FAITH REQUIRES TAKING BOTH ACTION & RISKS 5 SEP 2013

A group of fishermen had labored hard all night & had failed to catch anything. Yahshua walks up & tells them to try again. Peter explains how tired they are, yet says, “nevertheless at your words I will let down the net.” They strike fish big time. (LK 5) Years later after Yahshua is dead & gone (yet resurrected), his disciples are back to fishing & the same kind of empty-handed fishing scenario happens again. A guy comes up, (they don’t recognize him), and tells them to try again. When they do & catch lots of fish, Peter recognizes Yahshua and exclaims, “It’s the Lord!” (JN 21)
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Yes, life is tough, but we can participate in the victorious life of Messiah, the overcomer. Christ told his disciples a parable (mentioned in LK 18:1) to show them that they should always pray & never give up. Yahshua had a great way of inspiring people (you can too my friend)…you know what I mean?… Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry Christ’s cross (MK 16:21), and somehow that encounter w/ Christ inspired him and his family, for his wife & son became dynamic followers of Christ. (RM 16:13) Likewise Paul was inspired, he wrote, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 2 COR 4:16. In other words, we are not getting any younger folks, but life is working in us!! Later, we see Paul calming down an entire crew of a shipwrecked ship who were freaking out. Which raises the point, what can one person do?? With faith…a lot!!! Well, Paul calmed a whole crew down, and yet that is small potatoes compared to some other acts of faith. Moses had to get up 6 million people every morning for 40 years & lead them around in a wilderness they hated. Noah, while being mocked, built an ocean liner, and saved all the species. Who got Moses on fire? God did. When God set the bush on fire, He also set Moses on fire w/ his long lasting mission. What does that tell me?? YHWH God is in the small things—like a thorn bush. You don’t have to seek Him in something big like the Pyramids of Giza…He is a small still voice in something as insignificant as a blackberry bush. Indeed, “Where shall I go from thy Spirit?”PS 139:7 After we are inspired to do something for Him, then what?
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Well, we can often feel like we are not provided with what we need…like the widow confronting Elijah & telling him that she had nothing. God will in His time amplify what we have. (cf. 1 KGS 17:10-12) I think it is also significant that Elijah told her, “Fear not.” (1 KGS 17:13) Faith & fear do not go together. “I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.” PHIL 4:11 What a statement of faith! Not only should we be content, but we can flip what seems to be a difficulty into a joy….Yahshua advised, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go w/ him 2 miles.” Turn a burden into a joy…wow! Life gives us burdens, and Christ says, hey flip it around to joy. Now that is faith!
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Can one person make a difference?? Indeed. Can we succeed w/out the prerequisite necessities normally required? With God’s help we can, and if not, we can walk in the contentment of calm faith, and inspire others to have that calm faith. And if life is unfair? We can flip it & have joy. In all things, we become overcomers when we walk in the faith that inspired Yahshua!!