Daily Gospel Devotional 2013: Focus on Jesus, not on Peter

Matthew 14:22-33 / Mark 6:45-52 / John 6:16-21…

Don’t take this passage and focus on what Peter could have done, or what you think we can do, focus on Jesus and what He is doing and has done. Moses (Exodus 14), Joshua (Joshua 3:14-17), Elijah (2 Kings 2:8), and Elisha (2 Kings 2:13-14) were able to part the waters, but Jesus could walk right on top of them, a testimony to His divinity (Job 9:8). This is not about our faith giving us water walking ability but our faith in a water walking God.

Jesus isn’t calling us to walk on the water; He is calling us to Himself. Sometimes we can seem to do the impossible, but our faith, our trust must finally be in Him alone, for only He cannot fail. I’m not saying don’t attempt great things, I’m saying DO attempt great things, but even if we fail to walk on water, Jesus won’t. Yes, use what God has given you, yes, develop whatever skills you can and use them for the glory of God. Enjoy the good graces that have been bestowed upon you. But walking on water is not our role, and it is not some matter of stirring up our faith so that we can. It is about calling on Jesus who did and who can.

Peter called out to Jesus twice. Like him, we start out by saying, “God help me to rise above my stormy circumstances”, but then sometimes we need to cry out “Lord, save me from the storm, I can’t do it”. Peter cried out, and the Lord saved him. It is not the strength of our faith, but the power of God that saves us.

You don’t have to walk on water, you just walk by faith, and if you do, the waves may get high and the wind might get strong but you will never sink without being able to call on Christ, who will never leave us nor forsake us.  We walk by faith, not by sight, and we walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh. It is not that Jesus gives us the power to save ourselves; it is that Jesus is the power to save us, and He does save us. That is the essence of the gospel message.   

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Daily Gospel Devotional 2013: Grasping for God

Matthew 14:13-21 / Mark 6:30-44 / Luke 9:10-17 / John 6:1-15…

The setting to this passage is important. John the Baptist was beheaded, and so things were getting tough. Jesus had been speaking in parables, healing and delivering people. Now He was going to widen the scope in displaying His power. He was not just the King of the Jews, but Lord over all creation (Colossians 1:16-17 / Hebrews 1:2-3). Jesus was extending His reach, in public. Yes, His reach was infinite, but His current grasp was focused on individuals. Now He would extend that public reach to grasp out groups for the display of His glory. 

The disciples were part of the grasp, and the hand that would reach out. Jesus had given them a measure of power and sent them out. They came back wore out. He tells them to find rest, yet suddenly He asks them to go beyond the power He had given before and to reach out for more than they had previously known. 

He does the same with us. He calls on us to reach out further than we have. Often, like the disciples, we come with the same report; we don’t have the power, or the provision. But it is because we don’t have the proper person in mind. We think of ourselves or the size of the situation, but Jesus calls us to think of Him, and to bring the thing His way.

We feel like we have no provision, but the provision is always Jesus Himself. He is what we are to feed others on, whether or not we have physical bread. He is the True Bread, and if people eat of Him, they will be satisfied. He will always bring enough to the table, no matter how large the crowd or how little the means.

Jesus gives to us so that we might give to the people. He wants to amaze us, not for us to amaze others. Jesus wants us to be portraits of His grace, not trophies of our own greatness. Knowing that, will you extend the hand and grasp what God is reaching for? 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Daily Gospel Devotional 2013: A supper of sin

Matthew 14:3-12 / Mark 6:17-29…

Like Herod, those with a hardened heart might be temporarily kept in check by their fascination with faithful people and by fearing what might happen. However, it will only be a matter of time before the idol factory of their soul invents some justification for what it wants. Some try and maintain some sense of dignity about it all, but underneath are the same dirty deeds. They add sin upon sin, and yet are deceived into thinking that they are morally right for adhering to some other principle when it suits their seared conscience. You know the type; “I may do this, but I would never do that.”  

Herod’s idol was lust. It is the reason he had taken his brother’s wife unlawfully, and the reason he had John imprisoned, because the man of God called him out on account of it. The object of lust can change in a moment, because lust is “I want it now”. Now, the idol in his heart reared up and we see him succumb to the ministrations of his own wife’s daughter. Herod’s wife was herself a wicked soul, allowing her daughter to be shamed, and using the opportunity to manipulate Herod for her own will.

Sin multiplies faster than anything on earth. It will trick you into new temptations all your life long if you let it. And it will hurt others, not just you. Allowing one sin is permission for all to enter in. Sin will always take you further than you want to go, for longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you can pay. You wind up on the not-so-merry-go-round of misery and manipulation. It is a progression, from enticed, to entrapped, to enslaved (James 1:14-15). Sin will make you sin more, and you’ll think you have to sin just to stop from hurting the ones you didn’t mean to. At some point, you are just going to have to confess and repent, because you can’t do wrong to get a chance to do right.

You can hide away for now, but be sure your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23). It may just be that something or someone else will put you in the position where the poison in your soul is served up on a platter. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©