Showboat Christians

Showboat Christians

5/7/18

However we may feel about the title of this topic we must conclude that all of us have fit into this category at some point in our relationship with God.  Some of us are still living in this sin while others recognized this act and have been delivered of such lies.  It is not a new suggestion of picture painted that people who believe in God like to stand a boast about their life but when the time comes to explain the differences between God and the world they have no clue of how to witness correctly.  When this occasion occurs we have to succumb to the ways of the world because we do not know how to adequately defend God and the eternal truth He represents, an eternal and sinful shame that unless corrected will be an utter disgrace to face when our lives are over.  Studying God’s Word and listening to His voice and then applying what He tells you according to His Word is the only way that our hearts shall turn those who are lost into eternal vessels that God so lovingly Created.

We are going to continue our series on Jonah with a single statement from this prophet that many of us use today and while we use this type of language to others we forget that it is an open door for the world to invade, especially if we do not know what we are proclaiming.  For the most part, I stay away from all of the social media outlets and groups that have anything to do with Christianity or God, simply because they are filled with people who are combative and really do not care to understand what the other side is thinking or saying.  When the time comes to defend God through the questions that others have we only quote Scripture to them and leave it as such without explaining what that holy writ means.  The tables are then turned over by both sides with arguments ending up as the main conversational tool in which no one understands the other side and deeper divisions occur from the ones that we are supposed to be winning for God.  The only true result that occurs in these situations is the loud spiritual laughter that Satan does when the “conversation” ends between the parties involved.  This is the end result when people who claim to love God, and many of them truly do, stand up and become showboat Christians.

I have been caught many times by those who have legitimate questions and concerns about God with no adequate response to give them.  It is an embarrassing setting and one that I know I have been involved with many times over the years and responding to them that I do not know does God no justice on any level.  Also, when I have no answers for them many of them come back and ask “well, haven’t you been a Christian for most of your life?” another arrow into my chest that I cannot defend or deny because what they ask seems obvious.  How many of us have fallen into situations like this?  Now, having stated this fact there is no way possible that we can completely understand what God’s Word entirely says for His Word is so vast yet accurate at the same time our minds cannot fully comprehend every detail that is written.  However, it needs to be the desire of our hearts to know and then apply as much of God’s Word to our lives as possible so that when those who have real questions ask us them we will have a better chance of knowing where they are coming from.  Plus, when our heart is entirely engaged in God’s Word and wants to learn we will have our spiritual ears open and will be able to hear what God wants us to say at that moment.

I have blown this type of setting with others countless times and have regretted my words ever since they came from my mouth.  As time has passed and my life has taken the turns that it did, I have not had the opportunity to see these people again, to be able to talk with them or to even know how to reach them on any level, but I know that I did not have the true understanding of why God loves them and how to answer the questions that they had about God and more importantly how come I defended God and took His side when questioned.  How can we truly project God to be the eternal salvation of humanity if we do not even know the basics about His life and why would anyone choose to believe in God when the people who say they believe in Him do not know Him in the first place?  If we say we love God and are followers of His Son yet do not know their definitions are, then we are liars and can only project lies to the ones who need God.  How many lives were not changed due to the fact that we could not explain or give an explanation about God to those who want to know?  It is fascinating to me that many of us wait until we are pinned in order to speak of God and His mercies of life, a stark contradiction of what God has commanded us to do.

Jonah 1:9 states the following: “Then he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.”  It is this verse that gives us the follow through with how Christians and those who love God act on a normal basis and while doing so serves people with one of the greatest tragedies that one can do to another.  There is absolutely nothing incorrect or wrong about what Jonah stated to the people in the boat and it would be a true argument that Jonah meant every word that he recited in this verse.  At the same time, the words that he stated said something a whole lot louder for it was the actions that he displayed to those on the boat was far greater than what came from his mouth and it is this action of Jonah’s that defines the title and subject of this article.

From the tone that we get from how Jonah presented himself to the mariners, it would seem that he would be in good standing with the One who he is referring to, but we know that this is not the case because Jonah was in direct conflict with the Word of God, literally.  The mariners are the ones who were in front and all around him, that did not know God but still were in the path of the warnings and potential judgment, remember this for a while.  How many times have we boldly spoken in front of others about a certain topic of God yet hid ugliness and misguiding within our hearts at the same time?  It is a far common event for us to do such a thing and to be truthful, it has become an entry point of our enemy and we have held the door for this entrance party.  Jonah had come to the point where his boasting was far greater than what resided within his heart yet still tried to pass off to the others that he was a true man of God who had a Word to certain people.  Recognizing a pattern here folks?  I know countless people over the course of my life who were once involved in church and had a mission’s heart but now have nothing to do with church or God because of people like Jonah.

At some point in time, it will become obvious of those who are running from God yet try to put on a face that says to others that they are right in the eyes of God.  This type of lies to people hurt them deeply and may even cost them their eternal position with God.  God is not to be mocked or belittled in any manner and if the people of the Church are living such lies then it is easy for those who do not believe to ridicule us whenever they want due to the actions of our lives (Jonah.  Look at the scandals that are currently being delivered to our eyes and ears each day, the Church is full of heinous crimes against humans and should be punished as such yet we pass them by and allow those who have non-repentant hearts continue to thrive in their positions unscathed – from the beginning of their issues NOT when they have been caught years or decades later.  Once these issues have been addressed it then comes to light of just how much pain they (we) have caused to so many people and to be honest we have no defense for such immorality and grotesque behavior.

God had given Jonah a gift of words to tell the inhabitants of Nineveh, a gift of redemption, salvation, and restoration BEFORE disaster occurred to their way of life.  Once Jonah fled from God he violated that Word and thus became subject to anything that our enemy could think of to do to him.  God has our enemy on a leash, this is a true statement and fact but if we open that door to Satan he can walk right on into our lives while still being on that leash.  God had to grab Jonah’s attention and did so according to the first chapter of Jonah, quite vividly one can reckon.  Can we the Church not expect to face the same or similar consequences if we live in the same heart as Jonah and would God be authorized to perform such an activity in the name of His eternal definition?   Allow God to further demonstrate what He is trying to get across to us today and that is for us to look at our government and notice how it runs.  Every congressional setting that occurs begins with a prayer and if one reads these prayers it would seem as if we placed all focus on God for our daily decisions.  But as soon as the prayers are over it is back to earthly business and God is thrown out of the conversations which means He does not live within the majority of our hearts, a showboat Christian nation.

What we must understand is that when Jonah disobeyed and ran in the opposite direction after God had given him the words for Nineveh, the way that he should have taken towards Nineveh in the first place was abandoned.  How many people would Jonah have come into contact with on that original way and how many opportunities would he have had to share God with those who came in contact with him?  The entire Book of Jonah would have been written differently if Jonah had just listened and obeyed God in the manner that he should have but instead he ran and did his own thing in his own manner.  Yes, the city of Nineveh was eventually saved through the obedience of Jonah but we cannot forget the time and effort of Jonah while he was wandering away from God in disobedience for when God gives His orders to people their greatest fulfillment is to obey completely with the firsts of their hearts which will yield the best for God and His Kingdom, a perfection that a showboat Christian cannot see or recognize.  A detail to remember here about Jonah and most importantly about you, One may ask why didn’t God chose someone else after Jonah ran, it is because God loved Jonah just as much as He did the people of Nineveh which meant that He had to grab Jonah’s attention just as He had wanted the hearts of the inhabitants of Nineveh and once God gives a gift of His Word to anyone, He cannot take that away it is our choice to bury it or let it live.

What is phenomenal about this setting is that it could have never had to happen if only Jonah had obeyed what God had told him to do in the first place.  Instead, Jonah chose to disobey and thus set the remaining Book of Jonah content into motion, which is a direct picture of our lives as well.  Yes, the Book of Jonah could have been written differently but if it was written in another form it could not have been a representative of how God’s grace and restoration to His people.  It is difficult to follow the events of Jonah 1:1-9 without truly understanding that what occurred goes on in our lives as well.  So often we forget the authority God has given us to advance life and to promote His Kingdom of eternity and more close to home we have totally forgotten our commission that Jesus gave His Church to go and teach the Gospel of His life and message of separation, salvation, and restoration.  When we do not witness fully to those who need God and Jesus in their lives we represent a showboat Christian status and are subject to the warnings and then the judgment of God if we do not realize our sinful patterns.  We cannot truly live and represent God if we do not be a total witness for Him and His Ways. 

