The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-28

The Bible is not just a collection of disconnected stories and lessons about God and people. While it has many varied stories, overall it is one unfolding story of God’s plan to rescue His creation from the ruin of sin. Hundreds of years before Jesus’ earthly ministry, God revealed the following through His prophet Ezekiel.

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say even to the shepherds, “Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6My sheep were scattered...with none to search or seek for them….11Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep & will seek them out. 12As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, & I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered.” – Ezekiel 34:1-6 & 11-12

In this OT text, God told Ezekiel to announce that He was coming in person to save His flock since the pastors who were supposed to take care of His people were too busy caring for themselves to care for others. In John 10, Jesus announces the fulfillment of that prophecy by stating that He is the Good Shepherd who has come to seek and save His own.

Since we don’t do a lot of sheep herding here these days, a little background may help us understand this parable better. Jesus refers to two different commonly used types of sheep pens. One was used for open fields. The other was used in villages. Village pens were communal. Shepherds mingled their sheep in a common pen that was watched over night by a gatekeeper. The mingling was no problem, because in the morning the shepherd would come to the gate and call his sheep, who would only run to his voice. If an unfamiliar voice called his sheep, they would run away. In the field, shepherds built pens that were little more than a circle of rocks, perhaps with briars on the top. They did not have swinging gates. Instead, the shepherd himself laid down in the pen’s opening and thus became its gate. Hopefully, this helps clear-up possible confusion about our text, which has mountains of material to mine. Let’s limit our focus today to motivations, authority, and security.

Jesus declared that His motivation was His love for His sheep and His desire to give them abundant life. He declared that He loved His sheep more than His life, which was the exact opposite condition of the hirelings’ hearts. When the going gets tough, hirelings (fair-weathered pastors in it for selfish gain) get going the other way. Hardship reveals they feel they’re not getting paid enough to loose their lives for sheep. So, Jesus is in it for love and life. Hirelings are in it for themselves, and Satan is only in it to steal, kill and destroy. Yesterday, a few of us got to go crabbing on the Puget Sound. From the vantage point of the crabs, we were acting a lot like the devil. We were only offering them easy access to fresh chicken, because we wanted to steal them from their home, kill them on the shore, and destroy them so we could eat them. Never forget that no matter how tempting the pleasure of sin appears, the motivation for offering it is your destruction and the harm of those you love. I am so glad Jesus has come that we might have life and have it abundantly and that He has the authority He needs to give it to us!

Apparently wanting to emphasize the depth of His love for His people, Jesus emphasizes His authority and the reality that He is voluntarily offering His life to save and protect His sheep. The Good Shepherd is also the sacrificial Lamb of God that takes away our sin, but He is never to be mistaken as a victim of more powerful opponents. He is the victor who conquered death, sin and Satan to save His sheep from the same! This could be legitimately doubted were it not for His authenticating demonstration of His authority over these enemies - His resurrection. He said He had the God-given authority to lay down His life (easy enough to say in the face of enemies who appear able to kill you) and the authority to take it up again (not easy to say and even harder to do).

By assuring us of His great love and authority, our Good Shepherd gives us great security. He goes even further to make sure we know we are safe with Him. First, He says that He knows each of us personally. Next, He says that He always protects His own. Finally, He says He gives us everlasting life that cannot be lost. During His earthly ministry, Jesus called His sheep by name. Matthew, Zacchaeus, and even Lazarus all left their lives (and deaths) and came to Christ in response to Him calling them by name. We believe and follow Jesus home because we belong to Him. So, if we foolishly take our eyes off our Shepherd and get our wool dirty, it does not mean we are no longer His sheep anymore than your children breaking rules means they’re not yours anymore. We are His, and we are going home to be with Him forever. In the meantime, He shields us to come into God’s holy presence without being destroyed by God's holiness and to go out into a morally filthy world without being destroyed by its corruption. Thus, He provides spiritual nourishment and protection as we share His Good News with others so that His lost sheep in the folds around us can also hear His voice, join His flock and follow Him home.

