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? 

Mark 4:35-38 

Christ does not send us without going with us. After a heavy day of teaching, Christ spoke to His disciples to sail across the Sea of Galilee to the other side. He joined them in the boat and being tired from His exertions, fell asleep.  The Sea of Galilee is relatively shallow and can become violently turbulent. According to the passage when ‘a great windstorm arose,’ the waves beat against the boat and it began to fill. This provoked great anxiety and upset among the disciples, some of whom were experienced watermen, and understood the gravity of the situation. Christ continued to sleep. The disciples, understandably distraught, began to awaken Christ with cries of, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ We will eventually come to consider this challenge. For the moment, let us dwell upon the fact that Christ had not sent them out onto the water without going with them. This is His way. David could say, ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’ The writer of Hebrews declare, ‘Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ No matter what the situation, if Christ has sent us to do anything, He will go with us. We are not alone, even in the midst of chaos. Christ is with us wherever He has called us to be. 

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice in Your leadership. 
We praise You that You do not send us anywhere 
without going with us. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. 

Psalm 22:16-18 

God shows us Christ throughout the Old Testament. The whole of it is an elaborate preparation for the advent of the Son of God. Our text and the psalm from which it derives is a detailed description of the sufferings of Christ on the cross. Two significant parts of that description are the piercing of His hands and feet and that they gambled for His clothing. These remove all doubt as to whether Christ is in view in the Psalm. David could not have written a more exact account of the incident if he had been a literal eye witness to the crucifixion. Christ is articulating exactly what He is enduring. This argues powerfully for the inspiration of the Scriptures and that Christ is the central message of them. God wants us to behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. He wants us to gaze upon the dying Lamb Whose precious blood will never lose its power. Here we see the broken body and shed blood which the communion feast symbolizes. It is the will of God that we return often to the cross to appreciate more deeply the cost of our redemption. Christ is risen from the dead but we remember that it was an excruciating death that led Him to the grave from which He arose.  

Our Gracious God and Savior, 
we thank you that You have suffered so greatly for us. 
We praise You that with Your stripes,  
we are healed. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

I  am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, an My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 

Psalm 22:14-15 

Crucifixion was an excruciating way to die. Because of the way in which the nails held the body pinioned to the cross, the hapless individual could only breath by pulling himself up to get air. When he could no longer do so, he suffocated horribly. As Christ was enduring this experience, He gave evidence that He was enduring all that crucifixion had to offer in agony. Our text is the expression of that. This is hard to read. We do not enjoy the description. Yet, if we are truthful with ourselves, we will confess that we are the cause of this suffering. Christ was offering Himself as the only atoning sacrifice for our sin. He was enduring the excruciating pain we deserved in order that we not have to endure it. Thus when we look upon Him, hanging on the cross, being poured out like water; His heart like wax; His strength dried up like a fragment of an old clay pot; His tongue stuck to His jaws, and Him being brought to the dust of death, we are beholding this innocent One taking our punishment. This is a sight that reduces us to humility and brings us to adoration. We behold the Man, the God, the Savior, enduring all this for us. How shall we respond. How much devotion can we render? 

Dear Dying Lamb, 
thy precious blood shall never lose its power. 
And all the ransomed church of God, 
be saved to sin no more. 

~There is a Fountain~ 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him! 

Psalm 22:6-8 

Christ felt His humiliation deeply. Psalm 22 gives us an indication of how deeply. Because all things occur in God’s panoramic present, the fact that David wrote this psalm centuries before the crucifixion is no deterrent to it being an extremely accurate reflection of Christ’s emotions on the cross. True spirituality is seeing things from God’s perspective. He saw fit to have one of the holy man of old write, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what accurately conveys Christ’s experience on the cross. If we want to truly understand anyone, we must know something of what they have experienced and how it affected them. One of the more fashionable trends at the moment is to see the world from everyone’s perspective. If we are going to do that we should include God’s perspective. Psalm 22 does that in relation to Christ’s suffering. He was at that moment by His Own description, ‘a worm and no man.’ He describes the behavior of His enemies as they reproach, despise, and ridicule Him. He records their mockery of Him. There we observe the voluntary humiliation of Christ and realize the degradations He endured on our behalf. He endured these for us and felt the depths of them keenly. Surely we have every reason to magnify such a Savior. With completely different meaning than Pilate we exclaim, ‘Behold, the Man!’ 

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You have been willing to suffer so deeply for us. 
We praise You that You endured until the end, 
that we might be saved. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? 

Psalm 22:1 

Christ was the suffering Savior. It is good for us to dwell upon His agonies. The more we understand the depths of His sufferings, knowing He was enduring these painful experiences in order to purchase our redemption, the more we appreciate the cost of it. This will increase our estimation of Christ. Our text contains words Christ uttered from the cross. They are one in the list of His seven sayings from the cross. He used these words in the depths of His excruciating agony of body and soul. It was during this torturous experience that He ‘poured out His soul unto death’ as Isaiah puts it. During this time God the Father ‘made Him to be sin for us Who knew no sin.’ As He pulled the curtain of darkness over the place where His only begotten Son hung, transfixed between heaven and earth, the Father turned His face away from Him and would not look upon Him. Christ was aware of that turning away, and cried out, ‘my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’ This was His soul crying out in anguish. This was the length to which Christ was willing to go to purchase our redemption. He was willing for His Father to treat Him as if He was sin itself. This is our magnificent Savior. This is the Christ we exalt. He is altogether worthy.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You were willing to endure such sufferings for us. 
We praise You that with Your stripes,  
we are healed. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning