As I write I am filled with gratitude to the Lord who is the Resurrection and Life, for the life and witness of Juna, who was part of our lives for the last 25 years. She entered into the arms of Jesus in her sleep, this past weekend at the age of 90. She was a sweet servant of Jesus who loved Him, loved His church, and loved his people. She was a great prayer warrior. She prayed fervently until something happened . She never missed worship on Sundays. She never missed prayer meetings. She never forgot to tithe. She exuded the pure joy of loving the Lord and being loved by Him. We praise the Lord for Juna, who made it easier to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is summer time. We often watch the Weather Channel for breaking news. We hear about tornados, hurricanes, thunder storms, typhoons, and floods.
One day, Jesus was out in a boat
on the Sea of Galilee. We read about this miracle in Mark 4. Jesus was out there with his closest friends, Peter, James
and John, plus the other disciples. The boat was large enough to handle all of
them. His three friends were experienced fishermen who knew the mood of the
water, its ugliness, and its surliness. According to the Biblical story they
were out there with several other boats. Jesus had become famous and so when he
got into a boat and sailed out into the Sea of Galilee, everybody got into their
boats and followed him, just as crowds today follow famous people.
They were all out there in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when suddenly, like a tornado in the Midwest of America, along came a wind squall from the east side of the lake, down through the crevasses, down through the gullies. The waves on the lake can be suddenly five to six feet tall. A vicious storm hit and the waves started to get really big and the waves started coming over the side of the boat. Even these experienced fishermen knew it was time to panic.
Rembrandt captured the scene on
canvas. Our Lord Jesus, who had a great sense of humor, was sleeping in the stern of the boat. A pillow was under
his head and he was sleeping soundly while the muscular fishermen were fighting for
their lives. The disciples were afraid. As
experienced fishermen they weren’t easily frightened by storms but this storm
was nasty enough to make them afraid. They grabbed Jesus’ shirt and shouted,
“Jesus, wake up.” They spoke that classic line from Biblical literature when
they said, “Don’t you care? Don’t you care that we are perishing in this
storm?” That question, "Don't you care that
we are perishing in the storm?" has echoed down through the centuries.
Jesus woke up and said to the storm, “Be still,” as if he were casting out a demon. When Jesus cast out demons from people, he had said, “Be quiet. Be still,” and Jesus quieted the storm inside of people. But now Jesus was quieting the storm itself on the lake. Suddenly, it was very calm and Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, “Why are you so afraid? Why are you so afraid of the storms of life? Don’t you have faith? Don’t you trust that I am with you during the storms of life? Where is your faith?”
This same question has echoed down through the centuries, "Why do you have so little faith in the midst of the storms of life?" The disciples became quiet because they had not seen anything like this before. That somebody who controlled the winds and the waves must be, they believed, the Son of God.
Thus ends a great story, one of those great eyewitness stories. Simon Peter must have been the one to have told this personal story. Simon Peter knew this story because he was there, on the scene, on the lake, in the squall. He knew this story well.
This miracuolous event is an invitation for us to trust our Lord. To trust in Him, not merely when life is good, in the the good times when we have plenty of health, cash and family around. But to trust in Him, in the midst of the storms of life. The disciples did not realize that the power and presence of the Lord was with them during their storm. We are invited to trust God, especially during our own personal storms of life.
Life as we know it is filled with storms. In the midst of all the storms of life, when the powers of Satan are all around us, our intuitive instinct is to be afraid. It is to have a panic attack. It is to ask God, “Don’t you care?” Into those situations, Jesus asks a profound question, “Why are you afraid?” “Why aren’t you trusting?” “Why are you so afraid of the storms of life?”
I was reading about Dr.
Alvin Rogness, who was the president of Luther Seminary in St. Paul Dr. Rogness
wrote several books but one of his most famous devotional books is entitled, HE
WAS ONLY TWENTY FOUR. When his son, Paul, who was only twenty four, the Oxford
scholar, his oldest boy, came back from England and got off the bus in
Minneapolis, he was hit by a car and killed instantly. Dr. Rogness wrote this
devotional called, HE WAS ONLY TWENTY FOUR. He wrote, “Life doesn’t begin when
you are old. My son was only twenty four and he was living life to the fullest.”
In that book, Dr. Rogness also had a chapter called STORM CENTERS. He wrotethe following words, “You and I are built for storms. We are not built for cozy, safe little harbors. The Lord is with us. With him, we have the kind of craft that can weather any storm. In fact, we should head out for the storms. One of the great perils that faces the church in our day is that we will steer people out of the storm centers. We are not to anchor our lives in some sheltered cove and let the storm tossed world go by. The Lord’s call is not like that. Not to an easier task but a greater cause. Not to peace but to battle. Not to a cozy harbor but to the sea of storms. We are not built for safe harbors. We are built for storms.”
Dr. Rogness' words are true: We are built for storms.Amen.
In Jesus our Lord,
Pastor Brown N.
https://youtu.be/77SuukJEJ2Q
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