The Battle of the Very Great vs. Nothing

There's an epic battle going on in many people's lives. Maybe that includes you. It's the Battle of the "Very Great" vs. "Nothing."

You know, like when a problem is "very great," and you've got nuthin. You feel like there's nothing you can do. It's overwhelming. It seems insurmountable. The "very great" always overpowers "nothing." Not much of a battle, it would seem. 

That is, until Jesus shows up. In Mark 8:1, we're told that "In those days..." ...Wait a minute... What days? Well, how about the days Mark was just writing about in Mark 7 where he wrote, "And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, 'He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak'" (Mark 7:37). "Those" days! "In those days," there was a battle raging: the Battle of the "Very Great" vs. "Nothing." Mark described "the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat..." (Mark 8:1). There's the battle! The multitude was very great in number, and the food was scarce. Worse than scarce. There was "nothing to eat."

Perhaps you're facing a situation where a huge expense is worrying you, or a major health issue has caught you by surprise, or a relational difficulty feels hopeless. Whatever the challenge is that you're facing, it can feel "very great." I know because I've had that feeling.

But then Mark continues: ""In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, 'I have compassion on the multitude, because they have... nothing to eat" (Mark 8:1-2).

If you're in the Battle of the "Very Great" vs. "Nothing," you need Jesus. He makes all the difference. He clearly sees the situation, and he knows how overwhelming the challenges feel to us. He also sees how small our resources are, and he lovingly longs to intervene.

But we might look at Jesus and say, "How can anything be done?!" That's what the disciples asked. They asked, "How can one satisfy these people [4,000 people!] with bread here in the wilderness?" (8:4). And you might be asking, "How can I cover these huge expenses, or solve this health issue, or resolve this relational difficulty with the nuthin that I've got?"

Jesus is calm through it all. He simply asks, "What do you have, however little it may seem?" As a bustling multitude of 4,000 people crowded around him, Jesus calmly asked his disciples, "'How many loaves do you have?' And they said, 'Seven.'" (8:5). In other words, Nuthin. Not enough to feed four thousand people! But Jesus still told those 4,000 people to have a seat – it's chow time. It's time to show all these people how much God loves them.  

Perhaps Jesus is asking you what you have. It seem as small as seven loaves for 4,000 people. It may be a shrunken bank account. It may be an empty parking space that comes with your apartment but doesn't come with a car! It may be nothing more than a small act of kindness you can offer to an estranged family member. Even your prayers may feel like a weakened cry to a God who seems far away. 

Jesus can do something big with anything small that's offered in faith. When Jesus arrives on the scene in the Battle of the "Very Great" vs. "Nothing," he can multiply your "nothing" until "they ate and were filled" and there was much "leftover" (8:8). So in fact, the "very great" does not always overpower "nothing" – not when Jesus shows up.

So bring Jesus your seven fish today. Bring him what seems like nothing. And even if your faith feels weak, bring that and ask him to multiply that too! He doesn't reject us for having our doubts. The disciples had their doubts as they objected to Jesus' desire to feed a multitude with nothing. But that didn't sway Jesus. He loves us too much for that. Bring him your nothing, and let him leave you "astonished beyond measure" in these days as well.

© 2023 Ken Peters

Two Questions Worth Asking...

"Then He rose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." (Mark 4:39). 

What a sight that must have been! The spray of the waves still on their faces, the disciples must have been stunned by the sight of those suddenly placid waters. But then we're told that Jesus asked his disciples, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). 

Amidst all the challenges that each of us face – challenges that may feel like stormy winds and waves – Jesus' questions feels very appropriate in our day as well. It's worth imagining Jesus turning to us and asking, "Why are you so fearful?" 

It's a relevant question. It's relevant because all of us as people can be prone to feeling fear in stormy times. But Jesus' response is to ask, "How is it that you have no faith?" 

I need those two questions to be ringing in my ears DAILY. I have good reason to have faith in Jesus. As I've gotten to know him, and as I've seen what he can do, I have no reason to fear when I know that he is with me. He might as well be saying "Peace, be still" to my own heart.

So it's really worth remembering Jesus' questions whenever we feel anxious or afraid...

"Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?"

© 2023 Ken Peters

Being a Good Neighbour Amid a Pandemic

The following was published on the Faith page of the Winnipeg Free Press on September 14, 2020.