In Her Place (Costly Grace)

John 8:1-11

Have you ever wished you could be in someone else’s shoes at least for a moment? If you like sports and see a great player making a great play, you might think, “man, I’d love to be that guy right now.” We usually have those fleeting (hopefully) ‘trading places’ fantasy moments about someone who is having a highlight moment. We rarely think “man, I’d love to be that guy right now” about the place-kicker who just shanked a chip shot to lose the game. That’s when we think “man I’m glad I’m not that guy right now.” In our text, a woman caught in adultery in a time and place when it was a capital offense is brought into a courtyard, publicly humiliated and threatened with execution. How would you like to be in her shoes at that moment? I suspect not so much, but that is exactly what Jesus chose to do - to put Himself in her place and ours. John Stott once wrote, “The essence of sin is we humans substituting ourselves for God, and the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for us. We put ourselves were only God deserves to be, and God puts Himself where we deserve to be.” This account shows our need for grace, the cost of grace and the power of grace.

First, let’s look at our need for grace. The woman’s need for grace is obvious. She was caught in an act of lawlessness and facing immediate execution at the hands of legalistic accusers, who were using her to trap Jesus. It was a clever move. They probably felt like a chess player with an opponent in checkmate. My opponent can zig or they can zag, but they can’t win. In this case, if Jesus let the woman go, they could accuse Him of not upholding God’s Law and thus condoning sin. If, on the other hand, Jesus upheld the Law and condemned the woman, His message and ministry of compassion was publicly discredited and open to ridicule. “Oh yea, blessed are the merciful, huh?” Of course, playing ‘outwit the Son of God’ is a can’t win proposition, and Jesus cleverly turned their move back on them. In the process He also exposed their need for grace. No one, and that certainly includes me, knows what Jesus was writing, but I wonder if it was commandments from God’s Law, which acts as a mirror showing us our sin and need for grace. In any event, He gave a condition that forced anyone who threw a stone to declare themselves sinless in front of the crowd and their hyper-judgmental peers. The oldest (wisest), who were the first to know that they had been outwitted, dropped their stones and headed home. Jesus, the only one actually meeting the sinless qualification needed to condemn, chose not to. As He had stated before, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him”-John 3:17. The question is how was Jesus free to let her go free without dishonoring God’s Law and God?

The answer is that He knew He would soon endure her condemnation in her place. As hard as it is to say, this woman deserved execution. So did her accusers, and so do we. We are all guilty of sin, and we all face condemnation in the ‘courtyard’ of heaven, where nothing is hidden. Thankfully, Jesus took her place (and ours) on the cross. That is what true grace, grace that does not condemn sinners or condone sin, costs. God is only free to let us go free, because He paid the full price for our sin. “God presented (Jesus) as an atoning sacrifice...to demonstrate His justice because...He left sins committed...unpunished”- Romans 3:25. John Piper said it well. “If God was unjust there would be no demand for His Son to die. If God were unloving there would be no willingness for His Son to die. But, God is both just and loving. Therefore, His love is willing to meet the demands of His justice.” Anything less than price-paying grace is cheap grace, and if we think about it, true grace always costs the one giving it. Not only does the grace-giver absorb the original losses of the sin against them. They also absorb the pain of forfeiting the consolation of just retribution. When we (or a loved one) are mistreated and choose not to mistreat in return, it can feel like it is killing us not to kill them. This is a taste of the death grace requires, but it is still not the whole meal. Grace not only withholds condemnation from someone who deserves it. It blesses them instead. So, grace costs the giver the pain of the original injustice, plus the pain of not condemning the offender and the pain of blessing them instead. Grace costs a lot, but it is worth its high price, since the death grace requires brings a resurrection of life.

