Sinking and rising

By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson

At the small fellowship today we sung this hymn ‘My hope is built on nothing less’ by Edward Mote. Here is the first verse and chorus:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

Edward Mote, was a pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Sussex, my home county. I didn’t know this until I checked just now. Wikipedia has a short entry.

It says

He was well liked by the congregation in Horsham and they offered him the church building as a gift. Mote replied “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.”

Good for him, a man after my own heart.

Anyway, I saw the word ‘sinking’ in the chorus, thought briefly and saw ‘sin king’. ‘Of course’, I said to myself, ‘when one is sinking, sin has become king, ruling over you.’

Thus Peter, when he was in the boat with the disciples at night on Lake Galilee and Jesus came to them, walking on the water, is recorded saying

“Lord, if it is you,” Peter replied, “command me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” said Jesus.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

Lack of faith is equated with sin by Paul the apostle. See Romans 14 v.23. Thus it was that Peter sunk into the water as fear gripped him. It says he saw the strength of the wind so he stopped looking at Jesus but at his fear.

In fact the word used for ‘strength’ is ‘ischyron’, ἰσχυρὸν in Greek. This is more correcting translated ‘charging’ by the Berean Literal Bible. This is at least partly because ischyron contains the anagram ‘rhinos’.

So we have the sense of charging rhinos. One would be bad enough, but a whole herd, phew!

There are some other words too:

- Horns

A rhino has two horns of course, one big, one small. There is this full phrase:

- icy horns

Reminds me of an icy blast of wind.

- Noisy

The noise of the wind can be fearful.

- Iron

A blast of wind, cold as iron.

Anyway, Peter is grabbed by Jesus and pulled up and they get into the boat.

So that is sinking but what about rising? Well, rising can be thought of as ‘ri sing’ where ri means laugh in French, from ‘rire’ to laugh.

When one laughs and sings one is rising, one’s spirits are lifted, it is that simple.

And if you grin don’t be surprised as ‘I grins’ is an anagram of ‘rising’.

Summary and final thoughts

Depression is something that affects most of us at some point, some worse than others. Sinking into a pit of despair is dreadful.

But the way out is in the word ‘sinking’ as this can be ‘ink sign’, look for and read encouraging words such as contained in the Bible.

Then there is ‘ink sing’, look for a hymn or psalm of praise for example, something you can sing out loud to yourself.

So if you are feeling down you can reflect on this. And even if you can struggle to laugh, consider that rising sounds like ‘wry sing’. A wry smile may be all you manage but it will be enough to move you forward out of the pit of despair.

Add in a song of praise and you will keep climbing out.

So there you have sinking and rising, you sink when sin is king and you rise when you laugh and sing.

As for me, I will look to Jesus the Son of God who will melt the icy blasts, the storms of life.

And I won’t need to be afraid of any strong winds or charging rhinos!

Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!

P.S Here is a very helpful link I found about the walking on the water story. The writer points out that Peter first asked Jesus to command him to come if it really was him, so he wasn’t just impetuous, he sought Jesus’s confirmation.

WHY DID PETER SINK? (Am I a faith enabler?)

March 5, 2020 by Kirk’s Devotional Journal

https://klzehnder.com/2020/03/05/why-did-peter-sink-am-i-a-faith-enabler/

I suffered from episodes depression of when I was younger and I did a post explaining. From my WordPress site.

D is for…..Doom

And here is a post on faith I did earlier.

Belief and faith – ‘pisteuó’, an analysis of the Greek word in the New Testament

Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson. When not posting pages or paging posties, trying to be a good husband, and getting over a long term health issue, I am putting the world to rights. I have nothing better to do, so why not? But of course that includes dancing, being funny (in more than one sense), poking fun at life, poking fun at myself, deflating the pompous, reflating the sad. Seeking to heal the whole of the soul (and body where possible). In short making life as good as it possibly can be for others as well as myself. You can’t say fairer than that. But if you can, please say. People need to know.