Stepping Out Onto the Water

“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” - Matthew 14:25-32

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There are times in life when Jesus calls us to leave our comfortable little boat and step onto a wild sea. Will we be discouraged by the wind and waves, or keep our faces directed at the Savior – trusting Him to keep us safe?

When He calls me, I want to obey.  Seeing Him out on the water – my Lord who makes the impossible possible – I have such peace and confidence as I prepare to step over the side of the boat.  He calls me and I am joyful and expectant at the possibilities that lie ahead of me.

As I step out though, voices real or imagined, doubters or naysayers, are like the raging wind.  Those voices can cause me to second guess what I am doing – my feet already on the water, already in the middle of the miracle of obedience - will I own what they are saying? Will I be one of little faith who sinks so quickly?  Or will I instead hold true to my Lord’s voice that I have heard to clearly – calling me to step out?

My husband and I have heard challenging calls before…. calls for Andrew start his own business . . . to begin homeschooling our children . . . and each time there were people afraid for us, or thinking we were wrong.  But we know what we heard. We know Who we heard… and those leaps of faith produced such beautiful fruit.

Our confidence is in Christ, the perfector of our Faith. He is working something good in us, and it will be completed as He promised.  We can’t see every step, but we see His face, and we hear His voice calling us to come to Him . . . to walk on the water.  (And I’m the kind of girl who would much rather be walking on the water than sitting in a boring ol’ boat anyway.)

You see…

When I close out the sound of the wind – all becomes quiet,

and it’s just me and my Lord.

And in that moment,

all I feel is peace

and the guts to take another step.

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Action is Eloquence

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Actions speak louder than words – it’s a saying as old as time.  

I like how William Shakespeare said it: “Action is eloquence.”

1 Corinthians 13:1 says  ”If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.“

There’s a whole lot of noise in this world, so many clanging cymbals all at once, and I’m tired of adding to it.

Sometimes I consider taking a temporary vow of silence.

What would it look like to be able speak my love only through my actions?

A peach tree is recognized not because it shouts out its name, but because it produces peaches. Likewise a Christian should be recognized for the goodness their lives produce. We shouldn’t have to say a word; the fruit of our life speaks for us.

In other words, I don’t want to hear what you believe; I want to see it working. You can stand on the street corner and shout out until you’re black and blue that God is good, that He is speaking to you in your quiet times, and you are following him, but if the fruit I see in you is division, anxiety and pride, I would rather you put a cork in it.  John 13:35 says “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  That’s it.  It’s not by how well we can quote the scripture, not by how serious we can make our face when we talk about God, not by how much of the world we abstain from. It is by our Love!

The band Extreme said it so well…

“More than words is all you have to do to make it real

Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me

‘Cause I’d already know…”

Heaven forbid my actions would strikingly contradict my words. I see this in the church and I cringe – people saying they believe in Love – but minutes later they are making serious derogatory remarks behind someone’s back.  They have a failed marriage, they vote differently than you, they sin different than you….and so you puff yourself up by putting them down.

Where is the fruit of love?

Speaking of differences, do gays feel loved unconditionally by us, the church? Or does the love we give them come with the understanding that to receive it they must first know that we are right and they are wrong and they will eventually need to change if they want our full love and acceptance. I’m glad that’s not how God loves us.

Maybe its’ time to examine our hearts.  Maybe we would all do well to take a vow of silence for a while, and instead of talking, we could serve others . . . give of our time . . . give of our hearts . . . .

Also, can we stop criticizing others (sometimes we act like angry toddlers when people make choices without consulting us first for our oh-so-perfect opinion…. ‘She is getting married too young’ . . . ‘They are not ready to buy a house’ . . . ‘They need to spank their children’. . . )  and can we just accept that it’s okay that they are different from us? No one knows the best path for us except God.

We are all on this crazy journey of life at the same time so instead of stepping on each other, let’s just walk together, yes?

