Christian Photographers Community

Just finished  writting this little tract, thought I might share these thoughts about three sea voyages with you all, I hope you like it, and get at least some blessing out of my thoughts, love to all Michael.  


Storm Tossed
In the bible there are three stories of groups of people who put to sea, were caught unexpectedly in a storm and were all in fear of their lives.  I won't include Noah, because he built a ship that could weather the deluge that he knew was coming and for which God had forewarned him.

First of all there was the story of disobedience, then a story of disbelief, then a story of belief and faith in action. Actually, these stories all have an ending of faith in action.

The first story is the tale of Jonah, who was told by God to go to Nineveh to tell the people there of God's wrath and their impending doom. I think Jonah was frightened of the task God had given him to do, but nevertheless, wherever he went, God's presence brought salvation. It's interesting that if Jonah had been obedient to God's command in the first place, the sailors on that ship may have run into a storm, and their ship could have gone down, without their ever knowing about the great God Jehovah, and they would have perished trusting in their own gods that had no power to save them from perishing. Jonah's actions were desperate in telling those frightened sailors to throw him overboard so that all would be well for them if they trusted his God.  I believe that Jonah actually drowned (what authority do you have for this? I'd leave this out if I were you, as it adds nothing to your narrative) and in the belly of the whale he had a resurrection, in the psalm that he wrote it does suggest this.

   In the second instance, twelve very frightened disciples went to Jesus and said, to Him, "Do you not care that we are perishing." Their little fishing vessel was about to be swamped by the waves out on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord, though, rebuked them, saying. "Ye of little faith." They weren't without faith - they went to the right person to do something about the storm! Could it be that while He was saying that they had little faith they were trying desperately to bail out water from a sinking ship, labouring hard by their own efforts  to save themselves, the ship, and Jesus as well - instead of asking Him to calm the storm in the first place? Remember that Jesus was asleep, and, perhaps, like us, they didn't want to trouble God with a storm they thought they could weather - until it became life threatening. I hope it's obvious here that we need to bring our troubles to the Lord in prayer before they become overwhelming and we can't deal with it.

Our third instance involves the Apostle Paul in chains and on his way to Rome to appeal to Caesar.  Something very similar to Jonah's situation occurs.  A violent storm arises and threatens to swamp the ship in which Paul is sailing.  On board are men whose faith is in other gods or no gods at all.  The Roman soldiers on board are ready to kill Paul and throw him overboard, but on this occasion no one gets drowned, even though they lose the ship, and they come safely to shore.  Why? Because the Spirit of God takes over, and through a dream Paul has, and, in the strength of Christ's Spirit, Paul could direct the actions of the soldiers, the crew, and the passengers on that boat so that all should be saved and not one perish.

in each of these three instances not a soul perished in the frightful storms, and in each case every man acted on what God had to say.  The Bible doesn't tell us they were free from trouble, and I'll bet each and every person aboard those boats was terrified, but, for one reason or another, they listened to God's voice, forsook what they knew, and trusted what they were told. Put it this way - do you feel that the storms you face are going to overwhelm your life and lead to a death - with no hope? God says, "Stop trusting in your own efforts. Instead, put all your trust in Me, through My provision in Christ, and believe the words, which I have spoken to you. Believe, in other words, the Bible.

Suumicron - here's your great little homily - edited by yours truly.  Hope you don't mind.

Thanks for posting this, Michael.  Will have a read in a little while.

(I moved it to our area for our items like this from our Thoughts for the Week.)

Pat ...

Michael, will you get this printed?  Or will you print it yourself? 

Thanks for sharing this with all of us.

Thank's Al, I'd quite forgotten about this little tract, it sounds right to me, now then I think I've written this as a tract in itself. I always print a few copies out Pat. and always support the text with some appropriate clipart, so what I'll do now is copy the text of the modified tract and transfer it to the document.

this was really a blessing

Right I'm, sending you one, get ready. Never mind no Email address I can't, these are tracts I write myself with appropriate clipart.

Thanks Michael!

I might just send you some more down the wire, got quite a few that I wrote. I need to look at them first and review them.

You know something, when you feel low, and nothing seems to be happening in your life and that's how I feel a lot these days, just look at the statistics of what you have in this kind of testimony, it says 595 for what I have written here, it could mean that well over 500 people have read this, and who knows how many have come to faith through these words, how many Christians have been encouraged through them, faith built up, God therefore uses all ways to bring individuals into a relationship with himself, you may not be on the streets evangelising, but God's message of salvation may be reaching more people than you can ever preach too, a still small voice reaching to someones heart.

When there seems nothing to praise God for, look at the stats, so many people have read your message of hope. I am a child of God, he is my father, and unknowingly I am fulfilling the task appointed to every believer. "Go out into the world and preach the gospel," It may not be face to face, but its message of hope being spread abroad, now that is something to shout hallelujah too, "Hallelujah."

Michael I have printed it out so that I can read it while waiting for John at his appointments. 

Bless you, Michael for sharing.

Definately needed this--going through a "rough time and it looks like it will get rougher before better.

Trusting in the Lord is all I can do at this time.

In my talk to HIM this morning; I said, well, LORD, here it is the worst ever for me and I am waiting to see how you will take care of this.

Felt the peace of HIS love in me as soon as I release the burden to HIM and then I read your message.

Printing the message out to take with me for the weekend.

Yes, HE is good to us.

Joyce

Joyce the waiting on the Lord can be tough.  BUT worth it.

Michael I enjoyed the reading as well  Thank you.