Are You Ready for the Storms of Life?

Do you desire to have a calm and perfect peace in the midst of a storm? If so, listen in.

The message you are about to hear was recorded at Calvary Chapel Mansfield Women’s Retreat in Port Clinton, Ohio. The theme of the retreat was Clothed in Strength and Dignity from Proverbs 31:25. Listen to Janice Schatzinger, pastor's wife for 25 years, teach a wonderful message in how to have calm in the midst of a storm. Enjoy!

Your host, Cherie Fresonke, has been discipling brokenhearted people since 1993 in both the United States and Eastern Europe. She is an award-winning author of 7 books, two being Clothed in Righteousness and Clothed in Righteousness In-Depth Devotional Study Guide, which inspired this podcast series. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Do you desire to have a calm and perfect peace in the midst of a storm? Listen in. The message you were able to hear was recorded at Cambridge Apple, Mansfield, women's retreat in Port Clinton, Ohio. The theme of the retreat was Clothed in Strength and Dignity. Proverbs 31-25. Welcome to Embrace Truth, a podcast for the woman who desires to become who the God created her to be. Janice's husband, Brian, was the founding pastor at Calgary Chapel, Mansfield, where they served together for 25 years. She's a precious friend. And we happen to share two grandsons since her son married my daughter. Enjoy the message.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Okay, so ladies, we're still in Proverbs 31, and I have the privilege of teaching on verse 22, and her clothing is linen, pure and fine, and purple. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, you're such a good and gracious God. Please continue to move and speak to us tonight, Lord. We give this next few minutes to you, Lord, and we want to be open vessels to hear your voice. You're so amazing, and you give us this precious word, and you tell us we're not orphans, Lord. You tell us that we can come and we can feast on this, and you will reveal things to us. You will come near to us. Your promises are amazing. And we pray and ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So I'm gonna have you turn to an interesting story, and it's in Mark 5. So if you want to go there or and I'm gonna read the first 15 verses. Um, right at a women's retreat before. So it's Mark chapter 5. They came, and I'm reading out of the Amplified, in case you're wondering. They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Garacines. When Jesus got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. And the man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with chains. For he had often been bound with shackles for the feet, and with chains, and he tore apart the chains and broke the shackles into pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue and tame him. Night and day he was constantly screaming and shrieking among the tombs and on the mountains, and cutting himself with sharp stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before him in homage, and screaming with a voice, a loud voice, he said, What business do we have in common with each other? And Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I employ implore you, by God, swear to me, do not torment me. For Jesus had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. He was asking, What is your name? And he replied, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him repeatedly not to send them out to the region. Now there was a large herd of pigs grazing there on the mountain, and the demons begged him, saying, Send us to the pigs so that we may go into them. And Jesus gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs. The herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned, one after another in the sea. The herdsmen tending the pigs ran away and reported in the city and in the country, and the people came to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed, and he was sitting down, clothed and in his right mind. So he was the man who had previously had the legion of demons, and they were frightened. So can you imagine what it was like during those days for the disciples? Um I'm talking the original 12, knowing that Jesus was unique, they understood that there was something special, and knowing that he had come out of everything that came out of his mouth, there was truth, and they knew that that was truth. And they had those moments in those three years that they walked with Jesus. They had some understanding, but most of the time they were stumbling around. And from sunup to sundown, people pressed into them. People wanted healing, many sick, many just for curiosity. Some were truly seeking the truth, and we know some were seeking Him because they were hostile towards Him. But in chapter 5 of Mark, we see this interesting story recorded for us. But if we look back to chapter 4, the disciples had had a packed day. Emotionally and exhausting, and it had been a roller coaster ride. So if you look at chapter 4, or well, let me just say this. I just I mentioned, I think earlier this morning that I just returned recently from a three-week trip to Germany. And I shared this trip with Diane and Martha, who are both here, and we had the first two weeks were just solid packed with ministry and service. And I kind of I would consider myself an introvert. I like to be around people, but I get energized when I step away for a bit and fill up. Where my friend Diane draws energy from being around people, and she's and so we were in the midst of this serving, and um the issues that really stretched me on this trip was these uh the fellowship type meetings in the home. And it was amazing. These women were here, we