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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781501804311 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2015 |
| Pages: | 112 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Storm Before the Calm
Making Sense of Life's Troubles
By Talbot Davis
Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2015 Abingdon PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5018-0431-1
CHAPTER 1
THE EYE OF THE STORM
When the flood came, the rising water smashed against that house, but the water couldn't shake the house because it was well built. (Luke 6:48)
Some time ago, Frank Knox, who was then U.S. Secretary of the Navy, uttered the following words:
"Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping."
When did Secretary Knox say this? December 4, 1941: three days before the Japanese attacked the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor. Sadly and tragically, the Japanese forces caught the Navy napping.
A storm came in the form of Japanese bombers, fighters, and aircraft carriers, resulting in over 2,400 Americans killed and more than 1,100 wounded. A storm came, and despite boasts to the contrary, there was little preparation and much napping. And the results were predictably tragic.
As we move through this book, particularly here in Chapter 1, "The Eye of the Storm," it will become clear that preparation is important. The message of this chapter, and of the Scripture passage that we will discuss, has everything to do with preparation (or a lack of preparation) and storms. In Luke 6:48-49, Jesus tells the story of two men who each encounter a flood. One man is prepared, and the other is not. One person's house survives the flood, while the other's is swept away. Like the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, the second man is caught napping. Jesus' story vividly illustrates the disaster that can come when we fail to prepare. Yet as we will see, like most of Jesus' parables, it communicates something deeper than the story itself. The tale of the two houses shows us how vital it is to obey Jesus' teachings.
Here is the story, in Luke 6:46-49:
Why do you call me "Lord, Lord" and don't do what I say? I'll show what it's like when someone comes to me, hears my words, and puts them into practice. It's like a person building a house by digging deep and laying the foundation on bedrock. When the flood came, the rising water smashed against that house, but the water couldn't shake the house because it was well built. But those who don't put into practice what they hear are like a person who built a house without a foundation. The floodwater smashed against it and it collapsed instantly. It was completely destroyed.
Before we look closely at this parable, it's important to recognize when and why Jesus tells it. It occurs at the end of Luke 6, and Jesus uses it to conclude his Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17-49). This is Luke's version of Jesus' most famous public address, more widely known as the Sermon on the Mount. It's most commonly called the Sermon on the Mount based on Matthew's version (Matthew 5–7), where Jesus speaks on a mountain (Matthew 5:1). In Luke it's called the Sermon on the Plain because Luke 6:17 tells us that Jesus speaks from "a large area of level ground." It's possible that Matthew and Luke just placed the same sermon at two different locales. Or it's possible that Jesus gave the same basic message at two different times and two different venues. It was important teaching, and he may have delivered it to more than one audience. And here's a little preacher secret: We do that from time to time. "It worked once, so I'm going to give it to this group over here next!"
In either case, the contents of the sermon are some of Jesus' most important and well-known teachings. He gives the sermon near the outset of his public ministry, almost like an outline of the vision of the kingdom of God he will proclaim and exemplify. The Sermon on the Plain, or the Sermon on the Mount, is an important proclamation. And Jesus concludes the sermon with a story of two men, two houses, and a flood.
PREACHERS TAKE CONCLUSIONS VERY SERIOUSLY.
Now, I have preached a few sermons in my day, and here is something I can tell you from experience: Preachers take their conclusions very seriously. We put a lot of thought into how we tie things up and bring the sermon to a close. The ending is the last thing the audience will hear, so it had better be memorable and important. And in the Sermon on the Plain, this story of two men and two houses is Jesus' conclusion. It's his finale. He has taught a lot of deep, important things in the Sermon on the Plain, and this story is his conclusion that brings it all home.
Jesus puts the story of the two men and the storm at the end because he really wants his hearers to remember it. That's a clue that we need to pay close attention. Jesus wants us to be like one of the people in his story and to avoid being like the other person. Like most of the stories Jesus tells, the tale of the two men is about more than just the two men. It starts with curiosity, a pained question from Jesus himself (Luke 6:46):
Why do you call me "Lord, Lord" and don't do what I say?
In other words, why do you want my blessing without obedience? Why do you want all the benefits of following me without following me? Why do you want to boast about me but not surrender to me? Why do you throw my name around but don't let my Spirit shape who you are?
It simply doesn't work that way. We don't really believe it until we actually do what Jesus commands. When it comes to Jesus, what comes out of our mouths doesn't really matter until our actions back it up.
