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?”

Personal Challenge

What a perfect example of how our lives get so easily out of alignment with our Lord. The disciples have been following Christ for some time now. They have seen Him perform miracles. They know that He is the Son of God and that He was always taken care of them, then as the storm around them begins to rear its ugly head, they immediately abandon all that they know and believe about their Lord and begin to worry. Jesus is right there on the same boat, sleeping like a baby. If the boat sinks, He goes down with it too. And yet they ignore this truth and begin to worry for their lives. God loves us and cares for us. He sent His Son to show us that love and to provide for us a path to Him. We must put our trust in Him and not the things of this world. When the world tries to upset that trust we can rest assured that no storm is too big for our God and follow Jesus’ example…take a nap and let the storm pass. Jesus is our resting place.

Psalms 17:1-9 (16:1-9. LXX)

Listen, O Lord of my righteousness;
Attend to my supplication;
Give ear to my prayer that is not with deceitful lips.
From Your face let my judgment come;
Let my eyes behold uprightness.
You tested my heart, when You visited me in the night;
You tried me in the fire, and found nothing unjust in me.
That my mouth might not speak of the works of men,
I held to hard ways because of the words of Your lips.
Restore my steps in Your paths,
That my footsteps may not slip.
I cried out, because You listened to me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me, and hear my words.
Magnify Your mercies,
O You who save those who hope in You
From those who rise up against Your right hand.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
In the shelter of Your wings, You will shelter me
From the face of the ungodly who trouble me.
My enemies surrounded my soul;

Encouraging Words

I love how the psalmist walks through so many of the ways that we can reach out to our Lord to guide us through our journey of life. Our Lord is always there for us, even when we choose to ignore Him and do things our own way. He does this because He loves us so much, and in that love, He also does not remove the consequences of our poor decisions. He will continue to walk with us through these consequences so that we can continue to grow and mature. In the end, we are still the apple of His eye and under His shelter. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be merciful to you;
the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” ’ ”

Personal Challenge

There used to be a day when the greeting and the salutation that was given to another was very important as a part of the relationship. We have lost that in our day of busy-ness and instant gratification. I know that I am guilty of this. I often give the very brief and often times disinterested, “Hello!” hoping that the other person will do the same so that we can both get on with our lives. However, if I am expected to love my neighbor and put their needs above my own, then maybe what God wants me to do is to take the time to truly engage with the other person and show them that they are important. This means that I have to set my own agenda aside. It means that I most be sincerely interested in them and their lives. It means that I will have to slow down and give time to those around me. Wow! Am I ready to do this? Am I willing to? Only by the grace of God and with His help. What a difference there would be in our world if those of us who profess Jesus as our Lord would begin to live our lives this way. Lord, help me to show your love this way.

Matthew 8:13

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

Personal Challenge

Talk about practical, living faith. The centurion knew that Jesus would be able to exercise His power of healing from anywhere and at any time. He knew that Jesus was not bound by time on distance. He believed this so deeply that He did not want to infringe upon Jesus and the work that He was doing by asking Him to come to His home to heal his servant. This centurion was not any different than all of the rest of us except for the amount of his faith. As I look at my own life I must ask myself whether or not I have this kind of faith. This is the kind of faith that can truly move mountains. And as we can see from the behavior of the centurion it is possible for every one of us to exercise this kind of faith. Glory be to God.

Psalms 16:11 (15:11)

Leviticus 26:12

I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

Encouraging Words

I am never alone on my journey through life. God has promised that He will walk amongst His people and be our God. And He never breaks His promises. He even went so far as to become human Himself and physically walked amongst us showing us how we could live our lives so that we could be even closer to Him. So, why is it that at times it feels like He is nowhere around? Is He playing some kind of cosmic, mystical game of hide-and-seek? No! if I take the time to truly search my heart and my life in these times I will find that is me that is playing hide-and-seek. God’s presence here amongst us is spiritual and even mystical. The more that I let the physical world occupy and control my life, my mind, and my heart, then the farther I am away from that spiritual connection. with God. He is always there. He is always present. He never changes. So it is up to me to keep putting to death the things of this earth so that there is room in my life for the spiritual, It is when I do this that I can run and jump into the arms of my heavenly Father and joyfully say, “Abba!” Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and the one doing the hiding!

Matthew 7:24-25

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”

Personal Challenge

So, given the current situation that we are in across our country with two political candidates who are both obviously antithetical to what Christianity tells us to look for in a leader, what are we to do as we exercise our right, privilege, and responsibility to vote. First of all, none of the candidates (all four of them) are the Rock that we are to build our house on. Only Jesus can fill that role. Second, none of the candidates (all four of them) are perfect candidates, for they, just like all of the rest of us, are humans and therefore have sin in their lives. So, what are we to do? The first thing is to do our research to understand who of the four candidates will best represent us in the role of president. This research must go past the mainstream media for they have their own agenda. Secondly, we should spend time assessing our own hearts and seek to understand where we are in our relationship with our Lord as we move into the next step. At this point we can and must spend time in prayer, seeking our Father’s guidance on who He would have us cast our vote for. Who has demonstrated integrity and can be measured by the fruit of their labors throughout their lives? If the preponderance of the fruit looks rotten, smells rotten, and feels rotten, then it is rotten. This is not an easy election season, but we have never been told that living a Christian life is going to be easy. We must remember though that casting a vote is more than doing it to prevent someone else from getting into office we should cast a vote for the person that God has shown us to be the best candidate. Exercising this responsibility in a thoughtful, prayerful, and godly way is part of hearing the words of Christ, doing them, and building our house on the Rock.

Oh, and by the way…if you do not profess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and strive to live your life for Him, then you can forget this whole line of thinking…it doesn’t apply to you. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have merey! Lord, have Mercy!

Psalms 16:7-9 (15:7-9 LXX)

I will bless the Lord who caused me to understand;
Moreover, until night my reins also instructed me.
I saw the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad,
And my tongue rejoiced exceedingly;
My flesh also shall dwell in hope.

Encouraging Words

There is a very interesting phrase is this text “until night my reins also instructed me.” Any form of training or instruction comes in the form of having the student constrained by reins so that the teacher can direct them to that place where the teaching can have its full effect. What a powerful image of seeing how God uses everything in our lives, both good and bad, both praise and correction, to guide us through our lives as a horseman would guide his steed by pulling on the reins. God does this in a gentle and loving way if we listen to Him. If we resist, then He must pull all that much harder to get us where He wants us to go. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have Mercy on me, the sinner!