Jesus May Be Sleeping but He's Still In The Boat | Mark 4

During my time living here (two years in a few days!) I have been fortunate enough to see the amazing provision and perfect timing of God.

I'm reading through Mark at the moment and just got to this story. I love this account because Mark mentions water coming into the boat:

37/38

"And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'"

Now when you've read this and you get to verse 40, Jesus asks the disciples a question which honestly, seems ridiculous under the circumstances:

40

"But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?'"

I'm sorry, what?

Why were they so fearful?

How could they not have faith?

ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?

Water was filling their boat. Enough water in the boat meant they would sink. So why would Jesus even ask that question?

I think Jesus was genuinely asking because He was trying to understand how their minds worked.

Yes, their boat was sinking. But Jesus was with them. And yes, He was asleep. But He was the same Jesus they had seen heal and forgive a paralysed man, heal a man with a withered hand and cast out demons. Was there really any question as to His abilities?

Yes, Jesus was asleep. But that didn't mean He couldn't save them. He was still there.

Sometimes we look at our situation; a bill that needs to be paid tomorrow and an empty bank account, a job that we should have heard from last week that we still haven't heard from, a place to live in a little over a week and no money for rent; and we act like the disciples.

We scream, 'Hello! God! Are you even awake? Don't you see what's happening? Everything is falling to pieces and you aren't doing anything!'

But He is. His presence is enough. Just by being there, He is doing something. And when what you've been waiting for comes through, you too will feel as though Jesus is asking you 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?'

I'm not writing this to judge or condemn anyone, because I kick myself every time Jesus 'comes through' with something great and I had thought He'd forgotten. I'm writing this to encourage you and I in our waiting, watching, hoping times, when we're waiting for our breakthrough or our miracle. Because even though it might seem rather quiet when you would like lights and action, Jesus may be sleeping, but He's still in the boat.

Psalm 37: Feeding on His Faithfulness

Psalms 37:3, 5, 7, 23 NKJV

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness." (vs 3)

"Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." (vs 5)

"Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." (vs 7)

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way." (vs 23)

I am so grateful to God for Psalms! Such an amazing book. I particularly love vs 3 of this chapter:

"Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."

I love this. We are supposed to dwell in the trust of the Lord. Simply put, David is saying we should live in the confidence that God has everything covered.

Even better, not just live in the confidence that God has our back, but to feed on His faithfulness.

Making this as basic as possible, think about how often you eat. Typically a minimum of three times a day. Imagine, reminding yourself of God's faithfulness to you a minimum of three times a day. Constantly living out of the reminder of God's faithfulness leaves no room to doubt Him.

Granted, sometimes we doubt God has our back not because of His own unfaithfulness, but because of our own, but we don't need to. God's behaviour toward us has NOTHING to do with our behaviour towards Him. Psalms 73:1 says "Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart" If we have accepted Jesus as our saviour, as our righteousness, then we are counted as those who are pure in heart, and God is good to them. Even when we fail, God doesn't; 2 Timothy 2.13 says "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself."

David continues in vs 5 and 7 "Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord , And He delights in his way."

He says we should commit our way to the Lord, to put all our plans into God's hand, and then trust Him to work it all out. He says we should rest in God, relax in Him, enjoy Him. We should be in a perpetual state of relaxation in God, patiently waiting to see what He's doing. Not worrying because we see things working out for others, but relaxing and resting and dwelling and feeding on the knowledge that God is directing and leading us and enjoys doing so.

It has been almost a year since I moved here, and I moved here without a job and without a place to live. It felt crazy, but I knew God wanted me here and had to take a leap of faith and believe that He would take care of me.

If there is one thing this year has taught me, it's that resting in God and feeding on His faithfulness really pays off. Even when we feel like we are wasting time, or going nowhere God is still doing His thing; fixing all the tiny details so we are ready for the next step and it is ready for us.

