3.01.2011

"Ships & Storms"


Finally! The long awaited storm has arrived!

This past Sunday was the 1st week of our new series: "Ships & Storms", which is a 5-week plunge into the book of Jonah.

I've seriously been anticipating this series for at least 9 months. (Yes, 9 months...and it feels like we're finally giving birth:)

It's gonna be unbelievable. Why? Because it's such a gospel saturated story!

The reason the series is called Ships & Storms isn't because the title "Jonah and the Whale" was already taken by every Sunday school class in the known universe.
Rather, we called it Ships & Storms because of the role the ship and the storm play in the story of Jonah. (I know. Genius.)

SHIPS are the vessels we take in our attempts to flee from God as we seek freedom and meaning in life apart from him.
STORMS come to save us from ourselves.

God-sent storms come hurling at us, not as punishment, but as a merciful intervention. God hurls his tempest to lovingly strip away our false hope, which will eventually sink, so that we may be truly free and possess a lasting hope in the one true Savior, Jesus Christ!

In most movies and stories, storms are what people get rescued FROM...

However, in the upside-down realm of the gospel, STORMS do the saving! STORMS rescue people from SHIPS.

Ahoy.