The Power of God's Voice in A Storm

Recently, I did a search of the major problems facing America. Listed among the major problems was:

Affordability of healthcare

Drug addiction

Affordability of college education

Federal budget deficit

Climate change

Economic inequality

Racism

Illegal immigration

Terrorism

Sexism

Job all opportunities for Americans (Pew Research)

Immediately, I began to think that none of these subjects are remotely important to the conversations we have in church, which means most of the conversations that are important to Americans are left unaddressed by the spokesmen of God. We are preaching about things that don’t matter to the people we are responsible for reaching. And either God is silent on these issues or we are completely irrelevant avoiding the things that God has placed on the hearts of men as burdens.

I then began to think it doesn’t matter what people want to hear. It only matters what God wants them to hear. Then, I began to think about the sermons preached by Jesus and the messengers.

John the Baptist is a perfect example. Many times, John the Baptist is recognized as the one who preached about Jesus, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world (see John 1:29). And he is exalted as the forerunner of the Messiah who encouraged individuals to save themselves from the wrath of God, which seeks to punish the guilty. However, we forget the John the Baptist who preached to those who came to him and asked a very important question, “What should we do?”

We are facing a world that is asking us the same question, “What should we do?” And while “be saved from our sins” is the right answer, it is the wrong answer to their question. You see, there were at least two times in the Bible when the question was asked—in Luke 3:12 and Acts 2:37. Same question, two different answers. Unfortunately, we have been giving the Acts 2:37 answer to a Luke 3:12 question.

In Acts 2:37, individuals were seeking an answer on how to be saved from the wrath of God after hearing a fiery message on their fatal mistake, which led to the death of the Son of God. However, Luke 3:12 is asking a different question. Same question, but different intention. They are asking…after being baptized, “what shall we do?”

Their question was a practical one. It was a life question. When individuals ask this question, we must be able to discern whether it is a soteriological question or life question.

**Read Luke 3:11-14 and Acts 2:37 to demonstrate the contextual distinction.

The true reason we come to Jesus is to learn what we should do be saved and live saved. It turns out many people have learned what it means to be saved, but have not learned what it means to live saved.

I am not sure what God has to say about these most important matters to Americans, but I am sure He has something to say about them; just like He has something to say about the things you are dealing with in your personal life.

Psalm 29

Psalm 29 shares a lesson on how we are to live through the storms that come in our life, after becoming saved. It reveals that Jehovah rules with His voice. He deserves honor, glory, and worship because of the power of His voice.

Psalm 29 (Psalms I 1–50 (AYBC)): A hymn in which the sons of God are invited to acclaim the sovereignty of Yahweh, who manifests his power in a storm. The recognition that this psalm is a Yahwistic adaptation of an older Canaanite hymn to the storm-god Baal is due to H. L. Ginsberg, “A Phoenician Hymn in the Psalter,” in Atti del XIX Congresso Internazionale degli Orientalisti (Roma, 1935), pp. 472–76.

The psalmist did what many recording artists do today. He took a secular song and made it God-song. He appropriated the praise that was given to a false god and gave it to the God of creation. He wants the reader to know that the distinguishing feature between a false god and the true God is that ability to speak.

Protestantism has missed a huge factor concerning the relationship characters of the Bible shared with their God. We have resorted to dry expositions of what God has said as if there’s nothing more to experience from God. That is, we see the highest means of interaction with God as reading what God said instead of hearing what God is saying. Unknowingly, we have been taught to live as if God is dead, no longer speaking on account of what men have wrote in previous times.

Surely, what God has said is as relevant today as it was when it was first spoken. And surely nothing He has said can be contradicted by anything that has come thereafter. Yet, we would be wise to accept— God still speaks to men, without contradiction of what has already been spoken. In fact, our very reason for reading what was said is so we can hear clearer of what God is saying.

Examples/ Case Study

Dog attack

William Tyndale

Abraham Rom 4:16-25

Jesus Storm Mark 4:35-41

Application

What is God saying to you?