Too much has happened this year for me to summarise properly, but I want you to have a vague idea of what has gone on, so here's a rough timeline:

September 6th: Move to Sweden
End of October: Find an apartment but have no money to pay rent for the month
A week later: Get given money for rent and living expenses for the month
End of November: Start job as an au pair which gives me job and accomodation (Yes, I was unemployed for three months)
April: Start thinking about what to do when done au pairing
May: Get invited to live with two friends at the end of my job
June: Apply for school also phone a bar about a job, find out the owner is English, arrange interview
End of June: Go for an interview at school, get rejected. Realise it is not possible to move in with friends till a month after I finish my job
Following day: Get a call inviting me for an interview for another course at the same school
Following week: Go for interview at school again and go for bar job interview, successful job interview, invited for two trial shifts
Following day: Get accepted into school
A few weeks later: Get call from friends saying a friend of theirs has an apartment I can potentially stay in before I move in with them

This year has been all over the place, up and down and nothing I expected, but God has had and continues to have my back. I have not been without a place to sleep, I have not been dead broke. Truly, God has been faithful and ordered each and every one of my steps. I do not know what the future holds for me, but I know that as I continue to commit my way to God, He will continue to order my steps and sort everything out.

Revelation 3.20-21 | Uppenbarelseboken 3.20-21

"Jag står vid dorren och knäckar. Om du hör och oppnar kommer jag in och vill umgås över en god middag. De som seger ska få sitta bredvid mig vid hedersbordet, precis som jag segrade och fick sitta på hedersplatsen vid min Fars sida."

- Uppenbarelseboken 3.20-21 (MSG)

The prize that awaits us is worth fighting for. When we overcome like He has overcome, we get the same reward; eternity with God, and the daily delight that comes from being in His presence.

The Proof is in The Pudding

2 Peter 1:16 NKJV

"For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

If you are a Brit, or friends with one, you probably know and understand the title of this post. If not... a quick explanation..the saying comes from the original saying 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' which means that the quality of something is unsure until it has been tested (or in the case of pudding tasted!)

I love this verse in 2 Peter (in the picture it is written from the Message in Swedish) because it says that what the disciples are talking about they didn't just make up, they experienced it for themselves.

In much the same way...all of us as Christians, all of us who have caught a glimpse of God and felt Him touch and change our lives are also talking from experience. It happened to us, that's how we know.

I have not to this day met a Christian who doesn't want to tell you how they met God and He changed them. We call this testimony, because as 'eyewitnesses of His majesty' we are able to stand up and testify that He is for real.

If you are a Christian reading this, never stop sharing with others how you got to know God. If you aren't a Christian (yet) and you're reading this, ask someone who is how they got to be.

One more thing to say on this...no matter what your testimony is, whether you grew up with Christian parents like I did, or you grew up in completely different circumstances, your testimony is important and of equal importance.

I used to think that because I grew up in a Christian home my testimony about finding God was redundant, but it isn't. The fact that I grew up in a Christian home meant I was exposed to my parent's faith a lot and that they did their best to encourage me to have a relationship with God but the truth is...I know the day when I finally encountered God and He changed me so that I began to live out of that...and THAT is my testimony, and it can and will bless others just as much as the testimony of a former atheist can.

P. S. I'll share it another time. x

"Liksom en kropp utan livsande är död, så är tron utan gärningar död. (James 2.26)

"Like a body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without works dead."
- James 2.26

We had a spine-tingling, goose-pimple inducing word at church yesterday about REVIVAL. I've been reading James in the New Testament and wanted to do a quick recap on what I read last week. Reading it this morning I was struck by how much it corresponds with what we heard about revival yesterday.

The man speaking spoke about barriers to revival and qualities needed in order to make room for revival. Here are the two lists:

Barriers to revival:
Pride
Rationalism
Unbelief
Fear of rejection
Apathy

Qualities needed to make room for revival:
Purity in all parts of our faith
Prayer
Praise

Rereading James 1.22 I was particularly reminded on what he said about Apathy. James says here that we need to be 'doers' of the word not just 'hearers'. Often times I myself have been a person who turns up to church, sits, hears and observes but does nothing.

In order for revival to take place we actually need to DO SOMETHING.

It's all well and good having faith but faith should produce action. James 2.22 talks about Abraham's faith... and says it 'samverkade' (the Swedish word is SO much richer in meaning, it literally means 'same worked', in the NKJV it says 'worked together' which sounds a lot less exciting) with his 'works' (actions).

Faith and works go hand in hand. Without faith, works are empty, they are like trying to score righteousness points with God through doing 'good stuff' which God says clearly is not enough. Faith without works isn't real faith at all, real faith forces you to make decisions and choices; in short, ACTIONS.

James 2.26 talks about how a body without the spirit is dead and faith without works is the exact same thing; dead.

