Following Jesus

Written by Joshua Harmon

To start off day 10, we went to Besthsaida. In Hebrew, “beth” means house, and “saida” means fishing/fisherman, which translates Bethsaida to “house of fishermen.” This is where Jesus called five of His disciples, Peter, James, John, Andrew, and Phillip. These were 5 ordinary guys, from an ordinary place. Yet Jesus chose them to follow Him. (ps, yesterday’s blog by Ali Hukill expands on that idea!)

We then headed north to Caesarea-philippi. This place was the epitome of secular culture. It was the pagan worship center where the god Pan was worshipped. He was the god of lust, drinking, partying and was to be half man-half goat. Guess who went to this place that seemed so awful? You guessed it: Jesus! He walked 25 miles with His disciples to bring light to this place filled with darkness. In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus addresses Peter, claiming that his name means ‘rock’ and upon that rock His church will be built. Here, Jesus isn’t talking a physical/tangible building, but rather building up His people and the Word of God, expanding His mighty Kingdom. Ben challenged us here to think about and talk about places that we need to go into. Where is the Caesarea-philippi in your life? Where do you need to go in intentionally, attacking the darkness and pushing your comfort zone? This may be the classroom, or workplace, at home, your close friends, or family. God has given us the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 16:19) to GO and be light.

Later after lunch we went to a quiet place along the Sea of Galilee, between Bethsaida and Capernaum. Here we talked about 3 parables from Luke 15. I highly recommend going to check those out! Following this, we arrived at Magdala where the Migdal Synagogue is, likely to have been the synagogue that Mary Magdalene attended and that Jesus may have visited.

We finished up the day with a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee!! Here we heard the story of Jesus walking on water. As a little side note, people of the ancient world were afraid of the water, they did not know how to swim. Yet in Matthew 14:28-29, Peter asks Jesus to tell him to walk on water. Peter is asking to do the impossible. Jesus says ‘yes’ to Peter and he begins to walk on water. The waves and wind pick up and Peter begins to doubt his own abilities and begins to sink. Jesus then reaches out and saves Peter. The thing is, why are we doubting ourselves if we’re following Jesus who can walk on water?! Peter only got out of the boat because he saw Jesus, his Rabbi/teacher/mentor, walking on water. If we’re following Jesus, are we also doing the things that seem impossible? Are we stepping out of the boat with a strong faith that our Jesus will sustain and protect us?

I hope these words and questions challenge and encourage as they did for me today.

- Josh Harmon

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