“Walking the Walk” (Part 2)

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus called four fishermen as disciples.  Peter had been out on the water all night long trying to catch fish.  On his own, he hadn’t caught a thing.  But Jesus told him to throw his net into the water one more time.  Peter’s response was, “I’ve been doing this all night and haven’t caught anything, but at your word, I’ll do it.”  That was the first example.  Walking the walk means recognizing that by our own strength we fall short, but if we trust Jesus He will make a way.  Because Peter trusted Jesus and did as He said, he caught more fish than he could handle.  And instead of trying to keep all of the fish to himself, he called other people to share in the blessing.  Example two: when God says that He will open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing you won’t have room to receive, how many of us think about sharing that blessing with others?  Peter did.  He didn’t keep it to himself.  Don’t you think people would come to Christ if they see people sharing in each other’s blessings?  Next example: when Peter saw how much the Lord had blessed him, he fell to his knees and told Jesus, “I’m not worthy of all of this.”  Somewhere along the lines we have come to believe that we are entitled to God’s blessings.  Some of us feel we deserve to blessed by God when in reality the only thing we deserve is death.  But what a powerful testimony to share with someone who doesn’t know the Lord that God has blessed me in spite of me being a sinner.  He loves me enough to give me all of this even though I don’t deserve it. The final example is often the hardest for us as Christians.  After Peter and the others had seen what Jesus had done, they left all they had and followed Him.  To be a real disciple you have to give up some things.  You have to leave some people behind. You have to drop some habits.  You have to do it if you want to walk with Christ.

Actions speak louder than words, cliché yet powerful nonetheless.  In church we learn a lot of inspirational scriptures that make us feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside when we hear them.  They give us comfort in our time of distress and suffering, or at least that’s what we say.  The truth is, they comfort us before our time of distress and suffering and even after its over but what really goes on in our hearts and minds while we are going through our struggle.  “God will supply all of our need according to His riches in glory,” sounds really good when the money is coming in steady and the economy is strong.  We can smile all day long while we say that but what happens when you lose your job or the money doesn’t seem to come in as steady as it used to.  Our prayers change from, “Thank you Jehovah Jireh,” to, “Lord I don’t know what I’m going to do.” We start looking for help in so many places but forgetting the action of standing on God’s word that says He will supply our need according to His riches in glory.

The scripture says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.”  So how come when we can’t see the promises of God right away we start to lose our faith.  If we are going to walk the walk we have to walk by faith.  That is how we lead others to Christ.  Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me.”  But when get to a trial we stop lifting Jesus up and start lifting up our problems.  We should be praising God for supplying our needs when we lose our job.  We should hold on to our joy even though the money is not there.  We can do that because we trust God to do what He said He would do.  We should hold on to our faith and praise God for what He is going to do in our life even though we can’t see it yet.  The way you can make more disciples is by allowing people to see your struggle, to see what you don’t have, but then allowing them to still see your joy and peace in the midst of the storm.  They should look at you praising God and say “I want whatever it is that they have. They’ve been out of work for over a year but they are not late on one bill and have never missed a meal.  The God they serve must be some kind of wonderful.”  The way you make disciples is by allowing them to see that you have given up your old ways and how God has prospered you in ways that you never could have imagined.

Walking the walk also means walking in lowliness and gentleness.  That means if we want to lead others to Christ we need to humble ourselves and realize that we don’t have it all together.  When some of us get saved we act as if we never sinned a day in our life and will never sin again.  But the word of God says that all have sinned and fall short so we cannot look down on others just because they are not saved.

To be continued next week…

“Walking the Walk” (Part 1)