The reason this struck me even more poignantly today is because, if we are think about what the bible says about us the church... we are Christ's body (1 Corinthians 12.27, Romans 12.5, Ephesians 4.12). We are His hands and feet, here to show the world Him and His love through our lives.

Now if as His body, we try to operate without Him at the centre, i.e., without the spirit of life, we are lifeless, the impact we have on the world is minimal at best.

BUT. But if we the church, as His body, both together AND as individuals, have a real, faith and belief in Jesus, it will spur us into action. Pride and fear of rejection will fall away as we realise it is all about Him and not us. The restricting chains of rationalism will disappear as we allow God whose ways are higher than our own to do things in His perfect way, even if we don't get it, and apathy will vanish as we become helplessly devoted to sharing the love of Christ with the world. Purity, prayer and praise will become the default mechanisms of those who not only hear the word but do it too, and thus...revival, starting in the church and overflowing out, will come.

Faith

I'm reading through Hebrews at the moment and just hit Hebrews 11 which has to be probably my favourite chapter in the whole bible (I say probably because there are so many awesome chapters that that is likely inaccurate!).

Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)

It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.

Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.

Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.

It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!

That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.

The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.

What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.

He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).

So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.

The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!

Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!

Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.

If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.

Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).

Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.

"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5

Why there is power in the name of Jesus

If you are a Christian, you have probably heard the phrase 'there is power in the name of Jesus' many times. As a non-christian, this probably makes no sense. I think I finally understood it a bit more today, and I wanted to try to explain to you why Christians say there is power in the name of Jesus.

In the old testament of the bible (the first half of the bible if you will, before Jesus coming to earth as a man), we read in Genesis (or 1 Moseböken, if you're Swedish) that God created the heavens and the earth. If you read the first chapter, you'll see that God created through His word. He spoke things into being and they happened. The power of His word brought things into being.

In the Old Testament you see many times that God spoke to people, sometimes directly, other times through prophets, or happenings, such as the burning bush.

In the New Testament, the phrase 'God said' appears only once, in a parable Jesus uses to simplify a lesson He is teaching. Aside from that, the phrase never appears, quite strange compared to the forty-five times it appears in the Old Testament.

You have to wonder why after speaking so much to people in the time before Jesus came to earth, God suddenly seems to stop communicating with them. Or does He stop?

In John 1 (New Testament) verses 1-14 we have an another, slightly brief note on creation. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of all men.'

The Word being spoken about is the powerful word that God used to create the world in the beginning. The word God used brought the earth into existence and created life simply by saying so.

The writer continues in verse 14, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...' This verse says that the powerful word God used that created life itself in the beginning, became human just as we are, and lived humanly like the rest of us.

The Word is Jesus. And when Jesus came to earth, He said all that God had been saying in the Old Testament simply by living and dying and rising again as He did.

Jesus is all God has ever said and will ever say. He is the the final word. The curtain closer if you will. So that, where in the Old Testament God spoke, as it says in Hebrews chapter 1 (New Testament) 'by the prophets' (verse 1), He has 'spoken to us by His son...through whom also He made all the worlds.' (Verse 2).

Now try to understand all of this. The power that God used to create the world was harnessed if you will, in Jesus, who was sent to the earth, being life itself, and that life being a light which was so powerful that darkness could not overcome it (John 1.5), which is why when life (=Light=Jesus) was crucified on the cross and put to death (=darkness), death couldn't overcome it.

You see the life and light that Jesus is, is so powerful that no death, no darkness, no sin, no curse, no emotion or situation of any kind, is any match for it.

When we say Jesus name, we aren't just saying a name, we're declaring power over all things. There is power in the name of Jesus because Jesus is power itself. He is the very Word by which all things came into being.

A beautiful an amazing force to be reckoned with.

Once foolish...but...God our Saviour...appeared

My all time favourite verses in the bible are in Titus 3.3-7.

"For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

The verses give in basic, easy to understand language, the condition of humanity before God, and shows us the greatness of the salvation given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Before Christ, we were typical humans.