were coming, they knew Martha, they loved Martha, so they came to the houses. There'd be 20 women in houses, and um, we would um they would be so full of energy and they'd want to party, and and there's a German tradition um that about three o'clock in the day, they have cake and coffee every single day. So we're in these home fellowships, and that cake and coffee would be around three o'clock, and all the ladies would come and we'd have cake and coffee and fellowship, and it would go on, and then then we have a teaching, and um, we would have like a little processing craft activity they could do that would go along with the teaching. And then after that, then there would be a little more food to eat, like a light dinner, and never any paper plates. They only use glass. It is an insult to have paper plates there. So we, you know, they're you know, so paper plate or glass plates, glasses, silverware, and it would you'd be eating, fellowshipping, and it would go on and on and on. I get to about 8:30. So we're talking three o'clock, it'd be 8:30 at night, and I'm thinking, I can't do another step. I am hitting a wall, I don't have any more words, and that you know, you had to pray praying, like, Lord, you're gonna have to, you know, help me push through this, and you're listening and you know, and doing the nod, and you're kind of like a zombie, and then it would go on like till 10:30, and it was exhausting, and the ladies were loved it and they were blessed, but that was a stretch for me. Um, so we did that for two uh the two weeks. We well, I said we had three, I guess we had three home fellowships, we did that, but there were other ministry things we had to do. So that was God was so gracious and he walked with me, and I am so blessed by it. I don't I don't want you to think I'm complaining. That was just an aspect that really stretched me. But let's go back to the disciples and that day with the demon-possessed man. It had started out where Jesus had shown up by the Sea of Galilee and he was teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, and it was the crowd had grown so large that they had to, he had to go out in a boat, anchor the boat, and teach from the boat to the shore. And so he's saying, This same day, after they've been doing all that, he looks at his disciples. We're gonna go across the sea, we're going across the Sea of Galilee. And so they pull up the anchor, and Jesus goes in the back of the boat and he falls asleep. He puts his head down on like a leather fisherman pillow, whatever, and he falls asleep. And what happens? Most of you probably know the story. This fierce storm blows up, and the waves are breaking over the side of the boat, and um, and it was being swamped with water. And what did the disciples do? They panicked and they yell at Jesus, like, don't you care that we're about to die? And the amplified Bible says this. I love it. It says that Jesus sternly rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still or muzzled. And the wind died down as if it had grown weary. And there was once again a calm and perfect peace, peacefulness. So then Jesus asked the twelve, Why were you afraid? Do you still have no faith and no confidence in me? They were filled with great fear and said to each other, Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him. So we have the disciples, you know, what a day they'd had. They'd been part of this large crowd, they had to take Jesus out, anchored on a boat, then he said, Let's go across the sea. So they go across the sea. And then for me, you know, then we have this near-death experience. For me, I would have said, Okay, I'm ready for a snack and a nap, or let's have dinner and go to bed. No, their day was not over. They they docked that boat and they have this man running towards them, screaming naked, probably smelled, and you know, where he they people had tried to chain him, it was so bad. And they um so he would had cuts on him from the sharp stones, and the people all knew who he was in that region, and they had tried to subdue him, tried to chain him. But can you imagine a few minutes before you thought you were gonna lose your life, and now this you're dealing with this? But you know what? Jesus had a divine appointment. Jesus had a divine appointment. And then we read that Jesus had power over the elements, and then he was going to show that he had power over the spiritual realm. And so we we know the story, we read it that he cast these demons into the 2,000 pigs, and I do have to do the nod to Chuck, because Chuck always would say deviled ham. But I love the verse because what happened? The man is sitting clothed, he was naked, he was clothed, and he was in his right mind, and he was clothed with strength and dignity. Haven't you? I have had those moments when worry and we talk about fear overtaking you, and then you have those crazy thoughts. So sinful, shame, selfish, naked, and not in my right mind sometimes. That's where I came from. But Jesus, what did he do? He saw past that man's demons, he saw the man of flesh and blood, and that's what he did for me. But he saw past the junk and the sin and what the world had I become in the world, and what the world had really molded me into, and I've succumbed to that. And Jesus, he looks into us, he looked into me and he looked into my heart, and it was he saw who I really was. So one blessed day, he had a divine appointment with me. And I want to tell you, ladies, before you leave here, if you've never experienced that divine appointment with God, don't leave this retreat without that. Without knowing and having that divine appointment with him. So on your um tables, there's a stack of paper, and this is a nod to my friend