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: Prayer
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.
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.
The body – part 3
1 Corinthians 15:37-38 NIV
[37] When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. [38] But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
We are amidst farmers here in my town of Souris. It’s funny because I lived in the city all my life before moving here, so when the farmers spoke about pretty much anything, I was lost. Now I understand much of what is said and can hold a general conversation on the plants, fields, livestock and crops.
I love watching harvest happen. We (my dog and I) sit in the living room and watch the lights of the machines on the fields around us. Often they are there until early in the morning, because planting needs to happen at a specific time depending on what you are sowing. I have never, Ever, Seen a farmer drive off his field and leave behind a full stock of grown crops. No, he leaves and his field looks like it did before, just turned up. It takes time and patience before we see the first signs of life in the seeds that were planted. Little, generally green, lines of thin organic material peeks out through the soil. It really is a miracle every time a crop is harvested and there is actually something there to harvest. These baby shoots are so small that an ant literally causes them to bend. God destined baby shoot to grow, so grow it does. It’s always a game at my place to try and figure out what plant will come to be from that shoot. Usually it’s wheat. Sometimes it’s canola, once it was flax, once it was sunflowers and last year to everyone’s surprise, it was beans. Beans hurt when you walk through them by the way. The have a fuzzy shell, but prickly stock. Why? God made them that way.
We plant seeds everyday. We also water seeds everyday. Sometimes we pull out weeds. It’s all in how we are to people. Do we shower them with Jesus and water a good seed while plucking a weed out? Or do we treat them the way the world does, planting more weeds and holding back the sun?
We are all planted seeds growing through the soil. We don’t know what God has destined us to be until He permits us to grow leaves, then we have a guess. Someday we will flower and then we will know, and so will the world, what sort of plant we are. Did we grow as flowers in God’s garden? Or did we grow as nettles in the ground of the world?
What sort of plant are we? Are we artists? Teachers? Musicians? Ditch diggers? Farmers?
Most importantly. How do we use what we are to bless God’s kingdom?
How are you growing? What are you growing into?
The blood part 1
Hebrews 9:14 NIV
[14] How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Sacrifice. It’s something we hate as people.
We love it when someone sacrifices for us, but we don’t enjoy doing it for others unless we really love them. Jesus really loves us. We remind ourselves of that over and over and over again. But it’s hard to remember. We talk of God’s love and we seek to feel His heart close to us, but in no time at all we forget all He did for us and why. Because of that sacrifice we are no longer required to give God blood, but now are to give Him our hearts and to serve Him as living sacrifices, this is a privilege even if we don’t see it as one. We get to be clean before God because we are seen through the lense of Jesus’s blood. IF. We have given our lives to Him. Now our sacrifice looks like avoiding sin. Helping others. Obeying God’s laws. Sharing Jesus with others. Gifts to God because He gave us the greatest gift of all through Jesus. How much more than the sacrifices we give to God, will the sacrifice His son Jesus be in His eyes. Our gifts are like a sprinkling of sand in the desert. Yet God still loves our offerings because He loves us. We come to God broken, sinful and some days even insincere, and we lay our dirty, blemished offerings before Him. And He accepts them and loves us. Like a child who brings a sculpture of mud to her mom and the mother smiles and takes and says its beautiful, because she loves the heart of the child who made it. That’s what our offerings to God looks like. And His love of us and His love of what we do for Him makes our mud beautiful.
If our dirty offerings can be seen as beautiful. Imagine how much more so the spotless, blameless, pure sacrifice of Jesus is to God. Beautiful beyond compare. The only truly worthy sacrifice.
Cleanse us Jesus from actions that lead to death, so that we may serve the LIVING God!
Feet part 4
John 12:3 NIV
[3] Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary uncovered her hair. She used her most valued asset to her beauty in those days and used to wash the feet of Jesus. A woman’s hair was of such value to her back in the time of Christ. Even up to withing this century a woman’s long hair, kept clean and well maintained was considered part of her dignity. Then came the 80’s and supercharged, big and loud styles, and the surf cuts and the wave cut and then, hold onto something, the beehive, then we wore hair in the lovely pixi cuts and now long is coming back. You’re welcome for the run down on woman’s hair styles over the years. I know we all needed to know that. My point is that we as women have always valued our hair and used it to show off our personality. But back in Jesus’s day a woman’s hair was actually part of her dignity. That’s why it was kept covered. Also, the cover helped keep out sand, they were in the desert. So to uncovered her hair and to use it as a cloth was the same as Mary saying, “all I am Lord, my honor, my dignity, my value, my beauty, all of it is found only in you.”
Mary was preparing Jesus for His death. She was anointing His body for burial. But she also washed all she was away in kneeling at His feet and cleansing them. She showed what it means to be a true deciple. To pour out everything you value on Jesus and to claim Him as all you are worth. The funny thing is, having Jesus as all we are worth is far more important than us being anything on our own, and yet we see it as a sacrifice. The only true sacrifice was Jesus on the cross for people so unworthy that all we can give Him in return is a jar full of perfume and our broken hearts.
Heaven
Revelation 21:3 NIV says:
[3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
God is available. You can speak with Him and laugh with Him and listen to music with Him and go on hikes with Him, IF, He lives in your heart, if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior.
