It is hard for me to say anything good about harmony. Trying to achieve it is not a lot of fun. Think about harmony in a song. Any of you who have ever tried to sing know that it is much more difficult to sing harmony than melody. Plus melody gets all the glory. I mean that part is the lead! Harmony is just in the background making sure everything is knitted together to sound just right. Hmm, no glory, in the background, sounds strangely familiar…

Mark 10:43-44 says, “instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” So hang out in the background, don’t look for the spotlight, do whatever is asked of you in the service of God. Have I been living up to this? Is God the foundation of my actions? Do I sprinkle in my own self-interest from time to time? No, no and absolutely!

Living down in the servant’s quarters with a servant’s heart is hard, but apparently it is worth it. I think we should all commit to putting aside our own agendas each day whether it be at work, at home, at school or church and let God determine the agenda. I am pretty sure that if we just reach out to each other in love, the agenda will take care of itself. I look forward to that day.

On the Journey with You,
Scott

When I read the Bible, I imagine the scene taking place.  I try to put myself in the story just as if I’m watching a movie unfold.  That’s what I did when I read the first “wind and waves” story of this message series, called InterFEARence. By doing that it led me to questions that maybe I would have never asked of Scripture.

For instance, here is the beginning of the scene where Jesus and Peter walk on water:

²²Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

When I visualized this, I wondered about Jesus praying up on the mountainside.  This passage is more than just information, you know.  I thought about what Jesus must have seen up there.  He would have had a great vantage point for watching the storm, obviously.  So, why did He do what He did…

Think about Him high up overlooking the boat.  And now imagine that Jesus looks up and sees the start of a massive storm on the horizon. Rather than run, Jesus prays.  He doesn’t leave just.  He stays until the storm arrives.

As the storm buids He may have been tempted to go quickly back to the disciples on a rescue mission, but He didn’t.  Jesus stays put and prays harder.  If Jesus can walk on water (which we know He can), then Jesus could have come to the disciple’s boat at any moment.  So, why is the moment He left theperfect moment in the storm?

Well, hopefully you have some intriguing questions too as you read God’s Word.  For me, I believe this exercise brought some good thoughts such as the fact that Jesus purposefully wanted these men to encounter what they did alone.  It was a sort of test.  I believe Jesus was up on that mountainside praying for their faith to be strengthened through the test.  Jesus told Peter at another time that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat, but Jesus was praying for Him.  So,  prayer is obviously a key to facing the scary things in our lives.  I noticed that when things got rough, Jesus didn’t bail, He prayed, and then He prayed harder.  Jesus didn’t just fly down to the boat like Superman, even though He certainly could.  Jesus knew it was good for the disciples to go through this test of faith.  Jesus doesn’t save us from every hard situation.  Only our God could know the perfect time to bring deliverance through the storms of life.

So from this passage, I am reminded that prayer,intercession and patience is a key to trusting God to come through when I’m facing a test.  Try visualizing the Scriptures as you read.  It could mean so much more as you immerse yourself in the story God is telling you.

A couple of years ago I went to a conference center when I was feeling especially down.  I don’t even remember what the conference was about, but it gave me a getaway experience where I could reconnect with God and sort out some serious issues.  One thing I will never forget is that God told me that I should ask for Him to take away my fear.

I couldn’t even tell you exactly what I was so afraid of.  I wasn’t staying indoors, afraid of what may be lurking around the corner.  In fact, I don’t think it hindered me much from doing the sort of things I always do, but … God pegged it.  I did have a deep sense of fear underneath the surface.

I think maybe I was afraid that I didn’t have what it takes to be a success.  I was afraid that everyone would find out how nonspiritual I was.  I was afraid that I had failed to be the father and husband my family deserved.  Each week I was afraid that I had wasted the time I had, and afraid that time would run out before I could do what I needed to do.

Fear had settled in and bound me up on the inside.  And God wanted to deliver me from that.  So, I asked.  I can’t really explain it, but when I asked, He took my fear away.   For days and months afterward, I felt free.  Unbound.

I believe fear has come back from time to time, but I’m trying to give it less and less power over me.  One verse of Scripture that I continue to think about is 2 Timothy 1:7

⁷For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

God did not make the human spirit to be bound in fear.  And He cares if your spirit is troubled.  Ask him to reveal what has a choke hold on you, and then ask him to free you.

We had a great start to the InterFEARence series, and I hope after thinking through the frightening wind and waves experience Peter had with Jesus, you’ll be ready to return next week to consider your own life hindered by inner fear.  See you Sunday!

I said a few weeks ago that I love the term “Selling Out”. It usually conjures up a negative connotation like, “I used to love that band before they sold out.” But I like the idea of being sold out for my God. Sold out really means that nothing else matters anymore except the one thing (or person) to which you have sold out.

Selling out to God has to be a beautiful thing. God is all that matters. Serving Him is the only reason for existence. He is the focal point of life and the center of the universe. I feel like I read that we are supposed to live this way anyway. So why not do it and be completely sold out for Him?

So what does that look like? Well, since we cannot practically speaking bring God a glass of water or a slice of pizza, since we can’t do his laundry or mow his lawn, we have to do what we can. To paraphrase Jesus, we have to do what we can for the least of these. And I am finding in my life that almost all of us are the least of these. We all have something broken about us.

So, what can we do? We can serve each other. We can forget about our own selfish desires and go all out serving our fellow man. And most importantly we can do it with no strings attached. We do it just because God said so and we love Him by obeying.

So serve today, tomorrow and always. Then you will know the full measure of His love.

On the Journey with You,
Scott