Two Ways Jesus Hushed a Category 5 Hurricane

“And a great windstorm arose…”

    That’s how Mark, an early story-teller about Jesus, began his story about Jesus hushing a hurricane, while on a boat, in the middle of the surging sea.

Mark actually uses three violent words to describe this storm:

First, he actually labels it a hurricane (Mark 4:37).  

        Second, he said it was a great hurricane (can you hear the furious flapping of the sails?) 

Down here in the Low Country, we would call it a Category Five---Winds at or greater than 155 mph causing catastrophic damage to property, humans, and animals (read: you should be nowhere near this storm!). 

            Third, Mark mentions the ferocity of the wind.

Wind is tricky and untamed.  It darts around without a leash, omni-directionally.  

Wind is invisible.  

Wind is unpredictable, uncontrollable, and the worst is that it messes up your hair and snaps thick trees in half SUDDENLY.

And where was Jesus?

Jesus was snuggled into a cushion and sleeping like a baby on Benadryl.

Are you serious Jesus?

How can you be sleeping while gusts of hurt, exhaustion, anger, resentment, and tenseness rush through the chambers of my heart?

How dare you drool on a cushion while I dread the next step in my uncontrollable life?

• Wake up Jesus!

    …Mark continues his story, describing how his disciples had to shake him and wake him.  I guess Jesus isn’t emotionally controlled by the uncontrollable storms of life.  What kind of King is this anyway?

Imagine Jesus wiping his eyes, yawning, scratching his belly (he was a man after all!) and hearing his friends gripe with gusts of manipulative passive aggressiveness, “You don’t even care about us Jesus!  You don’t even care if we DIE!”

“And worse Jesus…you don’t even care about the suddenness of the wind and how sudden events scare and startle us.  C’mon Jesus!  We are entitled to a “sudden-free” life.  Remove the sudden surprises from our lives and do it NOW!  Submit to our control-- King Jesus!”

Rather than being long-winded, let’s notice two ways that Jesus hushed the hurricane.

First, Jesus didn’t ignore the pressing, presenting problem.

He ordered the wind (that invisible, omnidirectional, uncontrollable force) to tuck its tale and stop its blowing.

        With a puff of words- passing through the teeth of this King- the wind suddenly stood as still as a statue.

    My over-active imagination can hear a stow-away cricket chirping in the sudden silence.

Jesus can punch the pressing problems of our life in the gut and stop the gusts from ripping our lives apart.

We simply need to ask.

    In this story he decided to exercise his power.  

But many other scripture stories reveal that he sometimes allows presenting pressures to finally uproot us in order to replant us in a better place.

And this leads me to the second way Jesus hushes a hurricane.

Jesus hushes our hurricanes by confronting the wild winds blowing through our souls.

This is his deeper mercy and grace.

    Jesus calls his friends cowards and confronted them with their fear and mistrust of His messiahship. 

When the wild winds blow our self-ordered life around, the “kings” we really rely on for ultimate security get revealed.

    I regularly crown my “kings” of comfort, business, busy-ness,  approval, having enough money, unhindered planning, food, health, entertainment, kids and frictionless, relational interactions with trust.

    But those false kings shake and shift their heads, as I try to crown them, like the winds of a hurricane.  My trust in them causes catastrophic damage to God, others, myself and even creation.

What false kings do you trust?

What if Christ calms the hurricanes of our hearts by allowing some presenting hurricanes to topsy-turvy our false kings so that we finally crown him and him alone?

What if Christ suddenly motions you onto the slippery ice of life, onto the dance floor of your day- and gently orders you to resist your resistance and doubt your doubts about his Lordship?

    “But I may not perform well Jesus.  It’s windy, and I have trust issues.”

Can you hear Jesus reply?-

    “I performed perfectly so that you can change progressively, supplied by the gentle winds of my grace.”

Hey…Mark ends the story by saying that even the suddenness of the wind submits to Christ’s kingship.

    Let that gust of truth throw us around and shift our full allegiance onto Christ, and Christ alone

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church.

A Day at the Beach

Guest Blogger: Pastor John

Have you ever watched people at the beach? There are all types enjoying the setting in their own particular ways. Some enjoy basking in the sun---very rarely going in the water. Others enjoy walking the beach while taking in the scenery and having a conversation with a friend. Still others will wade into the waves as they break but not venture any further. Some enjoy the water and spend most of their time in the ocean.  A few will try to ride the water with boards and devices.  This is very similar to one’s involvement in mission work. Some people will serve on a missions team only in controlled environments---where they speak a common language or eat food they are familiar with. Others will, over time, attempt a new challenge in a location where the problems come faster and the difficulties are harder. Although the challenges are different, the rewards are as well.

