Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
We return to the crossing of the Sea (Lake) of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41). After Jesus miraculously stills the strong storm, He proceeds in verse 40 to use this event to instruct His disciples: “And He said unto them, ‘Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?’” Jesus has specifically commanded, “Let us pass over unto the other side” (verse 35b). This command is also a promise, for it reveals the perfect and powerful determinative will of our Savior God. The disciples are powerless in the face of the tempest’s onslaught – that is, they could not by themselves overcome its peril. However, power is available to them – the power of faith. Paul wrote in II Timothy 1:7a, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power.” Faith in Jesus (certainly not in ourselves) casts out fear, for such faith finds rest in His power. We have been through an extended period of time in which fear has been promulgated by ruling elites to cow and to control the populace. I know people who obsessively follow social media and parrot the profiteering non-prophets of doom. When we are surrounded by so much contrived terror (and by some legitimate concerns, such as loss of basic freedoms), we can become timid and nervous. Instead, let us learn the lesson that the disciples in the storm needed to learn – that Jesus can always be trusted to fulfill His promises.