Only grace, true costly grace given free of charge to the undeserving, has the power to break the cycle of sin and condemnation. We can think of God’s Law as legs supporting condemnation. When God’s Law is broken condemnation is sure to fall upon those under it. The point is God’s Law has the power to condemn, but it does not have the power to redeem. This is why “God sent forth His Son...born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law”- Galatians 4:4-5. Since the condemnation due to us fell upon Christ, we are free to leave with our lives and to leave our lives of sin. We are liberated by the reality that there is no longer any condemnation hanging over our heads. Instead of growing worry and resentment, we are filled with gratitude for grace and satisfied in the secure love of God. This increasingly empowers us to answer God's call to "sin no more." Grace also disarms our spiritual accusers. Just like the guilty accusers could not condemn the woman caught in adultery. Our accusers can not condemn us in God’s court. “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died”- Romans 8:33-34. Grace disarms our accusers, allows us to escape death and frees us to leave our lives of sin behind. It is amazing indeed, and God calls all the beneficiaries of His saving grace to freely give costly-grace to everyone else. This means dropping our stones of condemnation and blessing those who curse us. It may feel like it is killing us to do so, but it will free everyone involved from the guilty cycle of sin and death and the bitter poison of bitterness.

Truth's Freedom

John 8:31-36

Friday a number of us celebrated the 4th with the three F's (Frisbee, football and fireworks) at the "Freedom Fest" on Fort Lewis. It has become something of a tradition, and once again it was a lot of fun. Of course, it is tradition throughout the U.S. to celebrate America's independence and the liberties we enjoy as citizens. Many people around the world long for such liberties, and America is recognized as an inviting liberty hub the world over. In fact, the Statue of Liberty extends the famous invitation "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free." The last phrase, "yearning to breathe free," captures my attention. You see I think there is a significant and often missed distinction between liberty and freedom. I think the best the U. S. or any country can offer anyone is liberty. Consider, for example, a person addicted to a legal substance in our country. They may have the liberty to purchase that substance at will, but they certainly are not free. Their wills are enslaved. Freedom, the true freedom described in our text, is more than liberty, and it is something only God can give.

In our text, Jesus is addressing people who have believed His message up to a certain point but not unto salvation. They are in the same spiritual condition that many people, including many church-going people, find themselves in today. They are not overtly denying Him, but they are not in committed union with Him either. Thankfully, Jesus works to fan such flickering faith, initial sparks insufficient to save, into the bright flames of saving faith that illuminate our darkness, consume our doubts and fuel the perseverance that we need to know true freedom. One of the better stories I know (sort of an oldie but goodie) to illustrate the difference between belief that savingly binds us to Christ and belief that leaves us left behind is the story of James Francois Gravalet, better known in his day as the Great Blondin. He once tight-roped 1,100 feet across Niagara Falls carrying a man on his back. He took him across and back suspended 160 feet above the waters below. When he arrived safely back, he asked a man in the crowd, "Do you believe that I could do that with you?" “Of course, I’ve just seen you do it,” the man replied. “Well, hop on,” said Blondin, “and I’ll take you to the other side.” The man answered, “Not on your life!” That is the difference between believing something enough to honestly say you believe it and believing something enough to stake your life on it. Biblical belief, saving faith that unites us to Christ who carries us across the chasm our sin has fixed between us and God, is committed belief that stakes life on Christ. Have you stepped out like that? Are you putting the full weight of your relationship with God on Jesus? If not, why not? Have you researched Jesus diligently and come to some nagging intellectual questions that will not let you go any further? If so, let’s prayerfully and diligently investigate them. Contrary to popular belief, biblical belief is not blind faith. It is committed trust in truth that God has revealed and authenticated, and it brings many blessings. Jesus gives three in our text: authenticated discipleship (assurance of our acceptance), spiritual insight (spiritual ability to know God’s revealed truth), and true freedom (from sin’s penalty, power, and presence).

Those who hold on to Jesus and persevere with Him by exercising committed faith in Him have His word that they are (prayerfully we are) His true disciples. If we picture Jesus as carrying us on a narrow way across a chasm, much like the tight-rope across Niagara Falls, it is not hard to see that those who try to hop off early or to wiggle their own way back to where they came from will lose their assurance, at least, of making it to the other side, but those who hang on will rest easier and easier with increasing security the further they are carried by Christ. One of Jesus’ first fully-committed followers Peter encouraged us all to seek such security when he wrote, “Make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things (persevere in the behaviors belief produces), you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” - 2 Peter 1:10-11. Persevering faith in our committed relationship with Christ is not effortless, but it's worth it. In all good relationships, the depth of our knowledge of each other grows over time. Many of the blessings in our relationship with Christ are not instant. They come with time and distance traveled and blessed assurance is one of those. So, growing assurance of our acceptance in Christ flows from fully-committed faith, and it is an important key into the freedom of greater delight in God, who comforts us with growing security.

