"All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!"
Psalm 145:10 ESV
Today is a blustery March day in Maine. The wind storm has been raging over a day here, blowing down trees, sloshing the boats in the harbor, even in Rockland as our harbor is protected by a massive breakwater. The wind is cold and chilling to the bone, though the temperature is above freezing. It is the kind of day that I am glad there is no snow, but you don't really feel like going outside. There are dangers associated with driving a high profile van like ours on very windy days, so the extent of our driving has been limited to going to the various harbors nearby and seeing how they are protected or vulnerable from certain storms. Some harbors are well protected from most directions but if the wind comes a certain direction and strength, then you can easily lose your boat or your life even in the harbor. Wisdom and experience guide the seasoned fisherman and pleasure craft operators, to know both the need to protect the boat, but also to protect their own life and abandon their boat.
So, what does a wind storm, harbors, and boats have to do with this verse? The story in my mind is much longer than I care to write, but I will try to share what is in my mind so that the application is evident. You see, I grew up on the coast of Maine and have lived within a few miles of the ocean most of my life. I have worked on the water tending dive boats, working on mussel dragging boats, and worked in various aspects of the seafood industry for many years. Growing up, I laughed at the ignorance of tourists who would sit at the dock in Bar Harbor as my father and I broke claws off live stone crabs (the best meat available, and they regrow them) with people asking what kind of shrimp we were working on. I remember backing down harrowing ice laden alleys between shrimp shacks in areas like New Harbor, Bremen, and more. I guess it comes with the territory to have a close connection with wind and weather when you live near the ocean.
Growing up, I would have affirmed much of what Psalm 145 says, at least I would have given mental assent to to such things. However, it was on a calm and warm summer day when the wind and waves I know so well and the lighthouses that keep traveling ships from losing their way and their lives should they crash into the multitude of ledges and rocks that litter the ocean floor. On this clear summer day, I was driving home from camp and turned on the Christian radio station that I grew up listening to. I hadn't listened to anything Christian for years and I don't recall why I would have tuned in to WHCF 88.5 in Bangor, but at 25 years old, with my 4 year old son in the back seat of the car, I heard a familiar voice singing a familiar song. It was a man named (no kidding) Rusty Coffey. The song, I believe, was called simply "The Lighthouse"
The song spoke of a lighthouse and a ship at sea being tossed about by the wind and waves, ready to be wrecked. I had known the song my whole life it seemed, growing up in church, going to Christian schools, reading bedtime Bible stories with my mother, and making a profession of faith and baptism before my 6th birthday. But it wasn't real, I was not born again. I wasn't renewed. And now, a few decades later, I find myself divorced, a single parent, a drug addict and drunkard, an adulterer and liar. I heard the song and realized that I couldn't overcome the familiarity and the accompanying hypocrisy in my heart singing such a song about the salvation of God through shining His Light into my dark heart. I was struck by the holiness of God, the perversion of God's image that my life had become, and genuine repentance such as I have never felt before.
I was first brought to marvel at the glory of the sun shining above me, and in spite of a few clouds, the glory of the sun shone through and reminded me that when the storms come, it isn't so much that God went anywhere, but that the clouds were obscuring my view. My sin and my love for sin was obscuring the radiant beauty and Light of God in my heart. I wanted to change many times, whether at the end of my first marriage, or times when I realized my addiction was ruining my life, when I felt guilty about how terrible of a father I was and how bad a husband I had been. But in the end, I could never seem to change myself fully. I could get a better job, clean up for a while, and then go back to my own vomit.
However, as the sun shone through the windshield this day, as I heard the words of this song and considered my life on the stormy seas and near ruin, that I finally saw that "Lighthouse that stands up there on the hill, and I thank God for the Lighthouse. I owe my life to Him. You see, it's Jesus! He's the Lighthouse. And from the rocks of sin, He has shone a light around me that I might clearly see. If it wasn't for that lighthouse, where would this ship be?" I knew where I would be, just where I was, where I had been my whole life even with all the religion and instruction, even the guilt and desire to be reconciled to God. I was not born again of the Holy Spirit, I was not made a new creation in Christ Jesus, I was still dead in my trespasses and sin, without hope and headed for eternity enduring the righteous wrath of God for my sin against Him in a literal place called Hell, tormented for my sin. I was lost just like God's Word said.
