Overboard

To be trained by a Rabbi in Jesus' day, you were expected to roam with your rabbi at all times. No matter where he goes, you go. You meet lepers. You approach the delirious. You are a guest at a dinner with the most repulsive people on the planet. You go everywhere so you will not miss anything.

You show up at special functions with your Rabbi. You discern His attention to the despised. You ponder the time you and The Rabbi ate snacks from the field, and were criticized. You focus on your Teacher when He eats with the self-righteous Pharisee. You watch Him explain forgiveness to the Pharisee. You help Him feed 5000 men. You meditate on the Master's management of two opposite sisters. You go everywhere to learn everything.

Hypocrites are as dangerous as deadly dynamite. They compliment you, then carve up your back. They wear suits on Sunday, but carry pitchforks on Monday. Strangely, your Master loves each one. So you consider how He gently corrects them. You scrutinize His stories offering change. You study Him in situations as He challenges men to change. You concentrate on the direct challenges to your Rabbi, and how He stands His ground.

You saw Him teach a healed leper to keep the commands. You discern His use miracles as a teaching moment. You'll notice His use of the old testament. You listen to Him give men God's heart-based living instead of ceremony-based heartless obedience. You grasp His memorable analogies becoming anchors.

You are hand picked to witness His glory. You shield your eyes from His glowing clothes. You see your Rabbi as He was before. You feel the cloud. You hear God's thundering voice commanding your attention to your Rabbi. 

In discipleship, you learn by observing, by imitating your Teacher, and by ALWAYS being close. 

Now Jesus has sent you, Peter, and the other disciples across the deadly Galilean sea after an exhausting day. 

Jesus, your most-loved Instructor, is spending a large part of His night in prayer.

It is about 4 o'clock in the morning. You are excruciatingly tired, along with the others. Row 10 feet forward. Blown back 8 feet. The wind-driven waves are wicked. The sea at night is dangerous, but you are safe IN the boat. Despite the comfortless conditions, all of you are IN a good ship.

"What is that out on the water," Matthew says. "It's a ghost!" exclaims Judas. You are thinking, 'This sea kills! That is a ghost! Not good!' But the ghost is walking past. 

"It's Jesus," John says.

Passionate Peter wants to be with Jesus every moment. He says, "If it is you, tell me to come." Jesus replied, "Come on."

In disbelief, you watch Peter roll up his pant legs. (Oh, yeah. They did not have pants.) But you are watching Peter walking on water. 

He is successfully doing the impossible. 

What are the similarities between Peter and a parachutist? 

• Both get out of perfectly good vessels. 
• Both trust their ability to do what the instructor says. 
• Both experience success.

As Rabbi followers wanting success, we must get out of the boat. We must be with our Rabbi. We trust him. Now, we must leave what is safe. We must believe we can obey the commands. 

Only when we go OVERBOARD will we experience God's success. Only when we get out of the boat, will we do the impossible successfully.

It Could Mean...

When was the last time you watched a news station that only REPORTED news stories? Today, most recite the key facts in the first minute, then babble seven more 'discussing' it. "It could mean... (expound on one possibility). Or it might mean.... (further expounding on conjecture #1). Still, another choice is... (blah, blah, blah...)." It is vital to correctly comprehend and appreciate any factual statement or event. But discussing possibilities does not create an authority. Pete, Jimmy and Johnny have seen Jesus as He was before there was man. Jesus tells Peter James and John to be tight-lipped. There will no sharing their 'mountain-top' experience. At least not until the Son of Man had risen. They dismissed the fact that Jesus would, by necessity, die. But they seized the phrase 'rising from the dead'. And, like our news organizations, started hashing the matter. What did they know about the dead rising? They had seen Jesus raise a couple, but not sufficient to establish a pattern. And they did not quiz Jesus for more information. And, like our news services, offered no definitive conclusion. So, what does the phrase mean? Can you solve their dilemma without the New Testament, or historical hindsight? As a minimum, it is hard. But we do have historical hindsight. And our vision can be 20/20. Jesus is telling them AGAIN, within a week, he would die and be raised. The first time Peter got hung up on Jesus dying. Now he struggles with 'rising from the dead'. Are we like Peter? Or do we know just enough to bluff our friends into thinking we are an authority. Why not investigate biblical subjects with your friends, and let God be the authority.

The Voice

I am lucky to have had an uncle like Pete. Well, actually, he was my great-uncle Pete. He could tell stories better than anyone.

One of my favorites was when he, Jimmy and Johnny went with their friend, Yeasus, up the high mountain. 

Uncle Pete's eyes would get so big when he told of how Yeasus' clothes started glowing white. He said they were as white as the sun, adding, "Professional-grade Clorox could not get them that white!" Once he said they were "nuclear" white.

Then he said the three of them were joined by two other men. Yeasus called one Elij and the other Mo, Uncle Pete said. To help me grasp how important the event was, Uncle Pete said these men had been God's leaders years before.

He said he had not been this scared many times before, especially when he realized who was with Yeasus. He **saw** the men. They **looked** and **sounded** real, but both had been dead more than 1000 years. 

Uncle Pete always started laughing at this point in the story. His face would mildly blush as he told of how he started talking before he started thinking. 

"Teacher," (a title for Yeasus), Uncle Pete would say loudly. "Let's build three sacred tents to commemorate the occasion -- one for each of you!" Then he would lean over to me and whisper, "I was so scared I didn't know what to say," he ended with a little chuckle.

Uncle Pete never knew where the thick, stormy cloud came from, but suddenly it did more than fly over. It settled and surrounded them. 

Uncle Pete's face always changed. There was something in his memory still scaring him. His eyes would glaze over and his voice would tremble. Few stories were as powerful to Uncle Pete as this one. 

I think what he heard was God speaking, but Uncle Pete called it 'The Voice'.

Uncle Pete, helping everyone sense the awesome power of The Voice, would thunder at the top of his lungs,"THIS is MY SON. He is the one I LOVE! LISTEN TO HIM!" 

When Uncle Pete looked around, re-enacting the moment, he would say, "When The Voice stopped, only Yeasus was still there." 

He stopped. He looked me straight in the eyes. "The Voice told me to listen only to Jesus. And I tell you, pay attention to everything Yeasus said and did. I have told you His stories. Yeasus is the son of The Voice."