Good Morning,
Happy First day of October. Praise the Lord for the Autumn season. It is absolutely brilliant and beautiful beyond belief here in New York. Wish you were here.
Jesus makes all things beautiful. He makes all seasons beautiful and purposeful. He makes our lives beautiful and purposeful and worth living. In a short story entitled, "Enough is Enough" the central figure is a person who accepts everything that happens as manifestations of divine power. He said, "It is not for me to question the workings of divine providence." All his life, misfortune had been his. Yet never once did he complain. He got married and his wife ran away with the hired man. His daughter was deceived by a villain. His son was lynched. A fire burned down his barn. A cyclone blew away his home. A hail storm destroyed his crops, and the banker foreclosed on his mortgage, taking his farm. Yet, at each stroke of misfortune, he knelt and gave thanks to God Almighty for his unchangeable mercy. After a time, penniless but still submissive to God, he landed in the county poorhouse. One day the overseer sent him out to plow a potato field. A thunderstorm was passing over, when without warning a bolt of lightning descended from the sky. It melted the plowshare, stripped most of his clothing from him, singed off his beard, branded his naked back with the initials of a neighboring cattleman, and hurled him through a barbed wire fence. When he recovered consciousness, he got up slowly on his knees, clasped his hands, raised his eye toward heaven and, then, for the first time in his life, asserted himself and said, "Lord, this is getting plumb ridiculous."
Have you been in the place of this man? Haven’t we all, at one time or another, felt that we had more than our fair share? Every one of us has our sandcastles blown away. Every once in awhile we back up and say, "Why am I being hit with this storm of life?" It is true that sometimes these storms are caused by the devil, sometimes by other people, but sometimes by ourselves. Sometimes they are allowed by the Lord. They come from different sources, but they do have a purpose in our life. In Matthew 14 we read the story of the disciples being out in their boat on the water while Jesus came to them in the midst of the storm. Matthew 14, beginning with verse 22, "Right away Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake, but he stayed until he had sent the crowds away. Then he went up on a mountain where he could be alone and pray. Later that evening he was still there. By this time the boat was a long way from the shore. It was going against the wind and was being tossed around by the waves. A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples and when they saw him, they thought he was a ghost and they were terrified and started screaming. At once Jesus said to them, ’Don’t worry, I am Jesus. Don’t be afraid.’ Peter replied, `Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.’ ’Come on,’ Jesus said. "Peter then got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward him. But when Peter saw how strong the wind was, he was afraid and started sinking. `Lord, save me!,’ he shouted. And right away Jesus reached out his hand. He helped Peter up and said, ’You surely don’t have much faith. Why do you doubt?’ When Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind died down. The men in the boat worshiped Jesus and said, ’You really are the Son of God.’" Jesus said in Matthew 5, "He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And He sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong." So you can see storms, problems, difficulties, and trials come to all of us. There are no exclusions and no exemptions from trouble. Just because you are a believer, does not mean that you will be excluded from the storms of life. It is true that some storms come because we are out of God’s will. An example of that, of course, is Jonah, who deliberately disobeyed God’s will. God sent a great wind to rock the boat in which he was trying to hide from God. Another perfect example is in Acts 5, as Ananias and Sapphira deliberately lied to the church concerning their giving and, as a result, they lost their lives. Perhaps the storm you are encountering could be caused by personal disobedience. Some storms, however, come because we are in God’s will. Just because you are encountering a storm in your life does not mean necessarily that you are out of the will of God or willfully disobeying him. In fact, if you look at Matthew 14:22, it says, "Right away, Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and start back across the lake." The NAS translation said, "He prevailed upon his disciples to get into the boat." In other words, here these guys are out in the middle of a lake in the midst of a terrible storm. Since they are fishermen and are still afraid, you know it had to be a bad storm. They were out in the midst of the storm, but Jesus is the one who put them in the boat. He is the one who told them to go out into the middle of the lake. Though they were right in the middle of God’s will, they were still experiencing the storm of their lives.
