Out of the boat

This is one of the devotions that was intended to be shared on a recent short-term mission trip...a devotion which I finally relocated after I was back home from the trip.

Out of the Boat

Jesus Walks on the Water

²² Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴ but the boat by this time was a long way^[b] from the land,^[c] beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. ²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night^[d] he came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

²⁸ And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind,^[e] he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Questions to discuss:

·         Who do you most identify with in this story?

·         Boats were familiar and comfortable to Peter. At least most of the time. Was the boat a comfortable place in this story?

·         Has Jesus called you out of your comfort zone? Share about that.

·         Pray for each other about the call of Jesus to you to “get out of the boat” and come to Him on the water.

You give them something to eat

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. ¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Questions to discuss

Jesus keeps stretching the disciples as he calls them to new faith adventures.

·         What are some of the challenging elements in the story above?

·         How would you have felt if you had been one of the disciples there that day?

·         At what point do you think the loaves and fish were multiplied? In the hand of Jesus? In the hands of the disciples? Other?

·         How has Jesus called you to take the little you have and distribute it?

·         Have you seen Jesus multiply the “loaves and fish” you have placed in His hands? What are the loaves and fish in your life?

·         Pray for one another that Jesus would bless and multiply what we place in His hands.

Idols

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21

This is the last verse in 1 John. It has always struck me as an abrupt ending to the book. And this is a book that, at first blush, is not focused on idolatry. So why does John seemingly shift gears in the last sentence of his letter?

Isaiah, now there is a book that hits the topic of idols. Just take a look at Isaiah 41. The idols are made by craftsmen from the materials he has chosen. See Isaiah 40:18-25.  The idols are strengthened by nailing them down, held together by the skill of the craftsman's soldering.but the idol has no power to speak, either in providing insight into the past or declaring what is to come. the idol has no power to act.

Idols are not always so blatant as a craved piece of wood overlaid with gold. Our culture has more idols of the mind. A person's ideas about God, unless they have the foundation of God's revelation of Himself, are idols, false gods, the work of a thought craftsman. The person may craft their own concept of God, or they may buy into the ideas of someone they know, or someone they heard on the radio, or someone who has written a book.

But God, the true God, reveals Himself in His Word. See Isaiah 40:6-17. All flesh is like grass. Man's ideas too - they fade and fail. But the word of our God stands. His revelation of Himself is faithful and sure. It doesn't, like the idols, need nails to hold it firm in place. The nails that pierced the Word made flesh demonstrate how firm God's revelation of His love and His atoning sacrifice are. They do not fade like grass. They endure.

Here is where I now begin to see why John ends his letter as he does. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." The contrast between the idols of thought constructs of mortal men and God revealed in the word of life that John introduces in 1 John 1 is the contrast between God and idols.

John's exhortation to keep ourselves from idols makes sense alongside the life from the Father that was made manifest in His Son Jesus, in the Light that overpowers the darkness, in the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from sin. It makes sense alongside the false claims that we have not sinned. "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

It is an appropriate exhortation from one who cares with the love of God himself for those to whom he is writing.

Keep yourselves from idols.

Thorns

A crown of thorns. Menacing. Malicious. Mocking. Piercing. Painful.

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

See Adam in the garden.  It was a garden without thorns. It was a garden marked with harmony, beauty, and bounty. It was a garden of open communion and conversation between creation and Creator, between man and his Maker.

But into the harmony comes dissonance and discord. Not content to exercise dominion over creation in the context of loving submission to the Creator, the poisonous seed of rebellion sprouts and invades the beautiful garden. Its fruit is death and brokenness. Thorns.

Casting aside their crowns as royal offspring, Adam and Eve grasp dust and sweat and thorns.

But from eternity past God planned an interposition of life into this spinning vortex of death. The hand of God reaches in rescue.  He reaches into this broken world to ransom, to redeem each of us who have sold ourselves as slaves to destruction. His hand does not hold gold or silver as the redemption price. Rather his hands are scarred by nails. And on his head, a crown. But this is not the royal diadem of power. It is thorns: menacing, malicious and mocking. It is the thorns that invaded and spoiled the garden, now twisted into a crown and roughly, violently pushed onto the head of Jesus. It is the crown that we grasped with Adam in the garden. Our crown, our punishment on his head.

Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

 

In A Relationship

I saw it recently on my Facebook feed.  A friend had posted that he was now in a relationship. Relationship...what does it mean?  Like some other things in the world of Facebook, it may have a slightly different meaning than in the real world.In Facebook land, it typically has a romantic or sexual connotation. 

Another example: think of the term, "friend".  What is a friend?  In Facebook nation, it can be merely an acquaintance. But what does the Bible say? Here are a few verses that demonstrate a Biblical understanding:

Exodus 33:11
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

We see a closeness and honesty of communication. God is speaking. He speaks to Moses looking him in the eye.

And another:

John 15:13-17
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

This is the relationship that matters. There is a friend that laid down his life for you.

Do you recall that relationship that you had with him, that first love?

Revelation 2:3-5
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Friend, Jesus calls you to remember your first love. Remember and love him, because he first loved you.

Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest,
 and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Some of you who are our age will recall 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966. This recording juxtaposed the music and words of Silent Night with an actual news cast from August 3, 1996. The result was powerful. It echoes the thought of Longfellow’s 1863 Christmas Bells which states, “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. 

Going back across the years, from Simon and Garfunkel in the turbulent 60s, Longfellow in the time of the Civil War, and certainly Bethlehem in the days of Herod and his slaughter of the children, the words, “on earth peace” can seem an impossible hope.  In our day of racial tension, terrorism, and growing dread of what comes next, the hunger for peace on earth aches in the hearts of men and women around the globe.

Peace on earth seems so distant as we look at the smoldering, and at times blazing, circumstances of the world around us. But there is the problem. Peace will never be found, and was never intended to be found, in the circumstances. Micah 5, the familiar prophesy of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, was spoken at another time of political turmoil. The prophet lays out the hope. “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

Do you hear it? Do you see it? Peace is not circumstances. Peace is a person. Ephesians 2:14 says it outright: “For he himself is our peace”. And in Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Hebrews calls him the King of righteousness and the King of peace.

When the angels announced the coming of Peace to the broken world, that Peace is Jesus himself. Receive Him. He is your peace.  

Snow drifts

As I write the snow is falling. Well, actually it is mostly going sideways.  This is not one of those gentle, big fluffy flakes falling slowly, softly to the ground type snows. This is a blowing, drifting, reduced visibility snow event.  Winter storm warning, blizzard conditions at times...

How can the same precipitation (snow) have such varying personality? There is the gentle, silent snow, and then there is the wild, howling snow like we are seeing today. Yet each has its beauty. Each proclaims God's glory.

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth, Sea monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; (‭Psalms‬ ‭148‬:‭1-8‬ NASB)

Yes, even the snow fulfills His word.