Mark 4:35, 37, 38 & 40
On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
Jesus Himself 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?"
And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
I read Mark 4:35 today and this statament "Let us go over to the other side" jumped at me.
Jesus told it to his disciples after he preached the parable of the sower with the crowds. It's a seemingly simple directional instruction to give, but consider the tempest that occurred thereafter and how the disciples panicked about their impending doom because they chosed to follow Jesus' instructions.
Simple as our life is, it is often loaded with situations like this because like the disciples, we follow our lives direction without much consideration of God's Lordship in our lives.
Evidently, Jesus knew that the tempest would break out and the situation would seem scary. Many interprete the scriptures to say that because Jesus was in full control of the situation he could afford to sleep peacefully amidst the violent rocking of the boat. (If you have been in a sailboat or bumboat and it faces strong winds, you'll have a simplistic idea of how aweful it feels to have greater winds and waves rock the disciple boat)
Viewing the waves breaking over the boat and an imminent sinking of the boat, it may seem normal for the poor disciples to panic because death was imminent. Why then did Jesus rebuke the disciples when they woke him up?
They felt that Jesus had directed them but did not care about their current dire conditions! There was a panicky feeling that the situation was lost and everything was doomed. What's made worst was the fact that they couldn't comprehend why Jesus was still asleep and not doing anything. Thus the desperate situation resulted in the disciples complaining that Jesus was not helping out in their situation. They simply did not recognise the Lordship of Jesus, even though he dwelled in the midst of them!
I believe that we too have many such similiar situations as the disciples where we often lose sight of how God has instructed us to go over to another place and forgot that He would go with us. Then, some sudden tempest of life would strike (i.e physical sickness, emotional failures, life's many little problems, family problems, work stress...etc) and we start looking up at heaven in despair because we feel that "God called us to go this direction but does not care that we live or die!"
I'm not sure if everytime God directs us to "go over to the other side", it would come packaged with a tempest intended to test our faith, but I'm sure that the many times which we face uncertainties of life, it surely tests the mettle of our faith.
When I heard the news of the devestatingly poor "A" level results, my heart truely sank. It felt as if a terribly calamity had struck. Times like this sees the constant echoing questioning of "why? why? and more whys?". Yet, I know better than to querie the perfect plans of God amidst our imperfect lives. It's always simple to say, in the long term, this bump of life would smoothen out and would look more like a mole-hill of yesterday's disappointment instead of the mountain of despair today. But today, having read this passage, I know better now because I see a new revelation of God in the situation. Whenever we are asked by God to go somewhere else with Him, He goes with us!
Crisis may come as we go in the direction God has told us to take, but in the midst of the crisis, Jesus will be there by our side. Our life may be tossed, turned and sinking, but! we will never perish nor panic because He is with us and nothing can overcome us. More so, as we need to recognise that Jesus is with us and as He restfully stays by us, we need to look at His example and accept in faith that if God is not panicking, why should we?
Today, if God asks you to go over to the other side, may your eyes stay focused on the Lord as He goes all the way with you.
Blessings,
M.
"And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."(Mark 4:20)
03 April 2007
Let's go over to the other side
Mark 4:35, 37, 38 & 40
On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
Jesus Himself 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?"
And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
I read Mark 4:35 today and this statament "Let us go over to the other side" jumped at me.
Jesus told it to his disciples after he preached the parable of the sower with the crowds. It's a seemingly simple directional instruction to give, but consider the tempest that occurred thereafter and how the disciples panicked about their impending doom because they chosed to follow Jesus' instructions.
Simple as our life is, it is often loaded with situations like this because like the disciples, we follow our lives direction without much consideration of God's Lordship in our lives.
Evidently, Jesus knew that the tempest would break out and the situation would seem scary. Many interprete the scriptures to say that because Jesus was in full control of the situation he could afford to sleep peacefully amidst the violent rocking of the boat. (If you have been in a sailboat or bumboat and it faces strong winds, you'll have a simplistic idea of how aweful it feels to have greater winds and waves rock the disciple boat)
Viewing the waves breaking over the boat and an imminent sinking of the boat, it may seem normal for the poor disciples to panic because death was imminent. Why then did Jesus rebuke the disciples when they woke him up?
They felt that Jesus had directed them but did not care about their current dire conditions! There was a panicky feeling that the situation was lost and everything was doomed. What's made worst was the fact that they couldn't comprehend why Jesus was still asleep and not doing anything. Thus the desperate situation resulted in the disciples complaining that Jesus was not helping out in their situation. They simply did not recognise the Lordship of Jesus, even though he dwelled in the midst of them!
