Nineveh: A difficult assignment

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah did not do as God had commanded him and fled from the presence of the Lord. Jonah was a prophet; he was one who spoke for God. God created him and called him to do a certain work. Jonah’s job was to share the message God gives, to whomever Got commands it to be given to.

God had given Jonah an assignment: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” We will learn later in the book of Jonah that Jonah did not want to be on this assignment. He did not want to do anything that might cause the Ninevites to repent and be saved. He did not want them to hear the warning of God, lest they humble themselves and repent of their sin and receive mercy from God.

God has created each of us according to His plans and purposes. When we choose to go our own way, we sin against God. Sometimes it is an identity issue that we struggle with; we are envious of another’s life, of their prestige, or of their calling and we wrongly try to be like them and live their life. Other times it’s just the difficulty of our work and the current circumstances of life that lead our wayward hearts to turn away from the work that God has called us to, and pursue other more attractive opportunities, more money, or more power.

Reflection

1. What is the work that God is calling you to do in this season of life? When answering, don’t think in terms of vocation, but instead think of assignments (ie: there’s a broken relationship in my life and I know God wants me to reconcile it).
2. Prayerfully consider why you are resistant to doing this work.
3. When Jonah rebelled from the work God called him to, there were consequences that not only affected him, but those around him. How has your resistance to this assignment impacted your heart towards God and others?
4. Spend some time in prayer and ask God to help you identify the sin that you need to turn from, and the resolve and help of the Holy Spirit to do so.

Share your answers to these questions with someone from church and encourage and pray for one another that you each may complete the assignments that God has called you to do.

What else did you take away from this passage?

 

Remembering what we need to remember the most

Sin is a wretched and deceitful thing. It draws us away from Christ by its false promises of happiness and plays on our flesh's desire to seek pleasure and gratification for ourself. sin is fun. if it were not, why would anyone do it? But we also know that sin has many consequences, first and foremost that it leads us to death. Sin focuses on the instant gratification, irregardless of the consequences. 

Sin takes something that God intended for good, and perverts, twists, and distorts it to become something that appeals to our flesh sin nature, and when accepted, we find that it is filled with the deadly poison which ultimately separates us from God.

4 But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved! 6 He also raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:4-9

Our enemy wants to condemn us when we fail, when we sin. He takes a truth and twists it into a lie. Yes, because of our sin, we are condemned. But because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, our sin- past, present, and future- was justly dealt with on the cross, and we are now clothed in righteousness and seen as blameless in the eyes of God, if we put our trust in Him and if His Spirit lives in us!

When the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we become a new creation, made holy and blameless before a holy and righteous God. Because of Christ sacrifice and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we are justified before God, just-as-if we have never sinned, for all time! We experience the grief and guilt of sin so greatly because it troubles the heart of God, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that we have the mind of Christ! As followers of Christ, the Spirit dwells in us and makes us conscious of sin in our lives.

However, just as Paul explains to us in Romans, God's mercy and grace does not give us a free license to sin just because we are covered in His grace. Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we have received a new nature, one that wants to please our Heavenly Father, and one that despises sin.

I know many of you reading this probably already know all this, and are wondering why i am writing this... Here is why: because as Christians, we can easily be led astray to believe that we are saved because of the good things we do, and falsely believe that the sin we commit will somehow undo the salvation that Christ Jesus has freely offered to us. I do not want you to be held in bondage to that false belief. "By grace you are saved!" And if it is by grace that you are saved, then your performance, or lack there of, has nothing to do with your permanent adoption in Christ. We can't undo our salvation. it is a gift of God. His grace is sufficient for me, for you, for all that put their trust in Him. When we sin, we should as Christians feel deeply troubled and be filled with remorse for our choice to sin. But at the same time, we must remind ourselves that our performance, whether good or bad, has no part in our salvation. As we mature in Christ, we will see the evidence of God working in us, producing the fruit of a fully devoted follower of Christ, as we pursue Christ (not the fruit) with everything we've got! Christians are not sinless, but the do sin less.

Receive His grace. it is sufficient. it is more than enough. we cannot out sin the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, nor can we run out of grace. 

Margin serves us well because it provides us a boundary to keep us from those dangerous places that subject us to temptation, to sin. But we do not live in a bubble, and our best efforts to construct safe boundaries from sin are unable to insulate us from the sin nature of this world. Sometimes, we have to follow Joseph's example, and just RUN! Do whatever it takes. avoid those dangerous places, those temptations at all cost. when attacked, do NOT see how long you can withstand it. You will be captured by the lure of temptation, and apart from the supernatural protection and/or empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you will not be able to resist sin. 

I double-dog dare you...

Good morning everyone:) Just wanted to share a passage from Galatians with you all - i've been reading there a lot recently- kinda like John 6; I can't seem to move on... :)

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,21 envy,t drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:16-25 (ESV)

"walking in the Spirit" is kind of a tough thing to do, let alone describe it.  Recently though, I have been listening to The Vow series that Craig did a few years ago- definitely one of my favorite series that he has done. In the first message, he talked about the vow of priority- God is my one, and my spouse is my two. Craig interviewed Amy about this, and she went on to talk about this very passage - about walking in the Spirit. So... how do we do this? There may be many other answers that get us here, but the first and foremost is that we put God first- the vow of priority; God is my one. Before all things, God comes first.

