"Now what?"

(After Jesus died and resurrected:)

“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them [to the disciples that were with him], and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
 “No,” they answered.
 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish”- John 21.
       
    The disciples had just spent three years with the Son of God. Every day they were fed to the core of spirit and soul with the life giving truth of the universe. They witnessed the glory of God, miracles, true love dying on the cross for their sins. Jesus had been with them, their friend. I am imagining what it was like for the disciples when the man they left everything for, gave themselves up for… died. They knew the truth; Jesus spoke of His death, but somehow it’s always harder to completely understand in the moment. It is usually in hindsight that things make sense to us.  All this Kingdom awe and momentum… and then Jesus was mocked, ridiculed, scourged, and slain.
    Things didn’t really happen in the way the disciples might have expected. The greatest thing occurred instead, too much for man to handle, too great and eternal. The resurrected Christ came to them with holes in his hands and the piercing in His side. He did signs in their presence. Jesus had conquered death.
    The disciples went back to Galilee. Maybe a lapse in time occurred... "now what?" I'm sure they never could have imagined the coming things in store for them to walk in.  They just went back to what they knew how to do, what was familiar: fishing. But, Jesus showed up; He always does. After the beautifully traumatic time of waiting and walking with Jesus into His death, He now says, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat.” He didn’t leave the disciples; He didn't forget them. The call to "follow me" was real and now the resurrected Jesus would fulfill the call in them, and finish the work He began through their lives.  ..."when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish."
    “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”- John 15:5

Our Great Delusion...

In the Western Church there is this idea that if we believe God enough, pray enough, and fast enough that all our problems will be solved and all our dreams will come true. We will be healed from cancer, financially sound, completely restored in the world’s eyes. It is as if faith in God is for the purposes of worldly deliverance and personal prosperity. But this is not the aim of Christianity. This is just a surface level of knowing God. The prosperity gospel has cheated so many people of what it really means to be victorious in Christ. For most of the world, believing in Jesus will not spare them from persecution, torture in prison, or poverty level living. A woman in India, who gives her life to Christ, may that same day return home to her same poverty and beatings from her husband.

Yes, God does bring earthly deliverance. It is His pleasure to bless us and rescue us, working miracles of physical healing and financial blessing... But there is a greater aim for us than this world. There is a greater victory to be had than what the world sees as success. God has our eternal welfare in mind, and sometimes that means that earthly suffering will be appointed for a time, or times. When trial upon trial comes, true faith is not believing to be kept from every discomfort, but believing on Jesus through them, that His love is real, that He is still good. Through trials, believing on Jesus is no longer what it once meant. 

God is glorified in ways we may not think of or understand. Life is “offensive,” but there are also times of  “defensive” - like in a boxing ring. Through the devastating beatings and blows of the loss of a loved one, or of a broken family, or of loss of all my possessions, I can get back up again in Christ and keep fighting. “…And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”- Hebrews 12:1

Believing in God takes a deeper meaning when you are no longer just believing for things: financial stability, family blessings, blessings, blessings, but believing in the person of Jesus Christ as ALL your sufficiency… His ways and thoughts are perfect.... Even if I am tortured and made into a human torch like the first Christians, and burned for the delight of an evil first century emperor. 

I do not agree that God always wants to spare me from suffering and loss.  He does not delight in it; but God loves us too much to keep us from what will better us eternally and further the Kingdom. Job was not spared his unimaginable suffering and loss. It was appointed by God for him. Nothing made sense to him, but that didn’t matter, he was still called to follow and believe on God through everything earthly he lost.  In my own life, I prayed and fasted for my brother to be spared from his death. But… he still died. Sometimes God says no. Then things turn upside down. Because now you are called to have faith in a God who is sovereign, who answers prayer, but not always how you want him to. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD” -Isaiah 55:8.  The call of a Christian is not a call of comfort and worldly victory; it is a radical call of Heavenly victory and belief.  We can be beaten down by things that would totally destroy other people, and still stand victorious afterward because of Jesus.

I do not want to live a shallow western Christianity of “prosperity gospel” only.  Jesus did not say follow me and you will prosper here. He said lose your life for my sake and you will find it. “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” Count the cost, because if you are in it for blessings and smooth sailing, you will miss the greatest blessing and joy of all… the prize of Jesus Christ Himself.

  "Whom have I in heaven but you? 

   And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 

   My flesh and my heart may fail, 

   but God is the strength of my heart 

   and my portion forever."- Psalm 73:25-26

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.- romans 11:29