Lord of the Storm

Lord of the Storm

SCRIPTURE:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35-41

OBSERVATION:

After a long session of teaching, the Lord tells his disciples to go over to the other side of the Lake of Galilee, leaving the crowd behind. Exhausted after His long discourse, the Lord quickly falls asleep. Although the trip across by boat would have taken only about less than 2 hours, the Lake was quickly beset by a furious storm. Due to the surrounding topography, torrents of wind rushing down the mountain passes occasionally would stir up a furious storm with raging waves at very short notice, threatening the small boats on the lake. With waves swamping the boat, the disciples were in great fear for their lives, and quickly woke Jesus and cried to Him for help. “Teacher, don’t you care that we are drowning?” (Mark 4:38) “Lord, save us, we are perishing.” (Matthew 8:25)  

But the Lord simply stood up and rebuked the wind and the waves “Quiet! Be still!”, or more literally “Shut up! Be muzzled!” as if asking a dog to be quiet. Turning to His disciples, the Lord then chastised them for being afraid and faithless. The disciples were absolutely terrified, asking each other “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him?”

APPLICATION:

Even the wind and the waves obeyed Him!  Through this incident, the Lord showed His disciples His absolute divinity, His completely authority not only over demons and diseases but also over nature itself. He showed them beyond all doubt that He is truly God. Just as in the time of Moses when God showed His awesome power over nature in the plagues that befell Egypt, He now showed His awesome power over nature through His Son Jesus Christ.

For us today, the storms are a symbol of great troubles that may fall upon our lives at various intervals. These storms may come in the form of economic troubles or natural disaster, family problems or sickness and disease. Whatever the storm, whatever the troubles, the Lord calls us to not be afraid, but to have faith in Him, to trust in Him and believe that He will deliver us. No matter what happens, God is in control, and we must hold on to that, and believe in Him who called us to be His own.

It is interesting that Mark also records that there were other boats on the lake of Galilee. The people in those boats were also saved at the same time when Jesus saved His disciples. There is a lesson here for us that when we are following the Lord and seeing His deliverance and reality in our lives, there will be others in our vicinity who will be impacted and may even be saved. Therefore it is so important for us to be on the watch for others whom we come across as we live life so that we may also point them towards the Lord who saves us!

PRAYER:

We worship You and bless You and praise You, precious Lord Jesus, Lord even of the storm. May we fix our eyes on You and put our full trust in You no matter what storms life may bring us. Deliver us and those around us we pray, even as we continue to follow You, our precious Lord and Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.

FAITH TOWARDS GOD

FOUNDATION SERIES ON THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST (III)

FAITH TOWARDS GOD

SCRIPTURE:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

… If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13

Do you want to be shown that faith without actions is useless? James 2:20

OBSERVATION:

In the first doctrine of repentance, we realize that we need to turn to God, that we are lost in our old way of life, destined for death and destruction. Then, once we turn to God, God in His mercy and love, shows us that there is a way that we can be saved. He has provided us a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by putting our faith and trust in Him, we receive eternal life. When we hear His Word, and believe, we come into His precious salvation.

This gift of eternal life is for everyone and anyone who will believe, regardless of race, gender, or social class. In the parable of the wedding banquet, the Lord asked His servants to invite everyone without distinction so that His house would be full!  

What does it mean to put our faith in Jesus? It is to believe in what He said, to follow after Him as the Way of eternal life!

Now, there is a common teaching prevalent in many churches today that says that faith is a one time event and that once a person says the “sinner’s prayer” to ask Jesus into his life, he is forever saved. However, in the original Greek Bible, there is a present continuous tense in the Scriptures related to faith. In John 3:16, it should more correctly read “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever continues to believe in Him should not perish but go on having eternal life!” Likewise, in Romans 10, it should be read “with the heart one continues to believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession continues to be made unto salvation”.

Salvation is a process, and faith must continue until the end until salvation is complete. There were those who stopped this process, like Demas who turned back to the world, and in the last day, Christ Himself warned that the love of many would grow cold. We need to press on to the end, continuing to put our entire trust in Jesus for salvation, and as He promised, those who overcome and stands firm to the end will be saved. The faith that He calls us to is a faith so sure and steadfast on Him, that not even death or suffering can move us from trusting in Him as the way of salvation.

Also, true faith is also always accompanied by actions. As James writes, faith without actions is dead. When Abraham was called by God to leave Ur of the Chaldees, he showed his faith and trust in God by moving out. Likewise, Rahab showed her faith in the God of Israel by risking her life to help the spies sent out by Joshua. If we truly have faith in Jesus as the way of Salvation, our lives will show it. We will be interested in the Word. We will take His teachings and warnings seriously. We will want to know Him personally as Savior and Lord, and to live our lives in a way that pleases Him.

