Jonah 2:4, 7-10 NIV
[4] I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
[7] “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. [8] “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. [9] But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ” [10] And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Okay. I know we all have read Jonah probably several times over. But tonight I read it and learned something new.
Jonah said that he felt God had banished him from his sight because he had run away. He thought he had gone so far that God had actually turned His back on him. Don’t miss this. His answer to that feeling was to pray. He called out to God. Even though he though God had cast him from His sight, Jonah’s answer we to pray. What faith!
Here’s the best part. When Jonah prayed, God answered. He heard Jonah and listened even though it had take a storm and a giant fish to get Jonah to pay attention to Him, as soon as Jonah turned his heart to God, God responded.
It doesn’t matter how far you feel, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done. God will listen when you repent. He is not angry with you. Even if you’ve made it so He has to put you into the belly of a whale, God is still with you. He hears you. He loves you. All you have to do is call out to Him.
Category: no longer lost
No turning back part 1
I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. I do not believe that once you say I’ve decided to belong to Jesus you can then just go off and live however you please and when you face God at the bema seat you will be as saved as you were the first day you confessed it. Once you’ve made a choice to follow Jesus your life has to change. We love that whole God loves you where you are statement. And He Does. But he also loves you too much to leave you where you are. If you remain the sinful, worldly person you were when you first accepted Jesus, then you have not truly accepted Jesus because when you accept Him He changes you. We have tried to make God soft and panda like. Rolls with the flow and doesn’t care. But God loves you 💯. He did not die so you could stay the old man. He died so you could be changed.
The stupidest thing I have heard recently was a person who claimed that now that they had accepted Jesus he no longer saw their sin. That now that they had accepted him they could live however they please and the blood of Jesus blinded him to their sin and it was not sin in his eyes anymore. There is nothing more ridiculous on the planet than that. You think Jesus can’t see your sins? You think he doesn’t see what you’re doing? If you give your life to Jesus then you are going to change to live for him. Does that mean we’ll never sin again? No of course not. But it means that like Paul said I beat myself daily. Does that mean that Paul stood there and took a bull whip and flogged himself physically daily? No. It means that daily Paul beat down his sins, he rejected them he prayed against them and he fought them all to serve the savior he had learned how to love. Just because there was blood over the door of the house did not mean that Jesus didn’t know who was in that house. When the spirit of God swept through Egypt and killed off the first born child, he didn’t simply look at the blood on the door and go oh well I don’t know who lives there but there’s the blood on the door so that’s all good. He saw the blood on the door and left the house alone but he knew fully who was inside and what kind of people they were. Jesus forgives our sins. But we have to be repented, we can’t just stand there and go about our lives sinning and go oh well I belong to Jesus now I raised my hand one day in church so I can do whatever I please. Today at my church we’ve had a baptism. And baptism is the public Declaration of a person who does decided to follow Jesus. A person who stands there now and says I wash away my sins I Repent of the person I was and I reject the person I would be without him, and now I will live according to God’s word. Being baptized is kind of like being knighted. You watched the other Knights in their flowing robes and shining, dented armor amd wanted to join them. Now you have gone through part of your training and have been knighted by the King. Now the real work begins.
God always keeps His promises
God always keeps His promises.
Genesis 8:6-12 NIV
[6] After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark [7] and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. [8] Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. [9] But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. [10] He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. [11] When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. [12] He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
I love ravens. I love ravens because of my friend ravens who live in our yard and I love them because of the raven on the ark. No one ever remembers the raven. We all like to smile and think of the dove. The dove is lovely and soft and small. The dove brought back the branch to Noah. Everyone remembers the dove.
But what about the raven? Ravens are big and black and people call them omens of bad luck and accuse them of making terrible screeching. But really, ravens are blue and black and purple. They don’t mean bad or good luck. They make many sounds, some are very beautiful, and they will talk with you if you speak to them. They follow people the like. And as Phallen (my dog) found out, they will chase those they don’t appreciate. Most importantly, a raven was the first bird sent out from the ark. But because it was not time yet, it did not find anything. Due to that, it is forgotten. (Also recalling that the dove took several tries before it found land)
When we have been waiting a really long time for something amazing to happen, something God has promised and it keeps not happening, we lose hope. We eventually give up and move on and leave our dream behind us. We forget the raven. We chase doves that fly around with answers in their beaks and never remember the raven again. Until one day. The raven found nothing to bring back because it wasn’t time. But eventually he too got to fly over green fields and feed on olive trees. God will bring us to shore. If He has promised it, then it will come to pass. We just have to wait on His timing. The dove’s time came sooner than the raven’s, but the raven’s time was on its way. He just had to be patient. So do we.
