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Word Day 8 It Is I Am

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Read His Words Before Ours!

John 6:16-21
Exodus 3:11-15
Isaiah 26:3-4
John 1:1-5
John 10:27-30

Word, Day 8

I can only imagine the disciples’ terror as the “high wind arose, and the sea began to churn.” (John 6:18)

When they set sail, the lake was calm, but in the darkness, far from shore, they were suddenly caught in a ferocious storm. As they battled against the wind and waves, they must have been in a desperate state. Perhaps they wondered if they would survive.

Have you ever been caught in a storm?

I’m fortunate to never have an experience like the disciples of being out in a boat in such a fierce storm, but I can certainly identify with their fear.

We all experience storms in life through challenges, disappointment, and suffering when life feels out of control just as it did for the disciples. We, too, can feel like we’re battered by the waves and desperately straining to find a way through the chaos back onto solid ground.

At moments like these, it’s very easy for circumstance and fear to overwhelm us.

Into the midst of the disciples’ fear and panic came a figure walking on water. I imagine this sight only deepened their terror until they heard the comforting call of a familiar voice, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (John 6:20)

The storm still raged as waves continued rolling, but Jesus invited His disciples into a space without fear. The tumultuous seas had not calmed, but Christ was present.

The Greek words translated “It is I,” in John 6:20 are “ego eimi,” which literally means, “I am.”

I am.
Don’t be afraid.

These words are reminiscent of Moses’ encounter recorded in the Old Testament. While he wasn’t caught in a physical storm, he was catapulted into a similar state of overwhelming fear. When God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, calling him away from his comforts to lead the Israelites to freedom from slavery in Egypt, Moses’ first response was, “I can’t.”  (Exodus 4:13)

He felt inadequate. (Exodus 3:11)
He was not skilled at speaking. (Exodus 4:10)
Surely, no one would listen to him. (Exodus 4:1)
Who was he to take on this momentous task? (Exodus 3:11)

The reassurance God spoke to him was not to encourage Moses that he really had all the skills required within him to pull it off. Instead, the Lord God simply promised, “I will certainly be with you.” (Exodus 3:12)

Still unsure, Moses asked for God’s name; on whose authority could Moses point to when coming up against the rulers of Egypt. To which, “God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”” (Exodus 3:14)

I AM – two very small words with an incredibly powerful meaning.

I love the explanation provided by Compelling Truth:

“With this statement, God declared that He is self-existent, eternal, self-sufficient, self-directed, and unchanging. But this statement also declared that He is present.”

This truth was exactly what Moses needed to give him the courage to approach Pharaoh. This Name was precisely what the disciples needed in their boat on a stormy sea.
The storm didn’t need to cease, their faith needed an anchor in the all-powerful Name of the Great I Am.

For every storm we face, this truth remains for us, meeting us exactly where we are to provide precisely what we need, His presence.

If we have put our trust in Jesus, then the almighty, eternal God who created the universe, and holds all power over darkness is with us. We are secure in Him and nothing can snatch us from His hand. (John 10:28)

The more we get to know God and grasp this truth, the more we are changed.
Our circumstances may remain the same, but we are transformed.

Only a few short years after that night on the lake, the disciples displayed amazing courage and boldness in speaking out for Jesus. They were even willing to face death rather than renounce their faith in “I AM” or stop telling others of His mighty rescue of their souls. By this time, they had witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion as He took on the punishment each of us rightfully deserves because of our sin. They had seen Christ breathe His last, be buried, and then prove Death powerless as He was resurrected from the grave.

Because they knew Him more,
they trusted Him more.

They were willing to surrender their lives if required;
they knew He was worth it.

What about us?
Will we allow ourselves to be transformed as we come to know Him more?

We may not have a choice about our circumstances, but we do have a choice about where we place our trust.

Isaiah reminds us of the peace that’s possible if we can lift our eyes from our circumstances to gaze on God:

“You will keep the mind that is dependent on You in perfect peace, for it is trusting in You. Trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock!” (Isaiah 26:3-4)

Whatever challenges you’re facing, big or small, whether you’re caught in a storm like the disciples or facing a daunting task like Moses, may you know God is with you, and may you quiet yourself to hear Him speak:

“It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

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Sketched IV Day 9 Peter: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Peter!

The Questions

1) Jesus asked those following Him, “What are you looking for?” and they replied with another question, not really answering His question. What do you think Jesus was really asking and what did His followers really mean?

2) What was significant about Jesus telling Simon Peter that he would be called Cephas?

3) Peter’s call to follow Jesus is further described in Luke 5:1-11. How has Peter’s journey with Christ changed between these two scenes? 

