Deb Gerard’s Blog

Matt 8:27 “So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be that even the winds and the seas obey Him?”.  Even today, at this special time of the year, having just celebrated Easter, many ask that same question, though, more often with scorn and ridicule.  Who, indeed, is this One whom the storms and winds obey!? 

The disciples were in a boat and Jesus was there too, though He was sleeping.  A storm came up.  The disciples feared for their lives, but Jesus kept sleeping!  They finally went to Jesus and woke Him up.  He responded, “Why are you afraid?” and then spoke to the wind and the storm and all became calm.  This action on the part of Jesus prompted the question set out at the start of this blog.  Who is this who can calm the storm?  Who is this who has such power?  The unasked questions are “Who is this if not God?  Who can calms storms but God?

The reality of the situation is that it was Jesus, God in man form, who calmed the sea.  It was this same God-man who hung on the cross to pay the debt of my sin.  It was this same One who was resurrected- brought back to life- and because He was so can I one day be!  The One who calmed the storm for the disciples has become the Rescuer for me.  He wants to rescue you too.  Aren’t you glad?

Reading through the book of Leviticus, I was impressed by the number of times God reminds the reader (in this case, ME!) that He IS THE LORD!  God must have known how often I would forget this-how many times I would need to be reminded of this fact-HE IS THE LORD!

I go through so many of my days as if it was all about me, as if there was no One high and lifted up to whom I am ultimately and always, moment by moment, accountable to.  “I AM the LORD” He calls out to me from the pages of His Book.  “I am the LORD” He shouts to me from all creation.  “I AM the LORD” He whispers to me during trial and trouble and in the anxious places deep in my heart.  “I AM the LORD” He proclaims when joy floods my whole soul in the midst of miraculous times.

This is truth-HE IS THE LORD and it is so good to be reminded!

My husband and I spent last summer working out in our woods.  We were cutting in a road along our boundary line.  Now, this particular line happened to run through a very swampy area.  It was dense and overgrown and required much effort to clean out.  My hubby was the tree cutter and I was the “brusher”.  My job was to haul the limbs and brush into the woods and off the newly made road.  One day, as I was reflecting back on last summer’s work, I thought about the hard work the pioneers had when they first cleared this land that I had recently brushed.  I was sure that I had sweat as much as they did back in the day!!  I thought of those pioneers making such effort to initially clear this land and our efforts this past summer to make this road.  I then made this kind of spiritual leap that often happens in my thought processes!  I thought about the effort it takes to make roads into the land of the lost-paths into the lives of those precious people who don’t know Jesus as their personal Savior.  There are obstacles, much like the trees we had cut, that stand in the way of getting into the land of the lost.  There are rough spots that we must get through to make inroads into this land.  Yet, just like our efforts to make a road through the swamp have results, so do our efforts to make paths to Jesus in the lives of the lost.  I now get to look down into our woods and see a trail through what was once just a dense swamp.  Sunlight now floods that area and will dry up some of that swampland.  In the land of the lost, however, the rewards of showing the way to Jesus are much greater.  They now have Light where once was only darkness and that Light shines in the darkness and makes the way clear; they are now on the road to heaven instead of hell.  My sweat and effort to brush and make that road last summer left me tired to the bone but with a sense of accomplishment.  My efforts at showing a lost person the road to Jesus has also left me tired to the bone, but with joy and praise for God who makes such a thing possible.  Making roads into swamps and making paths to Jesus for a lost person take a great deal of effort, yet the end results are so different!  One simply ends in another part of our woods-the other can change eternal destiny !!  It caused me to wonder where I ought to be expending the most energy!