Traveling On Water

Recently I woke up to the fact that Jesus didn't always walk on the earth in His time here; part of His journey was on the sea when He entered into a ship and went through experiences and landed somewhere else. I tried to find out the differences between traveling on land and traveling on water. On the water, you have to expect winds and currents, and a ship needs to be balanced otherwise it is not going to get very far. The same applies to walking on the earth. You have to be balanced, too. Anyone who walks on the earth leaves a footprint, but it doesn't stay there forever. We sing about the blessed footprints of our Savior. On the water, you don't leave any footprints, but Jesus surely did leave some deep imprints on those few people who had made the choice to enter with Him into the boat. Nobody would be able to trace them but the personal imprints are still there, whether we walk on the earth or sail on the water.

While you are sailing on the water, you are always on the same level. Sure, there are waves that go up and down, but you are always traveling on the same level. "Mine the privilege to labor ...mine to climb the heights where others, through their faithfulness have been." You don't climb any mountains with a ship, you keep on the same level and maybe that explains why Jesus didn't spend all His ministry life on the sea, suggesting that it will all be level, smooth sailing with no great heights or no great depths. He had the right mixture in His life, and we will have that also if we follow Him. As we journey with Him, certain imprints are made on our hearts that nobody can actually see, but we manifest impressions that have been left.

Acts 27. In this chapter, we have a few things that remind us of our first days. When I think about my first days with Jesus, I automatically think about what was before and what was necessary for me to be able to start this journey of life with Jesus. Vs 1: "And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius." We are not sailing to Italy; we are talking about an eternal shore. For a long time, I thought it was a matter of us entering into a ship and then heading for the final destination. That is the way I looked at it all those years, but it is not for us to pick the place. It is nice to remember the time when I was prepared to invite Jesus to enter my little ship, to be my Captain and to guide my little ship that had been driven with the tides of the world. There was no definite goal before the Captain of our salvation was invited to enter my ship. That was the time He was going to decide when to take off and which way to go. The main thing is there must be a time when we invite the Captain of our salvation to take over and to rule our little ship. Is the Master at the helm? Well, sometimes it takes different experiences to tell who is at the helm.

Vs 3: "And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself." It was all nice, smooth sailing and then Paul had the liberty to see friends who would refresh him. I am glad to look back and think of friends who have touched my life since that day I allowed Jesus to become my Captain. By having Jesus in my life, I have come into contact with more people than I can remember. In all those years, it would be impossible to write down all the people I have met who have refreshed my spirit. I made my choice in South Australia, then nine months later I went to Western Australia. I was fairly new in this way, not very established, and the friends in South Australia gave me two or three addresses to look up in Western Australia. One of them was a big farm away out in the sticks, and one afternoon I turned up and these people welcomed me in, though they had never seen me before. Next day, after breakfast, I felt I was holding the men back from their work and I said, "I think It is better if I go on now," but the man of the home just said, "The jobs don't run away; they will still be there for us this afternoon." That touched me. These were busy people willing to sacrifice their precious time to be with me, and I never forgot that. Convention can be like a touchdown, when we stop and get in touch with one another and in touch with the way and the word and the will of God. We are reminded of certain things in the past, of what we are now and of things that need to be done. Then we need to launch out again; we cannot stay here all the time.

Vs 4: "And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary." I don't think the boat Paul was in was a submarine that went under the island, but they went in the shelter of the island. The winds were not just as they liked, but the islands provided some shelter and they used it. What are these islands? Just something big and solid in the water, surrounded with unstable elements. When Jesus sent His disciples into the ship, they were doing their best but at midnight they were still rowing. I am sure more than one of them thought, "We are not getting anywhere, we might as well give in, turn around and give up." But Jesus saw them toiling in rowing. Sometimes we are too much focused on progress and we like to measure the progress we make from one convention to the next. It is a lot harder to measure any progress you make on the water. The disciples were toiling, and sometimes that is all we can do so we would not be pushed back to where we came from.

So, they sailed under the shelter of Cyprus and the other islands. It was a wonderful picture to me of some things in our lives that are solid. One of these is the fellowship meeting. They are fixed dates; we don't have to look up the organizer and say, "Yes, that is free." I have appreciated and benefited by people who had their meeting times fixed and were always there. They had a wonderful influence on me. They couldn't take all the winds or currents, but they did what they could and they sheltered me from getting blown way off course. Do we see the possibility of being like an island, to be a shelter to someone who is also in this journey of life?

Vs 8: "And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens." It is a nice name, isn't it? But maybe we have gone through experiences which made it very clear that not everything that glitters is gold. These people found that the Fair Havens were not what they were made out to be. We cannot always make a judgment on the spot by what our eyes see. Sometimes you might find that underneath are the most precious things. The woman who came to the well in the heat of the day saw Jesus as a weary, hungry, thirsty man; nothing to appeal, exactly as Isaiah prophesied, with no form or comeliness that we should desire Him. This woman could have walked past Jesus, but I'm sure it was the deep experiences she had been through that stopped her and gave Jesus the opportunity to speak to her. It opened a door into her life, so that Jesus also became the Captain of her little ship. Don't just look at things and make up your mind; get a bit closer and you won't be disappointed.

Vs 12: "And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter." An old fashioned word! It meant that it wasn't comfortable enough for all those people. They thought they had to get away from those uncomfortable conditions and they launched out again, but it wasn't very long and they ran into a storm like they had never had before. Does that remind us of certain experiences when we were still being our own captain? "This is not very comfortable; let's go somewhere else." The storm revealed what was dear to them, and they lightened the ship. They realized they had too much that would hinder them and they had to get rid of it before the ship sank. Can we enter into the experiences of throwing these non-essentials out of the ship?

Up in Pilerwa, an older man spoke about packing his bag for convention. It took him quite some time, and in the last ten minutes he was doing more packing than before. Sometimes you think about packing days ahead and what makes your decisions difficult is that you don't know what the weather is going to be like where you are going. What also makes it difficult is that you know you have to carry your bag yourself, so you don't want to put too much in it. So, these decisions as to what to throw away are very important. When the storm hits, you cannot ask what your neighbor thinks; you have to make up your mind on the spot, and that is when it comes out what is most important to you. Another thing that makes it difficult for me to pack is that I am just too well off and have too much stuff. Jesus wants to bring us through experiences to help us realize what is needful and what is a hindrance.

The storm was coming to an end. That is another thing that makes an experience trying: we don't know how much longer the storm is going to go on, so we need to trust that the Captain is still at the helm. Vs 34: Paul encouraged them to eat. Nobody ever had to tell me to eat, but this is speaking about a spiritual appetite. Isaiah 55:2 - "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." We don't need to be concerned that our soul is getting too fat; we have to be reminded and it goes against our nature. At the end, the ship hit a place where two seas met; it was stuck on the shore, immoveable. The ship fell apart and some jumped into the water, some held onto bits of wood and somehow they all made it to the shore. It doesn't take much imagination to see those people after they had been through that experience. I don't think any one of them would be feeling better than another. They would all be standing around the Captain and all they would be saying was, "Thank you for coming into my little ship; thank you for the places and people you have brought me in touch with; thank you for guiding the ship in the storm; thank you for teaching me to throw away what was not necessary and keeping what preserved my life; thank you for leading all the way." To me it is a wonderful picture of how it is going to be in eternity. There will be nothing but, "Thank you" in our hearts for our Captain. If He is already at the helm of your little ship, make sure He remains at your helm, whatever storms may come. ~ ~ ~

HERMANN ROTHMUND - 2015 - Traveling on water - 2nd Maroota, Australia