Matt. 14:28,29, (NLT) Then Peter called to him, "Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water." "Yes, come," Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
Jesus sent the disciples out on the boat in order to cross over to the other side, and again like once before a storm arose. This time Jesus was not in the boat with them to calm the waters when they thought they were going to die. They had learned that if Jesus was with them they would be safe. But this time Jesus was not with them. The storm was getting bad, it was the middle of the night, all they could think to do was row as hard as they could to get to the shore. Then suddenly they saw a spirit coming for them, was it the angel of death that took the lives of the firstborn in Egypt during the plagues? Was the angel of death now coming for them? They were not thinking clearly, this was a time of stress, they were tired and scared, and there was someone or something moving, walking on the water. That would be enough to freak anyone out. They had to be thinking, why did Jesus send us out on this boat? “We must be about to die.”
When fear reached the stage of hopelessness, Jesus tried to reveal Himself to them, coming to their rescue, but they didn’t recognize Him. Jesus called out to them and told them not to be afraid. He tried to tell them to have courage, I am on my way! In the storm once before, Jesus was right beside them asleep in the storm. This time Jesus wanted to take the storm out of them before He took them out of the storm of life.
They all must have wondered if it really was Jesus or just their imagination. But Peter, impulsive as always, asked Jesus to tell him to come out on the water with him if this was really happening. Jesus didn't say, "Sorry, Peter, but water-walking is Just for Messiahs only." No, he said one simple word: “Come.”
Peter climbed out onto the stormy waves and started walking on the water! But almost immediately after he started, he took his eyes off Jesus and started to regret this crazy idea. “Help me Lord” he shouted, as he began to drop beneath the waves. Immediately Jesus was at his side and lifted him up and walked with him back into the boat.
God calls us to do impossible things by faith. And sometimes, like Peter, we step right out to do them without thinking. And that is when Satan hits us upside the head. Life reminds us that drowning is a real possibility. Although it must have taken a lot of faith for Peter to take that first step out of the boat in the middle of the night with gust of wind and rain knocking him off balance and big waves rolling right
toward him. “What was I thinking?”
What kind of boat did Jesus tell you to get in? It is inevitable, if you are in Jesus’ boat long enough Satan is going to send you a storm. To have faith it is not always a requirement to walk on water. But it is a requirement to keep your eyes on Jesus and recognize His presence coming to your rescue, or possibly He has been beside you all along and you forgot He was there. Don’t let the circumstances make you forget that Jesus is never far away. If you want to walk on water like Peter did, you can. Storms are God’s specialty, claim the promise He made to Peter, “come.” The promise Jesus has always made to us, “come unto me” is ours to claim. If He is on the water, then there is no better place for you to be than there with Him too.
Remember Peter didn’t choose to go on a boat ride on his own. Jesus sent him. Be like Peter and believe you can do the impossible, if Jesus called you to be where you are, but the situation looks impossible, then it is time to do the impossible. It is time to climb out of the boat.
Describe the last storm of life you remember being in? Explain in detail how you responded to the situation? Did your response fall into one of these categories:
1. Did you try to row to the shore to get to safety as quickly as possible?
2. Did you quit and call the coast guard to rescue you out of the boat?
3. Did you ignore the storm and wait it out?
4. Did you forget Jesus was asleep in the boat and wake him up and request He calm the sea for you?
5. Did you say “Take me with you Lord,” please, take me out on the water with you?
Summarize why you think your response to the storm fit into one of these five categories? Or share and summarize your own different category?
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Hebrews 12:1-2
Heb 12:1-2 (NLT) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.”
Heb. 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please God.” So it is important for us to know what faith is and how to apply it. I believe faith has three essential elements, in the same way that fire must have three specific ingredients to burn: oxygen + combustible material +heat, without any one of these ingredients fire cannot burn. Likewise faith must have these three ingredients to activate it: hope + plausibility + questioning, without any one of these ingredients faith cannot work.
1st - Hope: Hope is the active ingredient of faith, as heat is the active ingredient of fire. There must be something you are hoping for; otherwise having faith in it would be irrelevant. We ultimately have hope in the promises of God. Therefore, God’s promises acts as the catalyst that motivates our faith (a catalyst causes a reaction.) “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Rom. 10:17.
