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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, May 2, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jesus Takes Peter by the Hand Bible Verse:Matthew 14:22-33 (ESV) "Directly after this, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night [between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.] he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”" Message:
Why did Jesus command his disciples to depart and then isolate himself, away from his followers? In modern terms, “he had the crowd.” If He wanted to spread the Gospel, this would seem the opportune moment to consolidate his organization.
There is one reason we know and another we might infer. The known reason is given to us in John 6:15: “Then Jesus, realizing that they were going to carry him off and make him their king, retired once more to the hill-side quite alone.” The crowd, expecting a Messiah who would sit on throne of David, had become a mob and would have tried to force Christ into politics, the exact opposite of God’s plan.
The second, inferential reason is related, for we see throughout all four gospels that Christ introduces himself as the Son of God gradually. God plans that Jesus will build a foundation of knowledge and introduce his teaching to the world one step at a time, at a pace at which it can be accepted and understood correctly. Even in the three years He took to make himself fully known, his closest disciple, Peter, would not be able to grasp Christ’s meaning until after the Resurrection.
Even today, Christianity is hard to understand; not because it is intellectually complex, but because it is contrary to people’s preconceptions. Change is difficult; and Christianity, being a radical change from every human being’s natural core beliefs, is radically difficult to grasp.
Nathaniel Currier|Christ Walking on the Sea
Jesus walking on water has to be high on the list of his best-known acts, so here is a big surprise: It might not have happened, at least in Matthew. The Greek original of Matthew’s text can just as correctly be translated to say that Jesus walked to the edge of the water and called to his disciples from shore! The Greek is ambiguous. But like the translation of John 3:16, the interpretation that He walked out onto the water has become so ingrained in Christian tradition that no Bible would dare say otherwise. And, in fairness, the “walked on water” translation is perfectly justified and the context would seem to support it.
The point of which is, you should ask yourself this question: Does it make a difference to you one way or the other? The really important lessons to the story are not Jesus performing a magic trick, but rather his leaving his prayers to come to the aid of his disciples. He will come to us in our time of need. It is harder to grasp that the God of billions of galaxies, each with billions of planets, at least one of which has billions of inhabitants, would deign to come to the assistance of one little person: but Jesus, time and again, shows us that He will.
In addition, He calms their fears. One of the benefits of Christian belief is that, the deeper our faith, the less fear we live with.
Even when Peter loses faith, Jesus reaches out and takes his hand. We remember when He reached out his hand to touch the leper. These events inform the old hymn, Precious Lord, Take My Hand. When we sink into fear or despair, Jesus will wield the mighty power of God to take us by the hand. And He takes Peter's hand, even in a moment of loss of faith. It is the primary message of Christianity: Jesus will reach out to us personally and save us from our sin.
Meditation : It is Satan’s tactic to convince us to make small concessions and compromises, until we take them for granted. Prayer : O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, I pray,.......Amen |
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