"After this, Jesus made His disciples get back into the boat and head out across the lake to Bethsaida......During the night the disciples were in their boat out in the middle of the lake......He saw they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o'clock in the morning He came to them, walking on the water. They screamed in terror thinking He was a ghost.....But Jesus spoke to them at once. 'Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid.' " Mark 6:45-50......"Will we take courage, or take fear?" Charlotte Gambill
I heard a powerful teaching on the above passage of scripture in Mark 6 from an English pastor and writer named Charlotte Gambill. She focused on those places in our lives where we find ourselves in the middle of our spiritual journey, and all that is entailed in that journey. Our relationship with Him, with one another. Marriage. Ministry. Life. It's in the middle places in all of those that our greatest tests can come. In the middle places, will we believe what we say we believe? Will we believe the God we say we believe in?
I've always been intrigued by the failure of the disciples to recognize Christ as He came walking on the water towards them. Why? Gambill says that it's clear that the Jesus that came to them on the middle of the lake did not look at all like the Jesus they knew on the safety of the shore. This speaks to me that in those middle places into which He sends us, when we are far from our starting point, but equally far from our destination, Jesus will very likely show up in ways we never expected, appearing in forms we never knew. The middle place that, like the disciples struggled to go past, cause us to call upon a Jesus we think we know well. A safe, predictable Jesus who operates in ways that give us a feeling of control, that give us a sense, a false sense, of security. When all that is shattered while we're floundering about in the middle of the lake, will we still trust Him? Believe Him? Know Him? When we're still far from the shore, and the wind and waves are increasing in their intensity, will we, as Gambill asks, take courage in Him, or take fear without Him?
James Robison said that in that storm, Jesus came walking on the very things that troubled the disciples. They saw everything against them. They did not see or recognize the One who commanded and ruled over all that was against them. Gambill said that, "In the worst case scenarios, He will show He is the best God possible." It is so easy to say we believe these things, trusting in their truth while we are on the shore. Out in the middle of the lake, amidst the wind and waves, we'll be put fully to the test. Will we take belief or unbelief?
Many of us may be in that middle place right now. Rowing hard and getting nowhere. It may have been going on for a long time. It may go on longer still. How will we respond? Cry out to Him to get us swiftly to the other side? Complain that He's even allowed us here at all? Or, will we trust Him no matter what the situation around us looks like, and no matter how the appearance of His Presence seems to be, or not be at all? He has something greater in mind for us than just getting us to the other side. Oswald Chambers said our eagerness to be done with a trial robs us of all that He wants to do in us in the process of that trial. It robs us of His gift of Himself in the storm, and robs Him of the joy of giving Himself to us there.
One way or another, we'll all find ourselves in the middle someday or this day. What will we take there? Fear? Courage? The lie? The Truth? Jesus?
Blessings,
Pastor O
I've always been intrigued by the failure of the disciples to recognize Christ as He came walking on the water towards them. Why? Gambill says that it's clear that the Jesus that came to them on the middle of the lake did not look at all like the Jesus they knew on the safety of the shore. This speaks to me that in those middle places into which He sends us, when we are far from our starting point, but equally far from our destination, Jesus will very likely show up in ways we never expected, appearing in forms we never knew. The middle place that, like the disciples struggled to go past, cause us to call upon a Jesus we think we know well. A safe, predictable Jesus who operates in ways that give us a feeling of control, that give us a sense, a false sense, of security. When all that is shattered while we're floundering about in the middle of the lake, will we still trust Him? Believe Him? Know Him? When we're still far from the shore, and the wind and waves are increasing in their intensity, will we, as Gambill asks, take courage in Him, or take fear without Him?
James Robison said that in that storm, Jesus came walking on the very things that troubled the disciples. They saw everything against them. They did not see or recognize the One who commanded and ruled over all that was against them. Gambill said that, "In the worst case scenarios, He will show He is the best God possible." It is so easy to say we believe these things, trusting in their truth while we are on the shore. Out in the middle of the lake, amidst the wind and waves, we'll be put fully to the test. Will we take belief or unbelief?
Many of us may be in that middle place right now. Rowing hard and getting nowhere. It may have been going on for a long time. It may go on longer still. How will we respond? Cry out to Him to get us swiftly to the other side? Complain that He's even allowed us here at all? Or, will we trust Him no matter what the situation around us looks like, and no matter how the appearance of His Presence seems to be, or not be at all? He has something greater in mind for us than just getting us to the other side. Oswald Chambers said our eagerness to be done with a trial robs us of all that He wants to do in us in the process of that trial. It robs us of His gift of Himself in the storm, and robs Him of the joy of giving Himself to us there.
One way or another, we'll all find ourselves in the middle someday or this day. What will we take there? Fear? Courage? The lie? The Truth? Jesus?
Blessings,
Pastor O
No comments:
Post a Comment