Diane, who always writes poil tree. I didn't write this, and it's a song, actually. And it some of you may be aware of it, but it is a beautiful song, and it's old. It was written back in 1989 by Bob Bennett. Does anybody know who he is? Oh my goodness, I am so old. But I'm gonna read it if you want to follow along, and this song touches me so much. It's called Man of the Tunes. He lives in a place where no one goes. He tears it himself and lives with pain, no one knows. He counts himself dead among the living. He knows no mercy and no forgiving. Deep in the night he's driven to cry out loud. Can you hear him cry out loud? Underneath this thing that I've become, the fading memory of flesh and blood. I cursed the womb, I blessed the grave, I lost my heart, I cannot be saved. Like those who fear me, I'm afraid. Like those I've hurt I can feel pain. Naked now before my sin, those stones that cut against my skin. Some try to touch me, but no one can, for the man of tombs I am. Down at the shoreline two sets of footprints meet. One voice is screaming, other voice begins to speak. Only in a moment and only a word, the evil departs like a thundering herd. Man of the tombs, he hears this cry out loud. Underneath this thing that you become, I see a man of flesh and blood. I give you life beyond the grave. I heal, I heal your heart, I come to save. No need to fear, be not afraid, this man of sorrows knows your pain. I come to take away your sin and bear its mark upon my skin. When no one can touch you, still I can, for Son of God I am, dressed now and seated, clean in spirit and healthy of mind, man of the tombs, he begs to follow but must stay behind. He'll return to his family with stories to tell of mercy and madness of heaven and hell. Man of the tombs, soon he will cry out loud. Underneath this thing that I once was, now I'm the man of flesh and blood. I have a life beyond the grave. I found my heart, I can now be saved. No need to fear, I'm not afraid. This man of sorrows took my pain. He comes to take away our sin and bear its mark upon his skin. I'm telling you this story because, man of the tombs, I was. So it is vitally important, ladies, that you, each one of you, can remember a time that you have grieved the sin in your life, that you have cried out to God, oh wretched woman that I am. Maybe you've been raised in the church, and it's been a natural progression for you to learn knowledge about God and growing in that knowledge, but there still must come a time in your life that realization that you're desperate for a savior. You can't be good enough on your own. Power or strength. You can't do it. But guess what? The story doesn't end with us grieving. Our sin. Our past may still linger in our mind, dark and ugly, and memories keep you in bondage. This may even include sins that have been committed against you and you struggle with unforgiveness. And you may have talked about that today. Unforgiveness that have you chained up. Or rejection. You're dwelling in a place of lies if you're doing that. But remember God's work, He has deemed you worthy through Jesus Christ. So Proverbs 31, and then starting at verse 10, that title in my Bible that I use gives the description of a worthy woman. But who makes us worthy? It's Jesus. The Hebrew word for Eshet Sheel, and it's those verses, it's interesting if you do look into it a little bit. A lot of times, like a father will maybe sing that to his wife on Shabbat or a special celebration. It is a beautiful hymn, and that's what they call it, Eshet Sheel. And it means a woman who strives to live a full life of service to the Lord. Her clothing is fine linen, pure and fine and purple. So Christine McKellen is a wonderful Bible teacher, and she reminds us that God's word is like stringing a set of pearls together. Every story within the Bible is like a pearl. What is more beautiful than a single pearl is a strand of pearls strung together. And as we read scripture and linen about linen, and it's mentioned all through scripture, we know it's a textile frequently mentioned in the Bible, and it symbolizes purity, wealth, and divine righteousness. It is often associated with the garments of the priests, royalty and wealth, reflecting its status as luxurious in value. It's a material of ancient times. And fine linen is a key component, like I said, in the entire of the priests, and that's an Exodus, if you want to ever do some digging into that. And instructions for the priestly garments include a tunic of linen. And in case you ever wondered, we're gonna have clothes in heaven. Did you ever think about that? Like, what are we gonna wear in heaven? Do you think like, oh, we're just gonna float around and but I mean Revelation speaks of clothes, and so Revelations 3, 5, and I'm gonna read these. It says, He who overcomes the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God will accordingly be dressed in white clothing. And I will never blot out his name from the book of life, and I will confess and openly acknowledge his name, saying that he is one of mine. Hallelujah! And speaking of the church, in Revelation 19:8, she has been permitted to dress in fine linen, dazzling white and clean, for the fine linen signifies the righteous acts of the saints, the ethical conduct, personal integrity, integrity, moral courage, and godly character of believers. And as we are told in Revelation 19 14, the armies of heaven dressed in fine linen, dazzling white and clean, followed him on white horses. So is that cool? We're gonna like follow Jesus. Jesus and linen and we're going to be riding on a horse. I think that's kind of cool. Into battle when he comes back for his to reign as king. So we also know that in the construction of the