Jonah understood completely what needed to be done and where he was supposed to do it, just like we know and understand the Word of God today.  But just like Jonah we play around with the words of the Bible and exploit them for our own disciples and configurations which is a complete violation of God’s Ways and because of these actions, we are seeing a bunch of events that boggle our minds.  God does not have any limitations on how He can grab our attention and even what may seem like a natural setting or condition, in fact, could be a warning from God.  God created everything and can use any part of His creation in order to get His prized loves back in tow to His Ways.  Church, we have strayed so far away from God and what He wants all people to know and understand.  We have been taught the Word of God for the majority of our lives and have prostituted its Holy Content for our own selfish reasoning.  Jonah did the exact same thing while he slept in the boat and ran from God and this act of rebellion of his came to a head when he stood up and boastfully stated who he was and what he believed in.

Jonah had great words of faith to say to those mariners but had no effective means of delivering the true message of what God wanted to say to those who were in trouble.  How can any other definition or example not be a greater source of truth concerning the Church today?  There are countless people struggling with everyday life in this nation not to mention all other nations around the world and the majority of the Church has not witnessed or converted a single person for God.  Now, if a Christian has not completed the task that Jesus commanded us to do then there can be no other definition of our spiritual life than sleeping (sitting) in the bottom of the boat (in the pews).  It is time we repent Church and start standing up for God in the true manner in which we were created, thus speaking about God as our Father and Creator to everyone.  It is time we take back the authority that God gave us and begin to use it on the kingdom of darkness that surrounds this planet.  God loves each child of His and it is our responsibility to shed the showboat status and once again become the Christian of God’s Kingdom and proclaim the separation from the world and the salvation and restoration that comes with the Covenant of God.

DLB

Becoming Like The World

Becoming Like The World

5/3/18

The topic of this message is occurring around us at breakneck speed and is a process that some reach faster than others.  We must be thankful that the Creator of this wonderful nation and our lives is slow to judge such wickedness even though we continue to snub our noses at Him through our self-righteous attitudes.  God is gracious enough to wait for us to turn our hearts towards Him even when the fingers are being pointed at us for various reasons.  If we turn our hearts back towards God and fulfill the designed mission that He commissioned us to do then we shall see the perfect healing that He promises to those who serve Him with all their heart.  But if we do not and continue to reject His Ways, His hand shall appear in ways that we have never witnessed before, just as our egos have grown so too shall God’s hands be mighty.

God has shared with over these past articles that He is delighted to give us the blessings and gifts of life and that it is He who designed and authorized the leadership status of this nation.  But as time has moved along we have become a self-supporting and self-centered nation that believes that it was through our humanly works alone that has allowed for this rise in status.  We have steadily crossed and marked God out of our lives and ignored the beautiful talent that He has graced our hearts with to guide other nations with His wisdom.  We have stood before mankind and boasted about how much we have accomplished even though being isolated from the majority of the world and its existence, a young nation in time that has achieved so much without the long entity of lineage to back our claims.  Yet through this discourse of public self-preservation acknowledgment, we have left out, purposefully, the One source and origin of our presence and while we boast of our status and who we completely forget that our hearts are sounding with emptiness due to the rhetoric of lies that we have adopted.

How common it is to stand upon our past reputation as a nation and leadership skills yet want to degrade our status both involuntarily and voluntarily on the highest stage all in the name of equality.  Our hearts are empty because we have drained the source of our heartbeat from its openings and our defenses are suffering as a result.  Our existence has become anemic due to our own flagellation process for being leaders to a dying world and being embarrassed for such standing and not defeating the process.  It is always amazing to me to see the systemic annihilation of God in our lives and at the same time fulfill God’s Word while laughing at His face.  A sad and eternal mistake that at some point God shall have to remind His people and this nation of what we were supposed to do for the world, a supernatural condition being taken from a nation is NEVER a good thing and one that if repaired will take thousands of years to restore; ask Israel about this state of repair.

In the last article that God shared with us, it was supposed to cover Jonah 1:5-8 but we never touched on verse 8 at all and there was a reason for this.  I have always found it astounding that after God shares with me what to write there is a short period of time where He stays quiet about what He has just shared with me and then after a while begins to expound on what He has given.  It is this type of example that He did when He gave me the previous article but after it was completed He had other plans for verse 8 but still did not tell me to change the title of the previous article nor did He want to exclude verse 8 from the passage either.  I am not in control of these articles nor am I in control of what is spoken and shared, God is and I am just obeying what He has given me to share with you.  So, here we go with Jonah 1:8 and it states as follows: “Then they said unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?”

There is nothing wrong with finding out where everyone is from while being placed in one spot or location.  This is so common when settings and situations are tense, people begin to ask questions about others in the predicament in order to ease their own worries and tensions but when the cast is drawn and death looks eminent it is also a human trait to begin wanting and even demanding answers so that blame can be placed on the one(s) responsible for such tragedies to occur.  Very, very rarely will anyone readily admit to being the one who is responsible for the causes of such animosities yet justifications of such actions flow freely and are subject to penetrate every heart around the setting.  We see this type of scene being played out on this boat with the other people all pointing their fingers at Jonah demanding to know exactly why this type of devastation is upon them and it is a perfect view of what many people in today’s societies are doing as well.

Now, we are going to be focusing on a single word here in this verse and it comes from the middle portion of the verse and the word is “evil”.  It is used in the question that the mariners asked Jonah as to why the current conditions were around them and the question was directed solely to Jonah alone for he was the one chosen as the lot winner.  The Hebrew word that is used here for evil is “haraah” and it is not the only time in the Bible that it is used, but it does, however, feature a unique set of its own when this specific word is used and it fits perfectly with this story and all other content stories that it is associated with.  There are several Scripture passages that support the usage of this word “haraah” and they all have specific references to people doing things that affect others around them.  This is only a partial list for there are many more that give such example but this list is as follows: Genesis 19:9, Genesis 39:9, Genesis 50:15, Exodus 32:12, Exodus 32:14, Numbers 14:27, Numbers 14:35, Deuteronomy 31:18, Judges 20:41, 1 Samuel 6:9, 1 Samuel 16:23, 2 Kings 22:20, 2 Chronicles 7:22.  The participants in these verses were in desperate conditions and tense times, only because of others’ reactions to what they were supposed to do and what they ended up doing, a classic human response that we cannot get away from today either.  Remember, God is a consistent God and He cannot change His ways on any level to accommodate ANY sin from humans.

Once the physical process of disobedience begins and is not put into check, then eventually the spiritual aspects of disobedience will appear soon afterward. Satan understands this process for he is the one that established the breeched contact with the physical so that the spiritual could be reached. When God calls us to perform a specific duty that duty represents our command from Him in order to keep and dress our dominion which means we are serving God in an obedient manner and thus advancing His Kingdom. God’s definition comes from His Word and it is His Word that defines us thus it must be carried out or we as a Creation shall cease as it did when Adam and Eve fell through disobedience. The same occurs here in Jonah when it is obvious that Jonah ran hard enough from God that this passage gives us a picture of what Jonah’s heart inhabited and it is easily recognized that the rise of wickedness had been reached that was equivalent to Nineveh.

I understand that being human and having a limited capability of understanding is a common and present state, but God has also given us the heart to seek Him with as well which is used in a pure manner will bring forth the truth on a level that we can grasp.  Jonah did not do this here and up until this point in Scripture, he had n intentions of changing his plans either.  Jonah had made up his mind and began fulfilling the direction that he chose it is a human action to do such a thing after one’s mind has been made.  When humans choose the world over God it is an automatic course and plot that is laid out and many times we do not even conceive just how bad off we will be and for those around us.  It may seem a tad harsh that others have to suffer because we are disobeying what God commanded us to do, but it is relative and eternal truth that God has to follow in order to keep His Word intact and pure because once a plan goes array on the human aspect it is God’s job to correct our path back to Him by any means necessary before it becomes too late.