A few years before I came on staff at Gateway Church in 1992, our congregation had bought land and built a new church building on the edge of East Elmwood. We were the new neighbours. The newcomers to the area.

As we grew, we began to look for ways to be neighbourly. We started a weekly food and clothing bank. We launched two neighbourhood drop-in centres, one for pre-teens and one for teens. We offered floor hockey nights in our building. We hosted holiday feasts and carnivals for the people of East Elmwood. They were all ways we could be good neighbours.

This idea of being neighbourly is something that all humanity recognizes as appropriate human behaviour. I believe that’s because God is a loving God, and when he created the world, he chose to create humanity in his image, the result being that having love for others is an intrinsic part of who we are as people.

In fact, being a good neighbour is something that is at the core of Christianity. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment in the Bible was, he couldn’t resist listing two commands in his answer: Love God and love your neighbour — “There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31)

Jesus went on to explain in his famous story of the good Samaritan that to be a good neighbour meant going out of your way to make life-affecting sacrifices for others.

Fast-forward to 2020, and suddenly we have new ways to love our neighbours. This past spring, when the Manitoba government asked churches to reduce their meeting sizes, churches complied in the spirit of being a good neighbour.

After all these years of seeking to love our neighbours in East Elmwood, we couldn’t imagine carelessly carrying on our big Sunday meetings at the risk of community spread to a neighbourhood God had called us to love sacrificially. We couldn’t imagine intentionally adding to the healthcare burden for community hospitals and care homes just because of our inflexibility in how we offered our worship services.

It was because we felt called by God to love our neighbours in the midst of these new and unusual circumstances that we — as well as many other churches — turned to offering live-streamed services.

And this is why we feel it’s loving to ask people to wear masks while also being appropriately socially-distanced as we go back to in-person services this fall. In the same way we teach our children to cover their mouths when they cough so they won’t spread germs, we want to love our neighbours by donning our masks in public gatherings.

There are many uncertainties as schools are back in session, and as businesses seek to do business, and as churches are again gathering in both large and small groups. But there’s one thing we can do — and which we feel called by God to do — and that’s to love our neighbours in the way we navigate through these very unusual times.

The Call before the Calm

We all know what it’s like to feel exhausted. But have we ever been so weary that we’re able to sleep through a storm while in an open boat with drenching waves sweeping over it?

That’s how tired Jesus was as he wearily climbed into a boat with his disciples and told them to sail to the other side of the lake. Though he had the power to heal, his body also felt fatigue. The Son of God fully experienced our frailty as a man. 

I can just see him crawling to the back of the boat where there was a ragged fishy-smelling cushion of sorts, and curling up with it in the space he could find amidst the folded nets and coiled ropes. He may have been asleep before the sails were even raised. 

We don’t know how long it was before the storm hit, but we know it was fierce. Mark tells us that “waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling” (Mk. 4:37). Matthew tells us that the boat was “being swamped by the waves” (Mt. 8:24). And Luke tells us that they “were in danger” (Lk. 8:23)!

As the winds began to roar, the waves would’ve grown until the boat was being tossed upon them and drenched under them. There would’ve been shouting from the disciples as they hurriedly lowered the sails, and started to bail. And through it all, Jesus slept. 

None of the commotion woke Jesus. I can just see the disciples scrambling and jostling to stay afloat, wiping the sea spray of the pounding waves from their faces, and occasionally stealing glances at Jesus, wondering how he could sleep through it all. Perhaps Peter shouted to Andrew or to John, “Should we wake him?”

As they shook him awake, they shouted above the tumult, “Master, don’t you care? We’re perishing here in this terrible storm!” Picture Jesus struggling to focus on their faces as he stirred from a deep sleep, his face wet with spray, and then looked around at the storm that was assaulting them, then back into their eyes with greater clarity in his gaze. 

Of the three accounts of this story, I like Matthew’s best due to one small way in which he specifies the sequence of events. In all three accounts, Jesus questions the disciples’ lack of faith, but it’s only in Matthew’s account that we’re told that Jesus asks them this amidst the tumult, before calming the storm (Mt. 8:26). 

I love imagining Jesus sitting there, shouting to be heard above such a fearsome storm — “Why are you so afraid? Where’s your faith?” — while waves crashed into the reeling vessel, and as some of the disciples still bailed with all their might. I can picture Jesus’ wet hair whipping in the wind, his eyes squinting in the lashing spray as he looked into the eyes of his disciples’ tired and fearful faces. Then he called on them to believe while the winds wailed.

