John Ortberg - If You Want to Walk on Water, Youve Got to Get Out of the Boat

Other Books by John Ortberg

Everybodys Normal Till You Get to Know Them

The Life Youve Always Wanted

Love Beyond Reason

Praise for If You Want to Walk on Water,
Youve Got to Get Out of the Boat

John Ortberg is profound without being heavy. The message is clear and absolutely basic: You get to live in Gods care and power when, through confidence in Jesus, you step out of the arrangements you have made to keep yourself safe. That is how to find the kingdom of God, as everyday reality. So find your boat and step out of it. And you will know first-hand the life of faith others only talk about.

D ALLAS W ILLARD , A UTHOR , T HE D IVINE C ONSPIRACY

With an engaging and compelling style, John Ortberg leads the reader on a great adventure. But its an adventure that can only happen when you say yes to making Jesus the focus of your life. Open the covers of this book and discover the incredible opportunities God has waiting for you.

B OB B UFORD, A UTHOR , H ALFTIME

I read If You Want to Walk on Water in one sitting. I didnt want to, but I made the mistake of starting. I was laughing before I finished the first page and hooked by the middle of chapter one. John Ortberg is one of my all-time favorite authors. His humor coupled with his honest and practical approach to Christian growth is so refreshing. If you want to walk on water, read this book, THEN get out of the boat and live!

K EN D AVIS , A UTHOR AND S PEAKER

This book is pure Ortberginsightful and profound, winsome and funny, motivating and challenging. John does through this book what he does for me as a friend: lovingly but persistently prods me to keep growing!

L EE S TROBEL , A UTHOR ,
T HE C ASE FOR C HRIST AND T HE C ASE FOR F AITH

To Sam Reeves and Max DePree,

who have taught me so much

about getting out of the boat

IF YOU WANT TO
WALK ON WATER,
YOUVE GOT TO

GET OUT

OF THE

BOAT

JOHN ORTBERG

If You Want to Walk on Water, Youve Got to Get Out of the Boat
ePub Format
Copyright 2001 by John Ortberg

This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product.

Visit www.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information.

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN 0-310-29606-4

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Citations in chapter 7 from Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, copyright 2000 by Parker Palmer, are reprinted by permission of Jossey-Bass, Inc., a subsidary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Jamie K. De Bruyn

Cover photography by Masterfile

Contents

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, It is a ghost! And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.

Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me! Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.

Matthew 14:2532

I want to invite you to go for a walk.

The Bible is, among other things, a list of unforgettable walks. The first one was taken by God himself, who, we are told, used to walk in the garden in the cool of the day. But as a general rule, God asked people to walk with him.

There was the hard walk that Abraham took with his son Isaac on the road to Moriah. There was the liberating walk Moses and the Israelites took through the path that was normally occupied by the Red Sea, and the frustrating walk that took them on the roundabout way of the desert for forty years. There was Joshuas triumphant walk around Jericho, the disciples illuminating walk to Emmaus, Pauls interrupted walk to Damascus. There was the walk so sad and holy that it received its own name: the walk from the Praetorium to Golgotha called the Via Dolorosa the way of great sorrow.

But perhaps the most unforgettable walk of all was taken by Peter the day he got out of a boat and walked on the water. It is unforgettable not so much because of where he was walking as what he was walking on and who he was walking with . I think that when Peter went treading on the waves he was experiencing walking at its finest.

In this book, let Peters walk stand as an invitation to everyone who, like him, wants to step out in faith, who wants to experience something more of the power and presence of God. Let water-walking be a picture of doing with Gods help what I could never do on my own. How does such a thing come about? There is a consistent pattern in Scripture of what happens in a life that God wants to use and improve:

There is always a call. God asks an ordinary person to engage in an act of extraordinary trust, that of getting out of the boat.

There is always fear. God has an inextinguishable habit of asking people to do things that are scary to them. It may be a fear of inadequacy (I am slow of speech and slow of tongue, Moses said.) It may be a fear of failure (The land we explored devours those who live in it, cried the spies sent out to the Promised Land). It may even be a fear of God (For I knew you were a hard man, seeking to reap where you did not sow, claimed the servant in Jesus parable). But one way or another, there will be fear.

There is always reassurance. God promises his presence (The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior! an angel assures Gideon who had certainly never been addressed by that title before). God also promises to give whatever gifts are needed to fulfill his assignment (I will help you to speak, and teach you what to say he tells a stuttering Moses).

There is always a decision. Sometimes, as with Moses and Gideon, people say yes to Gods call. Sometimes, as with the ten frightened spies or the rich young ruler who spoke with Jesus, they say no. But always people must decide.

There is always a changed life. Those who say yes to Gods call dont walk the walk perfectlynot by a long shot. But because they say yes to God, they learn and grow even from their failures. And they become part of his actions to redeem the world.

Those who say no are changed too. They become a little harder, a little more resistant to his calling, a little more likely to say no the next time. Whatever the decision, it always changes a lifeand it changes the world that little life touches.