Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Paul Email -30July2013- God is present future

How you doin? No devotions this morning, but a great dinner and fellowship last night with friends in Christ. Stacey and I are fascinated by the story of Jesus calming the storm while crossing the lake. We heard a talk from Graham Cooke on Sunday night and OH SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!! The theme of the talk was, "God is present future". This high lighted the importance of prophecy. It's way too much to explain, you can watch it on youtube if you want. The part I'm talking about is the importance of prophecy. Graham pointed out something I've never noticed... the way this story starts.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Mark 4:35)

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. (Luke 8:22)

The part that gets me & Stacey is that when the disciples wake Jesus up for help, He rebukes them and points out their weak faith. I thought that waking Jesus and asking for help was a great plan. Graham used this part of the story to point out the importance of prophecy. Jesus said they were going over to the other side. If the disciples believed Jesus, they would not have been afraid of the storm. Jesus didn't say, "I hope we make it across". DIG IT!!!!!!!!!!! The other fascinating part is that Jesus was sleeping. I don't think Jesus was being tested. The disciple were being tested. So as usual I snooped around a bit.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. (Matthew 8:23)
Matthews version of this story begins differently. The disciple followed Him. This indicates to me that we will still be tested even if we're following Jesus. As followers we may be tested even more. 
Graham also used the story of David and Goliath. Goliath had intimidated all of the soldiers and other men for days by the time Dave got to him. Dave wasn't intimidated by Goliath, because he had received a prophetic word from Sam. Sam told Dave that he was going to be king. So Dave's thinking to himself, "I'm not king yet, so I'm going get through this situation". I wish the scripture had Dave saying, "sorry about your luck Goliath... it's not my day". God is present future. He sees us in the future and in the present. He uses the present to equip us for the future. DIG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pay attention to the Holy Ghost and pass the test today.

PS   T.J. said that COME ON and AWESOME are getting old. I'm taking DIG IT and OH SNAP out for a test spin. T.J. has a short attention span & I'm here to help... not hinder. Let me know how you like them.

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