{"id":145,"date":"2014-02-23T11:38:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T16:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2016-08-31T11:40:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T16:40:04","slug":"walking-on-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/23\/walking-on-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking on Water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Walking on water\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>\u201cLord, if it\u2019s you,\u201d Peter replied, \u201ctell me to come to you on the water.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>\u201cCome,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong><em>Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, \u201cLord, save me!\u201d Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. \u201cYou of little faith,\u201d he said, \u201cwhy did you doubt?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>Matthew 14:28-31<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">There are days when I wonder and am amazed at Peter\u2019s boldness and I think, \u201cWhat would I have done?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">It\u2019s only when he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks away, {not where he was going}, that I think,\u00a0 \u201cYep, I know that experience. Been there, done that a kazillion times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">And then, the firm grasp of Jesus\u2019 hand as he reaches out to sinking Peter and rescues the perishing soul that Peter is in that moment&#8230; and I think, \u201c Oh, yes, Lord. Yes!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I have lived most of my life as a believer, His child. He is the Pearl of Great Price, the Treasure hidden, the Kinsman Redeemer, the Sure Foundation, the Cornerstone, the Good Shepherd who didn\u2019t forget about this one persnickety sheep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">With Him, I have passed through the fires of loneliness as a child, the murky deep of the swamp of insecurity of adolescence, the bright day of new love in marriage, the uncertainty of the first breaths of new life with each child\u2019s birth, the brutal war of living with a functionally insane parent through each one of those questions I asked daily of Him: \u201cHow Long, O Lord, How long?\u201d \u201cWhat do you want me to do, Lord?\u201d \u00a0\u201cWhat is it You want me to learn from this?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u201d \u201cWhy is she like this?\u201d \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just have a normal relationship with her?\u201d \u201cWhat must I change for this to work?\u201d The questions droned on and on from me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">What I got back was: \u201cI\u2019m here.\u201d \u201cListen.\u201d \u201cTrust me.\u201d \u201cI know where we are going.\u201d\u00a0 And, finally: \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">And you know, I\u00a0<em>know<\/em>\u00a0He loves me. I\u2019ve known that since I was a child. But, there was one moment in time, now set in concrete in my heart, He showed me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">He. LOVES. Me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">It was a small thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">On any other day, in any other life, it would have been a blip on the radar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">But to me it was a BIG thing.\u00a0 It still is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I was working full time, three kids in school, doing Bible Study Fellowship, answering questions when I could. I was sitting on the bed doing my questions and my contact started bothering me, so I popped it out. Mistake. Hard contact. Bounced out of my hand. Being half blind by then I could not find it for anything. Finally gave up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I would have to call the doc and get a new one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Only problem- nothing extra in the budget. For that matter- what budget?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">For the next two weeks&#8230; I went around with one contact. During that time my Bible Study materials went in and out of the car about 9000 times. The notebook where I kept my notes went to Bible Study twice and I don\u2019t know how many times it was opened and closed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I was getting desperate\u2026 I needed to see. He knew my situation, knew my non-existent budget. And He knew my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Sitting on the bed, my Bible and notebook stretched out in front of me; deep in another day\u2019s questions, I turned a page.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">You guessed it- there was my contact, whole, not broken, waiting to be found.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">I lost it. Cried like a baby for twenty minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">And\u2026 then I really\u00a0<strong><em>knew<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">He\u00a0<strong>LOVES<\/strong>\u00a0me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Now, walking on water really doesn\u2019t seem to fit with this situation.\u00a0 Except that I had my eyes on my troubles and was sinking fast; however, when I focused my gaze on Him, His sure grasp pulled me up out of the water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">My situation didn\u2019t change. \u00a0But, my perspective did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Oh, how He\u00a0<strong><em>loves<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><em><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><em><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">1John 3:1<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;\">When was the moment you knew?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Walking on water\u2026 \u201cLord, if it\u2019s you,\u201d Peter replied, \u201ctell me to come to you on the water.\u201d \u201cCome,\u201d he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, \u201cLord, save &#8230; <a title=\"Walking on Water\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/23\/walking-on-water\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Walking on Water\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,11,27],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-faith","tag-jesus","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}