Their fearful response was obvious, but Jesus didn’t respond to their fear by refusing to help them. As they tried to deal with the storm by their own desperate devices, he didn’t tell them that if they don’t have faith, they’ll see no miracles. Jesus is not a punitive Saviour. 

Matthew wrote, “Then he rose” (Mt. 8:26), and majestically turned from the doubtful disciples to the defiant winds and raging waves and said, “‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mk. 4:39). 

The bailing suddenly stopped as flabbergasted disciples stared out at the suddenly placid sea. There was no more shouting as the wind no longer roared in their ears. The winds had obeyed him. The undercurrents of the sea obeyed him. “Who is this?” the disciples asked one another in hushed tones. “Even winds and sea obey him!” (Mt. 8:27). 

Fast-forward to the boats of our lives today, and Jesus still calls his followers to trust him amidst the troubles of this world. And I’m so relieved that he doesn’t wait for us to be pure in faith before acting on our behalf. As winds lash at my face, I can be sure that Jesus is with me and has all authority to calm the storms in my life even as he calls me to believe him while I’m still in the midst of the storms.

© 2020 Ken Peters

The Ultimate at Hide & Seek

Jesus has got to be the best there is at Hide and Seek. I'm not kidding. I've always been intrigued by the many instances in which He commanded people who had been healed by Him to "tell no one." I mean, what was He thinking? How could you expect a leper who had just been healed to keep quiet about it? Such a miracle would open the door for him to return to his family, to hold his children and to see his friends again! Yet Jesus said, "Tell no one" (Luke 5:14). Or how could you expect the parents of a child whom Jesus has raised from the dead to be silent? Their friends knew their daughter had died, and Jesus had just asked many of them to leave the house in which they were mourning the child's death. Doesn't Jesus realize that these people will see the child alive very soon? And yet He "charged them to tell no one what had happened" (Luke 8:56).

Whatever Jesus' reasons for giving such commands (which were frequently ignored, as is very clear in Mark 7:36), we can certainly learn one thing from these stories about Jesus: He doesn't seem to mind being hard to find. He liked to keep a low profile even as He went about doing exceptional things. And I think He's still doing the same thing today, though for different reasons. 

When was the last time you wondered, "God, where are you?" Have you ever asked that? The psalmists did. Such as in Psalm 10, which begins with, "Why do you stand afar off, O LORD? Why do you hide in times of trouble?" And yet, God is often doing exceptional works of grace in our lives in the very same seasons we find ourselves asking God that question. When He walked this earth, Jesus tended to avoid publicity so that people couldn't coerce Him to do what He wasn't prepared to do, such as to take up an earthly throne. And now that He lives in our hearts, Jesus sometimes prevents us from seeing what He's doing in our lives so that we can learn to trust Him no matter what, which is what is truly necessary for Him to be on the throne of our hearts!

We can see that He hides, but Jesus also likes to seek. In fact, the very reason He came to earth as a man was "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). The very same Lord and Saviour who chooses to hide His face from us in times of adversity, testing our hearts and growing our faith, is continuously seeking us, interceding for us (Romans 8:34) and rescuing us when we get lost (Luke 15:4). That should assure our hearts that we won't get lost amidst the trials we face, or miss God's purposes despite our inability to see all that's He's up to. For though God may sometimes choose to hide Himself from us, His thoughts and ways being so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9), we can be sure that He will also continually seek after us to make sure we don't lose our way. 

Yes, Jesus is the ultimate at Hide & Seek. He hides from us to grow our faith, and He seeks after us to make sure our faith finds Him!

© 2015 by Ken Peters

People-Watching with Jesus

Can you imagine Jesus having a moment of uninterrupted downtime while sitting amidst a crowd of people? It always seems like the crowds would never leave Him alone. But in Mark 12:41, we’re told that "He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money in the offering box" (Mark 12:41) as if no one even knew He was there. This is Jesus people-watching. Imagine that. Imagine Jesus actually being able to sit down in a public place in Jerusalem during the Passover week, unaccosted by the crowds. It was only a few days before His crucifixion, and yet there He was just sitting and watching the people of the city, all of them unaware that the Prince of Peace was sitting off to the side lovingly studying their movements. I find that a mesmerizing scene.

