Sunday, February 20, 2011
Little Ships
11:08 PM
On Sunday (Feb 20th), I taught the Sunday School lesson in church. It was rather fascinating to be completely honest. As I was preparing, I realized that I needed a lot of class participation. There wasn't a lot I could do and that scared me. I was nervous that I wouldn't have enough material and the class wouldn't participate and it would all fail. But of course, they were awesome.
Can you imagine? You hear a man preaching and you are intrigued by Him. You don't know why, you just know you want to hear more. Well, you've seen Him perform miracles and you know that He claims to be the Messiah. Surely it can't be true...but there is something... His apostles take Him onto a boat on the water. You know the only way to learn for certain if this man is really the Messiah is to follow Him. So you do. (Those are the little ships.)
How often is this us today? I know that I frequently find myself feeling all alone and lost in a great sea being tossed by a terrible storm. I don't know what to do and all I wanted was to get in my little ship and follow Christ. All I wanted was to get to Him - and I got caught in this storm! But, I pray to Christ to save me, and He finally does. Sometimes the storms feel as though they last forever (and the often do). It is still important in those times that we remember the Savior and stay close to Him.
Our goal should be to get to Jesus. We see Him get in His boat, and so we faithfully climb into ours so we can follow Him. When the storm comes, we should not jump into the water - that seems foolish even with a life-jacket. But we should call on Jesus' name in faith and remember that He will calm the storm. We may not see it, but we will benefit from the effects of it. We may not know when relief will come, but we know that if we have faith it will.
What an awesome principle to be taught today in Sunday School, right? I was amazed and so grateful.
I hope that all made sense. :)
Signing out.
Me.
In class we talked about some of the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament. We talked about healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving sins, casting out devils, and calming storms. We also talked about the faith to see daily miracles in our own lives and how there are so many if we just take the time to look for them.
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| My picture of a little ship |
Well, one of the class members was reading in Mark 4 and he read a line that I had never noticed before. In verse 36, it reads, "And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships." Verse 37 continues, "And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship".
This line struck me as it never had before. Not only was Christ on the water with the apostles, but there were many of His listeners that had also gotten in 'little ships' in order to follow Him.
Can you imagine? You hear a man preaching and you are intrigued by Him. You don't know why, you just know you want to hear more. Well, you've seen Him perform miracles and you know that He claims to be the Messiah. Surely it can't be true...but there is something... His apostles take Him onto a boat on the water. You know the only way to learn for certain if this man is really the Messiah is to follow Him. So you do. (Those are the little ships.)A great storm appears, seemingly out of nowhere. You are a tiny little ship all alone (I think of a canoe or kayak - one man. middle of the sea of Galilee {a lake-ish}). You followed this man on a hunch, and now you're in the middle of a raging tempest. What do you do? The only thing you can do is pray. Pray to God. Perhaps even pray to the man you hope is the Messiah. You call out to Him, not knowing that His apostles are doing the same on the boat with Him. You can't see Him, you don't know where He is or where He is going. You are alone. Praying to God to save you from the storm.
Suddenly, the storm stops. It leaves. You can see around you and you see the other little ships just like yourself that weathered the storm. You see the big ship with the Messiah on it. You don't know about the miracle that just took place. You don't know what Jesus did. All you know is that the storm stopped when you called to Him and it finally did.
How often is this us today? I know that I frequently find myself feeling all alone and lost in a great sea being tossed by a terrible storm. I don't know what to do and all I wanted was to get in my little ship and follow Christ. All I wanted was to get to Him - and I got caught in this storm! But, I pray to Christ to save me, and He finally does. Sometimes the storms feel as though they last forever (and the often do). It is still important in those times that we remember the Savior and stay close to Him. Our goal should be to get to Jesus. We see Him get in His boat, and so we faithfully climb into ours so we can follow Him. When the storm comes, we should not jump into the water - that seems foolish even with a life-jacket. But we should call on Jesus' name in faith and remember that He will calm the storm. We may not see it, but we will benefit from the effects of it. We may not know when relief will come, but we know that if we have faith it will.
What an awesome principle to be taught today in Sunday School, right? I was amazed and so grateful.
I hope that all made sense. :)
Signing out.
Me.
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About Me
- Nashelle
- I am a wife, sister, daughter, friend. Dancer, actor, singer, pianist. Reader, sleeper, cross-stitcher, photographer. I am Nashelle and on this blog you will see me doing what I love to do best - being me!
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