temple, linen is mentioned in Exodus 26. So we know the Torah also instructed the Israelites to run a blue or violet cord through the tassels on their tallites or their prayer shaws. And in Numbers 15, 37 through 40. Mind you, this is what's interesting about that. God gave those instructions to the Israelites after 400 years of slavery. The Lord instructed the Israelites to run blue or purple cord through the tassels on their tallites before both rabbinic sources and archaeological data tells us that the blue dye used to color these tassels were made from the gland of a snail. Merex snail and that snail is located in the Mediterranean. And the snail produced such a very small amount of the dye so making that color purple throughout the garment was very expensive. So the blue cord in every Israelite's tassel symbolizes they were all to be royalty among the nations, each and every one of them. So they God didn't just free them from slavery. So I was a slave to sin. I absolutely was and you were a slave to sin. But we have cried out to our God in desperation that we needed a savior and he forgave us that very moment. And guess what he made us royal He were royalty and we're clothed in fine linen and purple and through Christ we have every right to wear that color purple. So over our white dress I'm going to put a purple cape here. Not in fear of losing our salvation but we just don't ever want any kind of wall between us and our Savior and our our God. And so you know life we all know this gets messy doesn't it and sometimes that mess clings to us but we live that life of confession but this is the problem sometimes it's the next step that we struggle with and that's letting go. And we have to believe his word. And that tells us that he's dealt with it and it's far as the east is from the west so there was a school teacher Dr. Everett R. Storms and he sent out on a quest to discover how many promises were given in scripture. So on his 27th read through of the Bible Dr. Storms carefully recorded every promise he could identify and the results were fascinating. He counted and this is just the promises between God to man to us 7,487 promises from God to man is what he counted. And so what's so amazing is as believers we are wrapped up in those promises. They're for us 7,800 eighty seven so our confidence completely rests on the character of a faithful and unchanging sovereign promise keeping God and He has promised us strength and dignity. So do not believe the lies of the enemy that tells us that we have to carry that weight of past since more and we have to beat ourselves up over it forever. Or here I do go again Lord I failed you again Lord I did and had that going through your mind we are clothed righteous and royal and like I said we live that life of confession to him it's forgiven and then we claim the fact that we are his daughters in him with faith and confidence that he's doing a work and guess what he never wastes one thing not one thing not one thing slips through his fingers oh I missed that you know and she's messed up again and I'm just tired of her no it's not true. And we guess what because we're his daughters we have every right to have this on we have every right to clothe ourselves in his royal color purple so just as Jesus saw that man of the tombs and saw what he could become Jesus sees you. He looks at you he sees and you know what's so amazing is and I think we've talked about this before that it took the Lord one night to free the Israelites from slavery but 40 years to get Egypt out of them. And that's our life the moment we accept him positionally we are his but guess what we have 40 years or more of that walking in the desert having him do that work in us growing our faith and like I said he never wastes anything and he has a plan and a purpose and don't ever believe otherwise so in a moment we're going to take time for prayer and communion and so much of what we do as believers is open for all you can come in and listen to teaching and sing and but communion is very exclusive. You have to have come to a point in your life where you've accepted Jesus as Lord and if you've not done that don't hesitate we will pray with you or you can pray in your seat and ask Jesus to be that in your life and you can take communion with us but it is exclusive for believers. So Jesus breaks those chains of sin in our lives and we are invited to partake. And if you're not sure where you stand you don't have to doubt any longer you can change right this minute. So we're gonna just I'm gonna have a few minutes so you can examine your hearts of and I think we have that song that I read to you we're gonna play it softly and just take some time to just pray and reflect on who God is and if you want to pray with someone I'm available I knew Cherie any of our pastors' wives that are here we're gonna have more of a time of prayer and after glow but if you want to pray before communion we're available but just take a few moments examine your heart you know ladies man isn't it chaos in the world right now and he is the only one that's gonna to have the answers for us.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

You've been listening to Janice teach at our recent women's retreat. I hope you enjoyed her message if you'd like to hear more of her teaching you can check out my YouTube channel Sheree for Zonke Janice and I count a weekly Bible study from my soon to be released Bible study Clothed in Righteousness in-depth devotional study guide. The release date is end of May of this year 2026 I'm gonna have a link in the companion blog thanks for tuning in to Embrace Truth Podcast feel free to leave a comment we'd love to hear from you and we're gonna change the amen