“Jesus Surfs” #4
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Principle #1: Serve in church. If you want to stay safe and secure in isolation by avoiding church, then you will never know the thrill of surfing with Jesus. Yes, if you venture into creating deep relationships with people you will have sorrow and conflict, but you will also know what it’s like to love purely and be a part of something bigger than yourself that influences the world and can pluck people right out of the jaws of Hell! Being an uninvolved lone ranger Christian would be much easier, but God wants to stretch us, enlarging our hearts, and making us live what we believe.

Experience the crashing, exhilarating discomfort of following Jesus (which is worth it all); the breathtaking adventure of His dangerous and joyfully spectacular and awesomely radical, badical, fulfilling life beyond all reason!

Your local church is where the surf’s up! It’s where Jesus is. If you never surf you will never feel the cold water or get sunburned, never feel the fear of falling or failing or being embarrassed; but you will never feel the exciting surge of power under the board, the wind in your face, and glee of playing in the surf with the King of all creation. Staying blind and deaf and unfeeling means you will never be hurt or breathless or tired but you’ll never feel the sun or the adventure of life as God intended. Jump in.

Surfing Lessons

I highly recommend “Disciplines of a Godly Man” by R. Kent Hughes for more spiritual “surfing” lessons. Hughes says, “Enlarge your heart, cultivate your heart, discipline yourself for ministry, and you will enlarge your experience of pain. This is an irrefragable spiritual axiom. No one has ever cultivated a ministering heart and lived to tell of a life of ease…Little hearts, though safe and protected, never contribute anything. No one benefits from their restricted sympathies and vision. On the other hand, hearts that have embraced the disciplines of ministry – though they are vulnerable – are also the hearts which possess the most joy and leave their heartprint on the world.”

Dude! Dudette!

The time is short and the wave is now. Our homes are not in this physical world. The Kingdom is our eternal mansion and we can start to take up residence right now. We have to learn to say with Larry Norman, one of the first Christian rockers, “This world is not my home- I’m just ‘a passin’ through!”

In this earthly state we can only see the outside of the Mansion most of the time but on occasion I feel as though I have glimpsed through an open window of heaven and felt the warmth of the fireplace, heard the laughter and my Father’s voice. These moments have been most keenly felt in church among other believers, among my fellow Mansion dwellers. Over the years I have seen and experienced much of the Kingdom through a process of accumulation during time spent in church, listening the to the Bible teacher, singing in worship. I could relate to you a glimpse or two but you have to experience the Kingdom for yourself. Go to church faithfully, not just once, and continually seek God with your whole heart if you really want to “see” into the Kingdom.

What is “Seeing” God?

How do you discern God’s activity in your world, in your city, in your family, in you? Accepting Christ into your heart is the way Jesus opens eyes to see. We are dead in our spirits unless Christ regenerates us. That’s why Jesus said to Nicodemus, the old religious leader, “You must be born again.” (John 3:2-4) After accepting Christ, He resurrects your spirit and now, being alive, you can have relationship with the living God.

“But… God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved… For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:3-5)

As the old church Hymn, “Amazing Grace” says, “I was blind but now I see.”

WholyFit is a ministry dedicated to the building up of the local church and the Body of Christ. Offering exercise classes in the church environment, or at a health club (ideally both) is a great way to invite people into your local church. Statistics show that most people who come to church have been invited by a friend. Walk on water! Join one Bible teaching church, go consistently every week and serve there. Invite your friends. Make relationships.

Jesus surfs 3

Click purple link above for AUDIO #3 recording from Laura. Or use this link: http://www.wholyfit.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Jesus-surfs-3.wav

Transcript with explanations below. See Scripture references at bottom of page:

“So how to surf with Jesus: We are using that as an analogy of how to experience God in our lives, to ‘see’ Him working around us and join in on what He is doing by the power of the Holy Spirit, and not by our own power.”

“Using the analogy of surfing: The hard part is not standing up (on the surfboard.) The hard part is being in the right place at the right time, and being able to be in the right portion of the wave, working with the power of the wave. Obviously, there is no use trying to go against the power of the wave. Absolutely no use.”