I can imagine a gentle and thoughtful expression in his eyes as he watched the faces of one person after another visiting the treasury to place their offerings. What must he have been thinking as he watched them all? Matthew 9:4 and 12:25 tell us that Jesus could know people's thoughts. Perhaps He knew the thoughts and motives, the boasts and fears, of every person He watched at the treasury that day. He obviously knew enough to know that most "contributed out of their abundance," but that the poor widow He saw "put in everything she had, all she had to live on" (Mark 12:44). The fact that He knew all that meant that He seemed to know more than what you or I could've been sure of.

And He must have been sitting alone as He did this people-watching, because once He saw the poor widow put in her "two small copper coins" (v.42), He "called His disciples to Him" (v.43) to explain what He'd just seen. Can you imagine that? Something like, "Hey guys! Come here! I just saw something amazing!"

So what, you might say. What I've just described has nothing to do with the point of the story. Or maybe it does. For me, these thoughts highlight something that really encourages me. They tell me that our loving Saviour, Jesus, is a people-watcher. He's sitting in heaven and watching you and me right now, and He takes special notice when we take a step of faith. He gets excited, and perhaps He says, "Hey Father!" or "Hey angels! Come here! I just saw something amazing!" Jesus sees our fears and our faith as we take risks that reflect our trust in Him -- the kind of risks that widow took -- and he boasts about us to those around Him.

That's because He loves each of us as much as He loved that widow. No act is too small to go unnoticed, and no step of faith too trivial, or too fraught with fear, to go unaffirmed by the God who sees everything that's in our hearts. And that's encouraging for anyone who feels like they haven't got much more than two small copper coins to offer God.

© 2011 by Ken Peters

Astonished beyond measure! (church bulletin cover)

I want to be "astonished beyond measure."  That's how Mark describes people's responses to a miracle Jesus performed in Mark 7:37.  Not just astonished, but "astonished beyond measure!" (ESV)  "Utterly astonished!" (NASB)  "Overwhelmed with amazement!" (NIV)

So how does that verse fit with the fact that when I've sometimes heard a person expressing surprise regarding answered prayer, it hasn't been unusual to hear someone ask, "Why are you surprised?  Didn't you believe God would answer your prayers?" Well this is how I want to answer such questions from now on: The people of the Decapolis believed in Jesus enough to bring a deaf and mute man to Him, begging Jesus to simply lay His hand on him so that he would be healed.  And when "his ears were opened" and "his tongue was released" (Mark 7:35), it says the people were "astonished beyond measure!"  So if the people who believed Jesus for such a significant miracle can still end up being that astonished when the miracle occurred, then why can't we be happily surprised when God answers our prayers?

Being astonished doesn't mean we lack belief.  It simply means that God has just done something amazing! Something we couldn't have done ourselves.  Something that's intended to result in God being glorified through the amazement of everyone who witnessed it!

So as I said, I want to be astonished beyond measure.  Shock me Lord!  Amaze me.  Wow me.  Leave my mouth hanging open.  And I'll keep coming to You, asking for things that will astonish and amaze me when you answer those prayers.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Can God speak to me through Terminator movies?

Terminator 4 has hit the theaters. So what, right? Well, I find it of mild interest because of the impact that one line of dialogue in Terminator 3 has had on me ever since I heard it.

Near the beginning of T3, when John Connor first meets Kate Brewster and is trying to give her some context for the crazy things that are happening, he says, "It's just... The life you know... all the stuff that you take for granted... It's not gonna last."

That line penetrated my heart like a laser. "It's not gonna last." All that is so familiar, we don't even think about it -- all that we see around us, and think is so important -- all the stuff we take for granted -- it isn't going to last.

I remember when I heard Connor say that, I was struck with how absolutely imperative and how completely life-changing having that perspective ought to be. And there I was being reminded of it by a script-writer for a fictional character in a sci-fi movie. But it's a fact: The life we know with all its familiar routines and comforts is not going to last. And the changes may come sooner and more unexpectedly and dramatically than we can imagine. So we'd better be sure we're not living for the things that are gonna disappear -- but rather, for the things that are going to last!

