Has God Ever Told You: “Get Into The Boat?”
“Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go
ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away.” (Matt. 14:22).
(The next several blogs center around the feeding of the 5000 and a life
changing principle a devout man of God taught me as I prepared to leave for a
year in the garden spot of the world, Taegu, Korea.)
Hey Gang: This seems like an innocent enough verse but,
we shall soon learn there are no innocent, stand-alone verses in God’s Word. Let me share how the Scripture of the morning
became embedded in the archives of my heart and mind.
I had just gotten my orders that Uncle Sam was
going to send me on a visit to an exotic place, called South Korea. Out of thirteen newly-graduated Air Traffic
Controllers, eleven went to such dangerous places as Miami, Southern California
and Washington State. The other was
assigned to Germany and the last one assigned to Taegu Air Traffic Control
Center in Korea. You guessed it, that
name on the assignment was mine.
At this point in my life I was,
what one might call a Laodicean Christian.
Religion was more of a convenience than a way of life. At the time, I thought my mother had “slipped
me a Mickey” when she arranged a meeting for me to spend some time with her Pastor,
prior to shipping out. I must admit,
arriving I was a basket of nerves. He
was a Pastor that others called a Pastor’s Pastor.
I can say with no reserve, he was
the most Godly-man I had ever had the privilege of spending time with. As I was preparing, to leave he gave me a
tract that he had written titled “Contrary Winds.” I carried this in my wallet
throughout my Korean experience and until it literally disintegrated in my
wallet twenty or more years later. A
tract that I shared many times with people who were going through wilderness
experiences.
It began with a question, “Do
you think Jesus ever had a bad day?”
This story of one of those days is found in Matthew 14. Jesus was told
His cousin, John the Baptist, had been murder by Herod to satisfy his lust for his
step daughter. Jesus loved John with a
special kind of love. He said, “…no greater man ever born than John the Baptist.”
He did as you or I would have done,
if we lost a very special friend, He withdrew to the mountain to be alone and
mourn for His friend. But the mobs would have no part of it and came to
Him. Matthew tells us, “He had
compassion for them”. That is the
way Jesus was and the essential ingredient He wants His children to have.
The story continues; “After a busy
day of healing the sick, evening had set in and his disciples came to him
and said, “This place is desolate (Hainley translation – no Burger Kings in sight) and the hour is
already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and
buy food for themselves” (Matt. 14:15).
John tells us it was time for
another chapter in the Philip’s learning curve, “…that He was saying this to
test him, for He already knew what He was going to do” (John 6:6). “You feed them”
was merely window talk. But Pastor Stoll
made a strong point -that is not what Jesus had in mind for them or for us.
At that point Pastor Stoll asked
me a question that I have pondered many times since that day. He said, “Do you think the disciples had the
power to feed that multitude of people”.
He then asked, “If God said to you this morning ‘go and feed your
neighbor’, even though you have no food in your pantry or have no idea how to
cook, do you think God’s power in your hands is sufficient?”
Will God give me marching orders without equipping me to
complete the task He has assigned to me?
(To be continued)
Blessings,
Gramps
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