We all like the ‘God knows my heart’ statement. But do you actually like that? He knows your heart. Your every motive, your every deceit, your every wrong desire. It’s not a ‘God knows my heart so even if I am doing something wrong He knows that in my heart I’m a good person.’ But what your heart shows is not you as a good person, your heart shows the very worst of you. Not because you are a bad person, but because we are all sinful by nature. But God loves us enough to change our hearts.
John 14:3 NIV
[3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
God prepares a place for us. The only true Heaven is the one God has created. The one that is there for those of us who love Him. If you love someone you want that someone with you all the time so make space for him or her in your life. We often feel like our walk with God is a lot of work on our part, or at least I have often heard complaints to that rhythm. Yes, following God’s laws and serving Him may feel like too much work sometimes. That’s why so many want to change Jesus’s words to make it sound like the laws that God gave us are not still relevant. New flash. They are still relevant. And then we who know that Jesus never changed God’s laws only the rules that the leaders had adopted, we often feel like we aren’t living up to God’s standards because His rules are based on His perfect sinless nature. But God does not expect us to become perfect or to reach a state of enlightenment, or to be able to live on nothing but the basics because that’s Christ like. No. None of that is true. He expects us to do our absolute best. To flee from sin. To help our brothers and sisters in Christ. To love those who it would be easier to hate. But He knows we will fall and fail everyday, and even knowing that He will keep on helping us try again. He knows we will never reach perfection, what He wants to see is a child trying His or Her best to live as Jesus lives. Blameless. Will we succeed? Sometimes. Will we fail? Sometimes. But are we trying? Yes.
God is preparing a home for us. A place to reside with Him. Because He wants us with Him. He wants us to do our best and to finish the race. He wants us to keep the Faith. He wants us to get to live in His house with Him.
Philippians 3:20 NIV
[20] But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We are strangers, we are aliens, we are not of this world. Petra . We often forget that we are not of this world. But it’s true. Our citizenship is in heaven with Jesus. When a loved one dies we get so broken down because we look at this world, we look at the things they used to touch, the rooms they used to occupy smell like they did, they’re laughter and smile is now gone from our sight and hearing. But they were never meant to stay in this world, they have gone to heaven where they are happy and blessed and encouraged and better than anything else they get to be with Jesus physically every single day. And when we look around in our sad we have to remember that we are not meant for this world either, we are here for a little while to encourage others to come and to benefit the kingdom of God, but someday we too will be in heaven with Jesus always. There was a song once by an old band that said If by some mistake Jesus was not in heaven it too would be hell. The world makes heaven look like some big party Zone meant for nothing but good times. But what makes heaven heaven is the fact that Jesus is physically there and we get to be with him. In the end he is all we need, and it’s hard because we get it into our heads that that’s not true but it is. Jesus is all we will ever need. And he is gone to prepare a home for us in his kingdom so we can walk out our front door and say ‘hey Jesus want to go for a walk and get a coffee.’ All our pets that we have lost before will run around our feet our loved ones will come up and want to chat and people we never even knew will be like family to us. Best of all we will get to worship our savior physically face to face everyday. That’s what heaven it all about.
Are you hurting? Turn to Jesus
Sometimes you are hurting but don’t notice it because you are busy carrying all the burdens. Take a moment and breathe and connect with your feelings. Then take those feelings and turn them over to God. When everyone is relying on you it’s easy to feel like you have to keep a brave face and hold on. But God. God never called you to be strong in yourself, He called you to be strong through Him. Take your pain, anger, fear and sorrow and place it all in His hands, then walk away. I don’t mean stop praying about it, I mean stop holding onto it like it’s your burden to hold. His yoke is easy remember? His burden is light. He is not going to give you a bunch of stuff to deal with and then walk away. God will carry you. Trust Him.
He knows
He knows
Those battles you fight. Those problems and pains you go through that you tell no one about. Those needs, fears, desires, fallings, sicknesses, screams in the back of your mind, dark pits that circle, boxes you can’t climb out of, endless nights, days that won’t go away. All of it. Jesus is there. You may tell no one. You may never ask for help or sympathy, but He knows. It’s the moment when you feel you have been fighting alone all night long and you suddenly feel an arm around you. You look and see no one, then you realize, it’s Jesus. Those days when you felt like no one could hear or see you, but He hears and sees you. You feel like you scream alone, but He holds your hand and screams with you until your screaming is done and you feel like you will make it. He will make it so you can make it. You fall, but never hit bottom because He catches you.
No matter what. Jesus is there. In all my circumstances- But God.
In the box of grief
I don’t know who needs this tonight. But grief is like a box. You feel trapped by walls that you can’t touch or see and you feel a need to escape but can’t. This is why so many turn to suicide, because the box is everywhere. You run one direction and it follows you, you go another direction and it’s still there. The worst part of the box is that it is there even when you try and escape into sleep. It follows you into your dreams and makes you feel like you can’t breathe.
No one else sees the box, so they don’t understand how you feel.
But Jesus sees the box. He alone can hear you pounding on its barriers and screaming for help. The best part is, counselors and support groups -though great – can only meet you outside of the box. They try to coax you out and then meet you on the other side. But Jesus doesn’t need to wait until you are free from the box. He goes into the box with you. He sits there with you as long as you feel you need to be there. Because sometimes fighting the box takes too much out of us and we need time to sit and cry. When you are ready, Jesus will hold your hand, tap the box wall and make it fall before you. He will set you free.
If you are in a box right now, take a moment to speak the name of Jesus and realize that you are not alone.
Carried in the cross 