APPLICATION:

Faith is not just believing that there is a God, or even that Jesus is God. It is believing that what Jesus said is true, and that by trusting in Him to forgive our sins, by following Him as the Way to eternal life, we will remain in His salvation. Faith is not just a feeling, it is a conviction, a decision to put our complete trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Our faith may be small at first, like a mustard seed, but let us start acting out on that little faith, starting to live life following Jesus, believing that He will send His Holy Spirit to help us and guide us. Let us start reading the Bible, believing that God will speak to us. Let us start talking to others, telling them that Jesus is our Savior and Lord personally and how He has blessed us.

Imagine we had a very wealthy great granduncle who promised us an inheritance of 10 million dollars in 10 years time. If we believed this would happen, how would we live life today? Wouldn’t we have a deep joy day by day knowing something great was happening to us soon? Wouldn’t we hold precious our relationship with that great granduncle? In the same way, if we believed in the great wonder and beauty of our future in Heaven, wouldn’t we have that same joy in our hearts? Wouldn’t we hold precious our relationship with our Lord through whom we have this future?

PRAYER:

We praise You and worship You, precious Heavenly Father, marvelous Lord Jesus. You made the way that we could be saved. You made everything possible so that we might have such a great future in Heaven with You! Help us, Lord, empower us, let us always have a faith that is strong and real in You. Increase our faith in You O Lord, that Your reality will become stronger and stronger in our lives. Help us always cling on to You and put our whole trust in You. Help us always look to You as our Great Savior. We love You and praise You and honor You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

The fruitless fig tree

The fruitless fig tree

Scripture:

Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:18-22

Observation:

“May you never bear fruit again!” the Lord had said to the fig tree. And to the disciples’ great surprise, it immediately withered, never to bear fruit again. The Lord had been hungry and had gone to the tree hoping to find fruit, but there was none. In Proverbs, it is written how the tongue has the power of life and death, and even proclamation to living things such as a tree has great effect indeed. This calls us to bring to our attention the words that we use regarding ourselves and regarding our family members. Do we speak blessings or curses to them? Do we speak blessings or curses on ourselves? Carelessly, many people use flippant remarks like “I’m dead” or “that will be the death of me”. They do not realize the power of their words over their own lives. Rather than use such careless words, speak blessing, life, health, healing in Jesus name to our own bodies, to our loved ones, even the plants in our garden, or our pets.

Regarding the fruitlessness of the fig tree, there is also an inherent warning to us. Are we bearing fruit for the Lord? John the Baptist warned that the axe is at the tree and every unfruitful tree will be cut off! He was not talking concerning physical trees but human beings and the fruit or lack thereof that they produced for God. How do we know whether we are bearing fruit? Basically, we should ask ourselves if we are a blessing to those around us or not? A fruitful tree gives life and blessing to those that come across it.

Seeing his disciples’ amazement, the Lord takes the opportunity to remind them of the importance of faith. “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done.” From the withering of the fig tree, the Lord now gives His disciples the picture of a mountain being thrown into the sea at His command.” The mountain is basically the largest physical thing we can imagine, and even that is nothing to a person of faith. How do we get this faith? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God! It is in inculcating that close personal walk with God that our faith grows and His Word comes alive to us.

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer”. What is to believe? It is to believe that God is for us, that He hears us, even that He is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. How do we strengthen that belief in God. Again, it comes from that personal relationship inculcated preciously with the Lord! If we are close to the Lord and we pray as Jesus taught us, we find that our will is moulded to seek His will, and our desires and emotions are brought in sync with that of the Lord’s. Again, we are reminded of the all-importance of prayer, the seedbed from which are faith really grows.

Application:-

Remember to be conscious of the words we speak, whether they are blessing or cursing ourselves, our loved ones, and those around us. Remember that the tongue has the power of life and death.

Meditate on ourselves using the picture of a fruit tree. Are we bearing much fruit for the Lord, or are we fruitless like the barren fig tree? Pray to the Lord that He might make us fruitful even as we yield our hearts and hands to Him.

Resolve to spend more time in prayer and listening for God’s voice in quietness. Therein is the place where our faith will grow stronger and we will learn to truly believe. Then only will we begin to see ourselves saying prayers that move mountains and bring momentous change in the lives of others.

Prayer:-

We thank You, Father God, for the power of Your Word that You have given us. We thank You Lord that You are trustworthy and righteous and watch over Your Word to make sure it comes to pass. Let our trust be founded strong and secure on Your Word O Lord, and let us too choose to speak words of life and strength and blessing in our daily lives.

We pray O Lord that You bless our hands with fruitfulness. Let the work that we do in You prosper and be blessed 30 times, 60 times, a 100 times. Forgive our sins, but let us enter times of refreshing in You, we pray.

Forgive us for the times we have neglected to fellowship with You, even in the quietness of our hearts. Draw us to You, O Lord. Reveal more of Yourself to us day by day, hour by hour. Let our faith grow and expand and strengthen even as we trust in You, O Lord. May Your name be blessed forever O Lord. In Jesus name, 

Amen.