The Place Is A Person

“Let us cross over to the other side”

Mark 4:35


The message of Mark chapter 4 is what I like to call one of those “game changer” bible lesson that can change our lives completely for good when we take it to heart. If you have are going through a tough time today and feeling as if you are being tossed around emotionally read this following quote a few times until it sinks in and your spirit rises up. “The calm water is where you are at, not where you are going if Jesus is in the boat.” These last couple of years have wreaked havoc on so many lives, leaving most all of us with a longing for the way things were while at the same time living with the hope the future will be brighter than the present. With that thought in mind, a quote comes to mind today from a book titled, "A Grace Disguised" which was written by a man who lost his mother, wife and daughter in a head on car collision.

If anyone understood the hurt and heartache of being seemingly lost at sea between two ports it is this man. In the book he wrote about the struggle of trying to make sense out of the tragedy. He wrote, "Loss creates a barren present, as if one were sailing on a vast sea of nothingness. Those who suffer loss live suspended between a past for which they long and a future for which they hope." That quote sums up so many of our lives today, suspended between a life we once knew and enjoyed and an uncertain future that we hope and pray is satisfying and worth the sacrifices we have endured. Let me just say, if Jesus is in your boat the answer is a resounding yes!

In Mark 4:41 the story ends as Jesus gives the command and the storm subsides leaving the disciples reasoning among themselves, “Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” What the disciples were beginning to comprehend, is what you and I who follow Christ are learning in our lives too. The destination we should be seeking isn’t heaven; the destination that provides peace from the storms of our lives isn’t a port or a place, its a person, Jesus! The storm they were in served as the reminder that God is greater than our storms and that safety isn't reaching the other side, safety is the One who is in the boat with you, even in the middle of your storm. Like I said, if you and I wrap our minds around this today our lives can be changed forever.

In the book of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul reminds us in chapter 4 that at the rapture of the church when Jesus comes in the clouds, (keep watching the clouds) we will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air and we will be together with Him forever! Not heaven, it’s better than that. We have been saved for a Savior! We get to be with Jesus forever! That’s the goal of life, to be with Jesus and the really good news for you and I today is it doesn’t have to begin when we die, it can start right now… today! Jesus is the reason the boat and everyone who gets in the boat with Him will make it to the other side.

I want to remind you this morning that we who are in Christ are not a ship between two ports, though it might feel like that today and is why we walk by faith and not by our feelings. The truth is, loved one, we are not lost at sea. We are however on a journey and the lesson we need to glean today when the storms of life hit, and they will, is to allow the storm to bring you to Jesus. Remember, this is the game changer so don’t forget that when you reach Jesus, you've reached the destination God had in mind all along! For when we reach Jesus we have reached the other shore, because it’s in Jesus that we find our home.  


"You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Psalms 16:11


I LOVE YOU!