1. Foolish - Constantly making stupid decisions and choices,
2. Disobedient - Rebellious (come on, none of us can deny that when we're told not to do something we want to do it even more!)
3. Deceived - Believing every negative untruth ever said about us (you know the type; you're so ugly, you're not good enough, you're a failure, nobody wants you around etc.)
4. Serving various lusts and pleasures - Being addicted and trapped by things (thinking we know true freedom because we do 'what we like'; think about some typical addictions and the sentences that follow them, 'I couldn't help myself', 'then I just thought, one more won't hurt', 'I mean who's going to know anyway?', 'I had an itch I needed to scratch, so I itched it' - any of these sounding familiar?)
5. Living in malice and envy - Being full of unhelpful intentions and selfish desires, getting jealous when others do better or have more
6. Being hated and hating others - This is pretty self-explanatory.

This is the picture of humanity that is painted in the New Testament, and if we look at the world around us I'd say it is startlingly accurate. By nature, this is human.

"But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..."

But when you grasp even a little of what God is and what He has done for you, when you begin to understand what it is to live in true freedom, with God the Holy Spirit as your guide through life, you no longer find yourself acting the way you did before. Knowing God transforms you. As you understand more and more of who God is, as you see how much He loves you, not because you deserve it but because it's His nature, you become more and more like Him. It's not a conscious thing, you aren't 'trying to be Christ like' but in knowing God more and more, you find your human nature no longer dictates how you work, it's as if you've thrown it off and taken on the nature of God, and you can't help but live in a way that says, 'I've finally found God and He has changed me'.

Salvation is so beautiful because it's not about us trying to be better, it 's not about us doing things in order to make us good, it's about letting go of everything we cannot control (this means us ourselves too!!) and letting God lead and guide us, and ultimately transform us.

Try it, I PROMISE you won't be disappointed. If you think life is great now, in the words of Eliza Dolittle from My Fair Lady, 'just you wait'.

1 Thessalonians 4,5

I've been working my way through the New Testament, and hit 1 Thessalonians. I read it initially, taking my time to work through the verses and allow the Holy Spirit to help me and speak to me from them.

I found it so difficult.

The earlier books; Acts, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, I found much easier to read through and get blessed by.

I was extremely tempted to just forget about 1 Thessalonians and move onto the second book, but I didn't want to miss out on anything in there that God wanted to say to me. So I tried again.

On the YOU Version Bible App, there is a function on some translations that allows you to listen to the chapter as you read it, so this time as I read through 1 Thessalonians, I listened to it at the same time.

Massively helpful.

God really blessed me through the last two chapters, so I just thought I'd share with you guys what stuck out for me. Hope God blesses you with this too!

Ch.4 v.3-8

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord  is  the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects  this  does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit."

These verses talk about 'sanctification' (the setting apart of ourselves as Holy to God), keeping our bodies free from sexual sin in particular, remembering that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3.16, Acts 13.52), and should be used to glorify God (show to unbelievers how awesome and great He is). I was particularly struck here by two things; first, that if we go ahead with sexual sin, not only are we sinning, but we are 'taking advantage of' and 'defrauding' the person we commit it with; and second, that when we reject this instruction, and deliberately choose to sin anyway, we aren't rejecting the person who told us we shouldn't do it, we're rejecting God, whose instruction it is.

Ch. 4 v.11-12


"that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and  that  you may lack nothing."

It's more verse 12 that I like, but the latter part of verse 11 I found very interesting as well. The whole concept of minding our own business and working with our own hands. We do not need to be busy bodies!!! There is a tendency in church, especially in smaller ones, to talk about what other people are doing all the time, and I also think a lot of the time this is when judgement can occur. God wants us to mind our own business and be quiet, we need to constantly be focusing on our own walk with God so that we can 'walk properly toward those outside'. For those of you who are Christians, you've probably heard the saying 'you might be the only bible/Jesus someone ever gets to read/see.' It's so important that we keep ourselves in check with God; number one, so we make sure that we stay on the right path, and also number two, so that others can see what it's really like to know Jesus, and how it affects our lives. I like to think of it as infectious Christianity, so that when people see how awesome it is to be in relationship with God, they can't help but feel a little bit jealous and want in.

Ch. 5 v.14
"Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all."

This verse speaks for itself really. (But if you aren't familiar with biblical terms, exhort means  to charge, or to commission, or to task someone to do something). It talks about how we are to relate among one another, and I believe this applies to how we treat everyone (Christians and non-Christians alike).