Trusting God is hard. Especially when all you see around you is water, but His promises are true. And then, a rainbow.
Genesis 9:13, 15-16 NIV
[13] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
[15] I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. [16] Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
The rainbow has lost it’s meaning in society. But you will often find a rainbow in the church. On a wall in the Sunday school usually. Why? Because the story of Noah is amazing and a favorite for many. More importantly it’s because the rainbow was and is the sign of God’s judgement followed by His grace. He destroyed the earth because of its sin. But He would not destroy it completely because He still had one man who served Him with all His heart. Rainbows in the skies show God’s promises are true.
They always have been.
So when things are dark. Turn on your headlamp and follow Jesus.
When the answers seem impossible, keep marching and blow your horn!
When the water swells around you and the raven is still flying back and forth finding nothing, wait for your ark to hit land.
When you doubt because of the storm, look for the Rainbows because God keeps His promises. Trust Him.
His LOVE is mightier than the waves
Psalms 93:4
Even mightier than the waves of the sea is His love for you.
Have you ever been there? Seen it? A winter ocean storm. Not to be confused with a summer storm which is nothing compared with winter, not where we go in BC at least.
Growing up I loved winter. Winter meant Christmas, snow, sledding, skating, and best of all, big wave season.
I would have on a full dry suit with gloves and hood and I looked like a little purple, red, blue stripes on black back drop navy seal. I would take my board and be in that water until I couldn’t feel the sand when I returned because I was too cold. That was wonderful, but better still were the storms. Bundled by a fire in the all season gazebo, hot chocolate in hand, honey cake close by and just watch as the ocean showed its wild side. It would grab full trees and yank them into it. It would score and scar the sand and destroy rocks. Hail was nothing compared to being pelted by spray off of the waves during a winter ocean storm. Your skin would have red dots from the barage of tiny H2O bullets even from a fair distance away. In those moments watching the ocean rage I truly thought no element on earth could ever match its power.
Yet here in Psalms David is saying that God’s (not wrath) love is mightier than the ocean.
An ocean that can decimate a city, rush rock, sink big ships, drag trees into its depth, my God loves me in such a powerful love that it is greater than that. Maybe the artist who said God’s love is like hurricane and I am a tree wasn’t so far off base as we tend to think.
Lose your life to save it? Isn’t that backwards?
Luke 17:33 NIV
[33] Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
Often what Jesus said feels backwards. Death is gain, to lose your life will save it. It all sounds backwards. But that’s because Jesus spoke from the lense of Heaven, where we see everything through this world. It’s funny to think of other cultures sometimes. There are so many things our culture does that a different cultures wouldn’t understand and vise versa. It makes me think of when I was in school and one of my friends was from a different country. When I was kid, giving your friend a friendly pat on the arm was a form affection. If you weren’t friends it wasn’t, but I was used to a friend walking up and giving me a pat on the shoulder or arm, it was just a thing you did. Replaced rather soon by the high five and then the fist bump.
I recall a day when I gave my friend a gentle pat on the shoulder when I said ‘hi’ and passed her in the hall. In no time at all I found myself face to face with a teacher and my friend who was crying. I was very confused. My teacher got mad at me for hitting her. I was horrified and couldn’t figure out why my friend had made up this lie. Then it came around to that morning when I had patted her on the shoulder as I walked past and said good morning. It was not something they did where she was from. It was culturally inappropriate in her original country and seen as an act of violence.
I repeat. We all did this. It was a friendly gesture. But not in her country. She was new to our land. She didn’t understand our ways. And if I’m being honest, this particular friend never did understand our ways and we all who spent time with her had to walk on eggs shells so we didn’t accidentally do something that was not okay where she was from. That made life a bit complicated. She very soon only had myself and one other who would still be with her at lunch because she would run to the teacher about everything and anything we did. I consider that it wasn’t simply cultural but perhaps just her personality, but I’m getting off topic.