Here is how Metro North Church has created mission opportunities so you can find what God is calling you to do:

In Church Missions -  Serving in the local church as nursery worker, usher, greeter, KICK teacher, youth leader, member of the praise team, productions team, etc. (You are serving with people you know in a relatively known context.)

Local Community Missions –Serving locally outside the church at a soup kitchen, service organization, volunteering at a public school or library, coaching a ball team, etc. (You are serving with people you may not know in a context that may be a little new or even foreign.)

Stateside Missions- Serving on a missions trip in the United States. For Metro North this includes serving on our mission trip to Orangeburg or at a Workcamp. (You are serving in a new context with people who are new, sleeping in a new place, and maybe eating some new foods.)

International Missions – Serving on a foreign mission trip for a time period of one week to one year.  For Metro North we have taken past trips to Jamaica, Bulgaria, and Juarez, Mexico. (Here you will serve people you may never meet again, who speak a different language, and eat strange foods.)

Long-Term Missions - Finally there are those who accept the biggest challenge. They have listened to the call of God to go and serve in other nations for possibly years. They accept the challenge of each new context and trust the Lord to expand His kingdom through them. These are the missionaries we regularly support like the Romans in Bulgaria, The Goodwins in Germany, the Jones in North Africa, and the Bakelaars in Japan. Their sacrifice is huge and we can regularly pray for them as they serve.

What’s the point in all of this? Simply put, God uses each of us in every one of these spheres. In each venue He’s calling us to serve and to continually trust Him more as we meet new challenges, learn new truths about Him, and serve new people.

In September our Missions team will begin promoting the available trips for this coming summer, which this year will include a local mission trip, a stateside mission trip and an international opportunity.  Prayerfully consider what God would have you do. Take the first step and start serving in some area of mission!


John Schley
Associate Pastor
Metro North Church

Two Ways to Detrain Godlessness

I’ll admit it.

I’m hooked.

Have you moved from mild allurement to entrenched addiction with the Olympics in Rio yet?

Watching the Olympic athletes compete gets my blood pumping and churning.

Seeing a fellow human being perform with beauty, strength and perfection pleases me at a very deep level.

But when you and I watch these elite athletes compete, we are only seeing the effects of their prior training.

What about all of the painful practice sessions that preceded their performance?

Paul, the famous perfectionist-turned-pastor wrote to his young friend Tim a challenging text message about training a long time ago:

1 Timothy 4:7-8  Rather train yourself for godliness;  8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Did you notice that Tim was challenged to train for something greater than even a sport’s competition?

He was challenged to train for godliness.

·       What exactly is godliness?

The Greeks used the word eusebeia (our word “godliness”) when they wanted to encourage people to devote 100 percent of their heart and soul to the gods.

Paul snatches this over-the-top devotional word and says “Tim, a Christian must train for a life that erupts with 110 percent ardent commitment, loyalty and love for the triune God.”

Is your heart enflamed with inward delight leading to outward acts in the service for our God of love?

Maybe your heart flickers weakly like a candle trying to light the darkness on a windy beach.

Did you know??--Our hearts often fail to exercise a fervent godliness because we live out of our “default training.”

We all exercise practices that give us pleasure and purpose driven by a selfish, godless training regimen.

We work-out in our self-oriented gymnasiums of

-  Excessive Entertainment

-  Excessive Social Media Surfing

-  Over and Under-Eating

-  Workaholism

-  Performancism

-  Substance Abuse

-  Even Athletic Addictions

Paul gave Tim two ways to de-train godlessness.

First, Paul highlighted how godliness holds promise for the present life.

Said another way, devoted commitment to God promises life now.

Life!

A present foundation and feeling of animated vitality connected to the very life of God NOW!

Our default training is to focus on our selfish demands NOW!

But we suck everyone and everything into the black holes of our demanding desires and bring death.

Let’s train for the opposite. 

Let’s respond to God’s outgoing love for us in Christ by training in Godliness and living into Christ as the animating center of all that we think and do.

A devoted concern for God and His glory can break the spell of our obsessive self-concern.

How?  Let’s worship together on Sunday

Pray for each other

Visit each other when we are sick or stuck

Share our stuff with each other

Be interested in the interests of others

and enjoy the joys that God gives us every moment in smaller groups of committed community as we walk through life together.