2nd - Plausibility: The thing that you are hoping for must have at least the smallest degree of possibility. Something that is absolutely impossible or totally untrue is unworthy of faith. For example, one should not put any faith in the ability to become invisible or to jump off a building and fly. Plausibility is the fuel for our faith, the combustible material. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” (Heb. 11:1.) Substance means material. If it is plausible then it is the real or essential part of the element of that thing. A substance is the physical matter of which a thing consists. It is the REAL part of our lives. In the end, there must be substance in what we have faith in otherwise our faith in it will be impossible to maintain over a long period of time.
3rd - Questioning: A small degree of doubt must exist otherwise faith becomes a fact. “and (faith) is the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1.) However, there must be a balance because God never asks us to believe without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. But at the same time if something is a proven fact, faith in it becomes obsolete, for example, the fact that “the earth is round.” This fact needs no faith to accept it as truth because we already know it is 100% true. A hint of question will always exist in everything because God never removes the possibility of doubt. This is why our faith must rest upon evidence of things unseen, not things proven. Here is the dichotomy, on one hand; you can snuff out a fire by removing its source of oxygen, like you can snuff out faith by turning it into a fact. Likewise, on the other hand; if you have too much doubt, it will blow out the faith in the same way the wind blows out a match.
Hebrews Ch. 11 traced the history of some of the great men and women of the Bible leading up to Hebrews Ch. 12 (the huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith spoken about.) Let’s look at a few of them and see how their faith consisted of hope + plausibility + questioning.
We are told in Heb 11:7 that Noah was “warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Noah had hope because God promised to save him from the flood, it was plausible because God said it would happen, and was there room for doubt? Sure there was, the whole earth covered in water, that was an enormous question! Abraham in Heb 11:8 was “called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” There was hope, God promised him the inheritance of a “city whose architect and builder is God.” Was this plausible, yes, the New Jerusalem, in Heaven is the city he looked for. Was there the possibility of doubt? Yes, there was. He searched for that city, but never found it, but still claimed it as the inheritance of his children. Abraham and Sarah were promised descendants as “numerous as the stars in the sky,” they had hope. But they were past the age of having children and had none up to that point, they had doubt, nearly too much doubt. This is what made Abraham’s faith so great, to anyone else the promise was implausible, but to Abraham, because God said it He believed it even though Sara laughed at the idea. Moses and the children of Israel “crossed the Red Sea on dry land.” They had hope; God promised them that he would deliver them from out of Egypt. The Egyptian army was swarming down upon them to kill them and take revenge on them for the plagues. They were trapped between the mountains on two sides, the Egyptians behind them and the Red Sea in front of them. To Moses the escape was plausible, so he struck the Red Sea with his rod, and the sea divided. Was there the possibility of doubt that God could rescue them? You better believe it.
The Christian life involves hoping in circumstances where the plausibility seems to be an enormous question. Do we have faith to overcome the doubt or not? To be able to trust God without questioning Him requires that we are spiritually strong. To become strong we need to give up those things that weaken our relationship with God. Our faith needs to be able to run life's race with endurance. The scripture suggest that we cast off any sins because they slow down or faith. Surrender your load of sins at the foot of the cross and by the power of the Holy Spirit start running by faith. To not just walk by faith, but in order to run by faith effectively, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. If we keep our eyes on Him we will not stumble. Looking away from Him in order to to look at ourselves or at the circumstances surrounding us makes the doubts grow so large that they can snuff out our faith. Finally, we need to be running this race for Christ, not for ourselves, because when we win the race and people see our great acts of faith we will glory God, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
God's promise to us is that if we are faithful, and continue follow him, we will stand before His throne and sing for joy a new song about how he redeemed us. (Rev 14:3)
Have you ever had faith that God could really do something outrageously big, almost implausible? What was it? Describe any hint of doubt you had that He would actually do it?
Heb. 11:6 says “without faith it is impossible to please God.” So it is important for us to know what faith is and how to apply it. I believe faith has three essential elements, in the same way that fire must have three specific ingredients to burn: oxygen + combustible material +heat, without any one of these ingredients fire cannot burn. Likewise faith must have these three ingredients to activate it: hope + plausibility + questioning, without any one of these ingredients faith cannot work.
