Is God Able?

Listen to this podcast here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/1e0a4329/is-god-able-th...

Today, I started the "Gathering" in my home - a neighborhood Bible study. We are reading God is Able, Priscilla Shirer's revisit to that topic, 10 years later--after her book by that title... years that have had many hurts, losses and heartaches. Is God really able?

In explaining why I chose the book and something about me, I told them of the miraculous in my life, using this incredible time.

But first--in order to see God do a miracle in our lives, we have to NEED one!  Some of us are in great need of a miracle right now and I believe in a God who is powerful and involved enough in our lives to do the miraculous. I have seen and experienced it with my own eyes--in my 2-­year-­old son who we very nearly lost due to kidney failure.  

I remember holding Danny through the night ­­and with my right arm digging through my Bible ­­looking up verses to cling to­­,  [see the verses I looked up, and wrote out that night in the hospital - verses to stand on]  

I never doubted that God was in control.

I never doubted that his heart toward us was good, ­­but dog­gone-­it, I was going to hold him to his word . . . that the effective prayer of a righteous person avails much!!*

"Oh, God, come and save my baby!" I prayed and pleaded, over and over again--sometimes in my head, sometimes out loud.

That night? The night after we were told Danny had a bleeding disorder in addition to kidney failure ... that night before surgery. That. very. long. night.

Well, MANY people were praying, and God was listening. The next morning, Danny was taken into surgery, and a piece of the kidney was extracted for analysis. We had our first miracle--­­

the blood was tested, and the doctor came to say, 'this is unusual, but the bleeding disorder does not present'­­ meaning it was not there. In short, the von Willebrand Disease was removed from our plate of trials!

Then, the second miracle--­­he lost only a 1/2 teaspoon of blood; shocking, since the concern was that he would 'bleed out' on the operating table.

And then . . . well, we waited for a diagnosis and all that was to follow.

The day after surgery, we were once again sent home--­­no diagnosis, prognosis, etc., with the best we could hope for being a transplant. The kidney tissue was sent out for extensive testing, and days later, the answers finally came. Danny did indeed have a kidney disorder--­­no, three disorders! The Israeli­-trained nephrologist told me that, 'well, this case has been most unusual from the start.' He had an infection that had gone to his kidneys (post­ infectious nephritis), an allergic reaction to the Zithromax, and he had A.T.N. (Acute Tubular Necrosis--­­4 in 10,000 people). But, listen to this...­­all three were REVERSIBLE, would leave NO LASTING DAMAGE, and would require NO FURTHER TREATMENT. "What?!" I cried whilst on the phone standing on my driveway , "Dr. Ben­Nezzer, I would like to think God has done a miracle!" Silence. 

And then she said, "I would say you are 100 percent correct." 

The next day, I drove Danny back up       to CHOC to see her; the first thing she said was, "Did you tell your praying friends that God has done a           miracle?" Oh, of course I had, and I did, over and over again... just like now. When we tell of the miracles of God, not only is it in obedience to God to tell of his wondrous works, but it builds our faith and the faith of those who hear!

     And now, at 25, Danny is living in Boston, the picture of health and vigor, working at Chase Bank and coaching Muay Thai. (a mixed martial art) This Saturday he will have his first official bout, somewhere outside of Boston. [Ugh, says the mama]

Friend, I'm wondering if you need hope, or possibly a miracle?

Consider the truth in this verse that I did that night so long ago:

Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God

There we will receive his mercy, 

and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. 

Hebrews 4.16, NLT

Yes, I know God is able.

Able to do more than all we ask or imagine.

I know because God is in the miracle-working business.

Christine 

PastorWoman.net

here’s the question: Why Not Now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l2ImTRVfd4

*James 5.16