• Warn those who are disruptive and disobedient
• Comfort and encourage the fainthearted
• Lift up the weaker people
• Be patient with everyone

Ch. 5 v. 16-22

I won't quote this one because I'm literally about to go through it word for word, but feel free to look it up on Blue Letter Bible or Bible Gateway.

v. 16, 18 - Rejoice always/in everything give thanks; no matter what we go through in this life, as Christians we always have something to be thankful and praising God for. First, our salvation, and second, the way in which our salvation opened up the way for us to have relationship with God, the creator of the entire universe.

v.17 - Pray without ceasing; We serve the God who hears and sees, so even when we've been praying for a while and have not seen the desired effect, God wants us to keep on praying. Prayer is less about us getting what we want and more about us recognising God's sovereignty (how powerful He is), so every time we pray, we humble ourselves before God and tell Him we can't do anything without Him, that we need His help in all things and that because we know He is good, strong and knows what is best for us, we trust Him entirely. Pray until something happens.

v.19 - Do not quench the Holy Spirit; I think there are two ways in which we can do this. First, by grieving the Holy Spirit with our sin (Ephesians 4.30, Isaiah 63.10), and secondly, by not intentionally spending time soaking in God and His word and working on our gifting (speaking in tongues, prophesying etc. 2 Timothy 1.6)

v.20 - Do not despise prophecies; we can have no doubt that what God says will happen, will happen. What God says, happens. He said let there be light, and there was light. He said the walls of Jericho would fall down and they did. His word never goes out without accomplishing what it says it will (Isaiah 55.11). So when God says He's going to do something, trust Him that He will, hold onto it.

v. 21 - Test all things; hold fast what is good; In the same breath as verse 20, we are warned that whatever prophecies we do hear, we weigh them up with the truth. Anybody can say they heard from God, but we need to make sure that we aren't taking just anything that we hear to be gospel. God is still speaking to us now in the same way He spoke to people then, but He does not contradict Himself. Check that what you are told is in line with God's scripture, and if it is, hold on to it.

v. 22 - Abstain from every form of evil; this goes back to chapter four and the verse about sexual immorality, but this isn't just about sex. As Christians we need to live lives that show we are God's people and have chosen to live our lives differently (Matthew 3.8, Luke 3.8, Romans 12.2, Ephesians 5.27).

Gracious Speech

The bible tells us in Proverbs 18.21 that life and death are in the power of the tongue. For this reason it's so important we take care with our speech. The right word spoken at the right time is such a blessing to the one who hears it (Proverbs 15.23) and making sure that what we say as Christians especially, brings life and hope, father than condemnation or judgement is so important.

Paul sums it up perfectly when he says in Colossians 4.6:

"Let your speech always be with your grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one"

When we speak, God's loving and gracious nature has to come across. This is less something that we can force to happen, and more something that happens as a result of total immersion in God's word. The bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6.45, Matthew 12.34). What this means is that what we say, is a by product of how we actually feel, of what is really in our hearts.

God's word acts as a mirror for us, so that the more time we spend with God, the more we receive the revelation of His love, grace and mercy, and the easier it is for us to impart that same grace to others.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

- 2 Corinthians 3.18

Romans 4.18

"When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said He would do."

- Romans 4.18 (The Message)

I love this verse SO much. Our circumstances always seem so hopeless. Let me share something with you for a second.

I believe with ALL my heart, that God wants me to go to Sweden and live there and help start a church, so that those that don't know Him yet can do. We hope to start churching from this summer, and considering the fact that Swedish summertime pretty much begins in early June, that's fairly soon.

As yet, I have no job over there, I haven't got a place of my own to live in, and I don't know the language as fluently as I wish I did (although I am making massive headway - praise God for that!).

The situation looks pretty grim. How can I still plan to move this summer with no job and nowhere to live, especially when I don't speak the language?

YET, what does the verse say? "When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway." Why was Abraham's faith so big? How could he have confidence in a situation that in all human terms, was practically hopeless?

In order to have faith and hope in a hopeless situation, Abraham had to look beyond himself, and beyond his capabilities and the capabilities of his wife. Abraham looked beyond the situation, toward God.

God had made a promise to him, therefore God would make it happen.

