Grace and Miracles – only God

Grace and Miracles – only God.

Recently, I told Danny’s story to my Long Beach street friends.  When we meet together, we praise God for his goodness and thank him for his work in our lives, and then take our requests before him.   Let me tell you, some of these people know how to pray!  I knew it would build the faith of my friends to hear how God had miraculously healed my two-year-old son of kidney failure almost 14 years ago now.   Yes, Danny’s story is the perfect illustration of God’s poured-out grace.  Ah, that amazing thing called grace!  People are hungry for grace, and to see how the grace of God changes things, brings hope, and breathes new life.  In short, people are hungry for God, but sometimes they just don’t know that is what they’re missing—and that only his grace can fill the gaping God-size whole inside of them. 

One fella, Marcus, approached me and told me that he was a walking example of God’s grace.  His past included heavy gang activity, drug sales and then drug use to cover how bad he felt inside; he had done prison time, and all of it together  was a cesspool of his own making.  It was while he was in prison that he was still, and had the opportunity to meet God.  Oh, he met him all right, and then he let God change him.  He is now free from all those entanglements of the world’s sin.  He just wanted me to know.  Cool.  When people ‘get’ grace, they want others to get it too.

The big old basement room in which we gather could be anywhere; there are no markings of anything that speaks of our God.  But I couldn’t teach on grace, or that Jesus was the embodiment of grace to us, without a cross to reference.  So my friend, John, was kind enough to build a rugged one for the basement, and I am so thankful! In addition to the six foot cross, I brought a gnarly crown of thorns, a burgundy wrap to put on the crossbar, and seven-inch nails like Jesus would have endured.  Grace comes via the cross.

It seems to me that so many people have become ‘Christian’ or preach Christianity without the reality of the cross these days, when it is the cross that sets us free—I don’t quite understand it.  No Christianity without the cross; no Christianity without the nails.

As I concluded my story of how God healed Danny, when the doctors couldn’t, showing slides of a sick baby boy and then a little boy with blonde hair and expressive dark blue eyes, so full of life, and now a young man who just got his drivers’ license.  I explained that

            when God performs a miracle, he doesn’t do a half-way job.

God did not just barely restore Danny, he made him into quite a boy—and filled him with courage, humor, and athleticism!  I remember watching him hit two out-of-the-park homeruns; I brought home the leather baseballs as proof.  The symbolism was so very powerful.  When God does a miracle, he hits it out of the park!  Today, he concentrates his efforts on a black and white soccer ball, ably handling the midfield for two different teams.

Filled with passion, I said to my friends, “So, if you need God to do a miracle in your life, stand up!”  The first one on his feet was Lamont.  “I need everything because my life is a mess,” he said, clutching his Bible.  “I know the right way, but I’ve walked away from God so many times.  I just need his help.”  Others stood to ask God to heal their marriage, for just a little more time from the judge to pay a fine, for sobriety . . . We reached out and laid hands on one another as we cried out to the God of the Universe to come and do what only he could do!   

There is so much more I could report, but let me conclude with this for now:  on Thursday, just before we started, a crazy-eyed woman came into the basement, and made her way to me.  After asking my name and being assured she had the prayer lady, she said, “I need you to pray for me; I gotta demon in me.  Could you pray that it would get out?” She looked like she had a demon in her—she had black skin and reddish hair, but her face was painted; she was sweating profusely, and could not sit still, as she clutched her pillow.  “Yes, we’re going to start in just a minute.”  “Can you just pray now?  I gotta get outta here!”  I had been hoping to buy a little time, but that was not to be.  I called another believer over to lay his hand on her shoulder, and I prayed with fury, and invoked the blood of Jesus to remove the demon.  She quickly left.  And then we started.  Mmmmhmmm.

She came back the next day, looking like a different woman—calm, not nervous or sweating, with no paint on her face, and no craziness in her eyes.  I cannot say for sure what had gone on, but I will tell you that I was thanking God that she looked so peaceful. 

Oh, there is never an uneventful day at the Basement Gathering; ‘matter of fact, there is never an uneventful day when people cry out to God either!  The God of the universe loves to extend grace to his children by hearing and answering their prayers.  Miracles are proof that God is a God of grace.  Amen.

Christine

PastorWoman.com