The Big Feat - Matthew 14:22-36 - Pictures, pictures, pictures...


It was a great week with all the family in Colorado.  We are very thankful that our family has become a group of families and their great interaction with one another is what warms our hearts.


I wasn't thinking about this when I was arranging the tiles of this table game we have but after taking a picture of it, it would be a great reminder to pray down the list of our 10 grandchildren.  Each one is precious and unique and we want to be supportive grandparents to them in whatever we can.  The most important way is to be examples of those who are following after Christ.




A trip up the mountain trail led me to this perspective that ties in with the passage we covered on Sunday.  12,000 feet of elevation and I was able to see Longs Peak in the distance, one of Colorado's 14ers and also all of Parika Lake below me.  Jesus sent away the multitudes that He just feed and went up the mountain to be alone with His Father and pray.  From this vantage point He could see the disciples on the Sea of Galilee straining at the oars because of the fierce storm that had come upon them.  I was glad for no storm this day as I was above tree line but I could see all that was going on below.

Jesus compelled them into the boat to go to the other side knowing there was a storm coming.  Jesus sees them going through the storm as He is praying on the mountain.  Jesus rises to come to their aid in the storm and as Mark's account says to go beyond them probably as a beacon to follow through the storm.  Jesus reacts to their fear with comfort that He is there and who He really is, God.  All these points we can apply to our lives as storms of life come upon us.  We need to continue to recognize that Jesus is not oblivious to what is going on in our lives.  It is during the storms of life that we need to draw nearer to Him so that He is larger than the storm.  And when we fail to do that and call out to Him, He will do as He did for Peter and stretch out His hand.

I finish the sermon with a compiling of the two groups I see in chapter 14.  There is a bread group that is looking at Jesus for what He could do for them.  He could give us our next meal; He could physically heal us; and He could be physically our king.  There is also the boat group that saw Jesus for who He was, the Son of God.  One group marvels at what Jesus can do and say but the other group bows down in worship of who He is.  Between the bread group and the boat group is an act of surrender.  At some point there is a responding to the call to allow your life to be about Jesus rather than yourself.  Which group are you in?  

Adam







A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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