Here  we go again, another year has gone and a new one has come. Did you have an excellent year in 2011? Or was it one that you would never want to experience again, because of heartache and troubles? What if we could all encounter peace instead of turmoil during difficult times? Well it is possible. The Word of God gives us an illustration in Matthew 8:23,24. “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.” Here we read about Christ Jesus being asleep in the midst of a storm. The disciples were freaking out and thought they were going to perish. What is happening here? The disciples should have known that when Jesus said, “get in the boat we are going to the other side,” that was  their destination. The amazing thing was in the previous verses (14-17) they experienced Christ Jesus heal Peters mother in-law and traveling further through the region Jesus delivered people from demonic spirits. Where was the disciples perspective? They should have known that they had the Son of God in the boat with them and nothing would prevent them from getting to the other side. They had just seen miracles on the way to the boat. It seems humorous doesn't it? We can read the story and have someone highlight this for our reference for obtaining peace during the storms of life. But are we not guilty also of  a wrong perspective about the promises of God in overcoming life circumstances? We should all get to a place in our lives where we have complete assurance of a victorious outcome.

 

I do not believe in trying to make people feel good about life without the experience myself. This is reality, terrible things happen in the journey of life. But we have Truths given to us in the Word of God of others encountering sickness, death, wars, persecution and manifestations of the demonic. The Bible is an illustrated sermon about creation, mans fall and his redemption with restoration. All through the Bible is God revealing Himself as a faithful Heavenly Father to those who are desiring to love Him rightly. We all have the ability in us to perceive the reality of a God who has framed a world for us to live in so we can encounter Him. It is in this environment that God is preparing us for eternity.

 

With all the hardships of life comes an ability to experience the peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil.4:17). Just as in the illustrated Bible verses of Christ Jesus being in the boat, He is also living in us in the Third Person of the Godhead (Holy Spirit). He has given all of us an assignment, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen (Matthew 28:18-20 ).This assignment that Jesus has given to us is not limited just to the foreign mission field. It is the family, domestic and foreign field. So He has given us our assignment with an assurance of a favorable outcome in reaching our destination. How is your assignment going? Have you allowed your faith in Christ to be ship-wrecked by the winds of adversity? (1 Timothy 1:19 ) or are you actively contending in advancing the Kingdom of God? It is all about perspective. We are either Heavenly minded or earthly minded.

 

I was with a friend the other day and I notice he had the new IPhone S, the one with the info woman named Siri. I asked my friend have you ever asked her who is Jesus Christ? He said no, but let’s ask her. So we asked Siri, “who is Jesus Christ”? She responded back, “He is a mystery”. I then asked who is God? She responded back with, “you will have to ask someone who is qualified in spirituality”. I said to my friend, that is Steve Jobs answer. Steve Jobs is the designer of this device and that would be his answer, if anyone had asked him that question. Most of us are aware he recently died of postrate cancer. Sad to say, obviously he had a wrong perspective about Christ Jesus. He is not a mystery! He is the Savior of the world! “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:10-13).

 

Obviously we think about the response of a very intelligent person like Steve Jobs and wonder why he would be so foolish. I have my opinion and you have yours, but only God knows. The Truth is people all around us are looking for the meaning of Life. We have it and it is in the Word of God. We have to train ourselves in righteousness and be lead by the Holy Spirit to minister the Gospel. We must always maintain our perspective in our assignment. I like what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God”! Paul identified us as Ambassadors. So as Ambassadors we are sent as representatives of a Heavenly Kingdom  to reconcile a fallen world back to God. The assignment has not changed. It remains the same, “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). It is in this confidence of being called, that God has equipped us with an anointing to compel the lost to be saved. Let us all dedicate this year to maintain the perspective, our citizenship  is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20) and we are on assignment to another world, to be reconciled back to God.