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and don't do what I say?" I don't think this is the only time Jesus asked this question. I think it was something he must have asked many times. I think it's something he asks of us even today.
Jesus wants us to come to him, hear his words, and then put them into practice (Luke 6:47). And to help us get there, Jesus moves into the story about these two men, both of whom are in home-building mode.
The second man, in verse 49, chooses the easier route for building a home in those days (long before county inspectors!): He builds it without a foundation. In Matthew's Gospel, it says the man builds his house on the sand (Matthew 7:26). Either way, from the start it looks like a questionable building decision. It's actually not quite as absurd as we might think. In that climate, the sand was packed hard in the summer and by all appearances was a solid surface on which to build. And it would have given the man a quick turnaround for completing his home. You can almost imagine the real estate agent saying, "I can have you in by June."
But then a storm happens, and the results speak for themselves. What happens to this quick-build home when the inevitable storm hits? Look at Luke 6:49:
The floodwater smashed against it and it collapsed instantly. It was completely destroyed.
Two words capture it all: instantly and completely. The house took about as long to fall as it took to build. Destruction was immediate and absolute. Because there was no foundation, everything came crashing down the instant difficulties arrived.
Many of us know this from experience. When we opt for the easy way, collapse is often sudden and thorough. Maybe you know just what happens when you choose the soft and expedient path because you have lived it. Perhaps you kept all the money you made and didn't give to God. Maybe you kept asking, "What's in it for me?" instead of "What will advance God's kingdom?" Or perhaps you knew everything about all the candidates on American Idol and nothing about the letters of Paul. Maybe you married mostly for looks. These are shallow values many of us pursue instead of digging deeply into the life Jesus calls us to live. And when the storm comes — for it will come — destruction is swift and sad. This, Jesus says, is what it's like for all those who hear his words and don't put them into practice.
The first man in Jesus' story is different. Look at verses 47-48:
I'll show what it's like when someone comes to me, hears my words, and puts them into practice. It's like a person building a house by digging deep and laying the foundation on bedrock.
This man lives Jesus' words. For the type of faith God calls us to, there's no difference between believing and obeying. We only believe in Jesus to the extent that we do what he says and follow what he teaches. And when we put Jesus' words into practice, we are like the man who builds his house on a firm foundation. He believes, and so he does. To do this takes a great deal more time and effort and strength. Such a person digs, bores, pours, and then he builds. It's not flashy and it's not easy. It's not a spiritual high. It takes a long time, and it gets repetitive after a while. But the man digs deep and lays a firm foundation, putting in the work to build his house with strength. So it is with those who live by Jesus' words: not just believing them or talking about them, but living them — putting the words into practice.
So what happens to this man and his house? Look at the second part of verse 48:
When the flood came, the rising water smashed against that house, but the water couldn't shake the house because it was well built.
Those are powerful words. Not only did the house hold on, enduring and avoiding complete destruction. The water couldn't even shake it — could not shake. The man and his home didn't just survive the storm; it almost seems as if they were stronger after it than they were before it. The storm passed, and the house was still standing firm. It was unshakable. Of course, the storm wasn't what made the house strong; it just revealed the deep strength that was there all along because of the man's preparation and diligence.
You know what that means? What you prepare for, you'll prevail over.
When you prepare, you'll prevail in such a way that your faith, your home, and your spirit all seem stronger as a result of the storm. The storm will reveal who you already are. It will reveal someone who is not just playing at the game of Christian but rather has a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
There's something else that stands out to me in this story, a small detail that makes a huge difference. It's the little word when in verse 48: When the flood came ...
Not if. When.
Jesus doesn't talk about if the storm comes. He doesn't say in case it comes. He says when it comes. Stormy seasons in life are inevitable. It's the same for you as it was for the two men. No matter what your circumstances, you are in one of three places:
You just came through a storm.
You are in the middle of a storm right now.
You are headed toward a storm at some point in the future.
We are all in one of these three situations, with a storm of some kind in our past, present, or future. It may be a self-inflicted storm, or it may come from forces beyond your control. Turmoil takes many forms. It can be the job you lose. It can be the marriage that ends or that continues without much love or life. It can be when the doctor gives you or one you love the diagnosis no one wants to hear. Storms will come. It's a matter of when, not if.
WHAT YOU PREPARE FOR, YOU'LL PREVAIL OVER.