We see everything through the lense of this world, this place we live and been raised in. But God sees everything through His world. Heaven. He also sees this world the way it was supposed to be and the way it is now thanks to our sinful ways. Because God speaks in a way that is different from the way we expect things to be, we easily get confused or angry. Many rear up at the Mark 8:[35] For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. Statement. Why? Because to our culture it makes no sense. We are a self love, self serve society, being told to do anything for anyone else is heresy to us. Then we become offended and run to the teacher saying we’ve been hurt. But God is speaking from right perspective. His. If we die to ourselves and lose our lives to serve Him better to push His word further forward, then we are living correctly. Because if we live only for Jesus we will find ourselves more satisfied then if we live to serve us. It seems backwards. But that’s because we are still learning how to live as citizens of Heaven and not of thos world any longer.
Majesty of God-part 4
.John 20:15-16 NIV
[15] He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” [16] Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
He said to her, “Mary.” Jesus called her by name. Why is this so important? Because Mary had lost her name. She had had her name taken by the evil that was in her. Jesus drove seven evil spirits out of Mary and restored to her her sanity, her dignity and her name. Even in fables if your true name is taken you are lost to the one who stole it. In this true account a woman had lost her name and her life to demons, the Prince of Peace and savior came to her and saved her and restored her name. The fact is, Jesus isn’t just the savior of the world, He’s the savior of you. You specifically. He knows your name. He knows your hurt and where you have come from. He knows there will be times you stumble and run back to the evil that held you captive, and He will always be there ready to forgive you again when you run to Him.
Imagine being in the garden, looking for Jesus and hearing His voice call your name. Relief, joy, happy tears, laughter and sobbing, it would all come to the surface as you ran to Him calling, “Teacher!”
He knows your name and loves you.
Majesty of God – part 2
Revelation 5:13-14 NIV
[13] Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” [14] The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Revelation really brings together the Majesty of both Jesus and God being one. In Revelation the elders give praise and worship to God and Jesus in the exact same way. Now, we must remember that John is trying to make all he is seeing understandable to those who have not seen them because things were so amazing and frightening that they were beyond human description.
The Majesty of Jesus is very important. We treat Him like our best friend, and He is, but we also then tend to forget that He is Holy. He is equal with God. He is king. Only the Lamb could open the scroll. His glory so great that John feared he would die simply by looking upon Him. So many do the, when I get to Heaven all my sins will be read and Jesus will walk up, put an arm around my shoulders and say ‘it’s all good’ and take me to Heaven, thing. But Jesus isn’t opening the doors to a rave, He’s opening the doors to the most holy place. Yes, if you have accepted Him your sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that you can keep on sining. It also doesn’t mean that Jesus is going to stand there, fist bump you and wave you through. There will be a trial. We will stand before the seat of judgment. God will call out all we are accused of and the devil will stand there like the prosecuting attorney laying out all our failures and sins and mistakes. If we do not have Jesus, then that’s it, we’re sentenced to life in the eternal fire.
Yet. If Jesus is our defense then He will walk up to the throne and show God His hands, feet and side, and say, “this one I’ve paid for.”
We are payed for by His grace.
Jesus Himself never used the word grace, He is the grace. Without Him there is no hope. With Him there is always reason to hope. But people get so caught in the crevice of grace setting us free that they act like deserve the grace, they act like Jesus is our concierge bringing us what we are owed. We get to he place where we treat Him like a servant.
He is Holy. He is worshiped by creatures we cam only imagine, and the way to be with Him is narrow. You have to throw this life away. To die to yourself every day. And that is hard, and it’s not fun. And there are days it will feel unfair. But in the face of Heaven. In the face of being released from our punishment, then isn’t it all worth it. We are saved because of His grace, grace we don’t deserve and can’t buy or earn. Grace that changes us to want to be more like Him and to leave our old selves behind for the new life Christ offers. Grace that makes it so when we fail we haven’t lost God. Grace that makes it so when the devil is calling for our blood because of our sins and failures Jesus claims us out of his hands because we are now His. It was my sin that held Him to the cross, it was His love that made Him choose to stay until it was accomplished. You don’t have to accept Him, but someday we will all see God, who do you want as your advocate? Because if you only lived for yourself, then the only one to defend you is you. Nothing you have done will ever be good enough to pay for your faults. Only the blood of Jesus washed across you, cleansing your failures, not covering them up, but washing them away, will be enough to pay your Ransom.