Jesus also promises that His true disciples will know the truth. In a world of confusion and remarkable uncertainty, this is a bigger deal than it may at first appear, and it is not something that we can do on our own. The once spiritually blind religious zealot Paul wrote, after Jesus miraculously granted Him spiritual sight and simultaneously physically blinded him (literally blinded by the light) on the Damascus Road, “We have…received the…Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. Those without the Spirit do not accept the things from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to them. They can’t understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” – 1 Corinthians 2:12-14. Those who trust Jesus with their lives are indwelt by God’s Spirit. The great chasm between us and God is erased in Christ, and we are reconciled to God so completely that the very Holy Spirit who inspired the Scriptures, illuminates our understanding so that we recognize and resonate with spiritual truth and reject spiritual error. Jesus declared this would happen when He began His public ministry by reading the following from Isaiah - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed” – Luke 4:18. He not only promised His people spiritual insight in this biblical purpose statement for His ministry. He also promised our next blessing - true freedom.

Jesus’ original hearers did not know that they were not free and many people today, perhaps even particularly in America – ‘the land of the free,’ don’t know that they are slaves. Some of the original audience referred to their heritage as an indication that they were free and some today speak of their Christian heritage as evidence that they are free in Christ. This is not so. While participating in a family of faith has many blessings, biblical belief is not inherited. Each person has their own relationship with Christ. While a right relationship with God in Christ cannot be inherited, inheriting a sinful nature cannot be avoided. We are all born sin slaves, who must be born-again in Christ to be set free. A sinner is not something we become once we commit a sin. We are certain to sin, because that is who we are by nature. That is why no amount of moralizing can permanently free a slave from sin’s power. As Jesus said, “A slave does not stay in the house forever.” As sin-slaves, we may have momentary blessed experiences with God outside of saving-union with Christ, but that does not make us permanent residents of heaven. It just means God is privileging us, as He says He will in multiple Scriptures, to “taste and see” that He is good. Only a permanent relationship with God in Christ can free a person from slavery to sin’s penalty (death), power (progressively) and presence (ultimately). That, and nothing less, is the truth’s freedom, and God alone can give it. Thankfully, He is happy to give it to everyone who gives their fully-committed faith to Christ. That's why as Jesus, God’s unique eternal Son, declares, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Are you free indeed? Do you know that you know Christ is carrying you home to be with Him forever? Though it is rough road sometimes, are you experiencing growing intimacy with God and diminishing oppression from sin? I pray so. If not, you can be. You can begin right now by sincerely turning to God, acknowledging your sin and need for a Savior and trusting Jesus with the full weight of your life.

I also pray that we as a church will honor our “Live the Life” commitment to “Share the Truth” about God, His word and ourselves with humility, kindness and courage. If we will do so, I trust God to bless our obedience and create a liberating atmosphere of integrity that frees people to safely open up and deal honestly with the remaining symptoms of our sin and brokenness. God calls us to confess our sins one to another that we might be healed from sin’s power, and Jesus prayed that God would sanctify us, that is set us apart and make us holy, with the truth, which He declared to be God’s word. Our community groups can provide a great opportunity for you to grow together with other imperfect people, who are being carried home by Christ and progressively set free from sin’s power through the truth of God’s word and honesty with each other. I pray that you will talk with the leader of the group nearest you and take steps to connect and grow. Let’s pray.

