WATER-WALKING DISCIPLESHIP – Part 2 of 2

“Peter answered [Jesus], ‘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.’”  (Matthew 14:28-33 ESV)

Put yourself in Peter’s place for a moment. You have a sudden insight into what Jesus is doing -- the Lord is passing by. He’s inviting you to go on the adventure of your life. But at the same time, you’re scared to death. What would you choose -- the water or the boat?

The boat is safe, secure, and comfortable.

On the other hand, the water is rough. The waves are big. The wind is strong. There’s a storm out there. And if you get out of the boat -- whatever your boat may be -- there’s a good chance you might sink.

But if you don’t get out of the boat, there’s a guaranteed certainty that you will never walk on the water. This is an immutable law of nature.

If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.

I believe there is something -- Someone -- inside us who tells us there is more to life than sitting in the boat.  You were made for something more than merely avoiding failure. There is something inside you that wants to walk on water -- to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon yourself to the high adventure of following God.

So let me ask you a very important question: What’s your boat? 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

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A DUAL RISK

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”  (John 1:12 NIV)

Every commitment is a sort of gamble. But for the person experiencing the acute sense of risk that comes at the moment of making a decisive commitment, there is a dual risk: Not only the risk of exercising faith and making a commitment, but the equally acute risk of NOT exercising faith and making a commitment. It is what Sheldon Vanauken, in his book “A Severe Mercy” describes so well as the “gap behind” -- the sense that one cannot draw back from the risk that is to be taken, except at even greater risk.

Vanauken wrote, “The position was not, as I had been comfortably thinking all these months, merely a question of whether I was to accept the Messiah or not. It was a question of whether I was to accept Him -- or reject. My God! There was a gap behind me, too. Perhaps the leap to acceptance was a horrifying gamble -- but what of the leap to rejection?” 

-- Maxine Hancock in “Re-evaluating Your Commitments: How to Strengthen the Permanent and Reassess the Temporary”

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EXPECTING MORE

"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV)

A God not interested in taking risks would never have created Adam in the first place. If God risked everything in the person of Jesus Christ for the sake of our salvation, doesn't it seem likely that this same God might expect more than self-seeking, self-motivated, safety-conscious behavior from those who have been so wondrously saved? 

-- Leonard Sweet in “Homiletics” magazine

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