Water Walkin’

Peter is just so me. One minute on top of the world the next swimmin’ around in the mess.

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:25-32

This is just so much how I live. I have fleeting moments of spiritual awakening followed by empty times wondering where God went. Okay, I know it is my lack of faith that gets me into these situations but I got excuses.

Peter was distracted by the wind and the waves. Me, well work, parenting, church and chores all get in the way. Then there are the really scary things like bills, keeping up with the Jones, my never satisfied wanter keeping on wanting, pride, self reliance, denial, and the constant feeling of cover up, you know trying to keep your plates all spinning without people noticing all the broken ones.

Whew, where is God in all that? What I believe I need to do is just quit. I can see Peter hugging Jesus after successfully walking all the way to him if he had never taken his eyes off the Christ. Abraham would have never gotten into trouble with Hagar if Sarah and He had just waited on God to fulfill His promises. Moses would have walked into the promise land if he had not thought he was the one instead of God. Saul would have died king if he had only obeyed God. When will we ever learn?

Today these words echo in my mind, “You of little faith, why do you doubt?” Why? Why? Why?

Lord,
Enlighten the eyes of my heart,
so,
I will know the hope you have called me to,
the riches of your glorious inheritance,
and your power for those who believe.
Lord, help my unbelief.
Amen

Jesus Raised from the Dead

Peter full of the Holy Spirit got up and testified to the facts surounding Jeus’ life and death. Here is some of what he said in Acts chapter 2.

“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:
   ” ‘I saw the Lord always before me.
      Because he is at my right hand,
      I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
      my body also will live in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
      nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
      you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ Acts 2:22-28

The purpose of Luke’s writings is that we may know for certain who Jesus was, what he taught, and what he did. So in some way we might understand God who sent him.

It comes down to this, will I believe what the bible says about Jesus. It is extreemly simple. Yes man has argued about it and will continue to argue. But to I take it at face value or not. Is Jesus the Son of the God or not. My choice. The choice makes all the difference in the world.

God Bless. Make the choice.

Don’t Give Up

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ ”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1-8

God is not man! (Hosea 11:9) We should take comfort in Jesus’ backward parable. By pointing out how bad we can be Jesus shows us how good and just God is.

Jesus’ question at the end is worth noting. Will he find anyone faithful? We must keep praying.

God bless. Never give up.

Why Parables

The disciples asked Jesus why he spoke in parables.

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:
   ”Though seeing, they do not see;
      though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
   ” ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
      you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
      they hardly hear with their ears,
      and they have closed their eyes.
   Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
      hear with their ears,
      understand with their hearts
   and turn, and I would heal them. ‘But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.Matthew 13:10-17 

Jesus said (Bart’s paraphrase), I speak in parables so you will know what I am saying but if you are not looking for truth, you will not understand. So many people have grown tired of God’s word. It is nothing new, people in Jesus’ day did not want to hear it either.

I love parables because I really believe Jesus meant for us to see ourselves in the story. To ask questions and explore. And to give us seekers something to talk about.

God bless.

Where Do You Sit?

Ever wonder about who you will sit with? I have seen my Girls get very upset over who they sit with. They will jockey hard to get to sit next to a favorite friend. Jesus told this parable at a dinner party. It seemed that the guests wanted the best seats.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:7-11

Do you pick the place of honor to sit or do you look out for others to give a seat? Jesus was not trying to give party advice or help these people look better. I can just imagine some of the listeners were thinking to themselves, “Hey, I will have to give that a try, I will certainly look good when I get moved up.”

No, Jesus was trying to teach another lesson. When God invites me to his dinner party, where does he want me to sit? Not too fast. Okay the easy answer, in the servant’s seat. Humble and thankful to have a seat. But, that is not all, because “he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

God bless. Be humble.

Are You Being Fertilized?

Forgive me for being so simple. Sometimes I worry if I am being simple enough. Jesus tried very hard to explain spiritual concepts to unspiritual people (Me). He used parables to do this. His parables were intended to make those listening think. Maybe more importantly I think he wanted us to see ourselves in the parables. Here is an example.

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

” ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ” Luke 13:6-9

It is important to understand who Jesus was speaking to when he told the parable. The verses following these tell us the background on the parable.

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:1-5

Okay, Jesus is trying to explain “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” He is talking to “some present” who could have been anyone, regular joes, leaders, Pharisees, some of the apostles, people like you and me.

Like the fig tree, we are all to bear fruit, evidence of a changed life. I personally think that Jesus is trying to explain the urgency of our repenting. The tree did not know when its owner would come looking for fruit. However, he looked several times, and in the end consented to keep encouraging the plant to grow.

Well, there you have it. I know I am still getting the fertilizer poured on. I have got to keep working on the fruit.

God bless. Be fruity.

In Case You Have Not Noticed

I have created a new page with links to all my posts about the parable of the lost son from Luke 15. If you are new to the site or just want to look at some of my blog entries about the older brother check out this page.

I pray everyone who has visited has found something to think about. May God bless you all. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to learn to rely on God every day.

God Bless

A Bad Kind of Fear

Okay, enough of the fear thing. Well one more for now. How about this.

When thinking about obeying, walking in God’s ways, Loving God it might be easy to think the bad kind of fear would about disobeying, ignoring, and hating God. I want to show you a couple of interesting instances of real fear of God and Jesus in Luke.

What would be your response to a genuine miracle by Jesus. Awe and amazement. Would you be compelled to believe him or not? How about pure run-for-your-life fear?

Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:36-39

Overcome with fear. The kind that would ask Jesus to leave. Response: I know what I see and I do not like it. I refuse to let you in my life.

What about being at the end of your rope, but unwilling to reach out?

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:39-41

In this example there are two hearts. A very hard heart and a broken one. I often wonder, do these two hearts at the end of Jesus ministry and the Gospels, represent in a very real way the only two choices we make concerning Jesus and a life with him? A big question. I need to give it some more thought.

God bless. Have no fear.

A Good Kind of Fear

Merriam-Webster defines fear as “to have a reverential awe of.” Their example is as in to fear God. Well call me dumb but I really needed to look up reverential and then reverence. Reverence is honor or respect felt or shown.

What do you think Mary meant when she said “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” Luke 1:50 I am sure she was thinking on many of the scriptures she was raised on. Scriptures like this one from Deuteronomy.

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Because we serve and believe in the same God as Mary, I am inclined to believe God asks the same of us.

The breakdown…

• Fear the Lord
• Walk in his ways
• To love Him
• To serve the Lord with all your heart and soul
• Observe the Lords commands (I suspect this means obey them)

Why, the fear thing? Because I cannot be saved without it. Mary said His mercy extends to those who fear Him. That is salvation. What does God want from me? To fear him. What does the good kind of fear produce? A healthy respect for a God who is merciful, loving, filling, lifting, mighty, and mindful. I find a great deal of comfort in this.

God bless. Live in fear of this wonderful God.

Mary’s Song

   ”My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
      of the humble state of his servant.
   From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
      holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
      from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
      but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
      but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
      remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
      even as he said to our fathers.” Luke 1:46-55

I do not want to say much. What can I add? We serve a mighty, mindful, and merciful Savior. This God lifts up the humble, fills the hungry, helps his servants, and remembers to be merciful.

God bless

Scripture from New International Version