God's Dividing Line

John 7

I grew up in Alabama. You may or may not be aware that a cultural dividing line cuts Alabama roughly in half. You see about half of the people in Alabama are Alabama and the other half are Auburn. When I would make a new acquaintance playing as a child, it would not take long for the defining question to be asked: "Are you Auburn or Alabama?" It was never, "Are you for Auburn or for Alabama?" It was, "Are you Auburn or Alabama?" Your very identity hung on your answer. I am not sure if the line is just as defining as it was when I was a child and Bear Bryant was rolling his Tide over my Tigers to repeated National Championships, but I am certain it still remains. Humanity has created many dividing lines to define and group people together. Some are kind of silly (Auburn-Alabama). Some are a little more serious (Democrat-Republican), and some are more serious still (Capitalist-Communist). In John 7, God's dividing line, by far the most serious of all, is becoming increasingly clear. As the spiritual war to redeem creation heats up, apparent neutrality (no such thing actually exist) is disappearing, and it is becoming clear who is 'pro' and who is 'anti' Christ.

In verses One through Nine, we see God's dividing line runs right through Jesus' biological family. Initially members of His own house rejected Jesus' identity as God's Messiah. He said this would be the case and that we should expect the same in our homes (Matthew 10:34-37). Initially Jesus' brothers were giving Him grief, but what a different tone we hear from Jesus' brother James once He had crossed God's dividing line (James 1:1). From his new perspective, Jesus is no longer a liar or a lunatic - He is the one and only Lord! Those really are the only options Jesus gave. He said He was the eternal, sinless Son of God incarnate and that He was God's perfect, exclusive way for sinful people to be reconciled to holy God and that every one's destiny depends on Him. If He was not and did not know He was not, He was a deranged megalomaniac. If He was not and knew He was not, He was a liar of epic proportions. If, however, He was who He said was, He was and is the Lord. As C. S. Lewis famously said, "You can shut Him up as a fool. You can spit on Him and kill Him as demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

So, people can only straddle the Jesus fence for so long. Ultimately we are all either in or out and which side we are on makes all the difference. As John the Baptizer said He would, Jesus baptizes (immerses) all people in either God's Spirit or God's fire (Matthew 3:10-12). Those baptized by God's Spirit live radically different lives. In verses 37-39, quite possibly during the portion of the Feast of Tabernacles when jars of water were ceremonially poured onto the altar, Jesus announced that every one who thirsts should come to Him for living water. He said springs of spiritually-refreshing water would flow from the hearts of all who received God's Spirit by trusting Him, God's Savior. Not only are those who receive Christ refreshed by God's Spirit. They are, hopefully we are, led by God's Spirit. Throughout this chapter, we see Jesus, the Spirit-filled and Spirit-led Christ, carefully following God's timetable. He tells His brothers they can go wherever whenever, but that He must go where God leads when God leads. The same is true of all true believers. We are God-called and enabled to be Spirit-filled (Ephesians 5:18) and Spirit-led (Galatians 5:25). We are also God-called and enabled to ultimately be with Christ in glory, which is impossible for those choosing to remain on the other side of God's line (verses 32-34).

God has extended His open invitation to all. Every one is invited to cross over in Christ, but this requires us to be truth-seekers who sincerely investigate Jesus' claims to be the Christ. Doing so takes more than the passing 'effort' of those whose hearts were already made up against Jesus in verses 41-52. Honestly, how much would it have taken to discover Jesus was born in Bethlehem if they had really wanted to know? I see this same thing with people who throw out dismissals of the Bible as "full of contradictions." Their hearts are made up, and they grab and repeat unverified claims to justify their rejection. If you have sincere doubts, please prayerfully seek the truth and invest the energy needed to dig beneath the surface. God is there, and He assures us that we will find Him, when we seek Him with all of our hearts (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

God is not only there. God is holy. He is perfectly pure and righteous in and of Himself. Every one else depends on God for holiness, because sadly we are all corrupted and sinful. God separates the people in Christ from sin's penalty, power and presence thus making them holy or set-apart from corruption by and for God. So, the big question is which side of God's dividing line are you on? Are you in Christ or out? Holy or not? Spirit-filled or empty? Spirit-led or lost? Saved or Condemned?