We have a tendency to forget that when two or more are together and say they are gathered in God’s name that they should do so and be represented as such as one in God.  If two people are divided between themselves then it can be guaranteed that they are divided between God and themselves also and such division goes against God and His Ways completely.  It is this simple divisionary tactic by the enemy which brings the message of separation into our lives and when we grab a hold onto this tactic then we will always have doubts about the will of God for our lives.  This action of ours shall also cause us to delay or completely disobey what God has told us to do as well and if this disobedient spirit is allowed to continue we will soon find ourselves in a boat with a violent storm around us with God’s next step in hand.  Do we understand that the action that Jonah took that day is exactly what Aaron did back in Exodus and what the Church is doing today?  What does God mean by the Aaron example?  This topic of Aaron shall be addressed soon and it is a major component of how the Church operates today and how much of an abomination she serves as well.

Our nation has been called to complete a specific work for God and through this eternal commission to be a light unto a dark world.  Yet, we have picked up the sword of selfishness and have begun to cut off the heads (spiritual) of those who go against this worldly behavior.  Instead of teaching God’s love to those who are dying we swing the idea of mortal strength and personal fitness to those we believe are inferior.  Look at what this nation now accepts as the truth for every level of our existence, this belief has become a Babylonian foundation and definition by which we measure our physical and spiritual existence.  We are so engrossed in our superficial appearances that we fail to recognize that we are unprepared for a real battle, a spiritual battle with our enemy that will have us fighting against ourselves with him standing on the sidelines laughing at our struggles with destruction.  We have reached the point of self-service that we do not even recognize that it is the spiritual plane that we have lost that is directly affecting our physical capabilities and decisions.

What is disturbing about the setting with Jonah is that he understood what was transpiring in Nineveh because God directly showed him what was going on in that city and quantified such disobedience to Jonah at the same time.  God did not sugar coat the situation at all nor did He say it was okay for Jonah to take his time in telling the people what God had said.  Jonah had no intention of going to Nineveh at all and while he disobeyed what God told him to complete, was in the completed state just as Nineveh was thus deserved whatever judgment that was appropriate from God.  What we need to identify here is that the attitude that Jonah portrayed to God is of an uninhibited decision of disobedience without any hesitation of conscience of truth at all, and it is this attitude that rose up in the face of God concerning Nineveh and it is also the exact same condition that now is present before God’s face concerning our nation today.  It was obvious that Nineveh had reached a point where she believed that she could do anything without having to face consequences for her actions, an identical and preferred state and condition that we represent today as well.

The warnings are all around us but we do not know how to appropriately respond and then adequately repent of our sins so that the storms subside.  The Church is in the exact same position as Jonah was when the storm approached and then consumed the boat in Jonah Chapter 1, asleep below deck where she believes it is safe and dry.  The world is crying out for help and for a savior and we are knitting our little Bible markers inside the church buildings believing that the storm will pass and everything will be reached with no worries.  The Church has the duty, the eternal duty to walk out in that storm and to pull in those that are drowning in the waves of death, it is this message of salvation that we need to be teaching by example and voice not such being seen sitting in a safe and warm place.  This nation has been protected from so many enemies and because of this blessing we have learned that sitting around and give orders for our comfort is a high profile life, just as the Church has learned to do.

We have also found out that through this type of national attitude the Church attitude has followed likewise which is a GROSS insubordination of God’s Holy Order and thus an abomination to His eyes and nostrils.  Our divisions are so deep and wide that while we stand and boast about our standards and tell others to come, come we fail to recognize or admit that our foundation for survival is gone.  It is the Church that is supposed to be the light of the world which is a presence that is separated from the world’s setting not an acceptance letter for the world’s conduct.  It is evident that the majority of the members of the Church body are not fulfilling their responsibility in keeping the will of God and the plan that He has for each one of us.  The heart of the Church has risen to the same level of wickedness as it was in Jonah’s heart and we have no problems with accepting this counteracting truth with a steady climb into a deeper sinful state.  We are continually witnessing warnings that God has provided us yet blaming environmental and conditions along with obscure reasoning against those who do not follow these reckonings as the source of the warnings instead of looking at the inner spirit of our nation to see what really the root for these events is.  You want to place blame, then blame the origin of such atrocities that we are seeing and that are our hearts, yes, Church, it is our hearts for we have allowed sin to infiltrate our lives enough to have a greater influence within than God and when this state occurs only destruction and death can be incorporated into others.

I wish I could say that the Church (myself included) would realize the entire structure of what is going on here in our nation today.  As each day passes we blindly take a step closer to the end of days and if we do not turn around and seek after God again, this nation shall cease to exist as what we know of it today.  That also means that the Church and all of the little divisions that we have created in order to pacify our selfish wants shall be destroyed as well and our presence will be shattered and thrown back into the ancient of times.  Yes, God is stating that since He has given us the directive to be the light of the world and the ones to call upon the world to be saved, that we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing and therefore, we are totally responsible for the condition that this nation and our hearts are in today.  This did not occur overnight but over a long period of time where we have placed our selfish intentions above God’s and we are rapidly witnessing the entire collapse of the world due to this fatal and eternal error of ours.  The warnings signs that God delivers are serious enough and can do enough damage to grab any living being’s attention, but we should recognize them as such and then tell ourselves that something is wrong and most importantly turn our hearts back to God so that He can examine them and rid ourselves of the roots that are subjecting us to these warnings.  God is not providing these warnings out of anger but through His Love for His people so that He will not have to take the next step as any good parent would do.

Jonah’s heart quickly became equal to the world’s heart by blatantly disobeying what God had told him to do and we as a nation and the one nation chosen by God to be such a similar light as Jonah have chosen to run in the same direction as Jonah did.  That can mean only one thing, the warning signs have already appeared and judgment is just around the corner.  We can avoid this tragic mistake and proven text from God if we turn our hearts around and accept God as our source and then place God first in our hearts again.  The call is for repentance and then if we honestly repent God is faithful to restore our land and our hearts back to a living presence once again.  Let us stop writing the path that we are on today and change the pattern of our lives towards God and when we do I can guarantee that our ending shall be far greater than our beginning.  God is not like the world and if we truly turn towards Him neither will we be.

An important detail to remember here about evil is just how it infiltrates and then progresses to fill every part of the space given.  We see this process and how quickly it developed into a single person (Jonah), then what this process led Jonah to do fully knowing what was at stake for countless people.  It is this same path that a city took and we can attribute God’s command to Jonah for such a path.  So, why would it be surprising if a nation took this same path?  It is not and while we glory in our so-called progress through world standards we cannot ignore the fact that while we have established such worldly communication with others it is the eternal and spiritual communication that we have cut and now do not harbor.  See the pattern here?  We have a person, a city, and then a nation all being affected by such dramatic worldly input.

The nation that is used here does not have to be given specifically for we have an ample amount of examples that we can learn about concerning this pattern.  For instance, Israel can be used for the biblical times, Greece and Rome for the ancient times of history, Europe for the medieval period, and this nation for modern times.  A nation just does not become corrupt overnight it takes an infiltration process in order for some entity to develop.  Yes, this process may start overnight and grow but the overall pattern takes time to accept, it takes a person, then a small group, then a larger group, etc. for this process to work.  Do you see the pattern?  We should, for it is a worldly pattern that we should notice which means that God’s Pattern and Ways cannot be followed, a word of wisdom that we all need to keep in mind.  It is obvious to God that we have risen to a level of sinful recognition before Him and He is doing His best to provide such warnings so that we can figure things out before He must go further, or if one wants to put it popular terms of today before God must move forward.  Church, it is time that we stop playing Aaron and play the leadership role that God gave us back when He separated us from the world and its standards and lifestyle.  Repent, Church and allow God to move in our presence once again so that we can effectively fulfill His Word to the lost and dying instead of the world fulfilling Satan’s plan (becoming like the world) for our lives.

