IDOK Devotion for Thursday, March 11, 2010

I Think

I am admitting to you that I am a poor speller. Often words that I should know escape me. Today was one of those days and sovereign was the word. It won’t escape me any more though. As I keyed into my browser window the beginning of the word, it gave me choices and reign was cast in bold type and a light bulb came on! Sove reign. Bear with me now. I’ll admit my mental computing is often a stretch, and I am strangely wired, but it works for me – and quite honestly, I like it. SO! Sove for some reason reminded me of the word ‘solve’ and I said: ‘uh hu if I allow the Holy Spirit of God to REIGN in me, all my issues, problems, conflicts, all the bits I am dealing with will be SOLVED’. And might I add, spelling the word sovereign is solved too! Just a little trivia. I’ll get back to my study now. Catch ya’ll later.

Matthew 14has been a portion of my reading today. Please share it with me.

22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.

23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

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

I am assuming Jesus sent the multitude away before dusk so they could make their way home and then He went to pray and His disciples as He instructed them got in a boat to make their way across the Sea of Galilee. (Their next appointment with the people was in the Land of Gennesaret. Here’s a link to a map if you liked to visualize this better. http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/lake-gennesaret.html )

If I understand this correctly, the ‘Boys’ had made it to the middle of the Sea by evening and they were getting tossed around pretty good by a severe storm and about 4 AM, I believe, Jesus decided to take a walk. (He and ABBA must have been having a really good time there on the mountain since dusk.)

Let me tell you something else I really like about this Text. Jesus walked to them, not around the sea but across it and don’t forget – it was not a calm sea. As the God-Man don’t you think He could have just popped in on them rather than walking? But He didn’t. But He did start walking toward them in plenty of time to reach them at just the right time. I think He still does that. I think He still takes the shortest distance to us (not going around the storm but through it). I think He does not cause us to wait in our storms any longer than is absolutely necessary for us to KNOW Him best. And I think that storm scared the daylights out of those Guys on that boat, but I think they would not have missed the Presence of Jesus in the storm for anything in the world. I think Jesus wants us to love Him so much that His Manifested Presence with us in the storm makes the storm worth it to us. What do you think?

Holy Spirit, thank You that more and more You are making Your Word alive to us. I am loving it! And I pray our IDOKs and Readers are too. I pray meeting You on the pages of Scripture will be so special to us that going a day without reading Your Word will be unthinkable and unbearable to us. And for all names spoken here, we pray for Your will to be done for each of them. We pray each one will sense You coming to them; we pray their faith will not fail. We pray they will count their storms worth it just to see You present with them. Please continue to protect our IDOK Troops, watch over them and keep them from harm spiritually, physically and emotionally. Help their families be strong and trust You. And we are still mindful of the political climate and still rejoicing that people are waking up and I ask that our awareness of what is right and wrong will continue to grow and that we will be determined to do what is right regardless who says its wrong or politically incorrect. Please keep on raising up prayer warriors and evangelists until every one hears and has the opportunity to exchange their sins for Your righteousness, Jesus. Amen and amen.

Kathie

as I prepare for Sunday’s Bible Lesson.

Just like they are so far: :) (Text for Sunday is I Peter 4: 1-11)

⁸And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Above all things. Peter is saying here: the most important thing in all this that I have written to you is that you love one another. Because love does what? Covers the multitude of sins.

But not just any love – Both times Charity in this verse is agape. It takes agape to veil, hid from view, to take away that sin [meaning of cover] that offends and hurts your feelings and deprives you of what is rightly yours. Only agape will do that.

Now let’s go back to the word fervent.

Fervent: in this verse it is not used in the way we usually think of it. Here it means stretched out, stretched forth toward. And you can say what you want but stretched out, stretched forth toward is an effort. It requires muscle in the one doing the stretching. And sometimes it even feels good. What’s a good stretch do for you in the mornings when you get up?

Think about that and let’s dialogue. How do you visualize what Peter is saying in this verse now in light that it is stretched out, stretched forth toward agape that Peter is talking about?

Blessings to you Dear Friends +++

Remember YOU have the God-given RIGHT to do right in this wrong world!