"STORMS"

I wanted to do this blog on Jesus' teachings on love and compassion to all His creation, and all the analogies He uses referring us and Him many times as animals of one kind or another. Well that is still in the works so I'm gonna do this one on the storms that come along in our lives. We all face trials and temptations in life, and in times like that I find great comfort in the teachings Jesus gives us on the storms others have faced in His day and the way God uses it to show Himself and His power to us. I am pretty sure I have done a blog before on problems we face and go through in life. The Bible teaches that such times will come, for not even Jesus was spared trials and temptations. We will not be spared hard times, but instead we will be made and conformed into that of which God wants us to be through them.

James 1:2-4 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Matthew 8:23-27 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Now this is a literal storm that the disciples went through here, and imagine the fear that must have gripped them, for they thought they were gonna die. Now I gotta ask, how is it Jesus was sleeping during a raging storm like this? Do you sometimes feel that God is sleeping when you are in the middle of a raging storm that is trying to consume your life? Do you feel like He is not hearing your cries and waking up to calm the storm like He did for the disciples here? Well, the storms will and are coming, and rest assured that Jesus knows that they are and He knows the best way to calm them.

I have no doubt that Jesus knew this storm was coming before He even got in the boat. He slept and was in the boat during the storm with them (as in life He is with us) and He wanted to show them what faith really was, and to in times of trouble cry out and call upon Him. Many times in the gospels things like this happened so that Jesus could teach the disciples (and us) to rely, depend, and trust in Him completely. This story shows a touching picture of Christs humanity that He fell asleep and was so weary that not even the violent rocking of the boat woke Him. This story also shows us of His power as the Son of God that He awoke and rebuked the sea and winds and they obeyed Him. In the storms and the good times of life, that's the type of Saviour I choose to serve and obey!

The next set of scriptures I am gonna comment on is the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus found in John 11:1-44. (Bear with me for I know this is alot of scriptures.)
1Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."
4But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it."
5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
7Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."
8The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"
9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10"But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
11This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep."
12The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."
13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.
14So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead,
15and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him."
16Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him."
17So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.
18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off;
19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
20Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.
21Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
22"Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."
23Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
24Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
26and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
27She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."
28When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."
29And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.
30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him.
31Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."
33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,
34and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."
35Jesus wept.
36So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!"
37But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?"
38So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
39Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."
40Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"
41So they removed the stone Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42"I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me."
43When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."
44The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

This is the story of Lazarus. Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus as we see in verse 5. His sisters sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick. When Jesus received this news He waited two days until He decided to go back to see him. Now He tells His disciples that they are going back to see Lazarus because he has fallen asleep (verse 11). The disciples are worried about the Jews in that area wanting to kill Jesus and say if he has fallen asleep he will awaken, and this is the part to really ponder, Jesus says "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe." It goes on to show how distressed Mary and Martha were over the death of their brother and the power of Christ to come back and raise Him from the dead on the forth day of Lazarus' death.

Jesus knew the storm was coming and as we see He had the power to calm it. He said that Lazarus' sickness would not end in death. You say he did die? Yes he did but in the end he was alive and I bet more alive than he had ever been. Lazarus died and lived again to bring glory to God. Never forget that God is Huge! So huge that our biggest storms in life, including death, are nothing to Him. No one can begin to even ponder the greatness and awesomeness of God. The human mind literally does not have that capacity. So please, in the storms of your life call and lean on Him. He may not answer your prayers and requests how you make ask or like, but He is sovereign and does have your best interests in mind in all that He does. He let Lazarus die, and was glad, because it showed many who He was and the power He has.

My prayer for all is that we do indeed try to see things in the holy and awesome way that God does. That we see the beauty that lies just beyond the storms in our lives, and the power and glory in the hand whom calms the storms. With love and prayers always.

C.