A mighty current
June 21, 2011
This past Sunday was a first for me. On Sunday mornings I am usually up front during the service because I am the pastor of worship at my church. But this Sunday I woke to the news that my pastor was under the weather and needed someone to till in for him for preaching.
Sunday mornings, he has been preaching through the gospel of Luke. This Sunday was chapter 7 verses 11-17.
As I read and began to pray and write sermon notes I was so excited for this scripture. Jesus brings a widows dead son back to life. Just like my Jesus to go and do that.
But now I have these thoughts and prayers about the power of God that flowed through Christ and brought a dead young man back to life again. What a flow of power. The move of the Holy Spirit of God is an unstoppable current. If Gods Holy Spirit moves against death, death will bend. If the Holy Spirit wants to make a 100 year old man slam dunk a basketball or make the moon fit in my pocket it could. But thankfully for this boy, and for us, He moves in us to make us live.
It is summer camp season and I remember the camp trip to younglife Rockbridge camp. We stopped in west Virginia on the way to go white water rating. It was so intense.
I remember thinking I knew better when the river guide was telling me what to do in order to stay safe if I go overboard. I thought I was man enough to not go over.
Little did I know that the river we were on is one of the top ten white water locations in the world. The first rapids were only a class 2, and all I remember is trying to paddle but instead being launched through the air and then getting very wet.
After I realized how buoyant I was not in the midst of white water, I noticed that it did not matter what I wanted at that moment or where I wanted to go. The mighty current of the river was in control and I was going wherever it wanted.
When Jesus came to earth and said “follow me,” the dudes who followed jumped all the way in. They probably didn’t have a clue how powerful the current of Jesus is until they were in it, but they learned quick to trust that even though they didn’t know what was coming next or how deep the water was or where it was going, they learned that this current was going to take them somewhere very good, and that along the way they were having amazon adventures and Jesus himself would keep them from drowning. (some times literally.)
Soil I keep thinking about this… the mighty current of God. The one that wherever it flows dead things come to life. READ EZEKIEL 47.
I don’t want to live life on the bank of the river watching other people get all the way in. And I don’t want to convince myself that being in knee deep or waste deep is good enough.
I want the full life that Jesus offers (john 10:10) and I want living water welling up inside me to eternal life (john 4)
So I’m praying and examining myself. Am I holding onto control? Am I in the current?
Are you living in the deep waters? I’d love to hear about it.
