The Christian Journey

"Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,  and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.Shortly before dawn 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 14:22-33

I've heard his story a lot and read it countless times. I always thought, yeah, Peter, you doubted. So the moral of the story is don't doubt. The end. El fin.

But in this passage, there is a beautiful illustration of the Christian life and the walk with God. We see it in all of the stages: the initial step, the journey,the fall, and the rise.

In the passage, Peter gets out of the boat after Jesus tells him to. In the context of the Christian life, that life begins with a desire to want to follow Jesus. For that to happen, you need to step out of your "boat," your comfort zone. You need to sacrifice the world that you have and than walk out towards God.

It doesn't end there though. You need to continually walk towards God and keep your focus on Jesus. In the passage, we see Peter walking towards Jesus, on the water!

But along the way, the winds and the waves will be there, wanting to deter you. Some of those distractions will succeed in making you fall. Because let's face it. The Christian life is difficult. It's going to be really hard at times, and there will be storms that are going to want to sweep you away and bring you to the bottom, within its fiery depths. Satan is always going to try to get you away from God; that's his "job" if you will call it that. Also, God is going to refine you through the fire, and that's not going to feel good. It's going to hurt and it's going to be tough.

But in the passage in Matthew, we see Peter do something that is quite remarkable. He begins to sink after being distracted from Jesus, and then he cries out for help, "Lord, save me!" It's totally fine to call out to God for help. We see David in many of his psalms calling for help.

"Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer." Psalm 4:1

In the passage in Matthew, right after Peter calls for help, Jesus came over and saved him. That's an amazing thing, that God would save us from the storm. Now, He might not take the storm away, but He'll be there to pick you up, and that's the amazing thing. God will be there with us, to comfort us, and we'll know that He is there and that He'll never abandon us. This is why God refines us with fire, lets storms happen, because in the end, we'll have grown so much in our faith and relationship with Him.

That is the Christian journey in a neat little package. It's the initial step out towards God, the walk with God with the storms, the refinement through fire, and than the fact that we get to be with God. Isn't that a beautiful picture?

And a question I want to leave you guys with: Why in the world are the other disciples still on the boat?

Love

What do you think when you hear the word love? Does a particular movie scene come to mind? Do you think about sex? What about your feelings for that special someone? Is that love?

But what does it really mean when someone says, "I love you?" What does that actually mean?

"Hear, O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength." - Deuteronomy 6:4-5

When God says that, what does He mean?

Here's the thing. Love cannot be a feeling or an emotion, because let's face reality: You cannot be infatuated with someone forever. Nor is it possible to serve God cheerfully all of the time. So then, what is love? When the Bible says that God is love, what does that mean?

Simple. It means that to love is to be like God. In other words, love is a commitment of self-sacrifice to other people. It means to lay down your life, your passions, and your beliefs to serve people like God serves us.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." - John 15:13
We see God's love all throughout the Bible. When God banished Adam and Eve from Eden, He gave them clothes to cover their shame. When God destroyed the world with a flood, He gave us a rainbow as a sign of his love. The ultimate example is, of course, Jesus Christ, who died for our own sins.

So, when God put himself on the cross, He showed that he was willing to sacrifice even Himself for us, because He wanted to spend eternity in heaven with us.

So when you next say, "I love you," what are you saying?

You're saying that you're going to be like God, that you are going to be committed to self-sacrifice for other people.