Storms - Part 3
Josh Knipple finishes the series on storms. What encouraging messages he has shared. Ty Josh
You know as a writer sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads what I write. In full disclosure there are moments when I will pray asking God if I should even keep writing. Do others understand the simplicity and practicality of my faith as I learn from my kids? Is my writing helping others to understand more about who He is? Then I wrote last months column about a conversation in our hot tub with Silas and his simple, “Jesus, I believe in you.”
Needless to say God answered my prayers to keep writing through your responses. So to all you out there reading, thank you. God used you to answer some of my prayers. Expressing to me how much you have enjoyed the stories I share, and the simplicity of learning to have faith like a child. So as long as you’ll keep reading, I will keep writing.
Here goes nothing, another story about our time in the hot tub because that seemed to really connect. First off, you have to understand, having four kids piled into that small area turns into absolute chaos. Water everywhere, footprints tracked through the house, and a high amount of screaming. It also means we end up with toys in the hot tub: swim goggles, boats, legos, diving blocks, all of it. There is one toy though that always seems to be in the center, the boys boat “Bullstroke” from Thomas the Train.
A couple years ago I decided to just embrace the chaos and share with them a Bible story. “Hey guys have you ever heard about Jesus calming the storms. with just the sound of his voice,” I ask dramatically. Eli chimes in instantly, “Yeah, yeah Dad, I think I heard about that at Bible 2 School.” I start out by telling them about how we are talking fishermen, men who are used to being on the water, and have faced storms before. For them to be scared we are talking one doozy of a storm. When we talk about screaming help, help it’s more than just a whisper and a gentle tug on Jesus shoulder. (To be blunt it was probably mixed in with a bit of language I won’t share with my kids) “You guys getting the picture yet?” I ask? To create a little more drama for the kids to understand I start to create waves with my hands so the water starts to go over the sides tipping Bullstroke up on end and causing it to sink. With this the twins start chiming in, “Help, Help, Tanic” (Their best way of saying Titanic) in a loud 3 year old scream. All four kids then look to me and wait until I turn the jets off, and the water goes calm; instantly.
“So dad you’re telling me that Jesus was sleeping?” Silas asks. That’s what it says. “And they woke him?” Yep. “Then He just got up, said peace, and the waves listened.” At this you can see the bewilderment in their minds as one of them responds with a long, drawn out, “CRAAAAZZZZY, Jesus voice is like you hitting the off switch, and it just stopped.”
It got me thinking though about storms in our lives and how many times we are like the fisherman. We begin freaking out, scared out of our minds, thinking as if God doesn’t care. He might be in the boat with us but instead of turning to him, we try and scoop the water out ourselves. We might seek others opinions of what to do, even when we know the answer to what is going on could be as simple as crying out to Jesus. What if there are moments where God is waiting for us to look to him so he can hit the “off switch” on the jets and bring peace to our lives? Do we believe that Jesus is still the same Jesus from Scripture, with the same power now that He had then. So if He could calm the literal storms with just a simple command, what is it we need to bring before Him? I will finish this column with the story straight from Scripture. Ask God to speak into your storms today as you read through it.
He said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35, 37-41 NIV
Do we still believe that Jesus has that type of power? That He truly is the all powerful omnipotent God. That He has power over every storm you are facing; doctor report, family issue, addiction, you name it, He can handle it.
Make it a Wholesome Wednesday! God is good…