For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
First, as many of you know, and many of you were praying for me - I traveled to the land of Israel this past May. In just some of my experiences we sat on a boat at night in the Sea of Galilee, had communion at Golgotha, walked the Via Dolorosa, and walked the Palm Sunday walk down the Mount of Olives and into the city of Jerusalem up to the Temple Mount - the place where Christ will return prior to the seven year tribulation (and many many more experiences than just those). I grew in thankfulness and understanding for what God did for his people – what he has done in the past and what he will continue to do in the future to bring glory to his name and bring about his kingdom. Your support in fact changed my life, as I was able to see and now better envision all the things which I have studied and read about since I was child, the things which I will preach to the generations until the day I die. Our God is a great God, His mercies are new every day, His love has no end, and great is his faithfulness!
As I spoke of before - and am still processing - three weeks ago I sat on the Sea of Galilee, in a boat, at nighttime. We road from one shore to the other – just as the disciples did frequently with Christ during his years of ministry. As we reached the middle of the sea the engines in the boat were shut off (as it would have been for the disciples). The wind was picking up at night and the waves grew bigger and bigger by the second. Our boat was shaking, and I’m sure that we were a lot more secure than the disciples were in their fishing boat. It was one of the most powerful experiences to me in my life to sit there and remember the two things Jesus did in that very same spot. And that would be that spot.
(Luke 8:24-25) The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we are going to drown!"
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
(Matthew 14:22-33) Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
"Come," he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord save me!"
Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God."
To sit there and reminisce such things so vibrant within our faith; to place myself in the place of one of the disciples and feel the emotions; to understand the power that God has even over the sea and how he demonstrated that power; those are things I will never forget. How obvious to me it was that I would've been the same as they were, would've doubted the same things, been freaked out by the same. To sit there and see the waves growing larger, to feel the wind getting stronger, to just be wading around in the water...picture it.
We saw many ruins of King Herod the Great (including Caesarea, where the Roman Centurion became the first Gentile convert after Christ), Capernaum, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and many sights within the old city of Jerusalem. A vision I will never forget was walking the Via Dolorosa – the road from Ciaphas’ house to the outer gates of Jerusalem, where Jesus carried the cross from his sentence to his crucifixion. My friends and I went out by ourselves one night through the Damascus Gate when the streets were much less crowded and walked the long stretch in Jerusalem that Jesus would have carried the cross to his death. We sang over and over amongst ourselves the hymn “The Wonderful Cross,” and I will never forget doing that for as long as I live. We literally could not move then and there, as we walked and sat there for a long time reminiscing what had happened where we were nearly two-thousand years ago. Breathtaking. Literally.
"Our God is greater Our God is stronger God you are higher than any other!"
Philipians 4:23
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Go. Serve.
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