“ CALMING THE WATERS“
By John Grant
Week Eight, 2020
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39
As our boat pulled away from Tiberius headed for Capernaum on the North end of the Sea of Galilee, it was a clear, calm and sunny way. Suddenly when we were in the middle of the sea, a tremendous storm suddenly hit. It was fierce. The boat rocked and I could only imaging what it would be like to be in a small fishing boat.
Recently, a man was cleaning our pool on a very windy day. The water was so blown on that he couldn’t see the bottom. Then, he pulled out a little vile and sprinkled a few drops on each end of the pool and suddenly it was calm. What a difference a few drops made.
The Bible tells us about storms, especially one on the Sea of Galilee one time when Jesus was aboard a small fishing boat. Everyone but Jesus was scared. The waves were breaking over the boat which was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion, but the disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” The Gospel of Mark (4:39) then states that: He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!”
Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
We all go through storms in our lives. Some are fierce and we feel like we are about to sink. We look for places to run and hide and avoid the storms, but they follow us everywhere we go. We can’t escape.
Our life can often feel so chaotic. Juggling a stressful job, a number of relationships, financial woes, and a host of other demands can sometimes be just too much. It’s no surprise that we find ourselves internally screaming and begging for a moment of peace.
The Bible offers us a host of verses about peace. A goal that any careful reader of scripture will recognize as one of God’s deepest desires for every one of us and for the world at large.
The message of these Bible verses is pretty simple: slow down, take a deep breath, open yourself to the presence of God, and He will reward you with the peace you seek. Spend some time with the Bible and it will point the way to the serenity we all need so desperately in these hectic days.
Only Jesus can calm the storms of your life.
SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
In a new study, researchers found that diets heavy in red meat and fatty foods could help spur a leading cause of vision loss in older Americans.
They found that people who ate more typical Western diets were three times more likely to develop an eye condition that damages central vision—late-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
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Ken Whitten’s Two Life Rules About Church Harmony
- Think the Best, Not the Worst
- Speak to the Person, Not About the Person
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What if all Christians disengaged from the faith because of persecution? Would the world be a better or worse place?
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If the trends measured by a recent survey continue, the nation itself is in its sunset years. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reveals that Millennials and Generation Z have significantly less belief in the importance of patriotism, faith in God, and conceiving children. And despite the fact that most Americans remain satisfied by the state of the nation’s economy and their personal finances, a majority of respondents are angry at the country’s political and financial classes, worried about the nation’s economic future, and what kind of country they are passing on to future generations.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
We do the visible so people will see the invisible. Ken Whitten
Wickedness and righteousness cannot both occupy the same place at the same time. Bob Sprinkle
Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. 2 Timothy 2:19
Life without faith is like an unsharpened pencil — no point. P.T. Barnum
Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance of God’s Word. Ken Weliever
We must never forget the past, lest it becomes the future. Jim Denison
Anybody can become angry, that is easy, but to be angry at the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and in the right way–that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy. Aristotle