SWEET TUESDAY BY PARRIS
Mark 14:22 “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.”
This past Sunday morning we all enjoyed a great young Aussie preaching on Peter walking on the water and seeing Christ through the storm.(*Luke McMartin) He brought out a good point about the boat that the disciples stayed in represented our “self life”. There always is so much meaning in the scriptures. You can read one story one way and years later it can take on a whole different meaning. Seeing Christ in the storms of life is basically the test us Christians will have to face over and over again. We read in the above scripture that Jesus actually MADE the disciples get into the boat to go to the other side, while he went off to pray. Not soon after the storm came and just about sunk their ship, Christ came to them. Storms tend to distort our whole view of life around us. Everything becomes blown out of proportion.
Even the good looks bad, real bad, just listen to the next verse -“ 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.” I pray you can learn to see CHRIST IN THE STORM!
Peter asked Christ to let him walk out on the water and the drama begins. Peter walks out there and begins to sink not long after because he lost his perspective-Christ. Again it is in those moments of desperation we can feel the arms of Christ wrap around us and pull us back up from the raging waves. Thank God for His presence! Jesus rebuked Peter for his “little faith”.
I always look back at my life and even though I received Christ at such a young age, I pretty well peg life as rough and miserable. The storms came and just about cleaned my clock. 42 years later, the storms still come, He bids me to get out the boat, get wet and grab hold of Christ. Even though I have had some pretty big times of doubt while I am water walking, somewhere Christ is seen in the middle of it all and I gain a fresh perspective of His grace and love. So many others just stay in the boat. Paralyzed by the so called ghost of our past, whereas in reality it is Christ in the present reaching out to us to step out and grab hold. I encourage you today to stop talking about the worst case scenarios that will happen. Even little faith is better than staying stuck in some sinking boat!