PEACE BE STILL
Today’s Reading: Mark 4
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).
Early morning calm over the Sea of Galilee. This is the view from the modern city of Tiberius looking northeast.
GOOGLE MAPS – See where Reynold took the photo Click HERE.
Key Verse: Mark 4:39
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Peter was there and tells Mark the story, and Mark passes it on to us. Peter was practically raised on the sea, but now he and the others are dumfounded. Jesus is sleeping on the balast pillow below deck. He demonstrates PEACE within Himself in the midst of the storm, then He demonstrates that He is at PEACE with all circumstances. No wonder they ask, “Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (verse 41). This is “100 fold” living. The miracles of Jesus put 100 exclamation points behind His teaching. They say, “Pay close attention.” This encourages us to not only read His Word, but to learn, meditate, write in the margins of our Bibles, and hide His Word, not just in our minds and memories, but in our hearts. “So then FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). We decide. Will we be of “no faith” (verse 40) or a growing faith which always produces PEACE in life’s storms?
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, grant that I may have Your PEACE. You rested without worry in the storm. But if I should panic, You are there to speak PEACE. Thank You, Jesus! Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
You can click on the link just below the picture of the Sea of Galilee above and see the location of the photo on a Google Map. This body of water is approximately 700 feet below the level of the Mediterrenean Sea, which is only about 30 miles away. The wind currents come barrelling down between the mountains, and depending on wind speed and direction, a storm on the water can whip up in no time. On our Holy Land Tours we always have a time in the Word aboard a ship on the Sea. These stories of Jesus come fully alive to all of us. One of my favourite Galilee memories is of our sons, who help me in this blog. Reynold and Ron water skied on Galilee. When our second daughter was married in Cana to Nizar, seven bus loads of Canadians came with us to celebrate. One of the Israeli guides had a power boat and offered the experience of water skiing. It was the next best thing to walking on the water…Great fun! By the way, there was no storm that day.
Yours to experience the PEACE that Jesus gives and to have fun along the way,
David
Wonderful scripture, today. We are of growing faith, placed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for speaking peace into our minds to still us when we feel overwhelmed and afraid, Lord. We trust in You and You alone. Thank You for the peace you give us. We give You all the glory and praise. In Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen. Wishing all saints a most blessed day.
O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
Psalm 30:2 ESV
Thank You Lord – Don Moen – Worship Video w/lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRY28AkgLmg
Yes, Amen Beverlee. Thank you, I worshiped together with the song
Thank You, Lord God, for the peace You give. You are truly the Prince of Peace. Bless all Your people with Your presence today, even in the midst of storms. Help each one to enter into Your rest. In Jesus’s great name, amen
Amen
Amen Rob
Yes, Amen Rob
Amen
Agreeing with your prayer today, Rob. Thank you for the great worship music, Beverlee. I do wonder why Jesus didn’t want people to perceive the truth & believe. Anyone got thoughts on that? Have a great day folks.
“In verse 12, the Lord Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10 and if we grasp the meaning of that, we will be able to understand the verse in question. Isaiah’s sins had just been cleansed and immediately he offered himself to the Lord as His messenger. The Lord responded with these words, “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Isaiah was given a message for the people in Israel that would, in effect, make their hearts harder and they would be blinded to the truth. Why would the Lord do this? Because He had proclaimed His Word to them time and time again and they had continually hardened their hearts and rejected the truth. They had proved that they did NOT want the truth, so now God would give them over to judgment by preaching to them a message they couldn’t understand. In W. E. Vine’s Commentary on Isaiah he writes, “The people had so persistently perverted their ways that they had gone beyond the possibility of conversion and healing. A man may so harden himself in evil as to render his condition irremediable, and this by God’s retributive judgment upon him.”
“In our portion in Mark 4:11-12, the Lord Jesus is telling His disciples that just as Isaiah preached to a people a message they could never understand, so He too would speak to “them that are without” in parables that they would never understand. He is referring to all those who had heard Him preach and had willfully rejected the truth. Like the people in Isaiah’s day, their hearts were so hard that they had, in essence, come to “the point of no return.” They had heard the truth simply and plainly for the last time and now the Lord would only speak in parables which would result in them being even more blinded to the truth.
“We believe there are those today who fall into this class of people. They have heard the gospel of God’s grace over and over again and each time they hear it they spurn God’s love and grace. They have become so hardened to the good news of Jesus Christ that God has given them over to what we may call “judicial blindness,” where they will never have the opportunity to repent and be forgiven. A solemn example of God’s judicial blindness is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” After the rapture of the church there will be many people who will be given over to the lie of the Antichrist. They had heard the gospel prior to the rapture, but “they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Now they are at the “point of no return!” Salvation’s day is past and their doom will be sealed as they gladly accept the Antichrist and the lie that he is God. We must emphasize that they did NOT want the truth, so God simply delivered them over to what they did want: the LIE! (167.9) (DO)”
Wow. Thank you, Beverlee. Very scary. Hard to hear that. Sounds a bit like the unpardonable sin. I guess we just keep praying for them though because we can’t really see their thoughts & past experiences. Disturbing.
Thanks for the explanation, Beverlee .I had the same question that Doreen had. That was a great explanation! Also thanks for always posting a worship song.
Thank you Beverlee, your answer to the question was excellent. Easy to understand and backed up with scripture.
I have a confession to make, I forgot to pray for the ladies at 3pm yesterday. I did it later last night,.
It is almost three now so I will pray then.
Blessings to all Eleanor M.
Thanks Beverlee
Girls, I did not write that explanation–it is in quotes; searched on the internet and found this answer which I liked.
Amen
Thank you Beverley for the many worship songs you send to all of us.
I often send them unto my friends ; so many of them I have never heard before.
There is always a message in the music.
Having an attitude of gratitude is so powerful and takes our eyes off of our problems and unto the One who can make all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
Amen Karen.
Amen
Thank you Beverlee!!!
Praying at 3 today.
You are doing God Will explaining His Word to us.
God Bless You
Great explanation for a difficult passage. Thank you Beverlee for posting and yes it is scary. Thanks also for your worship songs. I’m sure we Maritimers know that 3pm for our prayer time is 4pm here. Not feeling well today and would appreciate prayer for a colonoscopy test. Thank you saints.
Praying now Ger.
Just prayed for you, Ger and for everyone on this blog, at 3 pm
Thank you Beverlee for your explanation to Doreen’s question. As you emphasized, it’s when people have WILLFUL UNBELIEF , that God leads them to the consequences of said unbelief. We know that He doesn’t want that anyone should perish but people CHOOSE to have their own way and suffer for it. God is merciful but He is also righteous and will not excuse sin
Praying that the Prince of Peace will grant all of us His perfect peace, no matter what we may be facing.
Amen Luisa
Lord touch Ger’s spirit, soul and body with Your anointing oil for peace of mind and soul, Amen thank You Jesus
Praying for you sister Ger, for the colonoscopy. His healing Hand upon you.
Amen
What a glorious picture, thank you Reynold, thank you Ron for posting it
Agreeing with Irene for Reynold’s photo.