Growing up in church, I learned a lot about how to talk like a Christian.  When someone would ask how you were doing, the standard response was, “Blessed and highly favored thank you very much.”  When asking someone if they would be attending an event or gathering to be held in the future, I would always hear, “Yes I’ll be there, Lord willing.”  And no one ever came up to a microphone without first saying, “Giving honor to God who is the head of my life,” or, “Hello precious saints of God.”  Now, to the untrained ear, this sounds pretty good and religious, some church talk even sounds holy.  But I wonder how it sounds to God.  Sometimes we “church folk” get so accustomed to our agendas and traditions that we lose sight of the purpose.  Instead of glorifying God with the things that we say and do we try to glorify ourselves.  We say things because it will make us sound more like a Christian or make us sound holier than we really are.  Just because we know when to give a big “Thank Ya Lord” or “Lord have mercy” during a prayer, we think that people will think we are so spiritual and so deep in prayer.  I remember I was listening to a Christian radio station and one of the ministers began to pray.  The only thing he said before his co-host belted out a huge, “Yeeeesssss Lawd!” was, “Dear God.”  I was riding in the car with a couple of friends at the time and I had to ask them if I missed something.  Maybe something in those two words really ministered to him, but that just showed me how sometimes we get in the habit of doing and saying things that it is no longer genuine and sometimes doesn’t even have a purpose or place.  We say a lot, but what is really behind our praise and worship besides pure emotion?  We speak a lot with our mouths but how much of that really reflects what is in our hearts?  We’ve learned how to talk the talk, but there is a lot more work to being a Christian.

As Christians we were given a job to do.  Jesus commissioned us to go out and make more disciples.  But how do we do that?  I used to think that meant that I had to go around quoting scriptures to people and bring up Jesus in every conversation.  Now while that may work for some people, talking to people was not my gift.  Plus I knew that force feeding the bible to people was not going to make them want to be saved.  Growing up in church, I didn’t want to hear half the stuff people were saying to me so I knew that unsaved people really weren’t trying to hear it.  So I had to ask God how on earth am I supposed to go out and make more disciples?  I had the desire to lead people to Christ I just didn’t want to have to go out preaching to people all the time.  God showed me that going out and talking to people about Jesus was the easy part.  The hard part and the part many of us Christians miss was what God showed me next.  The way to go out and to make more people disciples of Christ was to first act like one.  If you want to make disciples you have to lead by example.  You have to walk the walk.  You have to walk in the light so they can see the Jesus in you.  But our problem as Christians is we talk a good talk about Jesus, but we don’t walk a good walk like Jesus.

Of course we know that fornication, drunkenness, coveting, idolatry (worshipping things other than God, such as people, cars, jobs, houses, status, etc), lying, stealing, cheating, etc. are all sins.  We also know that we are nothing but hypocrites if we tell people that they shouldn’t do those things and we do them ourselves.  That is a given.  So when I say walking the walk, I mean more than just not doing the things that we know displease God.  That alone will not make people want to be disciples of Christ.  There are plenty of people in the world who don’t steal, who don’t kill people, who don’t sleep around that are still in need of a savior. And to some people simply not committing those sins make following Christ look like you have to live a boring life.  So what else does it mean to walk the walk?

To be continued next week…

Caught in the Storm

“Stop telling God how big your storm is, and start telling your storm how big your God is.” – Unknown

Text: Mark 4:35-41

In life, we will all face storms, especially as we transition from one stage to another.  They key is knowing how to have peace in the midst of the storm.  In the 4^th chapter in the book of Mark we find the answer to successfully weather every storm that rises in our lives.

v35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

When Jesus said, “Let us cross over to the other side,” we can infer that they were going to a place different from where they currently were.  They were on one side, but they needed to get to the other side.  You may be trying to go someplace in your life, but there are some things that you need to get over in order to get to that other side.  There may be an obstacle in the way of you getting to where you need to go.  For Jesus and the disciples, it just so happened to be a body of water.  In order to get to the other side, they had to cross over the water.  The other side you may be trying to get to could be a better job, but your obstacle is a lack of education.  You may be trying to fix a broken relationship, but your obstacle could be your own attitude.  You may be trying to get peace in your life, but your obstacle could be a lack of forgiveness of others and even yourself.  Whatever your obstacle is, you have to get over it in order to get to the other side.

What is “other side” in your life that you are trying to get to?

What are the obstacles standing in the way of you getting there?

 v36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.

 Jesus called for the disciples to cross over to the other side just as we are called out of and away from some of the places we find ourselves in life.  It is not always a bad place that we are being called away from, however.  Jesus and the disciples had been preaching to the multitude and sharing the gospel, but the time had come for them to move on.  One very important thing that we have to remember, though, is to make sure we take Jesus with us wherever we go.

 In your transition, have you made sure that you brought Jesus along with you?

v37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.    