When we seek God first with our best, we are practicing the vow of priority. When we make time for Bible study and prayer, we practice the vow of priority. When we clear our schedules for lifegroup or church, we - you get the idea...

So then, does the vow of priority, by doing all these things, automatically cause us to walk in the Spirit? Of course not. But I double-dog-dare you to do them and see if you don't notice a greater awareness of what God is doing in your life, experience a greater intimacy with the One who knit you in your mother's womb, and if you don't have a greater joy and sense of gratitude for all that Christ has done, and all that you have in Him. There's much more i want to say, but i think this is plenty long enough for today... agreed? Let me know your thoughts-

1. What things have you done that help you to walk in the Spirit?
2. Describe a time when you noticed the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

A To-Remember List?

I make to-do lists almost everyday at work. There are often many things that need to get done in any given day, and while i often will remember a few of them, there are many more that I forget about if i don't write them down. To-do lists are for things that have a beginning and a measured ending. When the task is complete, we cross it off; things on the list are either done or they're not.

But not everything goes on a to-do list. "stop forgetting things" doesn't seem to fit on a to-do list. Sure, you can be intentional about doing this for a while, but then you forget about it. Then sometime later, you will realize that you forgot something, and then you will remember that you still haven't stopped forgetting things. Kind of a silly example, but I think it is helpful to distinguish this type of thing that we want to remember from a finite to-do task.

It seems like there is a growing list for me of things that I wish I would remember, that I would do, but can't seem to turn the corner so that it becomes second-nature, a habit, something that i don't need to worry about remembering anymore. These things have to do with the kind of person that I want to be. They are things that affect my relationship with Christ and with others. They affect how I respond to my circumstances, and my response when things happen to me.

In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but to renew our mind. It's easy to think like the world and live in fear, to doubt, to hurt others, and to concern ourselves with what everyone else thinks about us - this is the pattern of the world, the very thing that our sinful flesh tells us to do. But God's will is that we grow in righteousness, that we be conformed to His image, that we abide in Him. When we think on these things, it becomes easier and more natural for us to be the ambassadors for Christ, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and all the other things that He's called us to be. But it starts with renewing our mind.

So instead of spending all of our time and effort in this life on completing relatively meaningless of things to do, what if we spent this time working on a list of things to remember- a "to-remember list"? What if, instead of listening to a great sermon and giving a hearty "amen" at all the good points, what if we actually exherted a little effort in trying to remember those things and actually applying them to our life? I wonder how much different Western Christianity might look if we spent a little less time concerning ourselves with doing the things on our to-do list, and spent more time working on remembering things on our to-remember list?

Here's a few things that are on my list of things to remember and why i want to remember it:

God is sovereign, God is good, and God loves us - God allows bad things to happen everyday for reasons that I cannot begin to understand. But recognizing all of who God is, i can rest in assurance that he knows what He's doing as He is causing all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purposes.

What you fear the most reveals what you value the most, and where you trust God the least - I often spend time "thinking" about stuff that isn't going right. Some of you might use the word "concern". Others of you who are more honest might use the real word; worry. When i begin to worry about something, i need to remember that God is in control, and that this is something that i need to trust with God.

God's grace is sufficient for me - All of us are sinners, even those who have placed their trust in Jesus. We sin everyday, and it's easy to let our hearts condemn us when we do, and retreat into hiding from God. God wants us to walk in the light as He is in the light, to confess our sins before God and men so that we might receive forgiveness and healing and fellowship with one another. There's no sin we can commit in Christ that the blood of Jesus hasn't covered. He covered them all, and His grace is sufficient; more than enough for my sin.

What things do you need to remember, to add to your "to-remember list"?

Your Family vs. Electronic Media

Here's a link to a good article i found at http://www.familylife.com about electronic media and family- something to think about the next time you turn on the tv or surf the internet.

http://www.familylife.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dnJHKLNnFoG&b=3842489&ct=8573305

Wise Man or Scoffer?

Proverbs 9:8: “Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." 

Ecclesiastes 7:5 "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools."

No one likes to be called out on something that they are doing wrong. We don't intentionally seek out to do wrong, but our need to justify our actions, to protect our image and ego, to show that we are the victim will ultimately numb our conscience to the point where we cannot receive correction from another (even someone we love). Yet we all know that we need correction, because we don't want to do something wrong if it can be shown that through sound counsel and the Word of God that it is in fact wrong.

The question we need to ask ourselves: when it comes to receiving correction from others, am I a scoffer or a wise man? 

Apart from the work of Christ in our lives, we all act as fools and hate the rebuker. But through the work of Christ in our lives, God matures us and enables us to be wise in our choices over difficult decisions and in our responses to the endless challenges we face. Romans 8:28 teaches us that God causes all things to work together for the good of those that love Him, that are called according to His purposes. That includes His use of discipline and rebuke in our lives. In Revelation 3:19 Jesus says that "as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." Only when we realize that God loves us, that He is faithful to complete the good work that He began in us (Phil. 1:6), and that discipline in our life brings about His work in our lives, only after we realize all of this will we be able to rejoice when we are disciplined and truly love the person who has shown us the error of our way.

Praise God for those who have the courage to confront us in humility before God to bring about the correction and discipline we need in our lives to mature us and draw us ever closer to Christ Jesus.