Walking on Water

Walking on water—Jesus did it. But we forget that Peter did too; for a while anyway. As the story goes, as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water. He began to sink when he looked at the storm.

Peter’s experience mirrors the church today. The church faces a severe challenge. Islam is poised to become the largest religion in the world sometime around mid-century. In many respects, whole areas of Europe are essentially lost to Christendom. Church attendance and Christian religious affiliation in the United States, while still high compared to the world and in total number, is slipping as a percentage of the overall population. All the while, the population of the world is exploding.

Many in the church see the moral fiber of American unraveling while anyone who stands for morality is ridiculed. Immorality is prevalent in the church—both pulpit and pew.

Many have desired to bring America back to God—worthy indeed! However, despite political influence, this has not happened. Instead, those involved fell all too often into immorality and greed themselves. Those who hold unchristian perspectives have been emboldened while the church has been co-opted by forces on both ends of the political spectrum.

What happened? What went wrong? Like Peter, we lost focus. We took our eyes off of Jesus and focused on the storm and everything else. Though empowered to walk on water, the church has been sinking.

Jesus told us that if we seek his kingdom, all would be added to us. Yet, we have sought everything else in hopes of having the kingdom thrown in. The Declaration of Independence became more important than the declaration of freedom in Christ. Debates about the Constitution replaced the development of a personal constitution built on Christian character. The Bill of Rights became more precious than living right. Republicanism replaced repentance and being a Democrat replaced denial of self. Government was heard more than grace, debates about federalism drowned out the proclamation of forgiveness, and security trumped sanctification.

As important as loyalty to the country and patriotism are, for the Christian, the first loyalty has to be to the Kingdom of God. If we focus on America, we will miss the Kingdom and lose American for the Kingdom. If we focus on the Kingdom, then we can trust God to take care of America if He desires. Focus on God, and God will take care of everything else. Focus on everything else and we sink. Walking on water requires the proper focus.

Walking on water—Jesus did it. But we forget that Peter did too; for a while anyway. As the story goes, as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water. He began to sink when he looked at the storm.

Peter’s experience mirrors the church today. The church faces a severe challenge. Islam is poised to become the largest religion in the world sometime around mid-century. In many respects, whole areas of Europe are essentially lost to Christendom. Church attendance and Christian religious affiliation in the United States, while still high compared to the world and in total number, is slipping as a percentage of the overall population. All the while, the population of the world is exploding.

Many in the church see the moral fiber of American unraveling while anyone who stands for morality is ridiculed. Immorality is prevalent in the church—both pulpit and pew.

Many have desired to bring America back to God—worthy indeed! However, despite political influence, this has not happened. Instead, those involved fell all too often into immorality and greed themselves. Those who hold unchristian perspectives have been emboldened while the church has been co-opted by forces on both ends of the political spectrum.

What happened? What went wrong? Like Peter, we lost focus. We took our eyes off of Jesus and focused on the storm and everything else. Though empowered to walk on water, the church has been sinking.

Jesus told us that if we seek his kingdom, all would be added to us. Yet, we have sought everything else in hopes of having the kingdom thrown in. The Declaration of Independence became more important than the declaration of freedom in Christ. Debates about the Constitution replaced the development of a personal constitution built on Christian character. The Bill of Rights became more precious than living right. Republicanism replaced repentance and being a Democrat replaced denial of self. Government was heard more than grace, debates about federalism drowned out the proclamation of forgiveness, and security trumped sanctification.

As important as loyalty to the country and patriotism are, for the Christian, the first loyalty has to be to the Kingdom of God. If we focus on America, we will miss the Kingdom and lose American for the Kingdom. If we focus on the Kingdom, then we can trust God to take care of America if He desires. Focus on God, and God will take care of everything else. Focus on everything else and we sink. Walking on water requires the proper focus.

Missions and Population

The population explosion – we hear a lot about it and the implications are often discussed. What is not asked as often however is the affect this population growth will have on the fulfillment of the mission of the church.

First, the numbers: the population of the world reached the 1 billion level in the early 1800’s. It took millennia for humanity to reach that number. It only took one century for that number to double to 2 billion (around 1930). It only took 30 more years for the count to reach 3 billion (around 1960). This rapid growth in the 20^th century occurred despite the enormous loss of life in two world wars, a major flu pandemic, and a century of genocide around the world.

The population doubled to 6 billion around the year 2000. At current rates, the world population is projected to reach the 12 billion level sometime around mid-century. Of course, cataclysmic world events could retard the growth rate. On the other hand, the horrific events of the 20^th century did not deter the growth of that century significantly.

The church of Jesus Christ has been commanded to proclaim the gospel to the whole world. The enormity of that task grows exponentially, daily.

The church must begin to ask serious questions. Do we have adequate plans for missions and evangelism to reach 12 billion people? Are we committing enough resources, both financial and human, towards the task? Are we promoting the idea of a calling to missions among the youth of the church?

Globalization and new technologies create new challenges for the church but also new opportunities. Are we seizing the opportunities? How will we employ all of this to fulfill our mission?

It is not just evangelism. We are called to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. As James wrote, true religion is caring for the widows and orphans. Amos condemned ancient Israel for failure to care for the “have-nots.” How will the church address the human need that 12 billion people will represent?

The challenge is daunting. The time to pray, plan, and prepare is now. When faced with the challenge, we must remember that we follow the Lord who multiplied the loaves and fishes. However, we must turn over our loaves and fishes to him instead of devoting them to building our own little church kingdoms, promises of personal prosperity, and political patronage (both liberal and conservative).

Order Instead of Chaos

In the creation narrative of Genesis 1, the world is in chaos—without form and void—and in darkness. The Spirit of God then moves and a process begins that brings order, harmony, balance, and light. It is God who can bring harmony out of chaos, light out of darkness.

The power of God to do this on the personal level is illustrated by the Gaderene Demonic—head full of demonic voices, living among the dead, self-destructive (Mark 5.1-20). His life was a cacophony of voices that had driven him into a state of living death. His existence was utter chaos. After the touch of Jesus, he was clothed, calm, and in his right mind.

The chaos of his life was replaced by peace and harmony. As the creative force of God brought the chaos of existence into order and harmony at the beginning, the creative force of the Son of God brought order and harmony to the chaos of this man’s existence. This story tells of an act of creation.

There is a lesson here for us all. We will all go through chaos in our lives. We all have episodes or chapters of life where our minds are full of a cacophony of voices trying to make sense of it all. We can make choices that become self-destructive. Our lives seem to be spinning out of control. Our lives can seem like more of a living death if the chaos becomes acute.

When this happens we must remember the God who has brought order out of chaos from the beginning of time. It is what He does. After all, He is the creator. We should turn our lives over to Him for that creative act of imposing order on our chaos.