with you an occurrence that is without a doubt a Miracle.

I will tell you what I know ...

In the country of Haiti, in the village of Jean Rebel. A group of 12 women traveled from the village of Gonaives Haiti to the village of Jean Rebel in the far north west of the country. Very remote and a long trip from Gonaives. The roads are bad and you won't end up there by accident.

12 women made the trip in July of 2005, the night before they left for the trip, World Renewal International National Pastor Luc Joseph was with me in Indiana USA, he call his wife in Haiti and the women had gather to sleep and pray prior to the trip on Saturday. The pastor's wife Rosanna ask us to pray for their trip the next day. He relayed the information to me, and we agreed to do so and did. Because there were no communication during their trip, we did not communicate for several days. On Sunday Pastor Luc and I were speaking about his ministry at a small church in western Indiana, Rush Creek Friends. We had a set presentation to give, and due to Pastor Luc's limitation with English at the time I was to do most of the speaking. When I got up to start my presentation, I felt it was imperative that I ask the church to pray for the 12 women on that trip in Haiti. So we collectively prayed for them to have safe travel, and that they have opportunities to tell people about Jesus Christ.

I proceeded to share the story of the ministry and the needs for support. We proceeded for the next few days taking care of doing the same in other places. By the end of that week, Pastor Luc called his wife Rosanna and they had returned home, and were extremely excited about the trip to Jean Rebel.
She told him of visiting the many homes in the area, and they had an opportunity to talk to many people about Jesus's love and caring for them and that many had accepted Jesus.

In one home, a lady was bed ridden, and had been paralyzed from the waist down according to those caring for her. As they talked to the people in the home, the people ask the group of women to pray for the paralyzed woman, and the group agreed. And as they prayed for the woman's healing, the woman got up from her bed and walked praising GOD for her ability to walk, something she had not done for 12 years.

I was not there but I know the people who were present, and prayed for her, SHE WAS HEALED.

In a country that is known to have Voodoo and Satan worship, no one had healed this lady in 12 years, but when GOD was called, in the name of Jesus, she was healed and walked.

 That my friend is a real Miracle.

A more personal experience that happen I will share with you. In about 2009 I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder on my right side. I had very limited mobility of my right arm. They sent me to physical therapy, had a wonderful young man that helped me try to get my mobility back. But try as we did at best I could move it without much pain but only could lift my forearm to level with my shoulder.

I was (by chance?) in the very same church in Indiana, with another group leading the worship, raising money for Haiti. They were singing and praising God, and I was enjoying my friends leading this worship. However when I tried to raise my arms to praise God, only my left arm could be extended fully toward Heaven. One of the group had ask for people to come forward if they would like someone to pray for them. I spoke to God, not audibly but kind of in complaint, (I can't even raise both of my arms to praise you) and without even a thought, my right arm extended fully toward Heaven. Something I hadn't been able to do for months, try as we had through therapy, but all at once I had full range of movement, I was startled by this, but I knew only GOD had made this happen.

I believe that GOD healed me, in that very moment. Would I have gotten better, maybe but I have had no problems since.

Why do events like this happen. I can only speculate. GOD is sovereign. He does what he chooses and how he chooses. He can orchestrate events at any time, however he does not always do so. People stay paralyzed for life, people die from tumors, and cancer.

I do know that GOD inhabits the praises of his people, and he hears our prayers, even when we're frustrated.

As I reflect, just last week Good Friday and celebrated Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The greatest miracle of all is that GOD sent his son Jesus Christ, to live on earth, for 33 years, as a man. He lived a sinless life, was despised by men, they put him on a cross to kill him. They buried him in a grave, after 3 days they check the grave and he was gone. He left earth to be with his father for eternity.

Some day you may have an opportunity to check this out, however depending on whether you believe in Christ or not, there may not be opportunities for you to ask questions, only answer them.

Why is this the Greatest Miracle? Because in GOD's natural order, no one, not even one could go to heaven to be with GOD and his son Jesus for eternity. You see GOD can not look on sin, and all men have sinned. In order for anyone to make it to heaven he did something out of his natural order. He let his only son take on all of the sin of mankind, be killed by man, and then raised him from the dead, in order that you and I have an opportunity to let Christ Jesus be our advocate on the the day we stand before GOD.

According to scripture there is only one way, to get to heaven, though a relationship with GOD through the blood shed by his son Jesus. John 3:16 ... Check it out.

Miracles still happen, but only when the GOD of the universe move out of his natural order of his  universes.