Weekend Words

 From Be Still and Know...

"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea.  Peace, be still.  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." (Mark 4:39)

While Jesus and His disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee, a violent storm suddenly overtook them.  As it broke in fury upon them, the disciples realized their danger.

Turning to Jesus for help, they found Him asleep, undisturbed by the storm.  Frantically they aroused him, crying, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"  The storm didn't waken Him, but the cry of His children brought immediate aid.  Jesus arose, rebuked the storm, saying, "Peace be still."  The miracle was the immediate calming of the sea.  Jesus said, "Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?"  Perplexed, they said, "What manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him?"

Storms can break suddenly in our lives, bringing winds of adversity and waves of trouble.  Lack of faith results in fear.  We may cry, "Carest thou not that we perish?"  We are only a cry away from Him.  As He looks at the storm in our life, He replies, "Peace, be still."  This does not mean the outward circumstances may subside immediately, but He does calm the storm in our heart.

Need we fear when he is the pilot of our lives?  We are safer in the storm with Him than in the calm without Him.  When the Titanic was built, it was called "the unsinkable ship."  Yet the world soon learned that this was not true when it sank after hitting an iceberg.

With Him as our pilot, no matter how severe the storm, we are "unsinkable" when He is in control.

Is He saying to us today as He did to His disciples, "Why are you timid and fearful?  How is it that you have no faith - no firmly, relying trust?" (Mark 4:40, Amplified).  Why are you afraid today?  No faith?  Faith is the answer to fear.  Regardless of the fierceness of the storm, faith in Him is the answer for our fears.

Fear sees the storm, faith sees God in the storm.

From Beside the Still Waters...

The Lord Knoweth How - Read: 2 Peter 2

"Building up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God." - Jude 20-21

Darkness deepens around the world.  Ungodly men seek one-world commerce and government; they seek interconnectedness by physical and metaphysical means.  The Satanic world system - the Bible calls it Babylon - rears its ugly head even higher against God and His decrees for men's welfare.  Godly people may become weary and despair that righteousness will survive.

But through the darkness pierces the everlasting Word of God: "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Timothy 2:19).  We may wonder, "How shall my family depart from iniquity when it pursues us through more and more corrupt inventions, increasingly deviant lifestyles, and ever worsening anti-Christian influences in the workplace?  How can we get away?"

Our heavenly Father knew that we would face these perilous times.  He planned a marvelous reassurance in today's Bible reading, pointing out some of His sovereign moves in the past and showing that even if we don't know how to escape advancing evils, "the Lord knoweth how"!  After all, when some angels left their first estate and sank into wickedness, God was able to handle such an unheavenly thing.  He knows how to separate sin from righteousness and how to commit the sinning angels to doom.

God knew how to flood the wicked world and keep a tiny righteous minority safe inside the ark.  He could quickly turn Sodom and nearby cities into ashes and save a few alive.  God still know how to separate good from evil, and He tells us our part.  In Revelation 18:4 He said, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaker of her sins."  Sever dangerous connections.  Discard threatening inventions.  Choose godly simplicity.

Jay R. Martin - Castorland, NY

From In Green Pastures...

The Secret of Peace.

Perfect loyalty to Christ brings perfect peace into the heart.  The secret of Christ's own peace was his absolute devotion to his Father's will.  We can find peace in no other way.  Any resistance to God's will, any disobedience of his law, any wrenching of our lives out of his hand, must break the peace of our hearts.  No lesson that he gives ever mars our peace if we receive it with willing, teachable spirit and strive to learn it just as he has written it out for us.  If we take the lessons just as our Master gives them to us, we shall make our life all music, and we shall find peace.