Heroic Fatherhood

My son and I recently went to see Ironman. He is at the age where our Father-Son movies often involve superheroes or transforming robots. Anyway, Ironman was better than I expected, and I was struck by a metaphor involving the heart change of the main character, Tony Stark. Without giving the movie away, he was forced to have a power-supply implanted in his chest, which he used to power the armor suit he wore as Ironman. The somewhat ironic picture that played out over the movie was that Tony Stark became more fully human with his implanted power supply (his changed heart) and his mechanized armor suit than he had been previously. He had been extremely self-centered, indulgent and childishly unconcerned about his impact on others. While his transformation was far from complete, he became much more aware, involved and concerned for others, and he began to use his abilities to protect and benefit those he once carelessly neglected and harmed. I think that is a bit like the transformation men need to undergo to become heroic fathers.

While we don't need miniature "arc reactors" in our chests to empower us, we do need new hearts and God's Spirit. Thankfully, God promises to give us just that through His prophet Ezekiel, who wrote “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws”- Ezekiel 36:26-27. When we receive God's gift of saving grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us to live new God-centered lives. Thus, God-centered heroic fatherhood is not something we muster up in our strength. Rather, it is something God does in and through us as we rely on His infinite strength and wisdom. With that in mind, let's look at two short verses Paul wrote to men in the church at Corinth and consider how they apply to fathers today.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love” – 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

To be heroic fathers, we first need to be on guard or more literally to "watch" our children. Particularly when they are young, our children often say, "Watch me...watch this," and God says the same thing, "Watch them...watch that!" So, from above and below we are getting the same message - give our children our attention. Be aware and get involved. Guard them and guide them into truth and righteousness, which also requires us to stand firm in the faith. We are to stand like dams against the rising waters of worldliness protecting the generations downstream. If we give a bit here and give a bit there rather than doing the hard work of anchoring our faith through serious Bible study, vigorous prayer and sincere obedience, the little leaks that come through our little lapses will soon undermine our integrity altogether and quite likely allow our children to be swept away. So, heroic dads need to be on guard, to stand firm in the faith, and we need to be strong and courageous, which is the same admonition God repeatedly gave Joshua as he prepared to lead God's people into the Promised Land. Fathers need the same qualities to lead our children to take possession of God's best for their lives.

This is written in a passive voice, which does not seem to fit a call to be strong. Here is why. We could translate it "be strengthened" instead of be strong. The idea is that we are to be strong in the Lord and in His might. His strength is made perfect in our humble dependence. As we walk humbly with God and live honestly in His light, He empowers us to live and to parent courageously. As Proverbs 28:1 observes, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." We are to father our children with bold courage relying on the Lord's might, which may very well mean taking unpopular stands and consistently enforcing corrective discipline for their benefit, but we are never to do anything that is unloving toward our children in anyway. We need to constantly assure our children that they can never lose our love even when they blow it big time. We are to do everything, even punish, in love, which means at least making sure your children understand why they are being punished and lovingly restoring them in the aftermath. I also find reviewing 1 Corinthians 13 and asking "Am I being patient?...kind?...polite?...gracious? etc." helps keep me on the path. Personally, I have a long way to go to become a heroic dad. I thank God for the privilege of parenting the precious children He has given us, and I pray by His enabling to increasingly become the heroic father He calls all dads to be. I pray the same for you.

Walk on Water

"15So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. (He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side – Mark 6:45.) 16Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, 17and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. (The boat was in the middle of the lake, and He was alone on land. He saw they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them – Mark 6:46.) 19Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." (Peter answered Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” – Matthew 14:28-31) 21So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately (the wind stopped and) the boat was at the land to which they were going." - John 16:15-21

[Note: Integrating the Gospel accounts of the same events can sometimes cause questions about the Bible’s accuracy to arise, since there can appear to be conflicts between the accounts. For example, in the accounts of the events above it initially appears three different destinations are referenced - Capernaum, Beth-Saida and Gennesaret. However, once we dig deeper we learn that Beth-Saida and Capernaum are basically side by side towns in the district (or area) of Gennersaret. Therefore, this is much like asking three people where they went and one saying Lacey, another saying Olympia, and a third saying Thurston County or even Hawk’s Prairie or the South Sound. While people from elsewhere may wonder “well which is it?”, locals immediately know there is no conflict, since all are valid ways to reference our location.]

