STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM

STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM

STORMS CAN COME FROM
OBEDIENCE
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That day when evening came, he
[Jesus] said to his disciples, “Let us go over
to the other side.” Leaving
the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he
was, in the boat. There
were also other boats with him. A furious squall came
up, and the waves broke
over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Mark 4:
35-37

(Read Mark
4:35-41)

From the disciples experience we see that storms can arise just
by following
the path of obedience. We know that when Jesus says, “Let’s go
to the other
side,” we will reach the other side in spite of any
storms.

Ahmad was a respected Muslim leader and a brilliant scholar.
While studying
for his doctorate in comparative religions he began reading
the New Testament
and ultimately gave his life to Jesus. When Sharia, the law
of Islam, became
the law of the land, Ahmad was called in for questioning.
When he admitted to
being a Christian, he was arrested, put in chains, and
thrown into solitary
confinement.

The first night in prison, the
authorities tried to kill him. Unexplainably,
however, they could find no
gasoline for their car to drive him to the place
of execution. The next day,
he was to be arraigned before the Islamic High
Court. A lawyer friend urged
him to renounce his faith publicly and just keep
it secretly in his heart.
Ahmad refused. “Jesus is my only defence,” he said.
“I cannot deny
Him.”

Ahmad was sentenced to six months in prison, stripped of his
military rank,
and fired from his teaching position. His wife had already
divorced him. He
also lost his four children, his car, house, and bank
account.

If at the end of his sentence he still refused to return to
Islam, the judges
said, he would spend six more months behind bars. Ahmad
organized small Bible
studies and prayer groups throughout the prison. “By the end of three months,”
he said, “there were more than three hundred known
Christians in our prison,
at least seven from Muslim background.”

One night, the guards threw Ahmad into a truck with orders to drown him in the
river. But as the truck neared the river, it stopped mysteriously.
Terrified,
the guards and driver refused the officer’s orders to kill Ahmad.
Soon after,
he was released.

RESPONSE: Today I will live in the
awareness that storms are a normal part of
life in this

world and the
wise disciple prepares for them.

PRAYER: Pray that you will be cognizant
of the storms you face which simply
result from your obedience to Jesus.