The second way to de-train godlessness is to look to the future.

The Olympic athlete trains for the future prize.  The gold metal shimmers and glimmers on the horizon of their hope.

For the Christian, we not only have an effervescent, abundant life connected to God and others now, but we have the promise of a life knitted into God and others for eternity.

When we only look down in despair at our present suffering, we get locked in the labyrinth of our default training in self-absorption.

Let’s train for godliness by looking forward and toward our new destiny and hope.

·       Life without a compelling horizon leaves us aimless, adrift and bored.

The Christ-follower is becoming more and more human again as we are living into rich and real relationships centered on God and others.  The kingdom has broken in and re-creation is replacing ruin.  Can you see it?

Hey.  Grab a towel and join me for some training.

We’re gonna need each other as we disengage our default training and train for a life eagerly committed to Jesus.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Questions about questions. Curious?

Is it true that a person gives his true self away in the questions he asks?

Did you ever notice that Jesus loved to slip sacred questions into ordinary conversations?

Why did he enjoy and employ so many curious questions?

Was his goal to simply unsettle the settled status-quo or to re-root us into his liberating reality?

     What exactly is a question?

Is it a child-like quest that seeks and searches playfully for a reply?

Why do children love questions, live with questions and bounce like a ball through life by questions?

Why did Jesus ask “Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying?” (Matthew 6:27)

Why didn’t he just give a solid statement like “Worry is a waste of time and it can’t prolong your life so STOP!”?

Why do statements seem to bounce off of our bullet-proof hearts while questions seem to slide and soak in, like soft butter oozing into hot bread?

Why did Satan ask Eve “Did God really say you must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)

Did that question slither into Eve because of its oily deceptiveness?

Why did Jesus ask two blind men “Do you think I can do this?” (Matthew 9:28) before he switched on their sight?

Do you think his question was aimed to help them to say what they saw—to help them to see his strength more than their sightlessness?

     Why is it so easy to ignore and refuse a true fact aimed directly at us?

Why do we tighten up and experience a temporary incapacitation after being tased with a truth?

After a good question skips into our situation-- like a flat rock skipping on the surface of a lake-- why do we feel free and released as it finally sinks into us and rests on the floor of our heart?

Why does a great question offer a warm invitation to throw open all the windows and locked doors of your soul to allow the fresh air in?

Why does a question have the Ninja-like ability to sneak over, under, around and even through our defensive mind-armor?

Why did Jesus ask his Father-- as he hung on the cross, in searing pain for sinners who abandoned him--,  “Why have you abandoned me?”

Was this question by the sinless Christ out of the question?

Does God conquer or sponsor death as we consider the cross?

     Why did God ask Adam and not Eve “Where are you?” after they both sinned?

Why didn’t God give immediate justice to both of them and instead gave Adam this undeserved question?

Since God knows everything, when he asked Adam “Where are you?” was God really needing more information?

Did God ask Adam about his whereabouts to gracefully assist Adam to assess and address his spiritual location and situation?

After Adam answered God with a statement of fear and nakedness and hiding, why did God reply back with another question: “Who told you that you were naked?” instead of a quick verdict of condemnation?

Was God kindly helping Adam to assess and admit the self-focused sources of authority Adam was trusting instead of God?

Why did God ask the final question, “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

Was God trying to make Adam guilty?

After Adam transferred blame onto the woman, and the woman transferred blame onto Satan, why did God transfer blame onto innocent animals and clothe our first parent’s shame in innocent skins of grace?

Does our current culture even admit that guilt is real?

Doesn’t our current culture teach that guilt is unreal and should be ignored and replaced with self-love?

     Has the church been salted and lit by the statements of the world?

What if you asked a person who would deny the reality of guilt “Do you believe in forgiveness?” before you blasted them with a statement like “You are guilty and a sinner!”?

Wouldn’t that person most likely admit that they believed in forgiveness?

Don’t we all have a primal belief in forgiveness or at least hope that it might be true?

Wouldn’t it be better to ask a person “Do you believe in guilt?” only after you asked them “Do you believe in forgiveness?”

Since imitation just might be the highest form of worship, what if Christ-followers asked more questions, imitating Christ’s style of life, and gave less conclusions?

What if the next time you experienced a yuck-producing disagreement with a lover, friend, son, daughter, or boss you became more curious about why they disagreed instead of shooting statements at them?

Why did Jesus say “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die, Do you believe this?” (John 11:27)

Do you believe this?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church