podcast link:https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/3caf3aee/hand-in-hand-now-thrive-day-three
Perhaps it was the hour of the day, perhaps it was the ice cream I had just polished off that clouded my brain, but as I headed into the dusky dark, walking Chester and Missy, the car rolled to a stop at the curb near my home. Christa came by to get the new book we are studying, 30 Days to Understanding the Bible1, and having never met her husband, I readily extended my hand into the car to shake his. Yikes! Yes, I did - even in these unprecedented Covid days.
Unprecedented indeed. All of us wonder how long . . . and no one really knows, but there is One who does, and I know him. ‘Oh, yes – that’s right,’ exhale. (Once again, I talk myself down.) The imagery of the 1970s song runs through my mind as does the simple folksy tune – put your hand in the hand of the Man who stills the water, put your hand in the hand of the Man who calmed the sea…2 Once again, I draw from the waters of the Sea of Galilee.
Suddenly, it all seems so simple. I have been on the Galilee when it was like glass and I wish I had my waterski with me; I have also been on it when I understood how merciless her wind and waves can be – Jesus was Lord of the seas. Mark rendered the first account of Jesus’ mastery. “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”3
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one; three Persons in our triune God. Just as we see Jesus’ power on the water, it is not because of his mastery over the waves or over creation that we love him, but so much more. Similarly, it is not the power of the Holy Spirit we seek; it is the Person we seek to know. Just as the Gospels describe the personality of Jesus, including emotions and feelings, the Word of God describes the Holy Spirit with the same. However, it is the whole Bible that personifies the Holy Spirit; in fact, Genesis 1.2 puts the Holy Spirit on the scene at creation, for goodness sake! “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”4
Mysterious, unbound by the forces or laws of nature, feeling, powerful, yielding, glorifying the Son who points to the Father. . . let us seek to know the Holy Spirit of God. ‘Not for our gain because of what you do, dear Holy Spirit, but because you are our mighty God, we want to know you and worship you. Come, Holy Spirit, we need you; come, Holy Spirit, we pray. Come, Holy Spirit, we need you; come in thine own gentle way. Amen.'
A Swedish blessing:
~Friend, may you long to know your Father ~ your loving Heavenly Father
~May you wear a smile of gratitude this day for the life and sacrificial death of the Son of God for you, so that you will never know a day that you are not surrounded by the love of God;
~and may you be rocked to your core in a whole new way by seeking to understand the person of the Holy Spirit in your life.
In doing so, you will T.H.R.I.V.E.
Christine DiGiacomo
1 - author, Max Anders
2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY-2XHqKGuw
3 - Mark 4.35-41, NKJV
4 - Genesis 1.2
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