Boat Rocker

Have you ever been on a canoe or row boat with someone and they keep moving around and you’re sure the boat is going to tip over? You tell them “quit rocking the boat!” Well, if you’re hanging out with Jesus He really is about rocking your boat. He is not content with status quo and you shouldn’t be either. He has really been talking to me lately about who I allow to represent me. Who am I associated with? Do I have the same beliefs and convictions as those I stand with? Kinda like the birds of a feather thing. Are we “saying” the same things or are we keeping quiet when we know something is wrong. How often do we go along with people and say “I don’t want to rock the boat?” We don’t want to make waves or stir up trouble. Where did we get this teaching from? Certainly not from God. He never had a hard time setting people straight. When the Israelites were traveling to the Promise Land the Lord gave them some pretty direct instructions.
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanits, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Dot not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
God wasn’t worrying about hurting anyone’s feelings. He knew if His children hung out with the wrong people eventually they would pull them away from Him.
Now I have never had to wipe out an entire nation, although I have wanted to wipe out my teens in the past but that’s another story.
Years ago the Lord sent me to see a Pastor and I was suppose to tell him that he needed to be careful, that there was something in his life that was going to hurt his ministry and I was pretty sure the Lord told me it was pride. I thought this Pastor was going to be happy I gave him this important message. As you can imagine he was not. I was fired as a Sunday school teacher soon after that. I had rocked his boat. Looking back at that situation, in light of what the Lord is teaching me today, I actually appreciate what that pastor did. He decided he didn’t want me representing him and the truth is I didn’t want to represent him. Without going into the gory details I found out years later he was no longer in the ministry.
Jesus also was not apologetic when he was telling the disciples where to stand. He told them if people didn’t like what they had to say just shake the dust off your feet and move on. In other words they don’t represent you and you don’t represent them. Matthew 10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.
It’s not always easy doing or saying the right thing but the Lord is all about being obedient. In all your relationships both personal and business make sure you know where others stand so you know they represent what God stands for. If not maybe you need to rock the boat and let it tip, then the people remaining in it with you are the ones you’re supposed to be floating with in the first place.



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