John 1:35-42

35 The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So, they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated “the Christ”), 42 and he brought Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”).  

Original Intent

1) Jesus asked those following Him, “What are you looking for?” and they replied with another question, not really answering His question. What do you think Jesus was really asking and what did His followers really mean? 
Jesus had a habit of asking people questions with a deeper meaning than what appeared on the surface. He asked the disabled man, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6) He asked blind men, “Do you believe I can do this?” (Matthew 9:28) and later “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:32) As we read yesterday, He asked Simon Peter, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-19)  

Instead of answering Jesus’ heart-question, they responded with an easy-answer: “Where are you staying?” Enough to indicate they were interested in Jesus, but nothing revealing their hearts’ desire. In verse 40, Andrew answers Jesus’ question, “What are you looking for?” with “We have found the Messiah.” They were looking for the Savior, the Promised One, the Messiah that was to make all things right. Jesus knew all of this. When He asked what, the heart of His question asked who.

2) What was significant about Jesus telling Simon Peter that he would be called Cephas? 
In the Old Testament, God would give an individual a new name when He commissioned them for His purposes. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham when He called him to be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). He changed Jacob’s name to Israel signifying he would father the 12 tribes of Israel (Genesis 32:24-32). Here, Jesus tells Simon He will be known as Cephas, which translated to Peter. Like Abraham and Jacob, Peter had an encounter with God that changed the trajectory of his life.  

His relationship with Jesus gave him an all-encompassing new identity, from how he spent his time and money to his very name. Not only did his name change represent life change, it represented how his life would change. Matthew 16:18 says, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Jesus chose the name Peter, which means Rock, to directly call out how God would use Peter for His greater purpose and plan. Peter went on to write two books of the New Testament, first and second Peter. Not only was Peter a rock of the early church, but his letters still serve us today with foundational teaching about Jesus and the Christian life.

3) Peter’s call to follow Jesus is further described in Luke 5:1-11. How has Peter’s journey with Christ changed between these two scenes?
When we meet Peter in John 1, Peter and Jesus had just recently met. Peter was just getting to know Jesus, although Jesus already knew Peter. In Luke 4:38-39, Jesus healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. After that, Jesus spent time preaching in the synagogues (Luke 4:43-44), where Peter was likely present. When we get to chapter 5 of Luke, Simon Peter has met Jesus, had his name changed by Jesus, witnessed Jesus perform a miracle by healing his mother-in-law, and heard Jesus preach the good news about the kingdom of God. Whew! It’s no wonder that when Jesus told Peter, (the professional fisherman), to put out his nets, he obeyed. After seeing yet another miracle, Peter falls humbly before Jesus, calling Him Lord. In verse 11 we read how they left everything and followed Jesus. Peter fully left his fisherman profession behind to become a “fisher of men” (Matthew 4:19).  

Everyday Application

1) Jesus asked those following Him, “What are you looking for?” and they replied with another question, not really answering His question. What do you think Jesus was really asking and what did His followers really mean? 
How many times have you replied a quick, “Fine!” or “Good!” when someone asked how you were doing, when you were really drowning? How often do you give a surface-level answer when a friend checks in on you, when you are actually struggling? No matter how well we put on a cheery smile and no matter how #blessed Facebook posts you make, Jesus sees your heart. He knows what you are looking for. He knows who you are looking for. Instead of giving those around us (and Jesus for that matter), a surface-level reply, let’s be real. We are looking for the Messiah! We are looking to Jesus to make us new everyday!

2) What was significant about Jesus telling Simon Peter that he would be called Cephas? 
Peter had highs, and a lot of lows, in his journey with Jesus, as we read yesterday. Yet, Jesus calls him a Rock. Jesus knew Simon Peter would deny Him, even when He named him Cephas. But He also knew Peter would boldly proclaim the Gospel and grow the early church in extraordinary ways (Acts 2). Jesus knew everything about Peter, his sin and doubts as well as his unique giftings. Jesus continually invested in Peter, teaching him, encouraging him, and ultimately dying for him. Like Peter, we have highs and lows in our walk with Jesus. One moment we are singing along to worship music in the car on the way to work, then the next moment, we’re gossiping to our coworker. Despite knowing all of our sin and failures, He has a plan to use us, as imperfect people, to carry out His perfect plan. Be encouraged by reading Peter’s life and his letters; his story is so much like ours! We sin and we fall, but Jesus loves us and died for us anyway.