DLB

Seeing But Not Understanding

Seeing But Not Understanding

4/28/18

It is frustrating to know that when things are occurring around you that it is for a reason yet the majority of the people involved in the said surroundings do not have a clue about why things are spinning out of control. It then becomes increasingly more difficult to hold our tongues and serve the unknowing while they are focusing their actions on the innocent. We have witnessed this state of concern for millennia and even though we have progressed in many areas we still lag in the wisdom that God has given us to use in such circumstances. It sounds like a broken record but the only way to peace and structured purity again is to turn our hearts back to God and when we do He will allow us to see why the storm is raging around us and why it is there then through His searching of our own hearts can weed out that storm.

How many of you out there can say or would admit to jumping to conclusions to a setting before you had an opportunity to find out exactly what was going on when your eyes saw the setting? I have to admit this fact about myself, for I have done it plenty of times when it came to my daughters and on many other non-family occasions as well. It is easy to draw a quick conclusion to such matters and when we do we usually get things out of sort and then make horrible decisions in lieu of intelligent, rational, and wise thinking. Sometimes the conclusions we draw from immediate sight are hilarious while others force us to come to dire conclusions that serve as harmful resolutions for everyone involved. While some of these conclusions may not change after reasonable sorting out they will be more likely to be acceptable when all information has been presented.

I have noticed that when people are explaining how things occurred and then what they did as a response can be pretty drastic and dramatic at times. It is a common sight to see traumatic settings play out in the Emergency Department and even with our ED being considered a small rural setting we still see our share of these types of hyped conditions. If more than one person is trying to describe what occurred it can become quite funny to watch the competitive spirits come out and try to take command of the story and God forbid if three or more are involved. It is this positioning that many of us take when we are put into such settings and while this type of activity of sharing is a common natural event, sometimes our knowledge of what occurred can become clouded for various reasons. It is okay not to know exactly what is going on all the time but when we do not understand that specific surrounding it is our responsibility to find out why things occurred, in a calm manner of course, and then draw conclusions with the appropriate information in hand. If these conclusions can pinpoint a common cause then the process can be fixed and then society can move along the way in an opportune manner.

This brings us to the point in our Jonah series where the boat is in peril and the lives of the people onboard are striving to live at all costs. Everyone present can see the storm and how fierce its winds and other mechanisms are for the Bible calls the storm a tempest which means it is a violent one by all accounts. The passage we will be using here will be Jonah 1:5-8 and a bunch of information comes out here and once again serves as a pivotal point in Jonah’s disobedience and how it affects the people around him. It is also this not knowing of specific details as to why the storm is present and why the people have no clue as to why it is going on and serving as a warning either. I find it ingenious that God chooses to present a natural storm here for He has a specific reason for doing so. Jonah 1:5 states as follows: “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep.” This verse gives us a great deal of information about the storm, maritime laws, the weather, and of course, Jonah and I must say that every single detail about this verse is in present application to us today just as it occurred that day so long ago.

When a storm approaches and catches a boat in its path it is normal for the passengers to become a bit worried for they are not used to such violence out on the water. I understand quite clearly how these people must have felt but there is an added detail here that is unique in that it was the mariners who were afraid. This means that the people or crew of the ship was frightened with how the storm developed and how violent it was growing. There were no modern-day navigation systems present so all they had was their eyes and keen senses in order to steer clear of storms and other obstacles, but this storm was of a different origin and was directed squarely on their placement. The knowledge of maritime laws is a necessity when on the water and all emergency procedures must be in the forefront of sailors’ minds when at sea and from all indications the storm was tossing the boat around enough that the weight of the boat was becoming a hindrance to their survival so lesser important items were thrown overboard to lighten the ship. Even though they probably had been through many storms before this storm was a bit different, but the mariners kept the playbook intact and followed it as protocol demanded. 

An interesting point occurs in this verse where it states that “every man cried to his god”.  Now, all of us are human and have fears that we may have to face at some point in time.  We all have thought about those moments and how we would react if they ever came to fruition, and the storm that these men faced evidently was bad enough that they began to call upon their gods for help and salvation.  The interesting point here is that there is no mention of Jehovah God from these men but the deities that they called upon were still important enough to their lives that they cried out for their help.  The men had no clue of who to actually call upon for help and along with not understanding why the storm was upon them, were totally clueless and sitting (sinking) ducks and truly at the mercy of God.  What the did not know is that God was not going to let them all die but that God was trying His best to wake Jonah up, both in reality and to what he was supposed to do, yet the men in the ship were bystanders to this Divine act.  While noble enough to pray to a belief this action does not address the root of the problem since false gods can only represent a superficial understanding of impunity instead of dealing with the root of the problem.

The second portion of Jonah 1:5 gives us a picture of what was going through Jonah’s mind at the time that the ship was being torn apart, nothing!  We find that Jonah was down in the bottom of the ship fast asleep and had no guilt-ridden or laden conscience what-so-ever.  I know that it has been said that some people can sleep through tornados and not be woke up but it is hard for me to figure out how one could sleep through a violent storm especially when the boat was being shaken as such as it was.  At the very least one would be awake and trying to figure out what was going on but not in this case, Jonah was at peace with what choice he had made and was not even concerned that what was going on to his carrier was the result of his actions or in this case non-action.  In addition, when this type of setting occurs it is common point that everyone on board pulls out the stops and helps the crew do their jobs, because, in the end, it is the in the best interest of everyone to do what they can because if the ship goes down everyone in the confines goes down with it.  This portion of the verse also gives us a picture that Jonah did not need God in order to live and that his will was more important than what God wanted for his life; does this sound like anything we have heard today?

Jonah 1:6 states as follows: “So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”  The diversity of people was great enough back during this time that everyone was allowed to think for themselves when it came time for their religious beliefs which meant that there were a great many people that did not believe in Jehovah God.  Plus, when a person gets singled out by the captain of a ship for not participating in what everyone else is doing and supposed to do it cannot be a good sign.  When God has given us a responsibility to complete and has entrusted us with gifts in order to be an example to others then we turn around and ignore or unwisely follow the advice He gives us to distribute such truth, we will have to reap such warnings and then judgments if we do not do what is expected of us.  It is this position that Jonah was in – both on the boat and in his sleeping status – that has defined the storm around them and while the actions and beliefs of the mariners might have been wrong, it is still Jonah’s responsibility to make things correct and to tell them the truth, both on the level of why the storm was present and that God wanted them to repent as well.  It is THIS picture that is painted for us way back in the Old Testament that we are currently witnessing unfolding today.

Things were so bad that the crew of the boat was casting lots to figure out how things became so bad and who was responsible for their current situation.  I am sure that this process of lot casting involved much blame and storytelling than any human could imagine saying in order to save their hide for that is how humans operate.  But after all of the reasoning and arguing were completed the only one that did not have a true verbal “alibi” was Jonah.  The actions of the mariners are quite common and should not come as any surprise especially after the words they proclaim in the first portion of verse 5 when they were all crying to their own deity and then finding or seeing any resolution to their situation.  They were on the path that they believed would save them but in truth, they were not even coming close to the root and reality of what was going on around them.

It is this example of Jonah that should hit right in our gut and also send an arrow through our heart because we are the epitome of this verse being played out today.  Even though we are in the boat together inside the confines of this nation, Christians have done a wonderful job of being comfortable with themselves that we do not care about what is going on around us.  We try and do our best to ignore the storms (warnings) that are around us, play them off as environmental shifts or “days of the age” complications and tend to our pews inside the church building.  Sitting in our church pews, whether it be literally inside a church building or having that mentality within our hearts, is the EXACT same thing as Jonah was doing inside the boat being asleep.  When aroused Jonah was not surprised at the storm around the ship which means he knew that conditions were bad and that from the crew’s reaction were becoming worse, yet he did nothing but make a lousy statement which made the crew totally upset – another state in which the church is portraying today and which will be written about shortly.