“Every time I try to surf (which by the way, I’m terrible. I’m just learning) no doubt I get creamed. I’ve learned to avoid the back breaker (where your torso gets slammed down, but your heels get pushed toward the back of your head) but I have not so far learned how to avoid being tumbled and held under water. So I avoid the big waves for right now while I’m learning. Following God is a learning process also and we’ve got to make sure we’re not afraid of making mistakes because there is forgiveness.(1) When we’re trying to hear the voice of God, when we’re trying to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it’s ok to lay hands on people for healing and then not to see them not be healed. It’s not your fault (In other words, don’t quit praying for people just because you feel a sense of failure- it is God’s work to heal. God is omnipotent and we cannot understand why some are healed and some are not) You have to try.” <Based on God’s Word we have a valid precedence to pray for healing. (2)>

“There is a point at which we begin to hear God more clearly. In other words, without Him speaking outloud, there is a point at which, after spending long enough in His Word, you begin to understand His Word, His will and His ways. When you’ve meditated on Him and you’ve spent time with Him that’s when you start to “see” God- not with your eyes, but in relationship with Him,  spending time with Him, you start to see that He is active in your life. You can then say, along with those of us who have never seen him with our physical eyes,  we can say, “I have seen Him.” My faith is not blind. (Note: the term “blind faith” is not in the Bible. The scripture reference is ‘The just shall walk by faith and not by sight’ (3)means that we trust and obey God’s Words even when we don’t understand why. But this doesn’t mean that our faith is illogical or completely devoid of experience.) I don’t trust in some distant hope that may or may not be. <Our hope is sure(4), an anchor for our soul.) I experience God every day. I ‘see’ Him. I walk with Him. I surf with Him. I know Him. I can now see (understand) that He has been with me every single day of my life.”

“When we don’t ‘see’ Him, (discern His presence) it’s not that He is not there, it’s that we haven’t had our eyes open yet. That is a work of the Holy Spirit. (5)We can’t try hard enough or do some type of ritualistic thing that is supposed to help us ‘see’ God. There is no shortcut. You must come to Him His own way, on His terms, acknowledging that He is God and that His Word is right. When we put our trust in God’s Word, even that is not blind faith. He is trustworthy. He always does what He promises. Test Him and see. I have seen Him true to His Word, so many times that it’s no great leap of faith to trust Him. It’s logical. It’s the right thing to do.”

“Those of us who have known Him and ‘surfed’ with Him for a long time can truly say that life with Jesus is the (best) way to live. It has the most adventure, it’s the most fun, the most painful, it’s sorrowful, it’s joyful but this is real living! This is what life is all about. If we’re always afraid of the sharks in the ocean how can we live that way? I am afraid of sharks. Who wouldn’t be? They are the most terrifying creature on the planet! But I remember one thing, and that is that God created them. (And God is on MY side.) Satan didn’t create sharks. Satan is not creative. God is. God is the One to be feared above all.(6) He is the awesome being!  ( I inadvertently misspoke using the word, ‘creature’ there because God is not a creation.)

I think one of the reasons God created sharks may be because He wanted to show us that side of His nature. That side of Him that is… just awesome… to be feared (6)- not in a bad way though (giving God due reverence.) I think the awesomeness of sharks is beautiful – although I’d never want to meet one up close – but I don’t want to live my life in fear (either). I just can’t live that way. Many times we don’t want to follow Jesus because we’re afraid… of what? Jesus has created all things. (7) What we really are afraid of is submitting completely to God when He asks us to follow Him. Can we take up our cross and follow Him?(8) Following Jesus is dying.(9) That’s what He did. He gave His life as an example to us – not dying now – (hopefully we will not have to die as martyrs) not dying in our flesh, but dying to our wills. He calls us to die to a world system that is not healthy for us (body, soul and spirit.) He calls us to be different, out of the ordinary. He calls us to follow Him. He calls us to ‘surf ‘.”

“So we’re back to here:  Once we’ve gotten over the fear (really the fear of fear) and we’re going to go ahead and get into the water, how do we do it then?  We’ve talked about trial and error: we seek Him, we follow His Words, we get to know Him, and pretty soon we can ‘see’ Him in a spiritual sense, because we experience Him. Next, the main part of  ‘seeing’ God of course is just (continuing on course) getting to know Him and loving Him. He will give you little  flowers every day . He’ll give us little love gifts, if only we could see them, we would know that it was Him. I just heard this neat thing (my pastor at church says) that coincidences are just little miracles that God has not taken credit for. When we look around the world, we can’t help but ‘see’ Him (when we acknowledge His blessings and activity in our lives).

So what I want to encourage you to do today is to surf with Jesus. Look around, see what wave He’s on, get into the water, die to self and Cowabunga! Have an abundant life!”

