Mark Radke was scheduled to take this chapter while Ginger & I were in Texas. In the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, everything changed, but we decided to stick with Mark and Luke 12.
Luke 12.pdf (Mark Radke)
Luke 12.mp3 (Mark Radke)
Here is a link to the livestream video: https://www.facebook.com/horizoncentral/videos/1399883910195033/
Luke 8 starts with teaching, but this will be followed by several amazing examples of Christ’s power. Jesus will encourage us to share the word with hope and to trust him when things begin to look hopeless.
Our Father in heaven,
In sending your Son, you gave us a person who we can watch, listen to, learn from and follow. Help us to be receptive to all that Christ wants to teach us. In other words, give us “ears to hear.” Help us to trust that you have everything under control, even when some of the circumstances in our lives seem out of control from our perspective.
We know that Jesus has all power over raging storms, physical illness, armies of demons and even death. Let us always be ready to seek Christ’s help and to follow him all the days of our lives. This is obviously what you, as our Father, want for us.
In Christ,
Amen.
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
That must have been some storm, to strike that kind of fear into a group of disciples, several of whom previously made their living by fishing on that same lake. After years of experience you might think they had seen it all. Maybe they hadn’t.
We can find ourselves in situations where experience is little help. In fact, maybe experience only tells us that all is surely lost. The disciples found themselves exactly there on this day. We may feel like that is where we are today.
And it may seem like Jesus is asleep. Where is God when you need him? Where is that Savior when our resources and abilities come to an end?
Jesus responded to their cries. He calmed the storm. His words, however, were not exactly reassuring. He didn’t say, “There, there, it’ll all be all right.” It was more along the lines of a rebuke, asking, “Where is your faith?”
Their voyage started with Jesus saying, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” He said it – and Jesus knows what he is talking about.
It is okay and even required that we pray. Sometimes God just doesn’t act without our prayers. But we need not panic. We can pray with faith. We can pray confidently that God will meet our need. We can wake Jesus up, but perhaps not with the same level or kind of fear the disciples showed on that night in the boat during the storm.
Central Reflections 