One of the greatest lies that Christians have bought into over the centuries is that it is okay to be divided in faith through personal feelings and interpretations of God and His Word.  The mariners in the boat give us a good example of denominations and how they operate in our lives for even though each one prayed to their own god and deity each one at the same time was not unified in worship and in prayer.  It is common for these types of divisions to recognize the one that is out of place or is doing something different than the remaining about like the old Sesame Street game I used to watch where they placed four people in squares but one of them was not doing what the others were and it was my job to pick the one out that was doing their own thing.  The one person who had the opportunity to shut things down correctly by recognizing and then taking the authority given to him kept quiet until he was prodded out, a continuation of the disobedience process that Jonah began as soon as God told him what to do, where to go and what to say when he got there.

While Jonah did his own thing we are following in those footsteps today and all the while the storms (warnings) increase and gain strength around us.  What is so ironic about this entire passage of Scripture is that through the actions of the Church we are helping the mariners lighten the load from the ship instead of standing up and taking authority over the root of the problems at hand.  Yeah, we are “doing a bit more” than Jonah did, but our actions are in the opposite direction of what God wants us to do, and just being another representative of Jonah instead.  Jonah knew why the storm was about the ship and he knew that it would be some type of similar destruction of Nineveh as well but he kept silent and had no intentions of repenting and making things right before God, therefore, not making thing right before his fellow shipmates either, only fulfilling his own punched ticket to the other side of the sea.

There is no way possible that we cannot see and know the storms that are around us and it is impossible to not know the reasons WHY those storms are gaining strength and in number either.  So, why isn’t the Church (YOU!) doing something about it so that our lives can be at peace once again?  Why are we throwing things out of the boat instead of focusing on the root of the storms?  It is obvious that we have not a repentant heart nor do we even want to repent and only cry out to our selfish earthly gods for help.  Something to think about for a while and that is this: if we are not willing to repent do we not think that God sees this condition of our heart and do nothing about it?  God cannot sit back and just watch His children foolishly perish, He will grab our attention somehow if necessary, but why do we have to have a whale come swallow us up in order for our spiritual eyes to be opened?  Wake up, now, Church and calm the storms around us before we have to see the water around us encroach upon our lands.  We have been personally taught for decades the truth and how to calm the storms around us, what are we waiting for?

DLB

Jonah"s Warnings

Jonah’s Warnings

4/26/18

God will never allow His judgment to occur without first giving us warnings and in these warnings will come evidence of why God is issuing such statements.  God will never surprise us with such devastating warrants but will give us plenty of opportunities to change our hearts before He must really grab our attention.  Many times it is understandable that we miss the first warning but after that, it is our own fault if we ignore such given and provided truth.  God does not miss on what He says for each letter and word has a Divine purpose for our lives, a detail we cannot afford to forget.  It is still possible for us to heed the warnings without true devastation occurring but we need to change paths accordingly and in a timely fashion if we are to escape impending direction.  Return to God and our hearts led to repentance is what God is calling for us to do and we need Him now more than ever.

Approximately twenty years or so ago I began to have physical warnings that my health was not in the best shape.  I was overweight, my diet was lousy and my stress level was outrageously high.  For decades previously I knew that my blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides were abnormally high and that even when I was younger exercised regularly and ate better food they were still grossly elevated.  Back in the 1980s, the medications were not available yet to control such elevated lipid levels and while my metabolism was high and working properly the experts said that I would be okay.  Therefore, as we all know when the age factor sets in our metabolism slows and thus if any issues are present at that moment they will be sure to become an issue sooner or later.  It is a part of human nature for these types of processes to slow as time passes along but for those of us who have genetically stinky conditions, it does not bode well if these issues are not taken care of properly before severe events occur.

One of my doctor friends and I were talking one evening and she suggested that I get lab work done and see what my lipid levels were doing, I did so and when she received the report she came to me -that evening- with a few samples of drugs that could lower my lipid levels.  I was hesitant at first while she was explaining what the drugs would do but began taking them the next morning.  Now, as stated above I had not been feeling too well for quite some time so what was about to occur in a few days was not due to the drugs but because of my delay in treatment the previous years.  These symptoms or warnings as they were increased I did what any healthcare professional and normal human being would do, ignored them.  I have previously stated many times to others and even to my family members that I was feeling okay and that all was well even though as soon as my mouth closed with those words they responded that I looked terrible.  They were correct, I did look terrible and I felt terrible but since nothing had occurred yet I believed that I was in the “right”.  Boy, was I about to be in for a stunner.

Warning signs are designed to give people, animals, and any other intelligent creature the opportunity to figure out that something was not correct and to make the necessary changes in order to prevent something from drastically changing the normal appearance and condition of said opportunity.  However, since I continued to ignore the warnings that my body was producing that fateful Monday at lunchtime pain hit me in a very unusual manner and from that point onward my life and the lives of my family members.  My LAD was 99% blocked and technically when my chest began to hurt I should have hit the floor being dead before I did such movement.  However, God was not finished with me yet and from that point onward God has been doing mighty things in my life and I continue to try and stave off the further genetic conditions that I seem to be following.  The warnings signs were now over and the storm that I was facing was a real threat to my physical existence and if it was not for the advanced technological treatments available today I probably would not be here completing the mission that God has set me to do.  My life has changed in so many ways since that October day and I am thankful that God has seen fit to now teach others about His existence, His Ways, and His Definition and especially how much He loves us and desires for us to follow Him.

Up until a short time ago, I did not understand that when a person disobeyed that it meant they were running from the person who was in the authoritative position over them, even if they were the ones in the authoritative position.  When this setting of disobedience occurs warning signs will eventually show up simply because the numbers and mechanisms of such accountability will fall into question at some point in time.  Humans forget that we are a flawed lot and that if we do things correctly and then fail, how can we not think the worst when things are done incorrectly?  It is embarrassing enough when good things go wrong and turn south as they say but how many companies, governments, etc. fall and the conditions of the interior or infrastructure become exposed?  It is a sad state of affairs when this occurs and it all stems from the disobedience that we would rather harbor, a condition easily avoided.

It is this state that Jonah finds himself in when he has totally and completely disobeyed the command of God.  Jonah has taken matters into his own hands by believing and then acting upon his beliefs that he did not need to listen to God at all.  With the events having been completed in Jonah 1:1-3 we now have a setting where God is in the position to send out Jonah’s warning signals to him; however, the only problem is that there are other people with Jonah as well when this event begins, but remember while it is difficult to understand why God judges the just and the unjust at the same time, this event does occur.  Jonah 1:4 states as follows: “But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”  Okay, we have here another pretty specific and concise effort of God that is intended to grab the attention of Jonah and to inform him again that God has a job for him to complete.  Now, I understand and all of us understand that when the Bible talks about ships it is not referring to the modern day ocean liners, cruise ships, cargo ships, or modern military vessels but of ones that were built by wood and had simple frames and structures to them.  Given that information, a storm is a storm and no matter what type of ship sailing that comes into contact with a fierce storm is always subject to sinking or totally being destroyed structurally before it goes down.  Water and storms are a powerful mix and many times cannot be conquered by the thinking of the human mind.

What many may find to be enough of a setting to claim as a judgment does not always fit with what eventually occurs.  There have been many times that I have heard stories from people who claim their issues and how they endured them but ended the setting with the words “what else could occur?”  I have learned never to say such a thing because if that door is opened Murphy’s Law many times comes right on through.  In this verse, we find that Jonah has boarded a ship and they have departed the port and are in the sea heading towards their next destination.  A violent storm appears and begins and is strong enough that it is threatening to sink the ship.  The ship is big enough to have a lower deck for that is where the Bible says that Jonah is in verse 5.

The Bible uses the word tempest to describe the storm that had overcome the ship and even describes that the strength of the storm went into the sea itself which adds another dimension of turbulence, a supernatural action that could only be created by God and this truth is mentioned in this verse as well.  The word tempest is defined as a violent windstorm and the Bible uses the Hebrew word “saar” which means the same as the modern-day translation.  However, an interesting note here is that this specific word is used only in one other place in the Old Testament and that is in Jeremiah 30:23 where it is talking about how God goes forth as a whirlwind with fury and how it will fall onto the heads of the wicked.  I find this specificity very intriguing and should be studied more by myself and others.