I believe that we too have many such similiar situations as the disciples where we often lose sight of how God has instructed us to go over to another place and forgot that He would go with us. Then, some sudden tempest of life would strike (i.e physical sickness, emotional failures, life's many little problems, family problems, work stress...etc) and we start looking up at heaven in despair because we feel that "God called us to go this direction but does not care that we live or die!"
I'm not sure if everytime God directs us to "go over to the other side", it would come packaged with a tempest intended to test our faith, but I'm sure that the many times which we face uncertainties of life, it surely tests the mettle of our faith.
When I heard the news of the devestatingly poor "A" level results, my heart truely sank. It felt as if a terribly calamity had struck. Times like this sees the constant echoing questioning of "why? why? and more whys?". Yet, I know better than to querie the perfect plans of God amidst our imperfect lives. It's always simple to say, in the long term, this bump of life would smoothen out and would look more like a mole-hill of yesterday's disappointment instead of the mountain of despair today. But today, having read this passage, I know better now because I see a new revelation of God in the situation. Whenever we are asked by God to go somewhere else with Him, He goes with us!
Crisis may come as we go in the direction God has told us to take, but in the midst of the crisis, Jesus will be there by our side. Our life may be tossed, turned and sinking, but! we will never perish nor panic because He is with us and nothing can overcome us. More so, as we need to recognise that Jesus is with us and as He restfully stays by us, we need to look at His example and accept in faith that if God is not panicking, why should we?
Today, if God asks you to go over to the other side, may your eyes stay focused on the Lord as He goes all the way with you.
Blessings,
M.
"And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."(Mark 4:20)
On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
Jesus Himself 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?"
And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
I read Mark 4:35 today and this statament "Let us go over to the other side" jumped at me.
Jesus told it to his disciples after he preached the parable of the sower with the crowds. It's a seemingly simple directional instruction to give, but consider the tempest that occurred thereafter and how the disciples panicked about their impending doom because they chosed to follow Jesus' instructions.
Simple as our life is, it is often loaded with situations like this because like the disciples, we follow our lives direction without much consideration of God's Lordship in our lives.
Evidently, Jesus knew that the tempest would break out and the situation would seem scary. Many interprete the scriptures to say that because Jesus was in full control of the situation he could afford to sleep peacefully amidst the violent rocking of the boat. (If you have been in a sailboat or bumboat and it faces strong winds, you'll have a simplistic idea of how aweful it feels to have greater winds and waves rock the disciple boat)
Viewing the waves breaking over the boat and an imminent sinking of the boat, it may seem normal for the poor disciples to panic because death was imminent. Why then did Jesus rebuke the disciples when they woke him up?
They felt that Jesus had directed them but did not care about their current dire conditions! There was a panicky feeling that the situation was lost and everything was doomed. What's made worst was the fact that they couldn't comprehend why Jesus was still asleep and not doing anything. Thus the desperate situation resulted in the disciples complaining that Jesus was not helping out in their situation. They simply did not recognise the Lordship of Jesus, even though he dwelled in the midst of them!
I believe that we too have many such similiar situations as the disciples where we often lose sight of how God has instructed us to go over to another place and forgot that He would go with us. Then, some sudden tempest of life would strike (i.e physical sickness, emotional failures, life's many little problems, family problems, work stress...etc) and we start looking up at heaven in despair because we feel that "God called us to go this direction but does not care that we live or die!"
I'm not sure if everytime God directs us to "go over to the other side", it would come packaged with a tempest intended to test our faith, but I'm sure that the many times which we face uncertainties of life, it surely tests the mettle of our faith.
When I heard the news of the devestatingly poor "A" level results, my heart truely sank. It felt as if a terribly calamity had struck. Times like this sees the constant echoing questioning of "why? why? and more whys?". Yet, I know better than to querie the perfect plans of God amidst our imperfect lives. It's always simple to say, in the long term, this bump of life would smoothen out and would look more like a mole-hill of yesterday's disappointment instead of the mountain of despair today. But today, having read this passage, I know better now because I see a new revelation of God in the situation. Whenever we are asked by God to go somewhere else with Him, He goes with us!
Crisis may come as we go in the direction God has told us to take, but in the midst of the crisis, Jesus will be there by our side. Our life may be tossed, turned and sinking, but! we will never perish nor panic because He is with us and nothing can overcome us. More so, as we need to recognise that Jesus is with us and as He restfully stays by us, we need to look at His example and accept in faith that if God is not panicking, why should we?
Today, if God asks you to go over to the other side, may your eyes stay focused on the Lord as He goes all the way with you.
Blessings,
M.
"And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."(Mark 4:20)
