Who is this?

by Mark.

That day when evening came,

He said to His disciples, 

"Let us go over to the other side."

Leaving the crowd behind,

the took Him along, just as He was,

in the boat.

There were also other boats

with Him.

A

 furious squall

 came up, 

and 

the waves broke

 over the boat, 

so that it was nearly 

swamped

.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping

on a cushion. 

The disciples woke Him 

and said to Him, "Teacher,

don't you care

 if we drown

?

"

He got up, rebuked the wind and said

to the waves, "

Quiet! Be still!

"

Then the wind died down 

and it was completely calm

.

He said to His disciples,

"Why are you so afraid?

Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other,

"

Who is this?

Even the wind and the waves

obey Him!"

[mark 4:35-41]

Do you know who this is?

It is Jesus, King of Wind and Wave--

Jesus, King of Earth and Sea,

Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man,

Jesus, loving Friend of Sinners...

buh nuh.

“buh nuh. buh nUH. bUH NUH. BUH NUH. BUHNUH! REE REE REE REE!!!!!”

—Husband, in an IM message. I read it and look up to see him crawling across the floor from the other room with a mischievous grin on his face. I throw my head back and laugh. Next thing I know, he’s advanced to my chair and has his arms around me making menacing kissing sounds at my face. I laugh more.

It was a good moment.

In the throes of death

I watched a fly die this afternoon.

I was trying to read a book in the Seminary commons, but a persistent and sporadic buzzing kept distracting me. I looked over to see a fly on its back, about 10 feet from me, buzzing and flailing its little fly legs. It couldn't aright itself. It couldn't fly. It couldn't move. Then it quit struggling, and I thought that was surely the last of the fly. I sort of mourned its death and thought again about the transience of life and what it must be like to be in the last moments of life before death comes...

I returned to my book and shortly thereafter the buzzing started again. This time I cared less about the stupid fly and just wanted to be left to read my book in peace. It buzzed, it flailed, it ceased, it died. And I enjoyed the quiet.

Mark! You changed my life!

The book of Mark.
It's changed my life not once but twice---

I was a young teenager and over the last several weeks something crazy happened to me. I encountered the word of God: beautiful and full of truth. I encountered the Word of God: beautiful and powerful. I began to pray, to worship, to search the Scripture. Life was changing. As that summer drew to a close, there was a decision point. It was time to go back to school in California which meant that I would be leaving this community of Christian disciples in Washington. . . . I had the hem of Christ's garment in one hand, and my torn fishing net in the other. What to do? To leave Washington meant basically giving up my faith. I knew that to go back home would be to sound a death knell to this new discipleship. But to stay in Washington meant leaving home, leaving my family, leaving my friends and everything I knew.

Then God brought to me Mark 10:29-31.
"'I tell you the truth,' Jesus said, 'no one who has left homes or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel, will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields--and with them, persecution) and in the age to come, eternal life. Many that are first will be last, and the last first."

That was it. I knew what I had to do. After some thoughtfulness and trepidation, I phoned my mother to tell her I was moving to Washington. I had become a disciple of Christ.