Warnings are not given for those who are in a good state of obedience but come during a state of disobedience before something occurs majorly wrong within that confined contingency.  When one reads this passage they could easily come to the conclusion that the storm that the people are facing is the judgment that God has intended for Jonah and also how unfortunate the people are to be unknowingly admitted to this process at the same time.  If we did not know the end of this story and how things turn out it could be concluded that God doubles down on Jonah but in truth, it is the warning that even though it was designed for Jonah the people around him were also exposed to such attention-grabbing method God chose.  And it is this portion of the story that becomes personal to us today as well for the same setting is currently being played out in our society and if we continue to perform just as Jonah did then we are all in for a devastation that is incomprehensible.

I have heard it said many times that God would not allow such devastation to come upon His people that His love for them is far greater than the “hate” that such devastation would portray.  This is where many of us fall into the trap and web of Satan’s lies because we do not take the Bible literally enough to understand what God uses in order to grab our attention concerning sin and the importance of seeking to live without it in our lives.  In order to make His point, God gives His people warnings before the real judgment arrives and He gives us plenty of opportunities to change our hearts and to turn back before He must go further.  Jonah 1:4 gives us the example of exactly what God is trying to teach us today and while everyone is in the same boat some do not understand why the storm is affecting them as well.  More importantly, they do not understand that what they are witnessing and experiencing is a warning that represents the tip of the iceberg for the actual judgment is much harsh.

It is obvious that everyone in this nation is witnessing what is being exposed because every industry and organization is being in the news with some type of allegation or accusation coming to light.  The picture that we are witnessing today stems from actions by an entire nation and belief not stemming from just one person.  We must contribute this land as to what Nineveh was raising up to God and the one who has the answers to this problem is asleep and not doing what he was told to do.  God’s warnings come in a vast array of truths and in the story of Jonah, Jonah is being exposed to everyone’s knowledge without them even understanding what is occurring, just as we are being exposed today and do not understand that the blame lies on all of us and not coming from one person.  It has never been an intention of God to scare anyone into submission to His Ways nor will He ever force one to make a decision based upon fear but God does send warnings to His people in order to get their attention as to what is going around them and that there is a reason for those tidings.

From the time that Lucifer fell from Heaven and including the time that Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden to this very day, God has continually singled out people to lead His eternal Testimony while the majority of others fail to recognize what is going on around them.  When a few people stray God understands and hopes that those small factions stay and find the truth without major issues coming into light but when the majority of the people fail to recognize why failings occur.  Even when God told us in Genesis 6:5 about why He had to destroy the earth because every heart thought nothing but evil continually, this process did not happen overnight, it took time and God gave warnings before this devastation occurred. 

Today, God is sending out the same type of warnings to this nation and pleading with us to listen to these warnings and signals, for if we do not figure out that the storm that is around us has been established because of our actions then we will have no choice but to face a much greater catastrophe sometime soon.  As Nineveh was created to have a purpose so was this nation and as in both examples the purpose has been skewed greatly, we no longer can be fooled by the leader of the world and his lies.  On the other side of the issue, we have the people that have been charged with handling this redemption news and we have failed miserably in delivering the truth about what is going on around us.  Our hearts are sick and asleep and we have no choice but to wake up and go do what God has told us to do.  Repent, folks for God is still being patient with us for a while longer and I trust that we will change our hearts and turn back to Him before it is too late.

DLB

Jonah's Decision

Jonah’s Decision

4/25/18

How many of us immediately turn from the direction we were headed in when God calls us to do something for Him?  Some say it was an easy process while others mention a struggle that lasted for quite some time, whatever the response may be it is a glorious experience when the person being called of God agrees with the Almighty Creator of everything.  It can be tough responding to God and many times the human population will not heed or accept what the person has chosen to do, but if those people listen and in turn follow God not only will they learn so much about true life but also their lives too shall be changed forever during the restoration process that they proclaim to others.

When a person rejects the call of God or questions their ability to complete such a task, God does not slap them to the ground in an angry fashion nor does He ban them from any other blessings that come from His heart.  If that was the case then many people who have heard the call of God would not be in the state that they are in today, because we must remember that when God sets forth His hand against something that “something” usually falls hard but God is not quick to anger but wants His child to understand and to choose freely instead.  When I was a baby, I was dedicated to the Lord and the evangelist who dedicated me said over me that I was going to do a great work for the Kingdom of God.  It took almost 44 years for that to occur, but I finally listened to what God was saying to me and asking me to do.  Did I have trials and troubles during those years that I resisted?  Oh yeah, I had my share and some others’ share as well but all through that timeframe God did not give up on me nor did He kill me off either, but continued to gently call me and train my heart at the same time.

When I moved to Colorado after my career in the USAF was over, my mother wrote a letter to many of our family friends saying that I was returning home and that I was like the prophet Jonah coming out of a tumultuous journey and ready to be a part of God’s Kingdom.  She was correct, my life had ventured far enough away from God and I was ready to correct my path and change my heart back to God.  This process did not occur overnight and I still followed my selfishness for quite some time but each day I continued to fight for my spiritual freedom, but many times I found myself continuing the selfish end of things and not God’s change which made the transition harder and longer a process in which I learned a lot of things but wish I had skipped.  I must admit it was rocky at times but God never let me go or gave up on my call that He placed on my heart when I was a baby.  God protected me so many times while I was growing up, and not always from stupid teenager stuff either.  I would have never guessed the path that God saw fit for me to take and as I have stated so many times in the articles that God has given us I utterly hated to write when I was a kid and in my younger years but today I find that if I do not listen and obey God’s voice what to say my life just feels sick.  It is easy for me to relate to Jonah, for I understand what he went through while running from God and all I can say is that when we stop playing around with God and run back to Him He is faithful and just to heal our land and allows us to complete our purpose in life.

In the first part of this series, we learned that God was concise and pinpoint with the direction and purpose of the mission He gave to Jonah.  There could be no question about where, when, and how Jonah was to speak to the people of Nineveh, for God had a specific reason why He wanted the message to be given to them and He had a specific person in mind to complete this message and warning.  However, as we continue this series we find that the person that God wanted to complete this task was not initially willing to do what was asked of him, a process not unheard of coming from the human standpoint of things.  God takes two short verses to explain His mission to Jonah and immediately Jonah gives his initial response in the next verse, Jonah 1:3: “But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

I have always looked at settings like this and shook my head upon learning from them, for there is usually a great story that precedes the current picture being played out.  One can easily ascertain that Jonah had already made up his mind that he was not going to follow God’s instructions by the time the last letter of verse 2 was spoken.  While the choice of Jonah was made pretty quickly, there had to be a process of thought that went into action before Jonah made the decision that God had made a mistake to ask him to complete such a mission and to make sure that he was not going to be around, so Jonah sought the first boat out to anywhere.  I also find it quite funny that when people run from God they have a tendency to move or to go away from the area believing that if they leave then God will not know where they are at, or at least take some time to locate where you are at and then by the time He finds you will have changed His mind about sending you someplace.  We also have a tendency to forget that God cannot forget what His plans are for your life, even though we try desperately to force His hand in this area.

So, Jonah makes this quick decision to leave the area and go to Tarshish and he goes down and buys a ticket to Tarshish via the port of Joppa.  From the introduction of this verse, it sounds like Jonah’s mind is already made up of what he is going to do concerning what God has told him to do, I can almost hear him say, not me Lord, you did not tell me to go there, God.  Now, it does not matter where Jonah would have wanted to go, God would have known where he was at and it was just a matter of time before God made His presence felt.  Jonah had a temporary lapse in remembering that it would not have mattered where he fled to because God would have found him at that place if he had reached that specific destination.  But God understood that (human) time was of the essence and that something had to be done soon in order for Nineveh to be saved, so God decided to follow Jonah to the sea and shake his world up a bit.

