Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. … A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened.

The Gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 16 through 19. New International Version

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VK: Hi! Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K and today we are continuing a series we call “A Miraculous Christ.” This is a special series for us because we are featuring Jay Ammerman. Jay has an amazing and inspirational story that everyone should hear. Jay was an Army combat medic and endured three deployments with front line infantry in Iraq. After his last deployment Jay came home but unfortunately he also returned from combat with an addiction to opiate pain killers. But our God is a God of healing and deliverance and God completely delivered Jay from that addiction over one Easter weekend. That delivery began a journey that led Jay to ultimately enter the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary from which he will shortly graduate. Jay’s life road has included its share of bends and curves, but Jesus has been with him for all of them. Jay’s faith in Christ has grown so steadily that he has now been called by the Lord to full time service. So let’s welcome Jay Ammerman, the owner of Black Thumb Services to Anchored by Truth. Jay, your story is remarkable. But one thing comes through for anyone who talks to you is your passion for Jesus and the Gospel. That’s why when we met you we thought so many people needed to hear your story and hear about your desire to serve the Lord in whatever way He calls. When you told us that you would really like to help people think more deeply about Christ we thought a natural place to start was with Christ’s earthly ministry. So, it seemed like a good idea to get your episodes started by playing one of our Life Lessons with a Laugh on the miracles of Christ. So, let’s listen to one of those as we begin today. And as we heard in our opening scripture this Life Lesson deals with the miracle of Jesus walking on the water.

 Life Lessons with a Laugh - Miracles of Jesus 4- Pond Walking

VK: Well, Jay obviously our founder, RD Fierro, cannot walk on water – nor can anyone else today. So, when Jesus did walk on the water in the midst of a storm it was further confirmation of His divinity. What other lessons do you want us to learn from this miracle?

Jay: Comments about the miracle of Peter, the boat, and Jesus -

:40 VK: I like that. This is a story about Peter, a boat, and Jesus – P, B, and J. I think that helps us get a good framework to organize our thoughts. But you say that to really have a good grasp on this miracle we also need to understand the background of the story. What do we need to know about the background of the miracle?

Jay: Comments about the background of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water -

2:30 VK: Wow. That’s a really powerful observation. When we think about Jesus walking on the water or performing any of His miracles we are tempted to forget that Jesus wasn’t just fully divine. Jesus was also fully human. So, when His close family member, John the Baptist, died he would have experienced grief just as any of us would. That’s one of the reason we can turn to Jesus in times of our own needs. He knows what it means to lose someone close. But, as you said, Jesus set aside His own grief because His great love for others was even greater than His concerns for himself. That’s an amazing thought to get us started. So, that’s the background of our PB & J story. Where do we go next?

Jay: Comments about PB & J -

3:20 VK: So, the first time a storm arose and the disciples were in a boat they didn’t do so well in terms of exhibiting faith, did they? Now we’re going to move on the 2nd time. But you say there are some things we need to know about the boat and where it was to be able to properly understand what’s going on.

Jay: Comments about the disciples confusion in the boat -

4:45 VK: So when the disciples saw the storm arise and Jesus wasn’t with them they would have had some reason for concern. And that concern would have been legitimate because several of the disciples had a lot of familiarity with the Sea of Galilee. They were fishermen and they had spent a lot of time out on this particular body of water. They knew it very well. And the Bible’s account says that they were a long way from land. And they had left Jesus on land. So, there’s no way they ever could have expected to get help from Jesus was there?

Jay: Comments about geography of the Sea of Galilee and background of the miracle -

10:35 VK: You know that some of those details put this story of the miracle in a whole different light. I think sometimes when we read the account we forget that this was a situation that would have been scary for anyone. They were on a large, deep lake in the middle of the night and a storm is raging. And they are tired. They’ve been fighting this storm for hours. I think a lot of people can identify with the state of the disciples at that moment. There are many among us who have been fighting storms in the dark for a long time. But that’s why it’s so important for us to understand these details, isn’t it. So we can learn lessons from the boat that we can apply to our own lives.

Jay: Comments about Jesus having sent the disciples into the storm and lessons from Peter’s experience -

13:38 VK: All that is both scary and comforting but it’s something we need to think about. If Jesus sends us out on a mission the storm may come but Jesus is greater than the storm. But as you said we must always be ready to call out to Jesus in the storm. A lot of us try to do what we know Jesus wants us to do using our own strength. But our strength will fail. We can only make it through the storms when we reach out to Jesus. What lessons can we draw from the fact that when the disciples couldn’t make it to Jesus, Jesus made it to them.

13:40 Jay: Comments about Jesus not leaving us or forsaking us -

15:00 VK: Well, Jesus reached out to Peter when Peter started going under the water, but as you noted Jesus did not put Peter into boat. What should we learn from that aspect of this miracle?

Jay: Comments about people needing to be in the boat -

15:33 VK: Well, let’s move on to the “J” part of the PB & J. What do we learn about Jesus from this miracle?

Jay: Comments about what we learn about Jesus -

16:40 VK: And before we close for today what are the big ideas that you want everyone to remember about Jesus walking on the water?

Jay: Jesus is Lord and we are not and we are not in the boat alone -

end VK: Well, perhaps one more thing we should note before we close for today is that we have a Savior who is able to save people even when we are facing the storms of life. Jesus will not fail us but we must learn to call out to him and continue to keep our eyes on Him even when the waters get rough. And we have to understand that we are all going to fail from time to time but Jesus does not abandon us when we fail. He just asks us to reach out to him and let him help us get back into the boat. This miracle is another illustration of why we all need to stay connected with our faith through daily prayer and Bible study? We’d really like to thank Jay Ammerman for being our guest on Anchored by Truth today. We can all still learn lessons from the miracles that Jesus performed even though they took place 2,000 years ago. As we’ve said before Jay’s life after his conversion is a great illustration of how Jesus continues to redeem destinies in our day and time. The Bible has been instrumental in changing Jay’s destiny and it can be instrumental in changing your destiny and the destinies of your friends. Today for our closing prayer, let’s listen to a prayer of corporate confession. We should all spend some time every day in prayer seeking forgiveness for our sins and those of our neighbors and community.

---- PRAYER OF CORPORATE CONFESSION (MARCUS)

VK: We hope you’ll be with us in the future when we’ll continue our discussion with Jay. And we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quote from the New International Version)