If you’ve ever sailed on a yacht then you’ll know the exhilaration of submitting to the awesome power of the wind.

Yet when the breeze turns into a gale, it can be terrifying.

The Bible records a time when Jesus and his friends hit a fierce storm as they sailed across a lake, and it caused their boat to fill with water.

They were in real danger, and they feared for their lives.

And in their powerlessness, they woke up Jesus who was asleep in the boat.

They said to him “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” 

As he awoke, Jesus did not share their fear like any other human would, but instead he showed his sovereignty over the weather.

The Bible simply says “When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.”

Like a parent rebuking a naughty child, Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be in the presence of a man who could truly control creation?

And as the roar of the wind was silenced, Jesus simply asks the disciples, “Where is your faith?”

On the one hand, it was a rebuke to them for not trusting that Jesus was in control.

But on the other hand, Jesus’ statement is a genuine question: “Where is your faith?”

For the people in the boat, fearing for their lives, they had to choose the place in which they would put their faith.

The only real hope is in the man who could still the storm with a statement.

In their wonder, they asked the question: “Who is this man?”

For before their eyes they witnessed the power of the man who created and rules the universe, and now offers true comfort and forgiveness when you put your faith in him.

JODIE McNEILL

The decision for a mother to terminate the life of her unborn child must be the most painful and difficult choice imaginable.

Sadly, our society has placed this burden upon women because it has given mothers the option to abort their unborn child.

In the rare situation where a decision needed to be made between the life of a mother or her child, people have made the painful decision to terminate the child.

Yet our society has now extended abortion to allow situations where a pregnancy is simply ‘unwanted’.

In a recent development, New York legislators have chosen to permit late-term abortions, allowing medical practitioners to terminate a pregnancy in its final moments.

Even if it could be argued that a first-trimester foetus was not yet human, there is no doubt that a baby of more than thirty weeks is more than a clump of cells.

And yet we are growing less and less shocked by the thought of doctors causing the death of a human whose only fault is that they have not already traversed their mother’s birth canal.

The Bible makes it clear that God sees unborn children as humans, and view has been held by civilised people for centuries.

Yet, as we stray further and further away from God’s word, our collective heart is hardened, and we are more convinced by an atheistic view that values humans based on their benefit to others.

If we keep travelling this pathway, we will soon justify infanticide of babies with disabilities, and more euthanasia of the aged.

For the vulnerable in our world we must obey the voice of God and show love to those who are unable to love us back.

And we must defend these unborn babies from the acts and decisions of health and legal professionals whose oaths should have led them to protect the vulnerable, not lead them to their premature death.

JODIE McNEILL