In the same way, I know God has told me to be a part of this church in Sweden this summer. God will make it happen, despite the current circumstances. So I am going to look beyond what I see, and look to God, and all He has said and done so far in my life and in the lives of those around me, and trust Him, that even though as of right now I have no clue where I'll be working or who I'll be living with, He's got it covered. He will make it happen.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

- Hebrews 11.1 (NKJV)

The Prize

"And He [the Lord] has made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being..."

- Acts 17.26-28a

God's heart's greatest desire is that we might know and love Him above all else. This life is not pleasant; and God tells us that we will see trouble in this world, but that He has overcome it [John 16.33]. He says this because it is when we see that God is beyond whatever it is that we are going through that we get breakthrough. Breakthrough is not the solution to our problem. Real breakthrough is Jesus. Real breakthrough comes when we see beyond our situation, and see Jesus.

In his letter to the Corinthians Paul talks about running a race for a prize that is imperishable. Jesus is the prize. When Olympic athletes train they face obstacles and difficulties and push through. In our times of distress, loss, sadness, disappointment and unhappiness, God wants us to grope for Him, to fight to find Him, because He is worth fighting for. He is the bigger picture, the breakthrough, the prize worth fighting for.

Storms

Matthew 14.24-33 -

"But the boat was now in the middle of the sea,[a] tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary..."

Click here to read the rest

Here are things I take from this event:

1. God is over our storms (times of difficulty) - we are told that Jesus was walking on the water, not in it

2. Even during our storms, God is there - The storm did not deter Jesus

3. In order to know and grasp the peace that comes with knowing God with us in our storms, we have to call on Him - Peter asked Jesus to call him out of the boat

4. When we lose sight of God in the storms that is when our views become distorted and fear creeps in - It was only when Peter's focus became the 'boisterous' nature of the storm rather than Jesus, that he began to sink

5. With Jesus we need not be afraid of our storms; He pulls us through without harm - Jesus reached out, caught Peter, and returned him to the boat, with no evidence of injury

So to summarise;

Jesus stands in the midst of our storms with His arms outstretched, willing us to come to Him. It is only in knowing and holding onto Him that we can come through such storms unscathed

Luke 24.26-27 and The Gospel of Jesus Christ

'He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem..."'

The gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance and forgiveness:

Not condemnation, but hope.

Not death, but life.

Not lawfulness, but relationship.

One of the things the scribes took issue with was Jesus forgiving sins (Matthew 9.1-6), because they believed only God had power to forgive sins, but if Jesus was who He claimed to be, the son of God (Luke 22.70) and the Christ (Matthew 16.16-17), then He had full right to forgive sins.

And that's what He came to earth to do. He came to bridge the gap between the sinful and the sinless. So He came to Earth, still God, in the form of a man, so that He could walk among us and make God real to us, make God personal. He came to Earth to save us.

Do you know where something similar happened? Joseph.

Joseph was fully human (you can tell by his behaviour), and when he dreamt of his future and all that was to come, instead of keeping it hush-hush as Jesus did (Matthew 16.20, Mark 8.30, Luke 9.21), he went around boasting about it.

He wasn't lying though. His brothers were going to bow down to him (Genesis 37.7-11). So after he told them all that he had dreamt they 'disposed of him', rather like what happened to Jesus with his crucifixion. And they thought that was the end of it.

"But what they didn't know was that what they had meant for evil, God had meant to be their own salvation (Genesis 50.20)."

You see without Joseph being thrown in a well, he wouldn't have been sold to Ishmaelites, which would have meant he wouldn't have been a slave in Potiphar's house in Egypt, which in turn would mean that he wouldn't have been accused of rape, which would mean he wouldn't have ended up in jail, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been there to decipher the meanings of the dreams of the baker and cupbearer, which would have meant that he wouldn't have been able to decipher the King's dream, which would mean that he wouldn't have been able to save Egypt and the surrounding lands (including the land of Canaan where all his brother's lived), which would have meant that his whole family would have died.

In much the same way, if God was not merciful, then He would not have sent His son Jesus (who was both God and man) to be crucified, which would mean He (Jesus) wouldn't have taken the cost of all our sins, and if He hadn't taken the penalty for all our sins which is death (Romans 6.23a), we would all be facing eternity without God, Hell, rather than having what we now have (should we want it), the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6.23b).

Hey guys, use this website http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm to look up all the verses that I have mentioned. Just type each of them into the search bar at the top and choose a version you think you will find easiest to understand. The version I have used for my quotes here is the NIV.