Marissa Henley

Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone

Jesus is With You

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I have many parenting moments that I’m not proud of, but one of my worst mom-fails happened as I slept. My daughter was frightened in the middle of the night and came to my room to wake me up. She shook my shoulder and said my name, but I kept snoozing. My neglected little girl eventually gave up and went back to bed. 

As I read Mark 4, I wonder if the disciples felt a little bit like my daughter that day on the Sea of Galilee. They were scared, and Jesus was sleeping. 

“On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to [his disciples], ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’” (Mark 4:35–38)

Let’s pretend we never heard this story in Sunday school, and we don’t know what the next verses say. (We’ll get to them next week.) What does this passage teach us about being in the middle of the storm of suffering? 

When the waves are crashing over the side of your boat and it’s filling with water, it’s doesn’t mean Jesus  has abandoned you. Jesus was right there with the disciples, and He’s right here with you. 

If it seems like Jesus is sleeping while you suffer, it’s not because He doesn’t care. It’s because He cares about you that He’s waiting for the perfect time to calm the storm. As we’ll see next week, He always has a purpose to His timing, even when we can’t understand it. And in the meantime, you can trust that He is with you.  

No matter what you face this week, Jesus is with you in the storm of your suffering. 

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Jesus was born to die

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For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at Jesus’s incarnation through the words of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. The third verse of this carol describes why Jesus came: He was born to rescue us from sin and death and give us salvation that leads to everlasting life. 

“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die,

born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. 

Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.’”

God’s presence with man was a gift—God with us, Immanuel, was the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to be with His people. But the impact of Jesus’s incarnation didn’t stop there. Jesus was born to die. We sinned against God and needed a Savior. Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away our sin and give us forgiveness and eternal life (John 1:29). 

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Jesus didn’t take on flesh and dwell among us so we’d have a cute story to tell at Christmas. He came to suffer betrayal, false accusations, and an unjust trial. He came to hear the cries of “Crucify Him!” from those who had praised Him just days before. He came to hang on a cross next to criminals and provide an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He came to save sinners like you and me. 

No matter what you face this week, celebrate Jesus, who was born to die for the forgiveness of your sins. 

If you missed the earlier posts in this series, you can read them here and here.

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In Life and Death {First 5}

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We’re wrapping up our study of Joshua today at First 5, and I’m sharing a teaching from Joshua 24. Here’s a preview . . .

Today’s Reading: Joshua 24:29-33

Joshua 24:32 (ESV) “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.”

When my kids were younger, I often made futile attempts to convince them to stop getting older. When I suggested to my 5-year-old son that he might consider being 4 again, he replied, “No, you have to be each age one time, and then you die.”

The truth my son stated so matter-of-factly is a harsh reality we’d rather avoid. But today’s passage doesn’t let us escape the fact that everyone dies. While acknowledging the reality of death, these verses also give us hope that our God is faithful both in life and death.

Click here to read the rest of the teaching or download the First 5 app and join us on our studies in 2022!

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Jesus is God Incarnate

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How do you respond when someone walks in the door of your home? Your response will vary depending on who it is. If it’s your spouse or roommate, you might look up from your phone and ask how their day went. If it’s a grown child who’s returning home for the holidays, that moment will be much more significant and joyful. If it’s a stranger in a ski mask, the experience would be terrifying. 

We celebrate Christmas because of who Jesus is. The One whose arrival we celebrate is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the everlasting Lord veiled in human flesh, as we see in verse 2 of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”: 

“Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord,

Late in time behold him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King.’”

Take a moment to wonder at this truth: the One who was adored in heaven as the everlasting Lord took on flesh in the womb of a young virgin and was born in a stable. Babies are born every second of every day—but this baby was God incarnate. 

The incarnation of Jesus refers to God the Son taking on human flesh so that He was fully human and fully God. We see this truth expressed in John’s gospel: 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Because Jesus was fully God and fully man, His birth was unlike any other birth in the history of the world. As the Nicene Creed states, Jesus was “begotten of the Father . . .begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father . . .” The One who took on flesh was God, and therefore He is worthy of our worship and praise. His birth in a stable—His coming to a world that desperately needed a Savior—gives us reason to sing, “Glory to the newborn King!” 

No matter what you face this week, celebrate Jesus Christ, the everlasting Lord who took on flesh and dwelt among us. 

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