Brown's Daily Word 3-7-08

Good morning,
It is a beautiful morning of one of the "ten best days". We already have a crocus in full bloom here at the parsonage. One of my friends sent a note saying that he had sighted a robin. Spring is on the way!
We have heard from Sunita. She sent an e-mail from Uganda, saying that she is doing well. Keep praying for her.
In her book, "Holding On to Hope", Nancy Guthrie tells the story about how she and her husband gave birth to a baby daughter, only to find out that the baby had a metabolic disorder called Zellweger Sydrome, which keeps the child’s body from being able to get rid of toxins. It’s a condition for which there is no treatment and no cure, and there are no survivors. Most children with the condition don’t survive much more than six months. That was the case with Nancy and David’s little girl, Hope, who was born in November and died the following June. Compounding the pain, a couple of years later Nancy and David were expecting another child, a little boy, also was born with Zellweger Syndrome, so they walked through the same experience all over again.
Nancy began writing during this time. She struggled with why her family was experiencing this storm in their lives. She wrote, “The world tells us to run from suffering, to avoid it all costs, to cry out to heaven to take it away. Few of us would choose to suffer. Yet when we know that God has allowed suffering into our lives for a purpose, we can embrace it instead of running from it, and we can seek God in the midst of our suffering.”
She went on to say, “The Cross is the ultimate example of God’s ability to work all things together for good – even the most wicked deed darkness ever conceived. Surely if God would require such intense suffering of his own Son who he loved to accomplish a holy purpose, he has a purpose for your pain and for my pain. And perhaps part of that purpose is to learn obedience from what we suffer.
“Why has God allowed so much suffering in your life? Ultimately, the purpose is not to disfigure you for life but to mold you into a person who thinks and acts and looks like Christ.”
How do you respond to storms with that kind of assurance? It is only possible when you know the One who ultimately has authority over the storm. Jesus awoke to find a boatload of terrified disciples expecting to die. What did Jesus do? Luke records that He rebuked the storm – it’s the same word the gospels use elsewhere to describe what Jesus said as He commanded demons to leave a person. Jesus commanded the storm to cease, and suddenly there was calm.
There’s an interesting connection here, for Luke tells us that as soon as the boat reached land, Jesus and the disciples encountered a demon-possessed man living among the tombs, and Jesus also commanded the demons to depart from him. What’s going on here? As the disciples responded when the storm stopped, saying, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (8:25)
Who is this? This is the Lord. This is the One who created the universe with a word. This is the One who sustains the created order by the power of His word. This is the One who has authority over the physical and the spiritual order – the One who commands both storm and demon, and they must obey. He is the One who is with us in our storms. He is the One who enables us to face even tragedy and suffering with the assurance that He is with us and He will carry us through, no matter what.
For the same reason the apostle Paul, even as he was facing his own execution, could write, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) We do not have to be afraid, because He is with us.
On March 1, 1991, Jean and Ken Chaney took a trip to Fresno, California. On the way, they were driving on a non-maintained road in the Sierra National Forest when their car skidded into a snow bank. This devoted, elderly couple died in their car waiting for a rescuer who never came. Their bodies were found May 1st – two months later. When the road crew found their car and their bodies, they also found their diary. The entry on March 18th describes Ken’s death. “Dad went to the Lord at 7:30 this evening, March 18. It was so peaceful I didn’t even know he left. The last thing I heard him say was ‘Thank the Lord.’ I think I’ll be with him soon. Bye. I love you.”
How can a person reach that stage so that even death loses its terror and becomes a homecoming? It is because Ken and Jean knew the One who controls the storm. As a result, they could soar like eagles all the way home.
If you were following news reports of the Iraq war early a few years ago, you will remember David Bloom, a prominent international reporter for NBC News. Bloom chose to go to Iraq to be deployed with the Third Infantry Division. He became well-known for his reports from a mocked-up personnel carrier that came to be known as the “Bloom-mobile.” One morning, the 39-year-old reporter had been cramped up in his vehicle for several hours. As he finally stopped, he climbed out of the vehicle and collapsed. Within moments he was dead from a pulmonary embolism.
What many Americans didn’t know until that time was that two years earlier, David Bloom had given his heart to Christ while reading Chuck Colson’s book, "Born Again". He had become part of a weekly Bible study, and even in Iraq was continuing to share devotional materials via e-mail. A week later, hundreds of prominent and influential leaders from media and government participated in a memorial service for David at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Most who had come to pay their respects had not been aware of David’s faith in Christ. During the memorial service, the audience heard one after another of the e-mails David had sent to his wife, Melanie, describing his growing faith in Jesus Christ. The last e-mail had been received just hours before David’s death. It was read to the crowd and later published in a national magazine. It contained this testimony: “You can’t begin to fathom, cannot begin to even glimpse the enormity of the changes I have and am continuing to undergo. God takes you to the depths of your being, until you’re at rock bottom, and then, if you turn to Him with utter and blind faith and resolve in your heart and mind to walk only with Him and towards Him, (He) picks you up with your bootstraps and leads you home.”
Because of David’s faithfulness, his death became a powerful testimony to a lost world. And because of David’s trust in the One who controls the storm, he could soar like an eagle all the way home.
What do you do when you find yourself in a storm? First, make sure you are in the right place. There are some places you don’t want to be during a hurricane, aren’t there? When that kind of storm is on the way, you want to get to a safe place. Yet, not all storms arrive with winds and waves. Some storms hit us where we work, in our family, or in our health. When life’s storms hit, God’s family is a safe place to be. This is where God has called us to help one another, share with one another, encourage and support one another when those storms hit. Be in the right place.
What else do you do when you find yourself in a storm? You must make sure you have the right equipment. Whenever a hurricane is on the way, the stores are jammed with people buying bread and milk, batteries, plywood, and on and on. When a storm is coming, you need the right stuff on hand. When you are facing a storm in your life, there is no more important equipment than having the Word of God, the Bible. Chuck Swindoll told the story of William Cowper, who went through a terrible crisis in his life and tried to commit suicide. He first tried poison, but it didn’t kill him. The next day he tried to fall onto a sharp knife but the blade broke! He later tried to hang himself, but was found and taken down unconscious but still alive. At that point he picked up a Bible, began to read the book of Romans, and gave his life to Jesus Christ. As Swindoll puts it, “The God of the storms had pursued him unto the end and won his heart.” Years later, Cowper sat down and wrote these familiar words: “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.”
God’s Word will point you to God’s truth in the midst of the storm. What else do you do when you find yourself in a storm? Not only do you want to be in the right place and have the right equipment, you also want to make sure you have the right help. Whatever the storm, there is no greater help to have than the One who has authority over every storm. Whatever storm you may be facing, know that God will be with you. That is why the Psalmist could say, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
No matter what the storm may be – a hurricane or a terrible disease, a job loss or a family crisis, or something altogether different – we have confidence in the knowledge that we know the One who controls the storm. Whether he calms the storm or simply carries us through it, He will not leave us alone.
If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, then you are part of God’s family. Your Father is the One who controls the storm, so you don’t have to be afraid any more. You can face the storms with confidence, knowing that when the time comes, He will help you soar like an eagle all the way home.
Jesus is the Christ in every crisis.
Brown

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We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.
... Dwight Lyman Moody