What if we accepted that we don’t know everything, we don’t know best, and we certainly may be wrong?  What if we leave the knowing to God? We would be free from the pressure to feel like we have to state aloud how much we know all the time. What if we leave the talking to God too . . . and let His Spirit convict others.  Let His spirit guide them where He wants them to go. . . Sometimes it may be the enemy trying to cause division, sure. So we are to submit to God, resist the devil, and shut our mouths. Other times it is just our stinking rotten flesh, our nature that likes to put others down.  I have clearly side-tracked here, maybe this is more about what it means to love than the alignment of our actions and words, but it still supports my theme – that it is better to love in deed than to claim we love but then stick our foot out to trip our neighbor.

I pray that in the places where my words and actions don’t line up, God would show me my hypocrisy – so I can own it and repent. I can take part in grand talk, and have great aspirations, but if I never put my feet to action, what good is any of it? I struggle with this. I do.

This is me trying like hell to get the plank out of my own eye. I get it. I want to live it. I have dreams. I have beliefs – and I want nothing more than to live out those beliefs.  We get stuck in our old habits, our old ways of life. It’s comfortable there, and we know what to expect.

Branching out and stepping up to action takes guts. It takes learning to stand your ground and yet learning to let go at the same time.   The challenges of plunging into the unknown territory of loving someone you thought was unlovable, or putting our agenda and opinions aside so that God’s mission is priority, or rearranging your life to be less about getting your errands done and more about forging relationships with those who need it most – it all takes so much courage.

But we must step up.

We must stop analyzing what a perfect dive looks like and just jump off the diving board.  It has got to start somewhere.

So I am praying for strength to act.

I am praying for my eyes to be opened.

I want to see my life as it really is, not as I’ve imagined it to be.  We all have these ideals that sit on trophy shelves in our mind. We identify ourselves by these ideals, think we are good people, but people identify us not by those ideals on the shelf but by our actions. It is plain and simple, yet I am hammering it over and over because I believe it is that important. We think we are good people because we believe the right thing, and we are fools! Even the demons believe Jesus is the son of God. It is the ones who FOLLOW, who act, that are true Christians.

I’ll leave you with a section of James that encourages and challenges me today:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ” from James 2

Let us learn this.

I pray that we, the church, learn to shut up and roll up our sleeves.

~Amy

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When Death Gives Way to Life

The other day I had a momentary vision.  I saw myself curling up into a ball, and sinking down into feet of rich soil. And I heard these words in my heart, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies…”

Of course the rest of John 12:24 goes: ” it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

I feel like I have been going through that dying process for a little while now.

• my desire for comfort
• my desire for recognition
• my alignment to anything except the good news of Jesus
• my right to be right
• my attempts to change others
• my need to be needed
• my right to my own schedule
• my right to keep my problems to myself

I’m letting it all be slayed by something greater.

Not that I have fully reached any of this.  It is a slow process, but I am in it and I like it.

My hope is that my old ways will be replaced by a selflessness that shines like a lamp on a stand, and with a love that puts others first, a love that dares to step out with faithful action.

Today I had another momentary vision. I again saw myself as a seed of sorts. And I was churning inside. Growing. And suddenly the seed shell burst open and out shot a living shoot, bright and green.

God and I have been hanging out, and he’s been churning things inside this life of mine, good things, hard things . . . and I feel so much energy building up – enough energy perhaps to branch out of this casing and become a full-grown plant that produces seeds by the dozens.

Looking Up

Yesterday I wrote about hearts that ache – specifically how I am in awe of God and his massive never-ending heart ache.

I want to clarify that my feelings yesterday were nothing out of the ordinary. People who care about others will always have a degree of heart ache.

The mother aches for her child to find happiness.

The teacher aches for her students to discover the love of learning.

We ache for those who are sick or have lost their way.