I had to pull over from this stormy tossing about in my heart and mind. The day was clear and bright, the wind was calm, but inside I was being driven and tossed horribly until a moment came when I felt peace. I don't recall what I prayed, nor if I confessed my sins by name, but I remember a brokenness of spirit which produced immediate and dramatic results in my life. I had no desire to drink alcohol, nor use drugs, nor commit adultery. I was still in a hard situation raising a child on my own, living at a camp for the summer with no plans for just a few months out. And yet, I now had a peace and a purpose. Knowing so much Bible even before I was given new life in Christ, I suddenly understood many things that I had heard before, but had previously been hidden from me.
The greatest of these revelations to my soul from the Word of God, which I now devoured voraciously, was my inferiority contrasted with the majesty, the mercy, the love, and forgiveness only available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The changes in my life weren't earning anything, rather they were the outpouring of that which now filled my heart, gratitude, thanks and blessing from this saint toward the God who loved me when I was dead in my sins. I had no hope, now I have an eternal hope which I share with others. I had no peace, now I know for certain because of what Christ has done for me and in me, that I have a home in Heaven, as an adopted son of the King, though I didn't even deserve to serve at His feet He now welcomes me to His banqueting table. His banner over me is Love.
As we return to our verse for the day, the storm is still blasting around our home, blowing things across the laws, wind chimes wrangled into knots from the tossing about, I can't help but remember the visual image I had in my head about that storm tossed ship, the Lighthouse has "shone its light around me that I might clearly see", and now I know, love, and serve the One who rescued me from the death I deserved and called me to His service. I can echo the words of the psalmist:
"All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your saints shall bless you!"
and all your saints shall bless you!"
As we drove down to the harbor yesterday to watch the waves, the overspray as it crashed over the breakwater at an astronomical high tide (higher than normal due to the moon) I saw a few boats taking on water or being thrashed about, even the ferry to Vinalhaven seemed to be rocking hard on its return journey to the harbor, which we watched to be sure all those on board got to the mainland safely. I got to thinking that the calm seas are always appreciated because we often have rough seas. The difficulties help us to recognize the blessed times. The winter helps us to appreciate the spring, summer, and autumn with their stages of new life springing up all around and coming to fruition before the death of winter returns.
Life is a cycle, and we are all in different stages. But will we see our stage as a reason to complain and live as if life is about us, or will we repent of this self-idolatry and realize that our lives are created by God, we are made in His image and for His glory, and He controls all things? To the religious person like I was, I didn't feel cause for giving thanks to God, and I did not bless Him. However, once God rescued me from my own destruction and made me a new creation in Christ, by His own choice, while I was His enemy, while I loved my sin, He changed me, made me a new creation! I am a brand new man, a saint of God by His calling and election. I have been given a new heart and a new mind, one that longs for righteousness, yearns to have intimate fellowship with God and His saints, and join together with them to proclaim the great Rescuer, the Good Shepherd, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ the Righteous Redeemer and Savior, the only hope for every storm tossed vessel on the sea of life.
So today, as I look out my window, 18 years after that day when I truly met Christ and was given eternal life, it is my greatest desire and consistent goal in life to bring glory, honor, and praise to the One who first loved me and has given me every good thing I have ever been given. The winds obey His voice, the demons cower at his chastisement, and the Word of God along with the Holy Spirit have been given to me so that I might declare the glorious praise of my God with all my heart, mind, soul, strength, talents, skills, resources, gifting, EVERYTHING! And for all eternity, the saints of God will revel in His Light, we will tell His stories of mercy and grace, of salvation, and of our ruin without Him, and all of Heaven, every saint and angel will rejoice and worship the Sovereign King over all Creation in a unified voice, with no more storms to fear, and no more false professions, but those which come from a heart of genuine love, appreciation, affection, adoration, and humble submission.
What a glorious God we serve! What a blessed hope in Christ Jesus! What a painful cost Jesus paid to redeem His enemies from their rightful wages for sin, which is death, now given life that will never end. What a glorious thought on such a stormy day, one we can face head on knowing that God is our Salvation, we have nothing to fear as He controls all things. May we serve Him with gladness, proclaim Him with boldness, and love Him with all that we are and have!
If you have read this message and want to learn more about the God who saved me, He is still calling people to Himself through the work of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Will you believe God? Will you surrender your will and your thoughts to believe who He says He is?
I am here to talk if you would like to. Email us at Maine4Jesus@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page at facebook.com/Cows4Jesus
Grace and peace to all the saints in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all glory, honor, praise, and gratitude. Go in His grace.