3) Peter’s call to follow Jesus is further described in Luke 5:1-11. How has Peter’s journey with Christ changed between these two scenes?
Think back to your first encounter with Jesus. Was it like Peter’s? Did a friend or family member, like Peter’s brother Andrew, introduce you to Jesus? How has your life changed since then? Reflect on significant moments and events in your journey with Jesus. Have you had a moment like Peter’s in Luke 5? A moment when you understood the gravity of your sin and the power of Jesus? Have you left everything in pursuit of God’s will for your life? Spend some time thanking God for the ways He has moved in your life and ask Him what you need to leave behind to live more fully for Him.  

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

Digging Deeper Community

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Our Current Study Theme!

This is Sketched IV Week Two!
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Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

Memorize It!

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Chase Day 11 Stewarding Grace

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Matthew 25:14-30
Jonah 4
2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 

“Let no debt remain among you except the debt of love.” (Romans 13:8 NIV)

Jesus spoke these words hundreds of years after Jonah as He engaged His disciples, pulling them into deeper truth, deeper faith, and inviting them into a deeper investment of their lives.
But they speak to Jonah’s story, and ours.

As my pastor tells it, there are two kinds of debt in this life.
One: Christi borrowed $20 from Lilly to pay for her daughter’s school pictures, because while standing in line for pictures, she realized her checkbook was at home. (names changed to protect…um, myself ;-)) I became indebted to my friend; I owed her $20.
Two: Christi gave me her daughter’s laptop and asked me to give it to her daughter when I pick her up after school. I have now been “gifted” debt. I willingly take on debt as I hold onto the laptop, becoming responsible for its care and safekeeping and for being a good steward of the laptop by passing it onto Christi’s daughter. I am indebted to Christi’s daughter until I pass on the laptop.

Jesus was talking about the second scenario in this passage about love.
It’s a debt, of Christ’s love, that every Christ-follower has been gifted,
but we have an obligation to pass it on to others.
We are indebted to those who have not heard or experienced this divine love.

We know nothing else of Jonah except this brief snippet in his life. He was a prophet to the Jews, and probably, like other prophets of the Lord, his job was to call God’s people to return, to come away from sin’s grip, and delight in the sweet depth and intimacy of a relationship with the Lord God alone.
He worshipped the Lord. (Jonah 1:9)
He had a distinct calling on his life. (Jonah 1:1-2)
He had experienced God’s gracious goodness in his own life. (Jonah 4:2)
But he became stingy with grace.
Jonah would rather hoard it than gift it.
He was in debt, but he didn’t care.

With other prophets, God allowed their oracles, their speeches, their spoken words to be written down and preserved in the canon of Scripture. Prophets like, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Haggai, and a bunch of others.
But with Jonah, we don’t get to hear his preaching,
instead we hear his life, loud and clear.
The Lord knew that this man’s life was a more powerful message for us, and the audience who heard and re-told Jonah’s story, than his preaching ever would be.
Sisters, we need the story of Jonah’s life.

This grace in which we stand, as daughters of the Most High God?
We’ve been called to steward it, to give it away because we are indebted to others.
This gift is so rich, the cost of its greatness should weigh down on our souls with passionate pursuit of others.
It’s beauty, while drawing us closer to the gospel itself, should move us to share it.
The sweet fullness of its all-encompassing grace and truth should overwhelm us with awe for the sheer majesty of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ that our response is to shout it out.

The overflow of a life bound up in delight of the gospel,
is to steward grace!

What does that look like exactly?
I’d like to let Frank answer that.
Frank Laubach moved with his wife to the Philippine Islands in 1915 for the purpose of sharing the love of Jesus with the natives there. Frank knew that he was the Lord’s and he clearly wanted to do much for God, yet he kept finding himself sinking into a “profound dissatisfaction in (his) Christian life.” And so, he resolved to “fill every minute full of the thought of God….and to be as wide open toward people and their need as I am to God.”*

The more that Frank gave himself over to knowing the Father God more intimately and training himself to be disciplined in his pursuit of the Almighty,
the more he recognized himself loving others better, seeing their need, and stewarding grace.

What if Jonah’s story had been different?
What if he had been okay getting uncomfortable for the sake of the Lord?
What if he allowed God to break his heart for the natives of Nineveh?
What if he looked full into the face of Yahweh and, in rapt love and adoration for His incomparable grace, could do nothing else but proclaim that grace to all.
Even (especially) the ones he wanted to run from.

Yes, we need Jonah’s story.
Because, while Jonah’s story ended, ours is still continuing.
Just like Jonah, we are indebted to love.
But we still have the opportunity to steward grace.
Now!
Today!
Will you?!

*Excerpt taken from Devotional Classics, edited by Richard J Foster and James Bryan Smith, pg 101

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
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Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Chase Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme?
Here’s a link to all past studies in Chase!