Discipleship Training: Week 7 by Heather Compton

Turn in your bible to Mark 4:35-41.

 I encourage you to read that passage in a number of translations. If you only have one bible, you can always download the bible app on your phone and reference other translations. Today, please read the scripture in the New King James Version, New Living, and the Amplified Classic Version. I believe by studying a passage in multiple translations you will receive a better understanding. Before going on, read the passage in all of the translations mentioned above.

 Together, let’s take time to dig deep into this passage and learn some things. First, we see that Jesus had completed teaching the multitude and was ready to pull away and go to the other side of the lake.  He tells His disciples the plan of going to the other side. I recently preached a message about going somewhere. God has a plan to take us all to places we have never been. Places of health, peace, abundance, and so much more. We have to first know where we are headed in order to stay on track when the storms of life begin to rage. When they sat out on this journey, they had no clue what waited ahead of them. He did. He knows our end from our beginning and has already made a way.  Are you facing a storm today? Have you been in what some would call a stormy season? Make sure Jesus is in your boat and keep moving forward. As long as you don’t quit you will make it to the other side.

 Verse 36 tells us as they left they pulled away and took Jesus just as He was. Quit trying to make Jesus into what you want Him to be. Take Him just the way He is and let HIM change you. You will never get anywhere in life trying to change him. It also says they pulled away from the many people that were present, however some other small boats went with them, or followed them.  I had never really thought much about the “other boats” until this week.  It is obvious that these were other people who had just heard the word preached. In verse 37 we see that the storm began to rage. The storm was so great that the boat they were in began to fill. Remember they were in the larger boat with Jesus. What about those smaller boats? How much more water were they taking in? Do you think those in the smaller boats were looking to the Jesus boat to see how those closest to Jesus acted? Do you think they were seeing if what was just preached was walked out by those closest to Him? This happens all the time at church. We hear the word preached and then have to “walk” it out in real life. 

 These lessons are to take us deeper into our relationship with Jesus (in essence, taking us from new converts to disciples). People are watching you. People are watching your reactions to the storms you face. The “other” boats lives depended on how those with Jesus responded. If you respond in faith, the faith of others will grow. If you respond in doubt and fear, those watching will assume that is the way a disciple should respond. Your response matters. The bible talks about being a doer of the word and not a hearer only. Look at James 1:22-25.

 Internal Reflection:  Read Mark 4:3-9. Are seeds falling on good ground when they land in your ears and heart? Are the cares of life choking out the word preached? Are you allowing the things going on around you to kill the WORD that has been sown to you?

 The other boats are watching you? Take a few moments and evaluate if that is a good or bad thing? Are you still an “other” striving to get into the Jesus boat? Are you in HIS boat but are still responding in fear and doubt?  What can you work on? Use a separate sheet of paper

Key Verse: James 1:22 (Take time to memorize if you haven’t already)

But be doers of the word. And not hearers only, deceiving yourself.