Hello Sailor!

 

 

I travel well on the sea, for someone who spends 99.9% of their time on dry land. Although it does rain a lot where I live...

 

Twice I have been on really quite choppy waters, both times on the Bay of Biscay / North Atlantic sort of area. While I remember being unsteady on my feet and wondering how long it could possibly carry on for, I saw other people suffering a lot worse. There were people literally going a strange green colour, there was a lot of moaning and a distinct smell of sick in the toilets. And that was just the passengers! I imagine the crew weren't having the easiest day either - although possibly with less sickness involved.

 

Life isn't easy. Fact. We have words in our language for 'pain', 'grief', 'fear', 'tears', 'distress' - and these are everyday words. Everyday feelings. Hopefully not for each of us personally, every day - but for someone, somewhere, everyday.

 

I have navigated through some tough seas in my life. The likes of which I hope never to see again. I have been to places in my heart, and in real life, that I wished didn't exist for myself or for others. I have felt that at times, I was clinging to the very wreckage as the storms carried on. When I felt that it should stop. Now. Really. Actually, please God make it stop. But there was no respite and I wasn't learning to be much of a sailor while I had nothing to sail with.

 

Eventually however, those seas calmed. And for a really bad season, were replaced by new storms which threw up more bad times. I felt no better equiped to go through those storms, than ones I had previously.

 

After some years, life and my 'seas' calmed down. Finally. But I was battered. Destroyed. Not fit for purpose any more. Life carried on regardless. I repaired what I could. Life took me on more journeys.

 

That saying is true. Now in stormy seas now I am a better sailor. I prepare for those storms rather than face them vulnerable and exposed. I watch the forecast. I make sure I have a good crew around me. That there are supplies on board. Lifeboats ready to go.

 

Did God cause those storms? Did I not hear him in those times? I know that I searched to know something of God during those storms. Something, anything. Sometimes the answers were very loud. Visionary. Other times I heard only silence.

 

Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
They have seen the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
Their soul melted away in their misery.
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
He caused the storm to be still,
So that the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad because they were quiet,
So He guided them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,

 

O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty lord?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
You rule the swelling of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.

There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and chains,
Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
And for His wonders to the sons of men!

 

A Psalm mash up for the Jesus geeks (Psalm 89 & 107)

 

Image (c) daytobeyou.com

What lies beneath?

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

 

Ironically on the internet this quote is attributed to a varety of sources; Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Charles Spurgeon to name but a few. Someone is already telling porky pies. Although, is it a lie if they don't know that they have a misquote when the first quote that comes up in Google might not be a true quote? Is it a lie if the liar doesn't know it is a lie and has wanted to believe what they are told without searching for the truth themselves?

 

In a beautiful sermon I heard some time ago now, the speaker told a story of a woman in a church congregation who had been misinformed about a situation, and who then took it upon herself to broadcast this information, believing it to be true but knowing it was gossip.

 

The story was defamatory. It took the reputation of a pastor of a church and slandered it, dragging it down and making the 'news' public. Of course, in time, the woman found the story to be untrue and humbly went to the pastor she had destroyed the reputation of, to ask what she could do to repair the situation.

 

He responded "on the next windy day, take a pillowcase of feathers to the highest point of the hill behind the town. Empty that pillowcase and watch the feathers fly. Then go and catch every single feather."

 

Lies cannot be undone. They are too insubstantial to pin down, they hold no truth, and are not grounded in anything apart from fantasy. They multiply without warning and masquerade as truth. They do not even hold their own form but are shape shifters, changing as they move along.

 

In a world of modern technology, one comment, one claim, one lie - can go around the world in seconds and become impossible to retrieve, just as feathers on a windy day.

 

Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". I am guessing that this point was being made as he knew it would be contested. What do you believe? Are these words a lie? Are they truth? Was Jesus who he said he was? Was he the son of God? Did Jesus even exist? (Actually, do a bit of research on that one - even athiests have to acknowledge that some guy called Jesus did hit the radar of a few historians at the time). These questions need to be thought about and responded to.

 

Jesus geeks will find the verse in John 14:6.

 

Image (c) soadhead.com

 

 



Bible Bashers & God Botherers vs The World

Faith is a choice. No one can make you believe anything. You can be informed, educated, preached to or lectured at but it up to you what you do with that information. The trouble is, no one likes to be told what to do. We like to make up our own minds, find out for ourselves. How many times do you see a child about to make a mistake, try and warn them or explain to them the potential consequences, only to have to look on as it all goes horribly (and often painfully) wrong.

People who believe in Jesus, truly and passionately find it really hard to take the 'softly, softly' approach and are often accused of 'ramming it down people's necks'. Christianity isn't a marketing campaign, neither is it enforced without negotiation. It is choice, and a fairly simple choice. Are you in or are you out?

(Opting out is the easy option by the way.)

People who do believe, with a real and living faith, feel passion and joy. If these people are insisting on taking some time out of their day to pass this passion on, feel honoured. They care enough about you to try and make your life better.
 
Jesus told his followers "The gospel must first be preached to all the nations." This verse often gets given as the motivation for missionaries to venture into the deepest, darkest continents but this isn't the whole of it - the Oxford English Dictionary defines 'nation' as "a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory."

So if you are part of a family, history, or culture or inhabit somewhere, then Jesus was talking about you. He knew this without waiting around for the Oxford English Dictionary to be created almost some 2,000 years later.

So if everyone who believes in Jesus has a duty to tell everybody else, then this could feel like information overload, but the perception of 'bible bashing' or 'God bothering' is massively over exaggerated. If every day you heard about Jesus going to the cross for you, you might have a point. Chances are, in reality, you have to make a decision about what you believe very infrequently. But it is an important decision, and as Eleanor Roosevelt points out, who we are today is built on the decisions we made yesterday.

Jesus geeks will find the verse in Mark 13:10.

Image credit Tumblr.