I'm sure that the reason that line resonated in my soul was because of how seriously Jesus spoke of the same thing. Speaking of the time before He returns, Jesus said, "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be" (Matthew 24:21). Sounds like some scenes I've seen in the trailers for T4! Those will be days when many valued things that we take for granted will be no more. And that's when Jesus will return, looking for those who have made Him their treasure rather than the temporal things of this world. All of that is why Jesus warns us repeatedly about those days, saying, "keep on the alert" (Mark 13:33), "stay on the alert" (Mark 13:34), and "be on the alert" (Mark 13:35 and 37)!

Are we alert? Or are we oblivious? Are we prepared? Or are we living like everything will carry on as usual forever? Are we focused on the things that are going to disappear? Or are we seeking Jesus? Many years ago, Terminator 3 actually reminded me of the futility of living for what isn't going to last. And my Bible has continually reminded me that I can live instead for a loving Saviour who wants me to live with Him for eternity! That's why I want to live my life focused on Jesus instead of on all the stuff around me in this world.

© 2009 by Ken Peters

"One anothering one another"

My previous posting made reference to the importance of living a missional as well as an attractional lifestyle. I've written before about learning to live missionally, but wanted to say more here about the priority of also living attractionally. This is a theme throughout the entire New Testament as writer after writer goes to great lengths to describe how Christians are meant to live in community with one another.

In fact, the term "one another" occurs 56 times in a relational sense in the New American Standard New Testament. "Love one another" is 17 -- or 30% -- of those references, but in essence, all of those references are about loving one another. Such verses are the nuts and bolts of Christian community. Their intent is to explain how people can live together harmoniously. They express how we can demonstrate such a unity of spirit to a watching world that people will recognize that we are followers of Jesus! After all, Jesus did say, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

There are at least 25 unique and practical ways that the New Testament writers explicitly urge us to express our love for "one another." The theme of this collection of "one another" verses is what I like to call "one anothering one another!"

Try reading this selection of references in sequence. It can be both a challenging and encouraging exercise. Then let’s one another one another!

• "...be at peace with one another." (Mark 9:50)
• "This I command you, that you love one another." (John 15:17)
• "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love..." (Romans 12:10)
  
• "...give preference to one another in honour" (Romans 12:10)
• "...let us not judge one another..." (Romans 14:13)
• "So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." (Romans 14:19)
• "...be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus." (Romans 15:5)
• "...accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us..." (Romans 15:7)
• “…through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
• “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)
• "I entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,...showing forbearance to one another in love" (Ephesians 4:1-2)
• "And be kind to one another..." (Ephesians 4:32)
• "...and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." (Ephesians 5:21)
• "...regard one another as more important than [your]self."
• "...bearing with one another..." (Colossians 3:13)
•  (Philippians 2:3)
• "...forgiving each other..." (Colossians 3:13)
• "...teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16)
• "Live in peace with one another." (1 Thessalonians 5:13)
• "...always seek after that which is good for one another..." (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
• "...encourage one another day after day..." (Hebrews 3:13)
• "...let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24)
• "Do not speak against one another, brethren." (James 4:11)
• "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed." (James 5:16)
• "Be hospitable to one another without complaint." (1 Peter 4:8)
• "...clothe yourselves with humility toward one another..." (1 Peter 5:5)

© 2009 by Ken Peters

Desires for Other Things

I walked into Wal-Mart the night before Halloween and found that the promotional area just inside their doors was already 90% Christmas stuff. There's no sentimentality in consumerism. Before a holiday is even over (though I'm stooping quite low in order to refer to Halloween as a holiday), the boxes for the next one are being carted out. It's not, "Wasn't that nice?", but rather, "What's next?!"

And though I bristle at the crass consumerism of the retail world, I must admit that I do get distracted by the materialism of the culture in which I live. I want stuff. The world's teetering economies depend on us to do so. And I can't deny that the attraction of stuff has had an impact on my pursuit of God -- diluting my passion for Him. Sure, I've steered clear of most techno-gadgets and I don't even get any channels on my 21" TV. And sure, I've resisted putting new flooring in our house and I'm happy buying used clothes. But I can still end up wanting way more used shirts than any one person needs! And despite my restraints, I still feel drawn to look through the weekly flyers to see if there's more stuff to be had at a reasonable price!

So as I read Mark 4:18-19 recently, I felt a twinge of conviction and wondered at how fruitful my life is for God. Jesus is speaking there of the seed that fell among thorns, and He says, "but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."