Some of the Seahawks were in town yesterday helping out the Little League baseball teams. It was a bit of a break for the players, who are already in mini training camps preparing for next season. As unpleasant as training camp is for a lot of players, they know going into a season unprepared means almost certain defeat, and Jesus knows that as unpleasant as faith-stretching, spiritual tests can be, being unprepared for the battles ahead is far worse. To help His first followers get ready for the upcoming church season when He would no longer be physically present with them, Jesus put His disciples through rigorous faith tests, including this ‘pop quiz’ on the Sea of Galilee. He had just fed thousands with fives loaves and a couple of fish, and He had previously calmed a storm on the same lake when He was on board with His followers. Now in the boat alone in the middle of the violent windstorm would they trust Jesus was still watching over them, and how would they handle Jesus coming to them in a strange new way?

Jesus still uses surprising figurative and even literal storms to develop our faith, and He still comes to us in unexpected ways that can frighten us. Whether your storm is financial, medical, marital, parental, moral or even just an extra-innings rainy-season blues battle, Jesus has good, faith-developing purposes for our trials, and the reality that we are going through them does not necessarily mean that we have been disobedient. Jesus’ first followers were doing exactly what He told them to do when the storm hit. We want to regularly ask God to reveal our sins to us so that we can turn from them and grow with Him, but we don’t have to cry “What have I done?” in the midst of every trial. Tests and punishment are not the same thing, and there is no condemnation for anyone in Christ. God is watching over you as you struggle against the winds of your storm, and when the time is best, He will end this test.

So, who or what are we relying on as we go through life’s storms? Our strength, our resources, our wisdom? If it is really tough, maybe our friends and their strength? Friends certainly help, but God wants us to learn to trust in and rely on Him even when doing so requires us to go against all of our instincts and sensory understanding of an experience. People give Peter a hard time for doubting and sinking, but I think we need to applaud him for fixing His eyes on Jesus, getting out of the boat and taking at least a few steps of serious, circumstance-defying faith. Of course, he went on to look down and go down, which is what happens when we take our eyes off of Christ. When Jesus comes to us in surprising ways and calls us to come to Him in the midst of our storms, even when it goes against our understanding, I pray that we will be prepared to trust Him enough to leave the safety of the vessels we have known and walk by faith into the future He has prepared for us.

Miracle Math

JOHN 6:1-14

Have you, like me, faced situations where you wanted to help but lacked the resources to make a real difference? Have you ever felt insignificant - not gifted, talented or powerful enough to make much of an impact? If so, I think this text highlighting the reality that God can do a lot with a little has an encouraging word for us.

In verses five through seven, Jesus probes Phillip's faith by asking him where they can buy bread to feed everyone. Phillip immediately starts doing the math and delivers his discouraging assessment that it would take six or more months' wages to give everyone even a little. There are at least a couple of things to notice here. One - Jesus already knows the plans He has for them, and two - He is not yet revealing them in order to probe and reveal the state of Phillip's faith. Whatever situation we face, God already knows His plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), though He may very well wait until we reach our current faith limits to reveal it. Often times, we would like to have the resources we need to serve others nailed down and stored up on the front end, because frankly that does not require us to keep exercising faith, but God is always working to grow our faith in His faithfulness (1 Peter 1:6-7) and times His provision accordingly.

Next, Jesus vividly demonstrates both His mastery over the physical creation and the reality that we do not need to simply look at our available resources and divide them by the need in front of us to determine how much ministry is possible. With God all things are possible, and He is more than able to do abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21)! Five barley loaves and two fish is not much in a young boy's hands, but in Jesus' hands it is more than enough to feed thousands and leave a dozen baskets of leftovers. This is not a miracle of transformation, such as water to wine. It is simply a miracle of multiplication - of doing a lot with a little. It is whose hands the little is in that makes all the difference. Our limited time, talents and treasures often look very insufficient to meet the needs at hand, but in God's hands our little becomes a lot. The key is handing over all we have and all we are to Jesus and letting Him do with us whatever He pleases. Whenever we face a situation that tempts us to feel too insignificant to make a difference, let's remember that God can do a lot with our little!