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. – Jesus

Meditations:

(1) Romans 8:1

Numbers 14:19

Ephesians 4:32

(2) See Isaiah 53 and compare with Matthew 8:14-17

(3) John 20:27-31

(From last week see: 2 Corinthians 5:7, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38)

(4) Romans 5:5

Hebrews 11:1

Psalm 146:5

(5) Isaiah 32:3

Matthew 13:16

Ezekiel 40:4

(6) Deuteronomy 6:24

Deuteronomy 8:6

Deuteronomy 10:12

Joshua 4:24

2 Kings 17:39

Ecclesiastes 12:13

(7) Psalm 27:1

Isaiah 41:13

Romans 8:32

(8) John 12:24

(9) Matthew 16:24

Romans 12:1

Galatians 2:20

Jesus surfs 1

Transcript with explanations. See Scripture references at bottom of page:

“Jesus surfs. This may sound irreverent but I don’t mean it that way. Jesus is awesome and amazing and when you look at the ocean you see His creation and you see the fearful awesome and seriousness of who He is- His movement, His power, the danger of Him. But also the tender love and the pure adventure it is to follow Him with a whole heart.”

“Just as Peter walked on the water(1), surfing is about as close as you can get to that these days because instead of fearing the surge of life, instead of fearing the tumult and the breathlessness, instead of fearing it, you dive in and you swim toward it. You follow Jesus as He rises onto His board and overpowers the power of “water”… of creation (I am alluding to birth), of life, of your existence- and you stand up with Him and you ride the wave. There’s nothing like it.”

Jesus surfs 2

Transcript: “In our lives Jesus will call us to follow Him by faith and not by sight(2). But what we He is really calling us to do is to “see” Him (in a spiritual sense. Please don’t write to me indignantly out of misunderstanding here.) He is working in your life, He is working in your family, He is working in your church, He is working in your community, He is working in your world. Jesus taught us that the Father is always working and He said that what He did in His work was about whatever He saw the Father doing.(3) That’s what we are called to do in following the example of Jesus. We “see” what God is doing and we join Him. That’s the work that we are called to do. It’s not what we do on our own, but it’s the work the Holy Spirit does through us. There’s no possible way we can “surf” with Jesus by our own power. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is His power working through us that gives us the ability to make an eternal difference in the world.(4) That’s “surfing” with Jesus! (I’m using a metaphor here. Let’s have fun with it!)

So how do you “see” (understand, know, experience) God? How do you “see” what He is doing in the world around you? How do you “see” what “wave” He’s on and follow Him? The answer is to get to know Him.

We first accept Christ when we understand the logic of faith (of course we only understand when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand as the great hymn of faith says, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.) The logic of faith is that Jesus existed and that He proved that He is God. The prophecies in the Old Testament all match up to what Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament.(5) We “see” that God really exists and that He really did send His Son to the earth to make a way for us to be close with God and intimate with God and have a relationship with God even though we are sinners.(6) When we realize that Jesus’ blood paid the penalty so that we could be in the presence of the Holy God…if that’s not “surfing,” I don’t know what is! That’s exciting and we say, ‘Yes Lord! We want that! We want to be close to God! It’s what we’ve wanted all our lives!’  Now to know that Jesus has made a way to be close to God, to reach the Holy God in His Holy of Holies, to stand before His throne, then we say, ‘Yes cover me with the blood of Jesus. I accept You, Lord and i want to follow You all the days of my life!’ “(7)

Many of us will get to that place and then we don’t know what to do from there. Once we’ve come off that first realization, (down off, as in off the mountain top experience) that first joy, we don’t know what to do. But that’s when the fun starts. He renews our mind(8)and He starts to show us His heart… if we can “see” it.(9)

Now we get back to: how to see God working in your life- how to see Jesus surfing and how to join in on that wave with Him. (Continued in Jesus “Surfs” #3)

Meditations:

(1) Matthew 14:29

(2) 2 Corinthians 5:7 We don’t walk by “appearance” of things, but by faith in God’s reality. See also:

Romans 1:17

Galatians 3:11

Hebrews 10:38

(3) John 5:18-20

(4) Zechariah 4:6

(5) Sample: Isaiah 53

(6) He loved us first- Romans 5:8

(7) Hebrews 4:16

(8) Romans 12:2

(9) Ezekiel 11:19

Hot Mango

Cut the seed out of the Mango leaving 2 halves. Cut scores in each half, being careful not to slice through the skin. Turn each half inside-out. Each half will look like a turtle. Sprinkle with Chile Powder (without hydrogenated oil). Share with a friend. Pick your half up with your hands and eat it with a napkin handy!…or two!

Nutrition Facts 1/2 Mango

Calories 67
Carbs 17
Fat .5
Protein .5

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