I felt pricked (as if by a thorn) as I read those verses, and as I wondered at the amount of fruit in my life -- in terms of people being saved and in terms of the amount my life shines before an unsaved world the way Jesus said it should in the subsequent verses of 4:21-22. I felt pricked because I know that I'm rich (by most standards of this world), and I have many possessions that can cause me worry if there's trouble with them (car repairs, an appliance on the blink, a basement shifting, a memory-stick lost). And I can certainly feel "desires for other things" that distract me from the things that really matter to God. "Desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful." How much more fruitful would I be if my desire to see my neighbour saved was stronger than my desire for books or CDs or good sale prices? What an indictment that such things should appear more important to me!

I realize that the availability of so much stuff in this culture will always have the potential to be as thorns that want to choke the word in my life. But even with the retail world gearing up for the Christmas season, I must not let that happen! May I always want God's will for my life more than any temporary material pleasure. And may Jesus always be the Treasure of my heart, even amongst so much product glitz and excess!

© 2008 by Ken Peters

The Good Part

Does life ever feel crazy-busy to you? There are days when I find that life’s frenzied pace feels like the equivalent of lying on a car, desperately clinging to it as it recklessly speeds through my schedule! And then in the blur of my busyness, I vaguely recall the simple words, “Mary has chosen the good part” (Luke 10:42). How many times have I felt the challenge of those words?

Just those few words, “the good part” (NASB) or “what is better” (NIV) should bring me to a screeching halt, leaving behind that burnt-tire stench of self-initiative. Let’s think about this. Here’s Jesus, the Son of God, doing us the kindness of telling us what He considers “better” or “the good part” of life, and I appear too busy to notice. But let’s get some perspective here. Jesus’ life was extremely demanding. There were times He wasn’t even able to eat due to the pressing crowds (Mark 3:20). And there were times when crowds of thousands sought Him out and found Him even though He was trying to find a quiet place to be alone (Matthew 14:13). But He still somehow found time for what He saw as “the good part” as He made sure to carve out adequate time with His Father (Matthew 14:22-23). So why on earth would I, who am so much needier than Jesus, not take extra special care to make sure that every one of my days includes what Jesus considers “the good part”?

Jesus is calling me to come close, to be near Him, to intimacy, to know His thoughts, to enjoy His company, to hear from Him and dwell on His Words. I ought to consider such a call to be a rescuing hand reaching through my whirlwind of activity, pulling me to the soul-satisfying sanctuary of God’s presence. But as Jesus extends His hand, I still need to choose to grab it in the same way that Mary “chose” to sit and listen to Jesus in Luke 10:42. To discover the encouragement of “the good part”, I must make a choice: my way or His? It’s clear enough to me that Jesus’ way is not some kind of life where we just sit passively at His feet, listening, ever listening, never doing, never busy. But what I see in the story of Mary and Martha is that the only service Jesus desires is an activity that is born out of a life with Him – out of devotion that provides direction from heaven! It’s the branch-that-can-do-nothing-apart-from-the-vine principle. It’s being responsive rather than taking initiative.

It’s choosing the good part.

© 2008 by Ken Peters

Finding Faith in the Storms (church bulletin cover)

What does it take for me to not be afraid? Does God need to make all the storms of my life go away in order for me to have no fear? When Jesus asked His disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40), did He calm the storm first because He figured that was the only way His disciples could avoid their fears? Or did He want them to have chosen not to be afraid even in the midst of the storm? In the midst of our current sermon series on spiritual warfare, it’s an important question. Do the battles we face have to end in order for us to not be afraid? The answer must be no, for Jesus’ question was two-fold: it was about their fears as well as about what they had already witnessed as food for their faith. It feels as if Jesus is saying, “What is your problem, you guys? Haven’t you seen enough miracles to know that I can also take care of any storm you’re facing? Where’s your faith gone to now that the going’s gotten tough?” So as I face storms in my life, do I need Jesus to calm them in order for me to not be afraid and in order for me to have faith? Or have I seen enough of God’s hand at work in my life to have faith in the midst of the storms — even ones that are bad enough to leave me feeling like I could perish in them? I know the reality is that I’m afraid far too easy — long before I’m at risk of perishing. But I want Jesus’ questions to ring in my ears: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Because I know that even in the storms Jesus doesn’t calm, He’s with me through it all, and can turn those winds around whenever He chooses!

© 2008 by Ken Peters