1st - Hope: Hope is the active ingredient of faith, as heat is the active ingredient of fire. There must be something you are hoping for; otherwise having faith in it would be irrelevant. We ultimately have hope in the promises of God. Therefore, God’s promises acts as the catalyst that motivates our faith (a catalyst causes a reaction.) “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Rom. 10:17.
2nd - Plausibility: The thing that you are hoping for must have at least the smallest degree of possibility. Something that is absolutely impossible or totally untrue is unworthy of faith. For example, one should not put any faith in the ability to become invisible or to jump off a building and fly. Plausibility is the fuel for our faith, the combustible material. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for,” (Heb. 11:1.) Substance means material. If it is plausible then it is the real or essential part of the element of that thing. A substance is the physical matter of which a thing consists. It is the REAL part of our lives. In the end, there must be substance in what we have faith in otherwise our faith in it will be impossible to maintain over a long period of time.
3rd - Questioning: A small degree of doubt must exist otherwise faith becomes a fact. “and (faith) is the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1.) However, there must be a balance because God never asks us to believe without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. But at the same time if something is a proven fact, faith in it becomes obsolete, for example, the fact that “the earth is round.” This fact needs no faith to accept it as truth because we already know it is 100% true. A hint of question will always exist in everything because God never removes the possibility of doubt. This is why our faith must rest upon evidence of things unseen, not things proven. Here is the dichotomy, on one hand; you can snuff out a fire by removing its source of oxygen, like you can snuff out faith by turning it into a fact. Likewise, on the other hand; if you have too much doubt, it will blow out the faith in the same way the wind blows out a match.
Hebrews Ch. 11 traced the history of some of the great men and women of the Bible leading up to Hebrews Ch. 12 (the huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith spoken about.) Let’s look at a few of them and see how their faith consisted of hope + plausibility + questioning.
We are told in Heb 11:7 that Noah was “warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Noah had hope because God promised to save him from the flood, it was plausible because God said it would happen, and was there room for doubt? Sure there was, the whole earth covered in water, that was an enormous question! Abraham in Heb 11:8 was “called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” There was hope, God promised him the inheritance of a “city whose architect and builder is God.” Was this plausible, yes, the New Jerusalem, in Heaven is the city he looked for. Was there the possibility of doubt? Yes, there was. He searched for that city, but never found it, but still claimed it as the inheritance of his children. Abraham and Sarah were promised descendants as “numerous as the stars in the sky,” they had hope. But they were past the age of having children and had none up to that point, they had doubt, nearly too much doubt. This is what made Abraham’s faith so great, to anyone else the promise was implausible, but to Abraham, because God said it He believed it even though Sara laughed at the idea. Moses and the children of Israel “crossed the Red Sea on dry land.” They had hope; God promised them that he would deliver them from out of Egypt. The Egyptian army was swarming down upon them to kill them and take revenge on them for the plagues. They were trapped between the mountains on two sides, the Egyptians behind them and the Red Sea in front of them. To Moses the escape was plausible, so he struck the Red Sea with his rod, and the sea divided. Was there the possibility of doubt that God could rescue them? You better believe it.
The Christian life involves hoping in circumstances where the plausibility seems to be an enormous question. Do we have faith to overcome the doubt or not? To be able to trust God without questioning Him requires that we are spiritually strong. To become strong we need to give up those things that weaken our relationship with God. Our faith needs to be able to run life's race with endurance. The scripture suggest that we cast off any sins because they slow down or faith. Surrender your load of sins at the foot of the cross and by the power of the Holy Spirit start running by faith. To not just walk by faith, but in order to run by faith effectively, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. If we keep our eyes on Him we will not stumble. Looking away from Him in order to to look at ourselves or at the circumstances surrounding us makes the doubts grow so large that they can snuff out our faith. Finally, we need to be running this race for Christ, not for ourselves, because when we win the race and people see our great acts of faith we will glory God, who is the author and finisher of our faith.
God's promise to us is that if we are faithful, and continue follow him, we will stand before His throne and sing for joy a new song about how he redeemed us. (Rev 14:3)
Have you ever had faith that God could really do something outrageously big, almost implausible? What was it? Describe any hint of doubt you had that He would actually do it?
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