Storms are inevitable. And if you're in the calm, now is the time to prepare for the storm. Prevailing over it can't be separated from preparing for it. When the storms come, that's not the time to become religious. It won't work. You can't suddenly get religious when the job disappears, the marriage collapses, or the diagnosis comes, then overcome your obstacles. You won't have the wherewithal, the spiritual maturity, or the strength of spine. You won't have a foundation to stand on.
Yes, there exceptions to this. Sometimes a "crisis faith" ends up working in the long run. But you can't count on that because more often than not, it doesn't work. Usually a crisis faith disappears as soon as the crisis goes away. Or the type of faith that is cultivated in those moments is too weak to withstand the storm in the first place. Storms have an uncanny way of revealing what's already there in your spiritual life.
THE STORMS OF LIFE EXPOSE WHAT'S ALREADY GOING ON INSIDE OF YOU.
That bears repeating: The storms of life, better than anything else, expose what's already going on inside of you spiritually.
And my great longing — since storms are not an if but a when — is that when storms hit you, they will reveal someone who has dug deeply into Jesus.
It's a bit like a test that psychologists conducted a number of years ago that involved four-year-old children and marshmallows. In the test, they would put a four-year-old in a room with a marshmallow. The interviewer would tell the child, "I'm going to run an errand, but I will leave this marshmallow while I'm gone. You can have it now ... but if you wait until I return, you can have two!" Then the interviewer would leave the child alone to observe him or her from another room. As expected, some of the children waited, and others ate the marshmallow right away.
The people conducting the test tracked the children as they grew, measuring their behavior in various ways. Eventually they discovered that the ones who waited, who delayed their gratification so they could get two marshmallows instead of just one, scored an average of 210 points higher on the SAT than those who ate the one marshmallow right away. There is value to steady, patient, discipline in the calm. What you prepare for, you'll prevail over.
Or it's like Rosa Parks. Legend would have us believe that when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, it was a spontaneous, unplanned, spur-of-the-moment decision. But that wasn't quite the case. She was not old or physically tired. But she was tired of giving in, and she had within her a spirit of courage and determination that she would no longer endure being treated as a lesser human being. Because she had a strong foundation based in part on her faith, she was able to be steadfast and immovable when the storm swirled on that day. And she was unshaken by the rising flood that followed from her actions. What you prepare for, you'll prevail over.
Or it's like the testimony I received from a woman at Good Shepherd Church:
We all walk the road of preparation whether we recognize it or not prior to our storms. Back in 2006, I stayed home from work one day due to the flu. Because of a broadcast I watched that day, I decided to put into place some spiritual disciplines that I never had before. I began praying to God first thing in the morning and studying His word daily. I knew the only way to really get to know Him was to spend time with Him in addition to church. I knew that there would be something powerful about private worship that would bring me closer to Him.
Through these wonderful disciplines, God's spirit touched mine in February of 2006 beckoning something deeper from me. When God gently nudged me toward Him I felt my spiritual life growing. Little did I know the adversities I would face later that year. When God originally placed on my heart His desire to draw me closer, I thought it was for Him. Now I understand it was to prepare and grow me towards total dependence on Him to guide me through the darkness. He didn't "need" anything from me — He knew I would "need" from Him.
My father was diagnosed with a terminal illness that year and my sister a year later. Over the next three years, I had to watch both of them die. Over and over He showed me that entering into His strength would only occur when I exited out of my own. Through Scripture and prayer, I have learned that I do not have to know where He is taking me as long as I have peace in the One who is leading me.
My heart spills over with sincere gratitude when I think of what the journey would have looked like without the road of preparation He placed me on in 2006. He still gives me grace portions in the measurements just right for me as I have learned to live without my father and my sister. His grace never fails!
Here's what I've come to believe. A lot of folks come to church to have their ears tickled. This is especially true for a church like Good Shepherd where the experience and presentation are pretty good. A lot of folks come to church to hear and see some cool stuff and then come back the next week for some more. But they don't come with the intention of applying any of it.
They come to hear but not apply.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Storm Before the Calm by Talbot Davis. Copyright © 2015 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction The Storm Before the Calm,Chapter One The Eye of the Storm (Luke 6:46-49),
Chapter Two Storm Chasers (Mark 4:35-41),
Chapter Three Storm Shelters (Isaiah 25:1-8),
Chapter Four The Perfect Storm (Acts 27:13-44),
Chapter Five After the Storm (Genesis 9:18-27),