Do you notice something about Jonah here in this verse and how his attitude is towards God?  I have a perfect example to give in this article that gives the demonstration of how Jonah acted when God told him to go to Nineveh and this example, of course, deals with me.  While this example does not directly designate God as who is directing the conversation with me but it does represent the authority I was under with my parents and thus the same.  When I came out of the USAF, I was divorced and reeling from such destruction in my personal life and I really did not take too kindly to the female persuasion at first either.  But after a period of time, my ill feelings towards dating changed and I began to “look” around again.  It was not too long until I began talking with a person and she and I decided to go out.  She came over and met mom and dad and almost from the moment she walked in the door they had serious concerns with this lady.  At that moment they did not say one word to me about her but when the date was over and I returned home later that night their words were pointed and sure.

The lady and I continued to see each other and most days my parents did not say much but through their silent communication, it was clear that they were still very uncomfortable with the situation.  It came to a head one evening and the dreaded conversation began with their confession that they really did not like the situation that I was in and how it had changed my attitude towards many things in my life.  My responses to them were not of a yelling manner but one of a calm encounter but while calm in stature they were very demeaning and defiant.  They made their point very clear to me and in turn I made my position clear to them as well, and at that point, it was a stalemate and no one was going to budge from the lines both sides had drawn.  I had made up my mind to date this lady no matter how much my parents did not like the fact that she and I were seeing each other.  It came to the point where I would not even listen to their pleas any longer and would immediately tune them out when they began speaking about the conversation.  What is so striking to me today is that there were sometimes that I up and left the area when they began to talk and ask the question about this particular situation, an arrow to the heart of this article and the attitude of Jonah concerning the command of God.

Jonah had no intentions of listening and then obeying God’s command, it is obvious that this was the case for the timing of what we can gather is just too concise.  Jonah was so against doing what God wanted him to do that he left the area, he actually bought a ticket for a boat journey and left the area.  You cannot get a more perfect example of a person running from something or someone.  Jonah did not fear God nor did he believe in the message that God had given him to tell the people of Nineveh and it was through this blatant disregard for God and His command that Jonah responded and in response to Jonah’s actions God made the holy and pure warnings to Jonah, then after a short amount of time the preparation of his judgment commenced.

It cannot be denied that God had a plan and a purpose for Jonah to complete.  It is also true that at some point in Jonah’s life he had known God quite well and was a servant of God for God knew Jonah’s heart and he had the ability to complete what God needed for the people of Nineveh.  But like most humans, Jonah ran from God and what his responsibility was, thus placing Jonah in a very recognizable position by most of us today.  We do not have too much information about Jonah before his entire story is told but we do know that he was a man of record and that his story is one of familiarity for many of us.  We also can relate to Jonah through the decision he made to ignore God and to go on his own without having any time to think things through, an impulse decision and convinced one that we all make each day.

But do we realize what actually transpires when we make such a decision about God and the things He wants us to do?  God’s main purpose for us is to tell others about Him and how much He loves us and that we need to be changed from the world and return to His Ways and if God directs us to complete this mission in a specific manner, we best not argue with Him for He will find a way to make us understand that His Ways are higher than ours.  What many of us do not understand is that when God gives us a mission to complete it will teach us so much more about God at the same time and what we learn about God will be relevant to how we are to portray Him to those who He has sent us to tell about Him.  The only way we can know this truth is to have the desire to study His Word and to hear His voice when He directs.  It is this process of recognition of God and His importance of eternal love that all of us fail to recognize on many levels, yet we have the way to understand this perfection and restoration plan of God right at our fingertips.  After I allowed God to return to my heart I began to understand more about Him through studying His Word.  This wisdom of Him did not come overnight but little at a time and I must be honest that I continue to learn about Him as He shows me what to write.

Hillsong group has a new song out called “So Will I” and if you have not heard it yet I highly recommend you do.  I know that their style will not meet everyone’s expectations but this song defines what God wants us to believe about Him and then, in turn, reflect this nature of Him onto others.  It beats the true mission of what God wants from His children through the obedience of His truth through His Word.  God wants us to understand His magnificent characteristics through His Word instead of personal devastation; He loves us with all of His heart, a measure that we finite creatures cannot fully comprehend.  “And as You speak A hundred billions failures disappear” is exactly what Jonah was to tell the people of Nineveh and that is what we are supposed to teach the lost today.

Later in this series, we will see that Jonah eventually comes to his senses and completes what God had told him to do, and we will look at the turmoil that he had to face while running from God.  It is this process of deliberately running from God that has direct implications on our lives and our nation today.  We have lost the focus concerning the mission that God gave this country so many centuries ago, even though we constantly use the benefits and resources that God gave us to accomplish this specific mission of His.  We have run so far away from God that we no longer recognize the benefactor of such wonders and to whom we are to distribute these blessings too.  How vain we have become in our own measures that we believe we are beyond the confines of God and His Ways.  Our decisions against God’s mission for this nation come at rampant speed with a harsh tone of defiance as we demand the laws to be followed.  How much harder and faster can we turn our backs on God and how much longer will God allow us to believe we can hide from Him through His blessings?

We do not have to follow the patterns of Jonah and we do not have to snub our noses at the provided authority as I did for a long time either.  God is here to direct us through His Word and if we adhere to His Ways He will shower us with His blessing that will be hard to comprehend.  God wants no one, not one of His children to die and be eternally separated from Him and this nation was established to achieve this wish from God.  We have squandered many things that God has given us to give to others but there is still time to turn things around and to make things right again with Him.  It is God’s desire that when He gives us instructions to complete a need for His children that our decisions are quick and sure in complete obedience, not defiance of His Word.  Let us turn around and once again allow God to be glorified in our decisions so that He will be pleased with the salvation and restoration of His people.  God does not want to prepare a judgment for any living human being but if He must do such an act it can be directed through our disobedience alone, but the good news is that none of us have to witness such a devastation.

DLB

The Mission of Jonah

The Mission of Jonah

4/23/18

The story of Jonah details one of the more common aspects of humanity that each one of us can relate for we have all been told what to do and then for some reason failed to complete the task.  But do we realize just how significant Jonah’s life is to ours and how we can learn so much not only about ourselves but our nation as well when it comes to the call of God?  God gives us every opportunity to heed His call before He must act in supernatural ways to grab our attention, and even after grabbing it sometimes we fall back into sin.  God hopes that we listen to His call and understand the task at hand so that He will not have to prepare a judgment against His people for lack of completion.  Let us take to heart the call, repentance, mission, and sin of Jonah and learn from his mistakes before it is too late for our own nation’s call.

Many of us tend to take our time when God tells us to do something or shows us things that we should tell others.  It is a common theme amongst humans to drag our feet with these notes and messages from God even though we have been told many times before about what our mission is to the world.  I have fallen into this category of lackadaisical beliefs and God has impressed me to write about such misgivings and failures of mine in the past, and I must confess I did it once again just the other day.  Many of you know that I have written over 500 messages from God to those who wish to know and understand restoration and the process of which God wants to work in our lives but I cannot use this as a measure of my life when God continues to give me items about His Word for me to give to you.  It is the daily mission that I receive that God instructs me to complete on a constant basis and not through my means of when I am ready to complete.

I finally had a couple of days off in a row the other week and was enjoying my time in the peace and quiet that was at that time in my house.  I was reading the Bible, studying a bit and just relaxing when I had the thought of writing cross my heart.  As the human being that I am, I said to myself that I would get to it after while and continue in the relaxation process that I had believed I deserved.  It was not too much longer that my body began to react as if I had run out of steam and continued this path until I was totally exhausted.  I tried to elevate my blood sugar to give me energy again but all my attempts did nothing to help my condition (as my grandmother used to say).  So, I went to bed and lied down and took a nap fully expecting to be recovered when I woke up, I was not and my state continued as it was before I lied down.  I could not understand what was transpiring and my mind was even becoming strained to think clearly.  I did sleep quite well that evening and nothing else transpired that night for I was hoping I would feel better when the morning arrived.