1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV
[20] you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
I have enjoyed many novels that are historical fiction based on the open sea. Many of which cover a big thing back then. Slavery. No, not the kind Martin Luther King was against, on the ocean, depending on where you were from and what station you were in slavery was a thing that didn’t hold to just one race or color, anyone could be a slave. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were grabbed, if you belonged to a poor family who sold you, if you were willing to sell yourself because you had no where to go and no money, and so on. Slavery was just common place. Your value as a slave, your price, depended on a few different things, depending on where you were headed. Good looks helped, a strong build, healthy teeth sometimes, if you had a special talent or skill. The better your quality the higher the price.
Now imagine. There you are standing before the block. The slave master close at hand flexing his powerful shoulders and waiting with a bored look. He was once a slave too, but he bought himself out. Yet, he still had to serve his old masters, so freedom was not his possession. You look down the line cautiously. It’s a scraggly bunch. Some strong and young, some bent, some wounded, some with limps or disabilities. You look up the line. The clever, attractive and healthy slaves were selling fast and to good jobs. The ones that looked like you, they sold for next to nothing and went to the one week jobs, one week because you rarely survived longer than that. It didn’t make a difference to the buyers, your type was cheap, they could always buy more.
Hard hands grab you shoulders and lift you into place as the next to be bid on. You know where you’re going. You know what your worth. Then a soft voice says, “I’ll take that one.” You look up at the hooded figure. A shudder runs through you. What is this feeling? It’s something greater than fear.
The auctioneer pauses, “again? Mr. You should wait until I call a price, you keep on paying too much for these.”
The hood nods. The slave master sighs and lifts you back to the ground and you are shoved into a group.
The next in line is placed on the block, the same soft voice, “I’ll take that one too.”
Finally the head of the outfit steps forward and shouts, “ENOUGH! Let us see some coin before you buy the whole lot with nothing but your own skin. We deal in money here, not delusions!”
The hood nods and the man pulls out a small coin purse. You hold your breath. The purse looks pretty flat to you. You past master takes the one object out of the purse and drops it. He steps back. You strain to see. It’s a gold medallion of some type, there’s an insignia on it, but you can’t make it out. The hood steps forward and unveils his head, you cry out, so do all with you. There stands the King. He steps onto the block and lifts his medallion with his crest upon it. “I purchase them all, including you.” He looks at the slave master, the one who had tried and failed to free himself. The big shoulders shake as he falls to his knees. The owner of the auction and all his people flee. The King touches the slave master’s shoulder, “go, release them all.” The big man jumps to his feet and rushes to free each slave from his or her chains. When he gets to you and takes your bonds in his hands you find that they are shaking, he is crying and smiling, your chains drop as he moves to the next person.
You look at the King and He turns, “you have a question my child?”
Your voice cracks, “Yes your majesty.”
He smiles, “and?”
“Why? Why buy us at all when we were yours to do with as you please?”
“To show you your value, and to set you truly free. I do not rule a land where free will is illegal, due to that people are free, but some choose evil. I have to rectify that evil and to free those captive to it. You are free child. Will you come and serve me in my kingdom?”
“What happens if I say no?”
“Hmm, you will be free to live your life as you choose, but you will he on your own and when the day comes when I take the evil fully from this world and bring my followers to my Kingdom, if you did not choose me, you could not come and would be left behind with all those who will die with this world.”
“It’s my choice?”
“Yes.”
“Then of course I choose you.”
The King smiled. To your shock, many did not go with the King to follow Him that day. They loved belonging to themselves too much to belong to anyone else, even to be taken to the castle as the King’s child.
But you went with Him, and so did the slave master. You went because you were bought with a price beyond your worth, now you would always live to serve the one who set you free.