On their way to the other side, a great windstorm arose causing the water to beat against the boat and also fill the boat, no doubt making the journey difficult for the disciples.  Sometimes we get the misconception that when God calls us to a new place in life it will be a smooth transition.  But John 16:33 says this, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  The scripture lets us know that we will have tribulation.  That is a guarantee.  However, we don’t have to worry because Jesus already overcame every tribulation and He’s right there with us in our boat.  Another important point to remember is that just because God is with us doesn’t mean we won’t go through storms.  All it means is that we don’t have to go through them alone.  Hebrews 13:5-6 says, “⁵Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” So even though the storms may rise we can find comfort knowing that the Lord is with us.

 v38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

 Although Jesus was with them in the boat, the disciples were very uneasy at the fact that Jesus was asleep during the storm.  The text even takes it a step further to let us know that not only was Jesus asleep, but He was asleep on a pillow.  Jesus was resting comfortably in a time of despair. The disciples went to Him and woke Him up and asked Him if He even cared that they were about to die.  You may feel that Jesus is sleeping in the middle of your storm.  You are saved and you know that you have Jesus on the inside of you, but the storm around you is raging so much so that you feel like there is no way you are going to make it to the other side.  You begin to get discouraged as the disciples did because you don’t see Jesus moving in your situation.  But you need to know that He does care for you and He has not forgotten about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 says this: “⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  Know that your storm is only temporary but even in the midst of it, we can find refuge in God who is our strong tower. Proverbs 18:10 reminds us that, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

 v39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

 Jesus is able.  When He spoke to the storm the storm ceased.  He spoke with the power and authority that He knew He had.  Just as He spoke to this storm, He can speak to yours also.  But something that we have forgotten is that Jesus left that authority with us as well.  He said so in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  Jesus wasn’t afraid of the storm because He knew that He had the authority over it.  Now, if we know that we have the authority over our storms, we have no reason to be afraid.  In the midst of our storm, we can rise up like Jesus did, tell the storm, “Peace, be still!” and the storm will have no choice but to cease.

 Have you exercised your authority over the storm you are facing or are you allowing your storm to have authority over you?

 v40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

 This was a good question that Jesus asked of His disciples.  The disciples had been following Jesus for a little while now and had witnessed Him perform miracles and preach and teach with a supernatural authority.  They saw firsthand the power that He had.  However, they lost their faith when the storm arose.  It was easy for them to trust Him and believe in His power when they had nothing to lose, but that quickly changed when it seemed as if they were about to lose everything.  Sometimes we are the same way.  But we have to remember that God is still the same God in the good times and the rough times and that He has the same power in the rough times as He does in the good times.  If we think about all that God has done for us in the past, we can stand on our past experiences of God’s saving grace to get us through our present storms.  The psalmist David put it this way: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:  ³Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, ⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  We have to remember that God does not change.  The same God that brought us out before will do it again.

 What has God done for you in the past that lets you know that He is able to come through for you again with whatever you are facing today?

 v41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

 After Jesus delivered the disciples from the storm they were facing, they were in awe of Him.  Because of the miraculous work that Jesus performed before their eyes, they reverenced Him.  This should also be our response.  He is always worthy of our praise and worship, even before and during the storm, but after the storm we should be even more excited about giving God the glory and honor that He is due.  In addition to praising God for the work He has done in our lives, we must tell others about it. Psalm 105:1-4 tells us, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! ² Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! ³ Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! ⁴ Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!”

 Conclusion

We know that storms will rise in our lives, but God be thanked that He will be with us every step of the way.  All we have to remember is that if we have Jesus on the inside, it doesn’t matter what is going on around us on the outside.  Knowing that we have Jesus, we know that we have peace.  And if we have peace, we can still find rest in the presence of chaos just as Jesus did.

Welcome to my blog!

Let me start by saying, God is good! He has been nothing but patient with me so for that I have to send up a big THANK YOU LORD!  A long time ago, God put on my heart to share the words that He has given me with others.  These words have come in the form of poems, short stories, essays, and bible studies.  There have been a couple of attempts to do this but very little follow through.

There are so many people that need to hear, see, and read this gospel so who am I to sit on all of the wonderful words of wisdom and encouragement that the Lord has given me to help me along this journey.  No longer will I be selfish with the word of God, but I will share it in hopes that someone else will be blessed.

So here’s my tagline: 1 Corinthians 2:13.  “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”

And here is my manifesto: I will write as the Spirit leads to encourage His people and bring Him glory.

As you read through these posts, let me know if you have been encouraged. It is always wonderful to hear how the Lord is moving.  Enjoy!