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Reverend Dr. William H. Curtis

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Touched by Jesus

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born.

Matthew 1:24-25 (NLT)

The Bible says that Joseph did not “know” Mary until she brought forth her firstborn son. That means they had no intimate connections spanning the time from conception until after it was safe for her post-delivery. Joseph wouldn’t touch Mary until God finished delivering Jesus through her.

And during that time, Joseph accepted his role as a protecting husband, denying his natural passion, restraining his intense love for his new bride, and living in service to God through a season of self-denial.

Joseph understood this line of reasoning: I won’t touch Mary now because God has touched her life in a way that I cannot compete with. But if I play my part, not touching her in this span of time, it will position me to be touched by Jesus when Jesus fulfills the Father’s will for His earthly experience.

And Jesus most certainly touched Joseph’s life. He touched his life with shed blood able to wash away human sin. He touched Joseph’s life with a sinless sacrifice that eliminated forever the need for rams and bulls and sheep. He touched Joseph’s life with a guarantee of a room not made by hands, eternal, up in the heavens. He touched Joseph’s life with the gift of the Spirit to bring back to his remembrance everything Jesus had said.

Joseph may have welcomed Jesus into the human sphere, but Jesus would one day welcome Joseph into the heavenly city. Joseph greeted Jesus when He emerged from the womb, but Jesus welcomed Joseph when he emerged from the tomb.

So let me tell you why we can wait on the Lord and spend long seasons of life in self-denial: Because if we can carry our cross and deny ourselves, then one of these days, the Jesus that asked us to deny ourselves is the same Jesus that will reward us in abundance.

You will not regret practicing patience and exercising the denial of your own wishes and desires in place of God’s perfect will. When you give way to His plan for your life, no matter the sacrifice, the outcome will be so much greater.

Imperfect Paths

“All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

God’s perfect will is not always the promise of a perfect path.

Don’t let the imperfect path you are on right now convince you to stop chasing what is the perfect will of God. Don’t stop pursuing God’s perfect will because you don’t like how hard it is to walk on your imperfect path.

This message is found in the replete narrative that is strewn throughout all of biblical literature:

  • Moses’ imperfect path had to go through Midian with blood on his hands, a speech impediment, and a lot of self-doubt. It was an imperfect path, but it took him right to the center of God’s perfect will.
  • David went through the cave of Adullam, down from the rooftop, surviving assassination attempts against his life and betrayal by his own offspring. What an imperfect path, but all of it landed him right in the center of God’s perfect will.  
  • Daniel had to go through prison in order to get to the palace. It was an imperfect path, but it brought him to the center of God’s perfect will.
  • Paul and Silas went through the obscurity of a Philippian jail to get to the prominence of the market square. An imperfect path, but it delivered them to God’s perfect will.
  • Even Jesus, who suffered the anguish of Calvary, has ascended again to the throne. His imperfect path had to go up a harsh and cruel hill, but it landed Him in God’s perfect will.

Stop equating God’s perfect will with always traveling life’s perfect paths. Don’t stop chasing God’s will for your life because you keep falling down on the imperfect paths you find yourself on. The bumps, bruises, pains, losses, trials, fatigues, mistakes, misjudgments, storms, heartbreaks—all of these are part of the imperfect paths we take in life. But all of these are being used by the Lord to deliver you to a perfectly providential plan as imagined by a God who created you for His own perfect purposes.

God works all things together for our good, so trust Him as you travel life’s difficult terrain.

An Anchor for Your Soul

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Hebrews 6:19 (NIV)

Jesus is the anchor for your soul. This wording paints the picture of tying a ship down upon reaching shore. And the implication is that faith in Jesus is the only spiritual connection that you and I can trust that will get us to shore and then firmly fix us there. You can tie your life down and live it securely in Jesus Christ.

This image of the anchor is significant. The writer of Hebrews is not describing Jesus as a foundation, a pedestal, a ladder, a bridge, a pathway, a transport, a tower, a station, a refuge, or a battleax—though all of those descriptors may be true. Jesus is all of those things. But here's what the writer of Hebrews says when he wants to describe the stability of our faith and our spirituality: Jesus is an anchor.

