Fw: peace in the storm

How often does it seem that you are "in a storm" in life...not just a weather based storm...but personal storms?  There are health storms, relationship storms, identity crises, employment/unemployment issues.  In fact, at any given time, each of us is probably going through one or more storms.  If we're not, life may be a bit too dull!

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When you are in the storm there is a feeling that the storm is bigger than you are and beyond your control.  And the consequences of damage and destruction can be unknown and fearful.

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There is no storm that Jesus is not able to quiet.  There are no variables or factors or forces that are beyond His command.  And, when we have been born into His Kingdom...his family, He is aware of our storms and cares for the things that cause our cares.  

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1 Peter 5:7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

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Picture yourself in the same boat as Jesus...picture a storm coming as you are in the boat together....

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Mark 4: 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

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Why...He is the one whom we also should obey and follow, for the storms bow before His command!

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: mystery

Most people like a good mystery.  My sister was a fan of Agatha Christie mysteries like "Murder on the Orient Express" when she was growing up.  I came across a scripture passage in Mark that tells of God's mysteries:

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Mark 4:

10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that

"'they may indeed see but not perceive,
    and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.'"

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The Greek word for "secret" in verse 11 is 'mysterion', or mystery.  One commentary I read said that verses 11 and 12 are two of the most difficult in the Gospels.  It almost looks as if Jesus is making it hard to understand Him and to grasp the truth.  But, just as reading a mystery calls for looking at the same set of facts in a new way, so the parables of Jesus are meant to show every day experience in a new light.  And that new light is known as faith.  Jesus is explaining to the Disciples that it isn't enough to listen or to read His words.  There first needs to be a change of perspective...those words must pass through a different frame of reference...something needs to have shifted in one's point of view.  Faith...faith represents the changed perspective because the person with faith has been changed.  When faith has come alive and one has placed his trust in Jesus then understanding of familiar things shifts and fresh light is seen...the familiar becomes freshly seen.  And faith is not something that one can "work up" or figure out.  It is "given" and it is "received". (Now that is truly mystery!)

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: They came to Him

Mark 3:7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.

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Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

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As believers...those who have experienced the saving love of Jesus...we are called and empowered to be His witnesses to the world, near and far.  As I was reading in the Gospel of Mark this morning it struck me how the world came to Jesus when He was here.  The power He demonstrated in people's lives to heal, liberate from evil spirits and speak truth, drew crowds.  Even as Jesus sought to draw away from the people with His disciples, they came after Him.  It occurred to me that as we go to take Jesus to the world He will draw others to Himself as we allow Him to be the one who speaks and the one who touches others...through us.  

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It's not so much that we have a message as we have His life within...the life that the world truly longs to find.

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: The invisible problem

Mark 2:9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he said to the paralytic— 11 "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home."

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We have two kinds of problems...visible and invisible.  The most common visible ones call for healing and, in my experience, they are the most common prayer requests that I see.  The most prevalent invisible ones call for repentance and deliverance...we call them sin.  They also are the subject of prayer requests, but not as often.  Sin is an uncomfortable term.  In the New Testament the Greek word is hamartia.  This is a technical archery term for "missing the mark".  You might say that God has a way of living that He's designed and when we sin we miss the mark of following that way of living.  We are "shooting the arrow of our life" at the wrong target or aiming poorly at the target He's established.

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Before we can know God in the close way He desires we need the invisible problem of sin to be addressed within us.  When Jesus healed the paralytic man in the passage from Mark he knew that people were far more concerned with the visible/physical problems because you just can't get around the very real limitations that they create.  But He wanted them all to shift their focus from the visible to the invisible...the sin problem...because they were aware that each of them had that problem but few would come to be delivered from it.

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God is looking for people who will honestly face their "missing the mark" sin problem and come to Him for the healing only He has the authority to provide.  It may be invisible but it is very real.  After all, the greatest realities for we human beings are the ones we can't see.

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: call to holiness

Mark 1:5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Mark 1:17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Mark 1:20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

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Mark 1:32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.

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As the Gospel of Mark begins we see John the Baptist calling the people of the countryside to come away from all that is comfortable and familiar and wash in the river of holiness.....and many did go and many were baptized.  Would you have gone?

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And as Jesus commenced his ministry he asked two pairs of fishing brothers (Andrew and Simon / James and John) to follow him so they could learn to fish for men...and immediately they left all that was familiar to their daily life...Would you have gone?

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And as Jesus proclaimed the truth of God's kingdom being available to men and demonstrated that through teaching with authority and healing from disease and demons, many brought the sick and needy to Jesus....Will you bring others to Jesus?

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: the wilderness

Mark 1:

11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

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As the gospel of Mark begins we see the unfolding of Jesus' ministry.  Initial observations from the text tell us that (1) it was foretold that He would come by plan, (2) Jesus illustrates the importance of spiritual transition in baptism and (3) The Holy Spirit is both with Jesus and also leads Him into difficult trials for His own good.

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We need to come by faith and hear, in our inner voice, that the Father is pleased that we have trusted in Him.  We need to mark that transition publicly to proclaim to others and personalize the new birth for ourselves.  Then we will experience the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  We live in a fallen world and the Lord first rescues us from the consequences of that corruption when we believe.  Then He comes to live within and lead us in ways that temper and forge us to cope as we live out our days in the midst of the creation that has chosen to go its own way since the Garden of Eden.  And we are encouraged that, just as angels ministered to Jesus in the wilderness, so God will lead us in ultimate victory both in our days on earth and with Him in the forever place by His side.

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blessings!

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Fw: It takes preparation

Mark 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

"Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way,
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
    'Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight,'"

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No one is ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ without first being prepared.  Among other things, that means that no one is automatically "saved" or able to inherit a place in Heaven.  There is a "before" in every life that leads to the acceptance and understanding of the good news of new life...spiritual awakening...redemption.  This is presented clearly as Jesus makes His entrance in ministry.  John the Baptist was sent to call people to preparation...and it started (as it still does start) with repentance...a recognition of our faults and our need for a Savior.  Jesus, also, showed that there was a 'before' for Him...a 'before' to the start of His ministry (not that He needed salvation) as He also went to John to be baptized.  For Jesus, the baptism of John marked a public recognition of His Father as the sole purpose for His life.  For us, repentance of the heart and baptism of the body marks a public recognition of the Son as the only hope for ours.

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Acts 19:4 And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."

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Jesus would turn your "before" into "life ever after".

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blessings,

Rob Smith

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"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."