Good morning Lord Jesus, Set me free today from anything that would bind me from laughing and running through the fields of life with you today…..
“On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Letʼs go across to the other side of the lake.” So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him. Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, donʼt you care that we are about to die?” So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!” Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. And he said to them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?” They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!” “So they came to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes. Just as Jesus was getting out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came from the tombs and met him.” (Mark 4:35-44, 5:1-2)
The photo above is was taken the last day of our trip. The owner of the resort out of his generasity, allowed us for free to take a 45 minute trip on his yacht that ended literally 30 minutes before we jumped in the van that took us to the airport. This wonderful, short post ride on the sea inspired me to read a story in the Bible of Jesus and his disciples boat ride on the sea. In the story from Mark, Jesus asks His disciples to go for a boat ride with Him. And they all said yes. I mean who would not want to take a cruise on a boat with Jesus!!!! As wonderful as our ride was in the photo above, a boat ride with Jesus would have to be 100 times more amazing! I am sure the disciples imagined this boat ride would be absolutely wonderful! It would be like a scene of The Little Mermaid with fish jumping all around them, dolphins spraying water around the boat and birds swooping around in the sky singing to them. This is Jesus after all! However, instead Jesus headed the boat straight into a storm in life. The winds and rain pounded the boat, the waves were swamping it, the disciples were afraid and cried out to Jesus. They thought he may be able to help by maybe miraculously producing buckets for bailing the water or something like that. But what Jesus did was far beyond anything they imagined. Jesus said to words, and In an instant the chaotic and powerful storm with huge waves, strong wind, thunder, lightning and rain stopped. All became calm and quiet, and a smooth slick came over the ocean like glass. The disciples were afraid when they found themselves in the storm, however when Jesus calmed the storm they were even more terrified than in the storm, and asked “WHO IS THIS THAT IS IN OUR BOAT?”
And after they got through the storm, and their fears had begun to subside some, I am sure they figured this boat trip with Jesus could not get any worse and they would head back to a safe familiar harbor. No, instead Jesus sailed the boat to an unsafe, unknown beach where lived scary, un-clean people. When they landed on the shore they were immediately met my a maniac who lived in the tombs. Jesus got out of the boat, but the disciples looked at the scene and said, “No, way in hell” and they remained cowering in the boat and did not follow Jesus. When this new challenge in life came up they so quickly forgot “Who was in their boat”, abandoned Jesus and did not trust Him enough to follow Him.
Each morning, including this morning, Jesus is asking you and me to “get into the boat” with Him. And He asks us to trust Him enough to sail with Him out of our comfort zone into places that are strange to us and to people who our foreign, maybe even a little scary to us. Why? Because that is where we will find the people who are “living and trapped in the tombs” of this worlds evil and chaos without Jesus. That is where we will find people who are desperate for us to help them break loose from their chains of sin. That is where we will find Jesus.
My family, do you really believe Jesus is calling us to follow Him into sanctuaries and sit in pews? Or wants us to stay in our comfortable, safe crowds who drink Starbucks and listen to Casting Crowns:? No, He is calling us into a “holy fear” where we remember not just “Who is in our boat”, but “Who is actually in us” through His Holy Spirit breathed into each of us in our baptism. My family, I pray you choose to follow Jesus, and pick up your cross and plant it as the mast in your rescue boat, and sail out into the storms of your communities, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
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