I am not depressed. In fact I was no more sad yesterday than I am on any other day. I smiled a lot yesterday. I laughed some good deep belly laughs. Please, no worry or pity is needed here. No one in my life is going through what I would determine to be circumstances that are unusually hard. The truth is that life is stinking hard.  It is messy.  People have struggles – troubles that can help them learn and grow, or cause them to stumble.  But troubles are a constant in life.  And because I love people, these ordinary people with ordinary troubles, when I pray, I can feel a small portion of their stress or pain. That is all it was yesterday. Perhaps I am more emotional than other people, but for me, crying on behalf of other people is something I do on a regular basis.  It doesn’t cripple me, it makes me feel better. Anyway….

Jesus promised that in this world we will have trouble. And He reminded us to take heart because He has overcome the World. That is how I can be empathetic to my friends who are in hard times and not be depressed.  He has overcome the world. There is an end to it all that lies ahead.  Yes, I have moments of weeping for my loved ones, but it does not leave me moping about all day because my confidence is in Christ, not my friend’s ability to overcome. None of us is strong enough to overcome every battle.  But God is.

Thank you, friends, for your concern. I know it comes only from a place of love.  I promise if I need anything, or know anyone who does, I will ask.

When the Heart Aches

Yesterday was a day full of ordinary troubles. Not exactly an easy day, but nothing deserving of pity.  A night of sleep diminishes yesterday’s troubles even more. But in the moment, you know, a trouble is a trouble is a trouble.   It seemed yesterday brought more than its fair share.

All day I was longing for time with my Creator. When it wasn’t a conscious longing, it was that itchy nagging feeling in my heart that there was something else I would rather be doing right then.  Oh yes, to be with my God!

It was one of those days when I just could not be at rest.  Until finally that afternoon, 2:43 pm to be precise, I sat down on my couch, set down my hot tea, let my head fall back onto the sofa, and closed my eyes.  Oh that wonderful first moment of a day when everything fades away and I feel alone with my Love, my Lord.  My stress melts into him and He absorbs it somehow.

Sitting alone, thinking of Him, I try to find words.  Nothing seems right. So many needs are pressing on my mind. Do I ramble them all off to the Creator? As if He doesn’t know about that ailment that needs healing, that broken heart that needs mending, the relationships that are in distress, the one who is at the end of the rope, the one who needs a job, the one who needs to sell her car, the one who is suddenly out in the world seemingly alone. . . .

I am crumbling on the couch. My heart heavy and sore from aching for the ones I love. There are no words now, just tears.  I become aware of His greatness and strength as He somehow lifts these burdens onto His own striped back.  My trembling heart is trusting that I don’t need to speak all these troubles, because Jesus sees it all.

And His heart aches too.

It hit me hard – trying to imagine the magnitude of God’s heartache.  I may ache for a handful of people right now, but my Father has a world-full of heartache – a heartache that is thousands of years long.   What must it be like to love so many people so completely?  To have that deep and unyielding love even for those who reject you?

I am glad He is God and I am not. I would die of heart-break.

But I am His, and He is mine. He chose us, even knowing the pain that would come. And I am thankful for the hope I have found.  Without it my world would be so dark, or full of vices, or both.  Yet instead of darkness, there is light.  Troubles that would have tied me down years ago, lose their strength in the light of eternity. Pressing into the words of His Book, the bigger picture becomes clear, and I can rejoice to be a part of it all.

I expect my heart will ache until I reach heaven. . . . I don’t necessarily want to lose that because it stirs me to pray and to love, and it connects me with the God who has the biggest heartache of all.

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Final Notes on Verge ’13

JEFF VANDERSTELT

On Reproduction: If your metrics is church size or attendance, then you don’t have reproduction at the heart.  What matters is how many are being sent out.  Trees don’t produce trees – trees produce fruit that produces seed that produces trees.

Disciple-making is not complex it is simple: Come. Follow Me.

Keep it transferable. The kingdom is like yeast. It is not only meant for white middle class literate Americans.  It is for the whole world. You shouldn’t need a curriculum to make disciples.   If it can’t be given through your life then it’s not transferable.  You shouldn’t have to give them a book about it.  As you disciple you are an example for what it means to be a disciple-maker; you are already teaching discipleship.