You were bought with a high price, so serve God with your bodies.
The blood part 5
1 John 1:7 NIV
[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we walk in the light.
That word IF makes a big difference. If. We have heard it said that Jesus died so we are all saved. But that is almost too broad of a statement. What the fact is, we have the chance to be saved by coming to Him and turning our lives over to Him. We are not simply saved because Jesus died. That sounds wrong, I know, but people talk as though they are saved but have never accepted Jesus as their savior. They have never taken the time to say, “Jesus. I know I am a sinner, but I know that through your death on the cross I have been set free. Please come into my life and change me to be like you. Forgive me for my sins and set me free from them. I want you Jesus. Thank you for loving me.”
Something similar. We have to ask Jesus to come into our lives. It’s not an, “ya, I believe in Jesus so I’m saved” thing. We need to ask Him to come and forgive us for our sins and to come into our hearts and minds. Only then are we saved. After that we must work to live in the light. You may say, “we don’t get to Heaven through works, only through grace.”
Okay. Let us open that one up.
No works will ever be enough to make us worthy of God, only His grace us enough for us to be pardoned unto Him. However, once we are reconciled to God we need to live accordingly. You say, “that sounds a lot like the Law instead of Jesus.” Yes. Because Jesus Himself said that He did not come to demolish the Law. The rituals and the things that were cultural instead of Biblical He did speak against, yet the rules pf the Bible still apply. If anything, Jesus made things even more strict, please reference the sermon on the mount where now holding hatred to your brother is the same as killing him. Ya, that’s definitely easier than simply not killing him no matter how you feel. It’s a narrow path that leads to Heaven. Living in sync with the scripture is hard and sometimes is certainly not fun. Please recall that in the OT we were permitted to hate our enemies and now we can’t. Jesus didn’t throw away the Law, but He also knew that we couldn’t make it on the Law alone, we needed a savior. We were going to screw up. We do everyday. That’s why we need God’s grace. But once we are accepted into Jesus’s family through His blood, then we need to live as children of the light. You can’t reach Heaven by simply being a good person, you need to have accepted Jesus. But you also can’t be truly part of God’s family if you live as a bad person.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light. But we only get to the light through the blood of Christ.
The blood part 4
Hebrews 10:19 NIV
[19] Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
Take me in to the Holy of Holies. Take me in by the blood of the Lamb. Take me in to the holy of Holies. Take the coal, cleanse my lips, here I am. -Petra
I love this verse and this song. Take me past the outer courts and the worshipers and those laying down their crowns, take me past the big party and the table filled with food. Take me past the band. Past the alter. Past the sanctuary doors. Take me into Jesus’s arms.
What does Heaven mean to you?
When I was child I thought like a child and heaven was a playground where we would always have fun.
When my Nana died, what Heaven meant to me was a place where I could be with her.
Later it became the pleasant thought of a place with no disease.
Then a place with no crime.
Then a place with no war.
It was not until I was young adult and had was listening to either Theocracy or disciple – I don’t recall which- that I suddenly started thinking of Heaven the way it should be thought of. It’s preached about like a big party. It’s presented as a place where all your dreams come true. But the importance of Heaven isn’t what it gives you, or the pain it takes away, it’s not even the fact that your loved ones are there; Heaven is important because Jesus is there. Physically.
It was one of the Bands I previously mentioned that made me think of this. Of course I always knew that Jesus would be there and that that was one of the big draws, but we don’t think of that as being the most important thing. And that’s ridiculous. It was one of these bands, who said in their music;” Even Heaven would be hell, if by some mistake Jesus wasn’t there.”
It’s not about the party. It’s about being with Jesus. Take me past it all so I can see His face. We now can enter the Most Holy of Holies where God sits, because Jesus died for us. His blood is our wrist band to get in. His blood makes it so we can run to Him and hug Him close. His blood sets us apart as VIPs so we can come into His presence. And His blood is available for everyone who asks for forgiveness of their sins and asks Jesus into their hearts. Because of His sacrifice we get to be with Him. I am covered by the blood of the Lamb.
Take me in, all I want is to see Jesus.
Carried in the cross 