Hello My NAME IS

As I said, there are valuable lesson for me to learn from Jonah’s life. There are two that came to me just yesterday. I cannot express to you how much I am just in awe of our God.

The first lesson came to me as I was praying. I had been dealing with an individual this week and had been very merciless toward him. They had called me, and during the call I knew in my heart I had not been graceful. I heard Howard Hendricks from Dallas theological seminary say that when people come and speak to us, we must always look at that time as an invitation not an intrusion. So as I was praying, the LORD put this person in my mind and it just made me realize how easy it is to become Jonah. Here I was enjoying God’s mercy and grace and not willing to share it. Unless this person is reading my blog, which I doubt, it would be really hard to explain to them how God is dealing with me. So the best way to do it is just to give them what has been given to me in an immense way…Grace and Mercy.

The second lesson came last night at about 10 PM. I was asked “to go” to a place I knew I did not want to go. That is, I was asked to do a funeral for a young baby. My first reaction was NO WAY… I mean my excuses were flowing as I was listening to the physical and emotional needs of this family. The worst part was that I could not value the spiritual need this family has. So as I was explaining that there was no way I could do that, God had only to whisper to me, ”Jonah,” and that was it. So when I finish this blog, I will be leaving my home to be there for that family. I don’t know what to expect since they don’t go to church and may not be able to understand that GOD is in control. But God has asked me to GO and I just need to have the courage to LISTEN.

thanks,

JONAH

scattered thoughts

For the next few days I will probably talk about Jonah… I know you probably have heard this story way to many times, you probably know the song that goes along with this.
As I studied this book there are valuable lessons that I gathered from here! But first let me tell you that I have probably read this small book many times for the last two weeks. Its one of those things that as I want to go to another book the Lord just continues to tell me to read it again. I know I am a knucklehead and it takes a while to grasp the lesson God wants me to learn…So I will let you into my crazy mind….by the way, I like to ask questions that probably will not have answers but it is still good to ask them, at least I think its good..

So lets start…

The first chapter tells me that Jonah gets the message from God and he wants nothing to do with it... To the extent that when he gets in the boat and goes to bottom of it and falls asleep…all this to GET AWAY FROM GOD. Kinda like Adam and Eve… when they hid themselves from the presence of God. So in my mind I think he must have been ashamed of what he was doing to the point that he must have been depressed for his outright disobedience.

I have seen this not just in my life but also in the lives of other people. They are ashamed of what they are doing and Satan fills them with guilt… because of this guilt they feel they cannot be used by God and therefore try to hide from God… by staying away from studying the word or even going to church…

Needless to say there is nowhere I can go that will separate me from God… Thank You God… somehow in my little mind I think that if I don’t talk to you I am separating myself from YOU…. But You God, will not let me go! You are so patient with me and for that I thank you…

My prayer is that I may have the courage TODAY to do what You want me to do not what I want to do … God You are wonderful and loving…

Questions to ponder about:

Why did he not want the people to hear of God?

Did he just want to be exclusive with God?

Can I ever be that way?