What are miracles?

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Yes, which brings me to the point where I must say that the thinking I've done over the past year has rearranged my theology just a little. I can't believe we haven't had this conversation yet, Priestley. 8D Essentially, what I feel it boils down to is that you can worship and love God without even realizing you're doing it. You can be serving others and following all of God's commands in the name of Allah, but still be worshiping Yahweh, since He is the one Whose laws you are following, even if you don't realize it. The two great Commandments that Jesus gave are to love God and love your neighbor. How do we love God? By doing His commands. You can do God's commands without know He commanded them, and thereby love God and love your neighbor. By doing that, you become a friend of Jesus, because Jesus Himself said "you are my friends if you keep my commands."

See what I did there?? You can be an atheist and still love God.  

[Priestley]

Fushigi na Butterfly

Yes, which brings me to the point where I must say that the thinking I've done over the past year has rearranged my theology just a little. I can't believe we haven't had this conversation yet, Priestley. 8D Essentially, what I feel it boils down to is that you can worship and love God without even realizing you're doing it. You can be serving others and following all of God's commands in the name of Allah, but still be worshiping Yahweh, since He is the one Whose laws you are following, even if you don't realize it. The two great Commandments that Jesus gave are to love God and love your neighbor. How do we love God? By doing His commands. You can do God's commands without know He commanded them, and thereby love God and love your neighbor. By doing that, you become a friend of Jesus, because Jesus Himself said "you are my friends if you keep my commands."

See what I did there?? You can be an atheist and still love God.

Well, Paul does say that one can't love God if one hate one's brother, implying that loving one's brother is loving God by some sort of proxy.

It's another example of people slapping a sticker onto something that can be done without the help of God, which (going back to our discussion about miracles) is exactly what people do by performing an act that doesn't break the physical limitations of the universe and saying "God did that".

In my opinion, doing something beyond the realms of physics (making more food out of little food, turning water into wine, parting a sea, turning a river to blood) is the proper definition of a miracle.  

[Ixor Firebadger]

I kind of see saying that 'I did..whatever' is rather robbing God of His due credit in things. Sure, we have to choose to certain things, some of them couldn't succeed if we didn't have a specific talent, but God is in some part responsible. It is He that blesses us with those talents, and even in spite of those talents, if God deems that we should fail, we will fail. That is a hard lesson I have learned recently. Nothing, however small, happens without God's approval. And even if we can take some of the credit, we can't take all of it.  

[fromthatshow]

Read A Course In Miracles.
It is a wonderful book channeled through Jesus. It explains everything you need to know about Miracles and re-explains many things taught in the Bible. It is my favorite book of all time.

A Course In Miracles says that miracles are not extraordinary happenings. What is incredible is when they're not happening! Miracles should be a natural, daily part of our life.  

[The Amazing Ryuu]

Priestley

In my opinion, doing something beyond the realms of physics (making more food out of little food, turning water into wine, parting a sea, turning a river to blood) is the proper definition of a miracle.

I do suppose it's all a matter of scale. To me, my landlady not throwing a fit if I couldn't get the whole rent to her, on time or not, and in fact saying that it was okay and I didn't have to worry about it would be a miracle. Especially given that she's a very nervous person who didn't want me to have the house in the first place because of my age. Personal miralces are just as important as world-changing ones. There are those of us called to bring a mere one or two people to Christ, and those of us called to bring masses. Jesus himself did gatherings, and he also had private conversations. Because sometimes it's that one little thing that otherwise couldn't have happened that's the miracle... and it solidifes belief.  

[Priestley]

ryuu_chan

Priestley

In my opinion, doing something beyond the realms of physics (making more food out of little food, turning water into wine, parting a sea, turning a river to blood) is the proper definition of a miracle.

I do suppose it's all a matter of scale. To me, my landlady not throwing a fit if I couldn't get the whole rent to her, on time or not, and in fact saying that it was okay and I didn't have to worry about it would be a miracle. Especially given that she's a very nervous person who didn't want me to have the house in the first place because of my age.

This implies that chance of occurance is part of what defines a miracle. A miracle is a miracle whether it's an everyday occurance or happens once in a blue moon. What actually defines it is its seemingly physical impossibility, not its unpredictability or improbability.

In your example, what you thought would happen and what actually happened are somehow related. In fact, both things are independent. Your landlady would not have minded whether or not you had the rent regardless of whether or not you had the rent, but not being able to predict that suddenly makes it a miracle for you. It's not exactly breaking the barriers of physics, is it?

ryuu_chan

Personal miralces are just as important as world-changing ones. There are those of us called to bring a mere one or two people to Christ, and those of us called to bring masses. Jesus himself did gatherings, and he also had private conversations. Because sometimes it's that one little thing that otherwise couldn't have happened that's the miracle... and it solidifes belief.

It doesn't always require the supernatural to bring people to Christ. Personal conversations aren't miracles, neither is public speaking. It's something (pretty much) everyone can do and is within the realms of physics.  

[viper_353]

Isn't a miracle pretty much an act that is God inspired? Something as simple as a personal conversation can be a miracle. Miracles are what God uses to change our lives, whether supernatural or not. Isn't a miracle something that God uses for us to see him and be impacted by? Little miracles-When something smiles at you in the hallway, when they say just the right thing-maybe the miracle isn't in the act, but in the way that God uses it in someone else's life. heart  

[Priestley]

viper_353

Isn't a miracle pretty much an act that is God inspired? Something as simple as a personal conversation can be a miracle. Miracles are what God uses to change our lives, whether supernatural or not. Isn't a miracle something that God uses for us to see him and be impacted by? Little miracles-When something smiles at you in the hallway, when they say just the right thing-maybe the miracle isn't in the act, but in the way that God uses it in someone else's life. heart

Arguably, though, that could ultimately boil down to one's personal perception of events.  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Priestley

viper_353

Isn't a miracle pretty much an act that is God inspired? Something as simple as a personal conversation can be a miracle. Miracles are what God uses to change our lives, whether supernatural or not. Isn't a miracle something that God uses for us to see him and be impacted by? Little miracles-When something smiles at you in the hallway, when they say just the right thing-maybe the miracle isn't in the act, but in the way that God uses it in someone else's life. heart

Arguably, though, that could ultimately boil down to one's personal perception of events.

It usually does. Which compels me to launch into a wall of text about perceiving external events and the role one played in bringing them about and mental health, but I'll hold back (I really need to do something with this degree of mine D: ).