Magic

After you read this post go back and watch this and this. You did not see what you thought you saw. Both are illusions. The first video is essentially an advertisement for a magic company's Floating Card Trick which they sell, with instructions, to stage magicians. The second is a video of illusionist Criss Angel.  I have no idea how he does this but it is an illusion and is not real supernatural magic.

The Egyptian priests in Exodus 7:8 - 8:7 were able to duplicate the miracles performed by Moses using what the Bible calls their "secret arts." Whether or not they actually performed supernatural acts or were merely skilled illusionists, we do not know. The effect, though, was to cause haughty unbelief in Pharaoh's heart. Because he did not believe, God hardened Pharaoh's unbelief.

Jesus does not appear to have been particularly impressed with His own supernatural powers. He expected belief because of who he was, not because he did "magic." He remarked that if the people did not believe Moses, why would they believe him? And he seems to have had what on the surface appears to have been a rather harsh attitude toward unbelief. Harsh unless he was who he clearly said he was.

“And he could do no miracle there except that he laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Mark 6:5 NASB®

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6 NASB®

"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.” Matthew 10:14 NASB®

"And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Luke 9:5 NASB®

There is no biblical record that Jesus ever returned to Nazareth after that day.

These two sites discuss whether or not the unbelief in Nazareth actually limited Jesus' ability to perform miracles.

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/872-was-christs-power-limited-by-mans-faith

http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/qjesusmiracles.html

Joy

Our Sunday School class lesson was recently about Joy, not the gleeful emotion, but the Joy which can, and should,be experienced by Christians even in times of severe persecution.

This is the joy expressed by Paul and Silas singing in prison after they were beaten and chained to a damp stone wall. The joy with which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped into the oven, The joy of Daniel in the lion's den. The joy of Job after his children were killed and everything he owned was stripped away. The joy which can best be described as peace or calmness.

Our class discussed exactly what the Christian Joy is. The best answer: the Christian Joy is the absolute knowledge that our God is in total control. He cannot be surprised or thwarted and those who belong to Him cannot be removed from Him. He is Love and works everything out for our good. Our good is to become conformed to Him.

Book Comment: Trusting God Even When Life Hurts

In Trusting God Even When Life Hurts (NavPress, 1988), Jerry Bridges makes some very startling assertions.  All of them are biblically sound and all of them are true.

Basically, Bridges’ point is that God can be trusted because of His absolute sovereignty in every instance, in every moment, in every detail, no matter how small.  Bridges quotes hundreds of verses of scripture which make the point that God has absolute control over who is in political power and over the decisions which they make.  He is in control of the weather, including tornadoes and tsunamis.  He is in control of illness and disease.  He is in control of the forces which hold a molecule together and which move gibberellins through a plant.  (Matthew 10:29)

God uses His people and also people who utterly reject Him; everyone serves His plan, which He established at the moment of Creation.  All things move as God purposes and everything works together (even bad things and bad people) for the good of those who love the Lord.  That is what the Bible says.  We do not always understand how that could be so.

Pastor bridges in his book is very careful to stress that God's sovereignty does not obviate human responsibility.  We are not God's puppets or chess pieces, but are free moral agents who are held accountable for our decisions and actions.  As the Bible declares "... they have no excuse."   (Romans 1:20)

Some Christians believe as does Rabbi Harold Kushner that God is loving but not all powerful. Kushner challenges the idea of the omnipotence of God.  God grieves with us over bad things which happen but is unable to do anything.  This is nothing more than Deism; a God who creates the world and then essentially walks away.

 Jesus in Matthew 10:29-31 declared that God is able and willing to sustain us and bring good to His people.  He can use miracles or other people (good or bad), or situations and events (good or bad) to work out everything to our good.

God's Farthest Limit

"Imagine what you think might be God's farthest limit, and you will find Him present there." Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 315-367) in On the Trinity 2.6.