See regeneration as the Spirit’s commission. See yourself as releasing a culture.  People should be leaving your church to make disciples.  Your church should have a back door.  Don’t measure how many are staying, measure how many are going.

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JOHN PERKINS

He said, “If I be lifted up…”  We have to lift him up, for there is no other name by which men must be saved.  If we join churches or movements for any other reason than to lift up Christ, it’s the wrong reason. It’s Jesus doing the saving.

The question is not “Do you want to be saved?”  That is not biblical. The question is “What must I do to be saved?!”  They want it. They ask for it.

Too often we give a selfish message, instead of being concerned about the Kingdom.  Jesus isn’t for your own prosperity. Our sloppiness and laziness is hindering His good work.  Our work is to witness of His love, leaving the results to God. We have to understand our calling. Leadership is a call of God – it is a sacred trust, and discipleship is passing on that trust to others. 

We have this treasure – this power… Galatians 5:23 etc love, joy, peace, produced through discipleship.  We’ve made Christianity our therapy center: What can He do for us?  Stop being a victim. You can’t be a victim in the Kingdom. If you have salvation, you belong to God.  You say, “If only they hadn’t treated me this way…” Stop!

If you belong to God, you ought to be a little courageous!

What are we waiting for? This is our mission, to put first things first.  Ephesians 4 – the main purpose of the church is to equip the saints.  It is not about people fulfilling the church’s destiny. Can you imagine a church that equips people? Listen to people. Don’t just vomit your thoughts on them.  What is on their heart? It’s not about offering classes; it is about life together… the daily routines of a community and family.

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MATT SMAY

Revelation 2  “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. [remove His presence!] But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolatians, which I also hate.”

In other words: To the church who pursues ministry greater than they pursue Jesus, it is good that you are defending sound doctrine, that you have perseverance, and that you hate the fact that the Nicolatians have bent so far to reach the culture that they are no longer salt and light, BUT ….YOU HAVE LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE!

Remember from where you have fallen and repent. If you love your mission more than you love your Savior, your Savior will have no part in your mission.

Matthew 7:21-23 (“Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.’”)  There is an enormous difference between doing stuff for Jesus, knowing about Him -  and KNOWING Him.  –Matthew 26:21-22 — Judas knew about Jesus, but must have not really KNOWN him. Nobody could tell who was going to betray Jesus. Judas must not really looked as evil as the painters portray him. Judas had preached and prayed and healed with the rest of them. It was not obvious to the disciples who Jesus was talking about here. Think about that. It is deep in the heart that we find whether we do or don’t know Him.

Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Trust in the blood of Jesus.  Surpassing value.  Gain Christ.  What one thing could you never afford to lose? Judas gave up Jesus. A disciple will give up everything for Him. Who are you leading them towards? Let us be a generation of pastors known for how well we knew Jesus.

“If you add anything to Jesus as a requirement for being happy, that’s your real king.” Tim Keller

 

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That’s a wrap!

 

 

 

More Verge Notes: Dhati Lewis, Mike Breen, Todd Engstrom, William Branch

DHATI LEWIS

In the chapter on “Impartation” Robert Coleman says, “we cannot give something away that we do not possess.

We have this desire to impart what we have – which is love for each other.  What does it look like to Impart Jesus? Love.

“If I speak in the tongues of angels… but have not love… I gain nothing.”

 Are you so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good?

You can be sacrificial, but foolish.  All we have to do is teach others to Love God and Love Man – the greatest commandments.

Adam in the garden, covered his insecurities with fig leaves….

How do we cover our insecurities – by intellectualism (studying to have all the answers), by mysticism (chasing after dreams, signs and wonders), by emotionalism (maybe if I cry enough), or by cynicism…?

