Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

Believing in Miracles

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So here I am, preparing for my sermon on Sunday.  I’m preaching on Matthew 14:22-33, the story of Jesus walking on the water.  What a powerful story demonstrating Jesus’ power as the King of all Creation, His compassion for the disciples who were fighting all night against the sea, and His challenge for His disciples to put their faith in Him.  I’m struggling with this text, not with knowing what to say, but with limiting myself to the 20 minutes I’ll have to say it.

Still, I get a little frustrated as I study passages such as these by the writers and “academics” who work very hard to dismiss the miracles of Jesus.  I read a couple of options today: 1) That this even actually took place after the resurrection, so this was the resurrected body of Christ that was out on the water, 2) That the disciples were actually closer to the shore than they realized, and that Jesus was actually walking beside the sea and not on the water, and 3) This never actually happened, but was attributed to Christ by his disciples after the fact as another way of justifying their faith in him.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I am not an anti-intellectual when it comes to my faith.  I believe that in Christ, God redeemed the whole person, heart and head.  I am called to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, body, and soul.  I know that faith means trusting in the promises of God; but it also means a continual pursuit to know God better.

Still, is it necessary for the “intellectual” to completely dismiss the miraculous?  Why must these be regarded as “mythology” rather than faithfully received as another witness to the authority and identity of Jesus as Messiah (John 5:36)?  It was the pharisees who witnessed the miracles and wonders of Jesus and were so blinded by their learning that they could never see who He truly was. 

Maybe I have been too influenced by Science Fiction/Fantasy; maybe I read too many comics as a kid, but I have no problem balancing an intelligent understanding of the world around me and a wholehearted acceptance of the miracles of God.  As I continue to learn and know more about the truth of God, and how He has been revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, I hope I never lose the childlike wonder of His amazing presence.

If we dismiss the miracles of Jesus, then we must dismiss the Christian life altogether.  The greatest miracle of this story wasn’t our Savior walking on the water or calming of the storm.  The real miracle was Peter’s walk with Christ.  And that is a miracle that happens every day.  To really walk with Christ in holiness and love is a miracle that happens every day.  If we can’t believe in the miracles of the Bible, then it is impossible for us to believe that Jesus could bring peace and life to our dead and broken lives that we may walk with Him.

I believe in miracles, regardless of what the commentaries say.  Not because I casually suspend the laws of nature when it comes to my faith, but because by faith I know the One who wrote the laws of nature.  I’ll trust in Him, and in His powerful hand to protect and to save me!

Sola Dei Gloria

Through the Sifting

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“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”  Psalm 62:1-2

Do you feel like you are being sifted? On the night he was arrested Jesus said to Peter, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). Jesus was referring to Peter’s betrayal and his crisis of faith as a sifting process, and He prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail.

I read up on the process of sifting wheat. It’s an ancient two step process consisting of threshing the wheat by spreading the wheat onto a hard floor and beating it with a flail. Once this was done, the wheat would be winnowed, where the loosened chaff is removed from the grain. The old fashioned way of doing this was to throw the grain in the air, where the lighter chaff would be blown off by even a decent breeze. The heavier grains would fall back to the ground below where they were thrown.

I think we all know what that’s like to varying degrees. We get beaten down and blown around, we feel we’ve gone through the thresher. For some, a tragic loss turns their world upside down. For others, the guilt of the past continually haunts them ‘till they feel there is no hope for freedom or redemption. Maybe it’s just the stress and busyness of life that makes us feel as though we’re sinking in the shifting sand. It’s almost as though we can see Satan tossing us up in the air, and we wonder if we’ll ever come down.

It’s times like these we need to remember to still our soul, to wait upon the Lord. The psalmist reminds us: He is our salvation. He is the rock upon which we stand. He is our fortress, the strong tower we run too. When we find our hope, our strength, our salvation in Him, we will find peace in the midst of the sifting.

We will, like Peter, be sifted. When we stand up to be identified as God’s people, we become targets for the enemy. We will be shaken, but not “greatly” shaken. The apostle puts it this way, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9). For Paul, the source of hope in the midst of the sifting rested in the understanding that this “momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).

If today you find yourself being sifted, rest in this truth, that your salvation is secure in the steadfast and unchanging love of God who has the power to transform your sifting into righteousness and joy.

Grace and peace,

SDG