I know many wonderful people who really do love God, who really do obey Him, who because of life’s uncertainties and the sin of the earth, are still dealt a tough blow. Thousands of wonderful Christians in Orissa, India find themselves daily in a fiery furnace of trials. They are facing some of worst storms of their lives even at this very moment. When we experience a difficult time such as that, we have to have our feet on the ground and understand that storms happen to people in the will of God as well as outside of his will. Jesus came to this world to teach us about God and He is now in heaven talking to God about us. The Hebrew writer said that Jesus intercedes for us in our time of need. Literally, in the Greek, this means, "In the nick of time." In other words, as we are here on earth encountering storms in our life, our Lord is at the right hand of the Father, interceding, praying for us. He comes to us and He ministers to us in the very nick of time. During the storms of life, He’s not an aloof God, but He enters into our storm. Look at verse 25, "A little while before morning, Jesus came walking on the water toward his disciples." He comes to us at the darkest hour "...a little before morning..." We know that the darkest hour of the night is right before the dawn, a little while right before the morning. We used to sing a hymn, "Just When I Need Him, Jesus Is Near. Just when I falter, just when I fear. Ready to help me, ready to cheer. Just when I need Him most." He walks into the storms of our life just at our darkest hour, the time when we are the most needy. He comes to us victorious over our greatest fears. In other words, he comes walking on the very thing that frightened the disciples. Do you see it? What are they worried about? They are worried about the waves. That little boat is being tossed back and forth. The disciples fear that they are going to drown. They are afraid that their boat will capsize. They look at those high waves coming over the sides of that boat and begin to bail out water as fast as they can. These guys are fishermen. They have been on the water all their life, yet they are quaking with fear. The waves are coming, and suddenly, Jesus comes to them, walking on the very thing that scares them, those high waves, the place where their greatest fears are resting. In His quiet, majestic way, as He’s walking on the water, Jesus is saying, "Guys, the thing that is the greatest storm in your life, I keep under my feet." If you become sick, He comes walking on your illness. If you are afraid of death, think about what Jesus did on Easter? He came walking on the waves of death, "Oh, death where is thy sting? Oh, grave where is thy victory?" Jesus says to us, "I am able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than you can ever ask or think. I can do that which gives you the greatest fear, the thing which causes you to tremble, the thing which causes you to falter. I will come walking on it. I will stand on the very thing that makes you afraid. I am the Victor. I am the one who reigns." Hallelujah.
He ministers to us in the storm. Look what happens in verse 26 and 27, "When they saw Him, they thought He was a ghost. They were terrified and started screaming. At once Jesus said to them, `I am Jesus. Do not be afraid.’" He ministers to us in spite of our misunderstandings. The disciples did not know what was happening to them. They looked out and thought they were seeing a ghost, and they were terrified. Now, Jesus walks in and says "Don’t worry." . Paul says in Romans 8, "For we know all things work together." Paul said that we know this. We know it because we know that God’s on the throne and God’s sovereign. We know that it’s going to be okay because of God. Paul does not say that we will understand everything every thing that happens to us. We cannot figure it all out. You see, our security is not in what we know in our mind. Our significance is not in what we know. Our security is in Who we know. So when we are in the midst of the storm, we can say, "I don’t understand it. I’m not even sure it’s fair. I don’t like it. But I know who’s sovereign over the storm." We can be just like Job, who was not a prosperity preacher. He had more sense than that. He said, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." "And when Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind died down and the men in the boat worshiped Jesus and they said, ’You really are the son of God.’" .
In Christ,
Brown
An Invitation:
Friends,
Union Center U.M. Church and First Presbyterian Church of Endicott are joining together to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Orissa, India. We will meet this Thursday, October 2, in the chapel at First Pres, from 12:15 to 1:15 pm. Come and go as you need, but let us come together before God on their behalf. The news each day continues to tell the story of brutal attacks and murder, the torching of homes and churches, Christians being coerced to denounce their faith and Christians fleeing from the area. Family and friends of the Naik and Tandi families are caught in the midst of the upheaval. Let us pray for peace, for safety, for the witness of courageous Christians, for healing of the land and people.
In Christ,
Jan and Tim Devine and Brown Naik
First Presbyterian Church
27 Grant Ave.
Endicott, NY 13760
748-1544
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