Stepping Into the Boat

Last night at church, we held our kick-off service for our "Gathered-to-Go" Missions Celebration.

Our church has adopted the Global Focus program which will mold us into an Acts 1:8 Church.  We are called to Go, and Global Focus will help equip us to do that. Taking part in Global Focus requires us to celebrate what God's doing in and by our Church throughout the nations each year.  This is our first Celebration!  And it is a celebration indeed as we have missionaries that our church sponsors from all over the world here in Gadsden for the week! It's so exciting to see God at work around the world!

 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.  (Acts 1:8, ESV)
 
Part of the celebration requires us to evaluate our lives and commit to God to be faithful. We want to continue sending out members of our church into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. And so last night at our kick off service we had Dr. Danny Wood deliver a message. (Danny is the pastor of Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham which has been involved with Global Focus for about 10 years I believe.)  Anyway, Dr. Wood preached on Mathew 8:23-27 where the disciples chose to trust in Christ and step in the boat with him even in the midst of a storm.   Dr. Wood told us that we will be one of two people- we will stand along the shore and watch or we will step into the boat with Christ and follow after Him.  

23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” (Matthew 8:23-27, ESV)

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39, ESV)

I want to step into the boat with Christ. I want to follow after my Savior and I want to lose my life in order to save it. I want to sacrifice my life for God. While some sacrifices I'll begin to make in order to further the kingdom of God are obvious being black and white, others are a little gray.  However, the black and white and gray go hand and hand because they both involve the same thing- finances.  But the gray involves so much more. This gray is a desire God's put in my heart but there's a lot of preparation it entails including financial and the financial preparation is where my fear lies.   Is my fear God-given fear because the timing isn't right or is it fear from Satan?  Is God calling me to stay-put for now and learn to be content? Or am I being complacent because where I am is easy and comfortable?  Is God calling me to leave the easy and comfortable and stop being complacent or is He calling me to be content a little while longer? Is He telling me not to worry about the finances, that He's in control? Or is He saying you've still got a car and an education to pay for and those are the consequences for your past prideful choices? 

I trust God to lead me. I trust God for discernment. And I trust He will make His plan known to me if I am willing to take hold, and I am. I see my fear, but I won't live in it because I know God will cast out all my fear and give me perfect peace. (1 John 4:18)


(Also, I realize I used a lot of "I" in this post instead of "we".  Seth and I are in unison on the life we will live for Christ. We both realize our need to lose our "life" and follow after God. However, the things we will sacrifice do look a little different as we are two completely different people(made one by God)- male/female being one large difference.  Of course naturally as we are "one in flesh", we will both need a perfect peace from God in all decisions)