Our Water-Walking Series Continues
Our Water-Walking series is your invitation to take another look at King's Grant Baptist! Join us, and discover how God might be calling you to get out of your comfort zone. So far we have been challenged to get out of our comfort zones and take a risk to do something for God. We have seen how God has gifted each of us in a special way and we have to decide what we will do with that gift. Will we bury it or take a risk by using it! Check out this great video illustration of someone who chose not to use the gift he had been given and embrace his destiny. We have taken a serious look at the risks, faced our fears and held on to hope in the dark.
Here's a great quote from pastor Rick Warren... "When God wants to change us, he starts by getting our attention, by putting us in a frustrating situation that is totally beyond our control. If we’re experiencing a crisis right now, it’s because God is getting ready to change us for the better." Something to consider as you debate about getting out of the boat!
The H2O Blog
H2O stands for Highway to Holiness and Obedience! How is God moving in your life? How is God calling you out of your comfort zone and get out of the boat? We are asking water-walking participants to share their stories. There are two ways: 1) use the printed cards to post your comment on the bulletin board at the church, or 2) go to the special blog designed for you to type out your story. ** Update, the blog has been closed.
Confused? Check out how one church in Helena MT is using a blog like this to share stories about how God has led about 600 members to each hand out $1 in Jesus' name.
Water-Walking Training Time
On each Thursday prior to the Sunday class time, Scott Chafee will lead the teachers through this exciting and challenging study. The class is also open to all teachers of children and preschool that will miss the Sunday classes. If you plan to miss that Sunday, you are also welcome to join this class!
We will meet this Thursday at the home of Russell and Lois Black, at 7:00 pm. Mark your calendars to participate
in this fellowship and training time. This series has the potential to revolutionize
our church! Don't miss it!
Lessons We Expect to Learn:
These are the titles of the lessons for this special emphasis:
- What is water-walking? - March 23
- The tragedy of the unopened gift - March 30
- Finding your calling and getting your feet wet - April 6
- Facing our challenges, conquering our fears - April 13
- Good news for cave dwellers - April 20
- Learning to wait on our big God - April 27
An Overview of Walking on Water:
This six-session series focuses on events that took place during a stormy night on the Sea of Galilee. The biblical account of these events includes the disciples' struggling all night to sail through a fierce storm, Jesus' walking through the stormy darkness to meet his disciples, and Peter's accepting Jesus' invitation to step out of the boat and walk on the water with him.
Today, just as it was for Jesus' disciples, it is often easier to trust in things, people, or circumstances rather than God. We try to create security in such comfortable "boats" as money, success, relationships, and secret addictions. Our boats can appear to be safe, secure, and comfortable compared with the seemingly risky chaos outside them. Yet apart from God, even our best-built boats cannot protect us.
In this series, you'll be guided in realizing that you, like Peter and the other disciples, face an important choice: to accept Jesus' invitation to step into the adventure and risk of life outside the boat or to cling to the safety of the boat and try to avoid fear and risk.
As unlikely as it may seem, real security comes when we step out of the boat and learn that God can be trusted fully. Stepping out of the boat is the only way to real growth. It's the only way true faith develops. It's part of discovering and obeying our calling. And it's where we find Jesus.
Jesus used that eventful night to teach his disciples that he could be trusted–and that they needed to get out of the boat and walk with him! Today, just as he did that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is still looking for people who will get out of the boat and walk with him. If we do, we will face storms. We will have to take risks. We may even fail. But we can trust Jesus to be there to reach out and help us.
It’s always risky to step out of the boat. It is always scary to leave the security of the boat and face the churning waters of the storm. The risk of failure can loom bigger than life. But facing fear is the price we must pay for growth, and failure has less to do with what happens to us than it does how we judge what happened.
Jesus is looking for those who love and trust Him enough to step out of the boat and walk with Him.
From the Author, John Ortberg:
I want to invite you to go for a walk.
The Bible records many instances when God asked people to walk with him.
There was the hard walk Abraham took with his son Isaac on the road to Moriah.
The liberating walk Moses and the Israelites took through the Red Sea, followed
by the frustrating, forty-year walk through the desert. And don't forget Joshua's
triumphant walk around Jericho. Or the disciples' illuminating walk to Emmaus.
The list goes on.
Perhaps the most unforgettable walk of all was Peter's walk when he stepped
out of a boat one stormy night and walked on the water. When Peter went treading
on the waves, I think he was experiencing walking at its finest.
Peter's walk stands as an invitation to everyone who, like him, wants to
step out in faith and experience more of the power and presence of God. Water-walking
is a picture of doing with God's help what we could never do on our own.
I believe there is some aspect of your life in which God is calling you
to walk with and toward him. During these six sessions, you will learn the
skills essential to water-walking: discerning God's call, transcending fear,
risking faith, managing failure, and trusting God. When you are through, my
hope is that you, like Peter, will accept God's invitation to go for a walk
on the water.
This page was last modified on: Thursday, 13th November, 2008
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