Was Tim Tebow's 316-Yard Passing Night a Sign From Heaven?

(Reuters/Marc Piscotty)

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow prays after the Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime in the NFL AFC wildcard playoff football game in Denver on Sunday. Although Tebow can't put his favorite Bible verse, John 3:16, on his eye black anymore, the set of numbers kept making an appearance in Sunday's game.

The Christian quarterback's passing yardage against the Steelers was 316 yards, for an average of 31.6 yards per completion. TheSportsBusiness Journal reports that in the final quarter hour of the game—in which Tebow threw the winning pass to Darius Thomas, born on Christmas Day—the TV ratings peaked at 31.6. And the Steelers' only interception took place at the third down with 16 yards to go.

What do you think? Is this just a coincidence, or an act of God?

via Charisma Online

What is God like? #12 - God is powerful: Omnipotent

God is Powerful


    And now we finally get to the "omni" words describing the attributes of God. Omni-Potent, which is having all power, also known as being Almighty. Omin-scient, which is the aspect of God having all knowledge, or being All knowing. And Omni-present, which describes the fact that God is everywhere and all over the place, including inside and outside of the known universe. These are the attributes that people first mention when you ask them about God, and therefore seem to be the ones that most people have a pretty good handle on. 


God is Omnipotent


    I had a very short career in the construction business, and I'll tell you why. My Dad got me a job with a small construction crew back in my college days. I was a laborer on this crew of guys that put down the pipes that are below the streets of housing developments. This involved all kinds of digging in all its various forms, including one of those big machines called a backhoe. On about the second day I worked for this crew we were digging a spot where several pipes were to come together, a kind of junction. But as we were watching the backhoe go at it, tearing up the earth, there was an unexpected and rather loud explosion, and by the particular sound it made we all knew that it was an electrical box that was buried probably years before and not properly labeled in the blueprints the crew was working from. The sparks went up about twenty feet in the air and those of us in the hole were up and out in a flash. I couldn't see very well for awhile because of how bright the flash was. But what I remember most was this old, hardened machine operator, Al, sitting perfectly still for about ten full minutes trying to figure out how that accident didn't kill him. It turned out that, as he hit the electrical junction box for an entire neighborhood, he had his hands and feet perfectly held by millimeters of rubber on his hands and feet and the seat he was sitting on. He said that if he had been leaning a little forward or reaching back or shifting his shoes only a little, he would have been fried to death by something like 250,000 volts of electricity. That was a very memorable experience with power.
     Perhaps you have had a similar experience of power. Perhaps it was of nearly being hit by lightning, or of being bucked off of a horse, or of plugging something into the wrong outlet. It takes a lot of power to get an airplane up off of the ground and into the air. Many people every year are killed in accidents involving power. Raw power is something that governments regulate and people are very careful around. The experience I described above was really of only a little power. Now try to imagine what ALL power could be like.
    God is said to be omnipotent, which means "having unlimited power, able to do anything." Omnipotent in God's case also has to do with the other types of power as well. God has all power of moral authority, He has all power over leaders and those in authority, and He extends His power over every kind of political and social system. The God of the Bible has all power over life and death.  Deuteronomy 32:39 states, “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."  God is described as the God above other gods, “O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?" In the psalms, God is exalted because of the power of His faithfulness, " O LORD God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you(Psa. 89:8)."
And in the New Testament it is God's power that achieves the greatest act in all history, the Resurrection,  "By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also(1Cor. 6:14)." And God's power is promised to be available to those of us who believe, "his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms(Eph 1:19-20).

Obama's Balanced Budget - Cartoon

Don’t Limit God With Little Prayers - J. Lee Grady

When I stepped into 2012, God challenged me to pray big—and to expect the unexpected.
Right before Christmas my wife and I took our youngest daughter out to dinner to celebrate her grades from her third semester in college. When we got home I sent out a tweet about the dinner, and mentioned the name of the restaurant. (Hint: It’s a popular national chain that serves Italian food—and it has the best bread sticks in the world.)

I didn’t think anything about the tweet. I was just sharing personal news about Charlotte’s accomplishments. But the next morning I got a private message from the restaurant, thanking me for the “advertising” and informing me that they were sending me a $100 gift card.

“Are you willing for God to overwhelmingly surprise you by doing something bigger than you ever expected? If you are, you may need to change the way you are praying.”

I don’t play the lottery, don’t enter sweepstakes and can’t think of another time when I won a monetary prize. So I was skeptical when I got the message—and wondered if it was a scam. But in a couple of days the gift card showed up in my mailbox. And after Christmas I took my wife, our daughters and their husbands out for a free meal.

Shortly after I got the card I was jogging near my house, and I had an intriguing conversation with the Lord. It went something like this:

God: Were you surprised when you got that gift card in the mail?

Me: Yes, Lord. Totally shocked.

God: Did you ever pray that you would win a gift card to that restaurant?

Me: No, Lord. Never even thought of praying about that.

God: Did you ever even imagine that you would be blessed like that?

Me: No, Lord, I promise I never, ever imagined that.

God: That is how I want to provide for you in 2012.

Then my thoughts were flooded with encouraging words from Ephesians 3:20: “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (The Message).

This has been the experience of men and women of faith throughout the ages. God told Abraham that he would have to count the stars and grains of sand to understand the vastness of the blessing that was headed his way. God didn’t say how He would engineer the blessing, and circumstances certainly didn’t look positive. But in the end, as Abraham hoped against hope, God defied science, caused Sarah to conceive and started the Jewish nation.

Are you willing for God to overwhelmingly surprise you by doing something bigger than you ever expected? If you are, you may need to change the way you are praying.

One of my favorite authors, Henry Blackaby, put it this way: “I have found that God always has far more to give me than I can even ask or think. ... If God wants to give you more than you are asking, would you rather have what you are asking or what God wants to give?” Andrew Murray understood the same truth. He wrote: “Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.”

I have many dreams. I want to start orphanages, establish women’s shelters and advance the gospel in many parts of the world. My goals are big but my resources don’t match them. And sometimes today’s economy looks more barren than Sarah’s womb.

But when I stepped into 2012, God challenged me to expect the unexpected and to stop limiting Him with puny prayers. He is so much bigger than what I can write down on a prayer list. If He can provide a coin from a fish’s mouth, feed a multitude with a kid’s lunch, cause the sun to stand still, make an axe-head float on water, turn water into wine, send fire from heaven, or win 5,000 converts with one sermon, then He can do exceedingly beyond whatever I can ask or think.

As you ponder your goals and plans for this new year, allow God to stretch your faith and your expectations. And then expect God to go way beyond that. Don’t settle for less than God’s best. Pray big. And ask your Father to surprise you.

J. LEE GRADY is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady.