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Do you remember the first time you saw the ocean? What did you think? I remember trying to wrap my mind around the thought of something that seemed to have no beginning and no end ... something that was so deep I could not touch the bottom ...something that had constant motion without ever ceasing ... something that could be gentle enough for me to playfully jump over its little waves ... and yet something so powerful, it could completely cover and eliminate me, under the right conditions.

Who does that sound like? Yes, like everything else in creation, the sea reflects the Glory of God Himself!

Something Without a Beginning or an End!

Through Revelations 1:8, God says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty." Like the ocean, God is so vast, so deep and wide, that we can hardly take it in!

Some people find this unnerving. Rather than going to the beach, they feel more comfortable with a few mountains surrounding them ... something close ... something they can see. Other people are so mesmerized by the vastness of the ocean, they just have to see more. They are the ones who surf the waves or get on ships and launch out into the deep. Which are you?

God created us with different personalities. So for the adventuresome, He says, "Come on. Let's go. Surf's up!" For those more comfortable on the shore, He says, "Let's sit down and watch. I'll teach you right here. Come look at the way I put this shell together." God always teaches on our level and He always starts with what we already know. Jesus was famous for His Parables that were built on examples of things the people knew already.

Seeing in Part

So what do we know? Many of us have seen a stream or perhaps a river and we have come to understand some things about them. One of the lessons we have already learned is that they do not stay where they are put. Follow a stream; it leads into a river; follow a river; it leads into the sea. God reminds us that life is flowing onward. He tells us that we need not worry about where we are going, because we have already seen something like it, in part. But we can also know that what we have seen is only a part.

Look at how growth occurs in the human body. Cells multiply and join one another. Bone is laid over bone. Growth is occurring, with the old part pushing forward to the new part. Only when something is no longer needed is it shed. You don't lose your baby teeth until the new larger, stronger teeth are in place below.

The streams never lose themselves. They are absorbed by the rivers, which flow to places the streams never could, with a power the stream never had. Rivers get absorbed by the sea and in contrast to losing itself, they now have access to all the Power of the Ocean.

We need not fear death. Our life is a stream that has progressed into a river ... but one day, we will be allowed into the Ocean of God Himself ... free to go deeper, wider, further than we can even imagine ... free to rest in His Power!

Is Change a Good Thing?

2nd Corinthians 4:18 tells us to fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. So if that is true, how do we get stuck in thinking that the way life is right now is the way it will always be?

I find that I have two conflicting worries. When times are not so great, I'm afraid things will always be this way. When times are great, I'm afraid that things won't always be this way. What a catch 22!

How does God handle this one for us? Just when we feel totally overburdened with trash, God sends a big Wave of His Spirit to wash everything unclean away. But God does not take things (or people) away until it is time. And He always has a Plan in mind to replace what is lost with something even better.

However, notice that when the tide goes out and takes something away, it is not instantly replaced. There is a pause when the canvass of sand is empty and waiting for the next wave to bring in its treasure. Faith says, "Wait upon the Lord. If He has just cleaned the slate, you can bet He is getting ready to write something new!"

Touching the Bottom

I always had trouble with swimming, primarily because my mind says that I just can't trust something as flimsy as water to hold my whole body up. It seems so unstable. Even when I flounder across the shallow end of the pool, I'm not ready to trust enough to go to the deep end. I can't touch the bottom without the water being over my head. What if I touch the bottom, but I don't come back up?? I'm sure if Jesus were my swimming coach, He would shake His Head and say, "Oh you of little faith."

Swimming and going into the deep is a faith experience. If we are not willing to invest our faith, we will not get the returns God wants for us. Jesus said we would not have to invest much to get big results ... faith as big as a mustard seed, He said ... God could work with even something tiny. And God is that way ... we show Him we are willing to make one tiny step and He's there, holding out His Hands cheering us on.

Often we cling to the shore and whine and complain about how life has not come to us. In figurative terms, we are just not catching any fish. Jesus says to us, as He did to Simon Peter, as recorded in Luke 5:4: "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Unfortunately, many of us say, "It's not worth the risk. I can get by on what I've got now." God never intended for us to just get by. Jesus said He came that we might have life. If His sentence had ended there, we might be able to justify a so so, hum drum life, but there was more to the sentence.

"I am come that you might have Life and that Life more abundantly." In order to find that Life that He is offering, we have to be willing to cast out into the deep. Go beyond what we can see. Trust Him that there is something out there that is bigger and more wonderful that you have ever even seen before!

I Like My Life Just the Way It Is! I Get Close To the Deep Every Now and Then!

Sometimes we get content with shallow water experiences with God. We go to church and get a little warm glow, but then we scoot back to our every day life where things are not even near the water, so to speak, much less in the water. If someone suggests that we look deeper, some of us resist the thought that there could be more.

If someone suggested to you that you could have a deeper relationship with God by trying some new things in your life, would you be game? Are you satisfied with your relationship with God or do you sometimes have the sense that you'd like to launch out into the deep?

I'm Ready for the Deep! Let Me In, Lord! Here I Come!

Peter wanted a deeper experience. He thought he was ready. Jesus was ready for him to have that deeper experience too. When we are bold enough to ask Jesus to let us come to the deep, He will say to us what He said to Peter, as recorded in Matthew 14:29. "Come!"

Why are we not having deeper spiritual experiences? Could it be because we are often content to sit in the boat? Apparently no one else in that boat was ready to get out. Perhaps they were thinking, "Let's see what happens with Peter first. If it turns out good, we'll try it." But sitting in the boat and looking at someone other than Jesus won't give us a deeper experience. We each have to make our own choice to "get out of the boat."

I Can't Do This! It's Too Far to the Bottom!

Peter took his first steps on the water. It was never Jesus' intent that Peter see the bottom and Peter need never have worried about that ... except ... something went dreadfully wrong. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the wind. Don't miss the irony of this.

Peter took his eyes off Someone he could see in the flesh to look at something he could not see ... the wind. Peter let himself get distracted and then he got deceived by his own fear. It has been said that fear is "false evidence appearing real."

James addressed this problem in James 1:6. "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

Help-p-p-p!!!!!

Peter might have seen the bottom of the ocean, if he had not invoked the little bit of faith he had. He was smart enough to know to call upon Jesus when he started to sink. He called upon the Lord to save him. Did the Lord do what Peter had done and look the other way? No! According to Matthew 14:31, Jesus responded "immediately."

The Lesson

After Jesus saved Peter, He gave him something to think about. Notice Jesus did not lecture. He simply asked a question. "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" Jesus did give Peter credit for what he had ... some faith ... but Jesus let him know, that he was essentially a stream and he could be an ocean.

The Lessons of the Sea

God uses His Sea to take away anything that is not solid and He uses His Sea to bring us untold treasures from the deep. One only needs to look at a beach littered with the remains of the day ... trash or things left behind ... and then the waves come in and cover it all and remove it far from us. What a beautiful picture of God's Purifying Grace ... our sins removed to a place where not even we can get them back ... gone forever.

But the beach does not remain barren. No, with the very next wave, the sea brings treasures from the deep and gently deposits them on our doorstep ... new things to enjoy and explore. And it happens again and again, without fail. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is "Behold I make all things new!" (Revelation 21:1) Nowhere is that more true than at the beach!