This evening we were introduced to a new speaker Patrick Lewis. He reads from the Gospel of Mark 4:35-41.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 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?”
Patrick Lewis explains:
Jesus is Lord over storms within us
Jesus is Lord over storms around us
Jesus leads us through storms to rescue others from the storm
When he leads us somewhere that is unfamiliar or scary, we start questioning Jesus and asking him, “don’t you care?”, and if you did you wouldn’t let me be here. This is a lack of faith, and we need to cling to him in the storms. Patrick explains that by having faith in Jesus means losing control and having an unpredictable irresistible force in our life. We need to know that we can run to Jesus with our storms, and he can end them. Jesus says in Mark 5:19, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you”. He’s explaining that he came here for you and he wants to rescue others through you, so follow him. When the ultimate storm does come, we can be confident and know that we’ll spend eternity with him.