In The Storm? Sound Out!

--- IN THE STORM --- SOUND OUT!

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.

Kyfingers@aol.com

Remember this: IT IS EASY TO SWIM, FAST IF SHARKS ARE BEHIND YOU!

TEXT:

Matthew 7: 24 --- 27

24: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

25: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew; and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

26: And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

27: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Matthew 14:28-31

28: And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

29: And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30: But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31: And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Mark 4:39 And Jesus arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,

PEACE BE STILL. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

STORMS are a part of life. If we serve the Lord or not, there will be storms and trials that pass into our daily walk. No one is exempt from the storms.

Most of the time when we accept Jesus as our Savior we feel on top of the world. The feeling stage is wonder, but ---

WE MUST GROW INTO THE FAITH STAGE.

Storms will come, storms will grow but there is a reason.

Storms bring life. Storms weed out weak trees. Storms can knock off excessive parts of life.

I ponder storms.

Let us define storms:

---a disturbance of atmosphere

---disturbed or agitated state

---a tumultuous outburst

---a crisis

---to rush about angrily

I realize the Bible identifies life has many storms.

The Bible tells us of three kinds of storms.

1. RAIN STORMS ...

frequent, little, short duration, falling water drops, shower,

2. FLOOD STORMS ...

Flood in the Bible can represent Divine Judgment.

Floods are not as often as rains.

The storm of the flood can show in proper building, one should not build in the spiritual flood plains. The storm of floods can come from making poor choices and building in unsound areas.

3. WIND STORMS ... gales, tornadoes, hurricanes, not as often, you can prepare some a head of the wind storm, but when the wind storm is raging, you have to find safety until the storm passes. After the storm passes you survey the damage, and repair or rebuild if necessary. Often cloud burst and hail storms accompany Wind storms.

I ponder, sometimes God calms the storms, sometimes He calms the individual. Be encouraged in your difficult situations. Your attitude and your view can make a difference.

Ephesians 3:20 Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.

We need to learn not every cloud is a storm.

Some can seem to raise a storm from a tea pot?

We can let storms drive us, we must expect and prepare for storms.

We must learn to pilot our ships in the storm, instead of just always praying for the storm to pass.

Storms are not forever, they shall pass.

Just because there is calm, does not mean the storm is passed.

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

The story of the two buckets.

Unknown

There were two buckets both tied to the end of the same pole. The master would carry the two buckets to the well several times a day. Often the buckets would talk to each other.

One day, on the way to the well, the one bucket said to the other bucket... "You look very sad and depressed today? What is wrong?"

The sad bucket replied, " I have been pondering about how useless and vane this work of ours. We are totally ineffective. What, on earth, is our useful purpose? We go to the well dry every time?

Day after day, we go to the well empty and dry. We get full, but then we always come back to the well empty and dry. We are failures! What is the point? After all our efforts, we are dry again!"