If you talk about stability and firmness and steadfastness, what fixes you in life and holds you stable and keeps you from swaying is Jesus. Jesus is the anchor for your soul.

That means you are never in jeopardy from changing conditions. You are so tied down in Jesus, secure enough in Him, that not one threat brewing on the waters of your life—no matter how fierce—can ever be forceful enough to erase you.

Don't let your conditional experiences change your anchored assurance. Don't let…

the wind blowing,
the water becoming choppy,
the uncertainty of your situation,
the assertion and arrogance of other people's opinions,
trouble and calamity,
running into a brick wall,
or facing a perpetual dead end

…make you forget that your soul has been anchored in Jesus. No matter how unstable the conditions around your life may become, you are perfectly fixed and firm in Jesus, so that when the storms of life are raging, you can say, “I've got peace in my soul.”

You may be tossed, driven, battered, shaken, frustrated, angry, hurt, confused, fearful, uncertain, ambivalent, or disheveled, but if you are anchored in Jesus, you will not be erased. He’s got you.

Walk on the Water

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Matthew 14:31 (NIV)

Peter didn’t walk on the water just one time. There are many instances recorded in Scripture where Peter walked on the water. Not physically, of course, but metaphorically, Peter walked on the water throughout the Book of Acts and beyond.

● He walked on the water when he preached a single sermon that impacted 3,000 lives on the Day of Pentecost.

● He walked on the water when he looked the lame beggar in the eye and said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

● He walked on the water when he not only defended the new ministry of the former terrorizer of the church, Saul of Tarsus, and even went so far as to extend the blessed right hand of fellowship to him—recognizing him as Paul, the new creation in Christ.

 He walked on the water when after being warned never again to preach the name of Jesus, he boldly did so—obeying God rather than man.

● He walked on the water when he recognized God’s acceptance of the Gentiles as he visited the house of Cornelius.

Here’s my point: Peter’s first attempt to walk on the water led him to sink. But Jesus’s question to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” set him on the road to an increased faith and even bolder steps of ministry to come.

You may have had a sinking experience like Peter. But you are going to have to step out of your boat of comfort and walk on the water toward God-inspired opportunities again. And I want to ask you, are you going to sink as fast as you sank last time? Or are you going to let the prior sinking motivate you to pray a little harder, read a little longer, and be inspired by what God is doing in your life to let the Holy Spirit shape and form you?

Let your past experiences bolster your faith as you take the next step out onto the water.

Between Sinking and Saving

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, “Lord, save me!”

2 CMatthew 14:29-30 (NIV)

The story of Peter walking on the water is not about failure or fear. It is about the reality of faith’s growing process. This is how faith grows. It’s how faith exercises. This is how faith increases endurance. This is how faith builds capacity.

You don’t grow faith sitting on the boat where it’s expected of you to stay up on the water, speculating about Jesus and hoping to occasionally get it right. No, you grow faith because you take bold steps to see how much your belief in Him has created capacity for you. You get out there on what your imagination had invited you to consider.

But when reality hits, challenge comes, and the wind blows, you start to see that the conditions around you don’t care that you have trusted Jesus. The wind doesn’t die down simply because you’re being creative and starting to think big. The storm doesn’t cease because you asked Jesus to do something bold.

The things which limit you, scare you, frustrate you, cripple you, and restrict you have a vested interest in keeping you on that boat. And when you step out of that boat, they aren’t going anywhere; they are going to test you and distract you while you’re out there trying this big thing you asked the Lord for.

And true to form, when these windy realities are successful, you sink. But hear me about this: even when we have faith in Christ, life is lived between the sinking and the saving.

Don’t refuse to try just because sinking may happen. You are in a relationship with the Christ who can save you when you sink. It’s not about your sinking, but about your faith.

In other words, faith is perfectly okay with your failures. But what is not okay is your living with too little confidence to take the big step.

So recognize that you will have adversity. Recognize that you will have times of sinking. Recognize that you will need to call out to Jesus to save you. And then take the step out of the boat and move closer to the Savior.