These things keep us at a distance from what God is trying to do – which is LOVE.  1 John 1:2-3 “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. “

We are to be up close and personal with each other. We have to wrestle with God sometimes. Love allows us to throw off the FAKE that some of us wear.  We have to expose people to the realness of our lives… that we do not have it all together.  Unless we are authentic, we cannot model the love of Christ.  1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love is LONG SUFFERING. Anyone who is married can tell you that. It is not romantic. Love is also not a spiritual discipline – it is a fruit of the Spirit that comes when we encounter the Spirit.

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MIKE BREEN

You need tools to be able to take on the vision of discipleship. The principle method Jesus used in making a disciple?  In the first three gospels, He frames his ministry around TWO words: “Come.” And “Go.”  Everything starts with Come, and ends with Go. There is invitation, and challenge.

Invitation - to come into a covenant relationship, to become one. It begins as “just come and hang out.” It becomes a covenant partnership.  Mark 6:31 “…He said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Challenge – along with an invitation, to take the ministry throughout the world – heal the sick, preach the gospel.  Mark 6:37 “But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” The challenge.

Jesus slowly increased the invitation and challenge. We must learn the art of invitation – inviting them deeper into our lives, and challenging them to go further – incrementally.  Jesus created a world of empowerment through invitation and challenge.

What it looks like:

 

 

The cozy culture is often the most consumer-minded.  As you move from comfy-cozy to high-challenge, you may feel discouraged. You may feel that you’re lowering invitation. But it will come back up.

Rod and Staff – challenge and invitation.  It is in the valley we discover the shepherd is leading us.

 

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“I was raised that the better you behave the more blessings you receive. I was worn out. I had been living on faith in my intellectualism to figure out the truth.” -anon

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TODD ENGSTROM

When you, ministry leader, are asked “How are you doing?”  Your answer may be ‘fine.’ But what if you’re pressed? You probably answer “tired, busy or overwhelmed.”  Our crazy schedules are indicative of our failure to delegate. We need to give it away – equip the saints for ministry.

(Amy’s side note – Everything should be seen as easily reproducible by your disciples. Otherwise you are communicating that without a ministry degree or the proper equipment, they cannot have a fulfilling and authentic life of worship. People CAN do church, because we ARE the church)

Delegation and risk are inseparable. Delegation truly multiplies ministry. Are we delegating the wrong stuff though? The stuff that even we don’t want to do? Make copies, get coffee… Jesus risked his ministry on 12 teenagers that we would have never put in charge of a bible study – and he gives them real problems to solve – real ministry to do. Before methodology, he empowers them.

Luke 9 – He gave them power, and THEN sent them out. After they had watched him for a year. Jesus stays behind (RISK) but He saw the reward.  They had to own the ministry.  Experience is the best teacher!

I can’t get over Jesus and His tendency to pick crazy guys to take on leadership.  It’s risky but worth it. Don’t delegate to someone who needs a title.  Delegate to the Faithful who are ready to work.  Give them a title after they have earned it -and no micromanaging.  Give ownership, not over menial tasks – but of legitimate problems or opportunities.  Give away your best opportunities.  “And greater works will you do” John 14:12.

We should not be asking “What ministry can I give away?” But “What ministry dare I keep?”

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WILLIAM BRANCH

Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.  Then the plan goes out the window.

The task is to employ supervision in disciple-making. Even the faithful have moments of failure.  Will we stick with disciples even when they punch you in the face? Supervision is leveraging teachable moments and sticking around to tweak their thinking. Rehearse for the day when it all goes off script.

Philemon was Paul’s personal letter about Onesimus –the runaway slave who was saved by Paul.   Paul was urging Philemon to take Onesimus back into his church as a friend, not a slave, and forget his debts. Treat him with love like you treat everyone else…In spite of your falling, we are there for you. Supervision requires community effort.  The letter is addressed to the whole church: Accept Onesimus.  Jesus doesn’t leave us in the dog house. The Gospel upgrades us.

{Book Rec: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller.}

The gospel is not cliché. The time to apply it is now.

 

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