The next morning arrived quite nicely and when I got out of bed I had absolutely no energy to speak of but I did not panic at all and kept quiet as much as I could about how I was feeling to others.  I took so many naps that day that I could not believe it, I was so tired and for the life of me I could not figure out why.  We went over to my daughter’s house for dinner and had a great meal but I was still wiped out, even after several naps and not doing one thing all day I was at a loss.  Then, a thought burst into my head, I took a small scan of my body and energy level and believed I had figured a pattern out.  I told my wife that it had come to me that I was feeling just like I did when I had Mono a long time ago and that my residual EBV antibodies must be activated for some reason.  I thought that I had come up with the solution but God had other plans in mind.

As the following day arrived, I was feeling better but still drained like my energy was trying to return but for some reason could not.  I stayed in this dried up condition for a while trying my best to figure out what the issues were in my body with many tossed around but no conclusions made.  Then, after a few hours of contemplation, I remembered that I had an article that I needed to publish on my blog.  It was completed and all I needed to do was to date it and sign it, a simple thing to do and it did not take too much time to complete but a necessary step in my obedience to God.  I am not exaggerating here at all, for as soon as I went to my blog and began to complete my task my body began to feel better.  At first, I did not recognize this was occurring but as soon as I finished what I was supposed to do and published God’s message I was on the road to recovery.  I was sitting at my desk listening to music when I noticed that I was feeling better and it was then that I realized what was going on and what had plagued me for about 36 hours.  I was not doing what God had shared with me to complete and my health was not up to par because it was His way of grabbing my attention.

It is this point that God wants to make to us today and He wants us to understand a bit more about His servant Jonah while explaining things.  We will be in Jonah for a while for after I published the article that I was supposed to do days earlier, God dropped a few topics concerning Jonah into my heart which I promptly wrote down.  I did not want to go through that sickening feeling process again, but it served as a stage for what occurred to Jonah, how he responded to God, God’s response to Jonah, Jonah’s obedience, and then failure.  A great series of truth about ourselves and our nation did God reveal to me so that He may once again tend to His children in a manner of loving kindness of choice before He must prepare a judgment for those who reject His mission.

This definition of Jonah’s mission is clearly defined in the first few sentences of the Book of Jonah as stated in Jonah 1:1-2: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”  Now, these few verses give us a clear picture of who is who and what is to be said and where it is supposed to be said.  So, how can one deny such a mission statement and direction given to them?  The only answer is that Jonah did not want to go and do what God wanted him to do so a challenge of power commenced as we see in Jonah 1:3.  However, Jonah 1:3 will be for the next installment of this series but keep it in mind as you proceed with the information God has for us on this topic.

I love it when God calls out a specific person by using the name of that person’s father.  One cannot get any more specific when the family lineage is used in order to ensure that no mistake in identity can be brought into the picture.  Immediately this portion of identification is taken care of in the first verse and then God continues with His command to Jonah by initiating the timeline of when this mission should be completed.  The word “arise” is meant to be done now without delay and is derived from the word “qum” which means to get up and is used in an exclamatory fashion.  No delays are possible for this usage of the word “arise”.  It is a fascinating detail about God and how He knows exactly when to tell His children to begin and then complete their mission.  Our minds have no way of comprehending the future and the timing of the future but God does and He uses this holy feature in order to grab the attention of those who are perfect for the job (purpose) so that true devastation can be avoided.

Next, God informs Jonah of exactly where he was supposed to go.  God did not hesitate nor did He suggest Jonah stop off somewhere in between before his arrival in Nineveh.  God told Jonah to get up immediately and to head to Nineveh by the necessary means of travel of that day.  It is this type of initiation process that explains God and how He operates, for He knows He has no human time to lose and that His timing is perfect in every way in order to protect His prized Creations.  It is this example that ends all doubts and beliefs that God is not a specific and direct Father.  Then, God describes the state of the city of Nineveh when He says that it is a great city.  God recognizes the size of the city and how important it is for the world at that moment.  However, God sees a far greater potential for the city if they will follow His Ways for we all know that when God speaks a name it is for a reason and since God cannot do anything in a reverse direction, all must be for the good.

Now we come to the point where God gives His orders to Jonah, which follow the first few words that God has already spoken to him they being clear and concise in all manner.  God makes no mistake about what Jonah is supposed to preach to the people of that city.  It is fascinating that God refers to the people of Nineveh as the “city of Nineveh” claiming that the people are the representatives of that place instead of the buildings, area, etc.  This proves that while God knows and sees the physical land crafted area of this city His concerns are of the people.  God does not tell Jonah to cry against the city of Nineveh itself but to those who inhabit within the city because while God gave us the ability to build cities He is not interested in the physical growth of cities but the spiritual growth of His prized Creations and their eternal positioning.  But God did not stop in His instructions at this point but further defined Jonah’s mission by calling out why God was sending Jonah to Nineveh for it was the wickedness of the people that had been recognized by God.  God did not want to be forced to punish Nineveh for their sin and choose the perfect man to complete this rescue (repentance) mission.

We must take heed here concerning what God means by “their wickedness is come up before me.”  God has made an interesting statement here and implies that at some point their sins of the people of Nineveh grew enough that it grabbed the attention of God’s heart.  This does not mean that God ignores sin until a certain “level” is obtained but since He understands what a majority is and what a majority of sin would establish He cannot allow such activities to thrive for if He did He would be considered a liar.  The words that God uses here is a signal, a signal that should say to us that the conditions of the hearts of the people have taken His notice which means He sees the growth of the world in them and the world inhabits their lives more than He does.  It also means that God must send out warnings to the people before He must take matters into His hands and grab their attention in a supernatural manner.  This proves that God is not up in Heaven waiting to strike down those who choose to live in the world, but that God gives us every opportunity to repent and change our ways before He must act.

So, when people say they have a message for those who will listen and their message comes straight from God’s Word then there can be no hesitation that it comes from God.  I can guarantee that there were many who laughed at Jonah when he entered into the city because anyone who would show up with bleached out hair, seaweed in their teeth and torn smelly clothes that screamed REPENT! Probably would get some odd looks.  But when Jonah decided to stop running and do what God had told him to do, the Bible states that there was a great revival and that many people changed their ways and began turning their hearts to God.  So many people changed their hearts that God spared the city and allowed no judgment to come to the city.  And it is here again that we have the simple truth that if people turn from the world and live according to God’s Ways God promises life abundantly and a healed land.

Most of us know that there are a “few” details that are being left out here concerning Jonah and how he came to go to the city of Nineveh.  That is okay because those details will be covered quite soon and will contain vital information about why this series is important to you and to our nation.  God wants us to know that He has placed people in this land who dearly love God and seek His Word every day.  God has chosen some of these people to send messages of warning to those they know and to this entire nation.  God has done this for a reason and that reason is the exact same as what God told Jonah to say to the people of Nineveh.  God is sending messengers out to speak the warnings of God that if we do not change our hearts quickly that there will be a devastation occur to this land that will not only change our nation but the world as well.  We have no record at all of the devastations of Nineveh during Jonah’s time and the reason for that is because the people believed in what Jonah was telling them.  If we do not listen to these messages from God today, our world shall drastically be changed in a manner in which no one shall ever recognize again.

Can you take a guess at whose responsibility it is to spread the news and the messages that God wants His people of this nation to hear?  Yep, not only is the Church supposed to be telling those who are lost about God and His Ways but God has selected some who go the extra mile in their ministering and foretelling of the ugliness that God sees before Him.  Jonah’s mission was clear and precise and so is ours and we cannot afford to hold back the truth one more day.  If we believe the Bible to be the authoritative Word of God then we must believe that the story of Jonah and the entire Book of Jonah is true; therefore, we must also believe that those who are proclaiming the Word of God today that their words come from the same source as Jonah’s.  God is giving us warning after warning and it is time we stop and listen to what God is saying for if we do not then we are all in for a rough and life life-changing experience, and through our disobedience will prove that God and His Word was correct all the time.  Repent, Church!  Repent, USA!  Changes are coming that will devastate our land if we do not repent and turn back to God 100%!

DLB