ugh

[SomethingFundy]

2. It is absolutely foolish to try to run from what God wants you to do.

Jonah learned the hard way just how foolish it was to try to run from what God wanted him to do. By controlling the sea and a great fish, God displayed His absolute, yet loving, guidance.

Where can you possibly go and get away from the God who is everywhere?

David testified, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).

“ ‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see Him? declares the LORD [the obvious answer is No]. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD [the obvious answer is that He does]” (Jeremiah 23:24).

You cannot succeed in running from what God wants you to do. To attempt to do so is to invite His discipline in your life. God loves you too much to let you succeed in trying to run away from Him.

You need to understand that is far better to obey God than to defy Him and try to run from what He wants you to do.


3. God sometimes gives second chances.

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you’ ” (Jonah 3:1-2).

God is patient and willing to work through people despite their weaknesses and failures.

Your failures (like Jonah’s) do not permanently disqualify you from serving God.

Realize that second chances from God are not guaranteed, however.
Don’t assume that He will always give you a second chance and think that you can live in disobedience now.

If God mercifully and graciously gives you a second chance, obey Him immediately!

Even better, obey God the first time He commands you to do something!






Section 10. TTU -- TRUTHS THAT ARE TIMELESS AND UNIVERSAL IN
THE BOOK OF OBADIAH

1. There are long lasting, devastating results of favoritism shown toward children by parents.

“Isaac . . . loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob” (Genesis 25:28).

Though coming from twin brothers (Esau and Jacob), the nations of Edom and Israel became bitter, relentless enemies.

Determine that you will not show favoritism toward any of your children;
love each of them abundantly
im going to be sick

[senda wales]

(12-17-2011 06:13 PM)SomethingFundy Wrote:  3. God sometimes gives second chances.

“The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you’ ” (Jonah 3:1-2).

God is patient and willing to work through people despite their weaknesses and failures.

Your failures (like Jonah’s) do not permanently disqualify you from serving God.

Realize that second chances from God are not guaranteed, however.
Don’t assume that He will always give you a second chance and think that you can live in disobedience now.

If God mercifully and graciously gives you a second chance, obey Him immediately!

Even better, obey God the first time He commands you to do something!

I don't think fundies are totally sure whether to view God as merciful or just. I've heard messages saying that God gives second chances to come back to him.... and I've also heard it said that God is not the God of second chances (so better get it straight with God or beware of the consequences).

[Don]

I understand.

The greatest sin of the pulpit is when it uses preaching to push an agenda rather than the truths of Scripture. Even more so, when Scripture is used to promote the extra-biblical standards required for membership within a given group, and then claim special authority from God in order to make others subservient to their decrees.

And, lest I be too hard on men who are genuinely trying to be humble, servants seeking God with their brothers and sisters... sometimes they just don't know any better. They were taught that they have to be topical and that expositional preaching is dull and boring. When God's word is dull and boring then God is not within a million miles of the heart that is only hearing words. If it takes a man and his "presentation" in order to make God's word "exciting" and "attention worthy" then all you have is "preachertainment."

I have sat "under" some award winners. But I have found I have learned more Scripture truth from the past few years of Expositional preaching than I did in the past forty of "topical" preachertainment.

[zeusTHEgoose]

For the longest time, I hated the book of Jonah. I hated hearing preachers tell us to surrender to the ministry because otherwise, God would upon up a can of big fish on our asses. It took me ten years to realize two important factors from this story:

1) Jonah was already a prophet. He was spending his time doing what he loved with the Israelites, so God sending him to do what he loved to another group of people wasn't going against what he loved to do.
2) Jonah had years of experience before God called him to do something radical.

So while God may call you to go somewhere you don't want to, He will never call you to devote your efforts at something that He hasn't placed in your heart already. Yes, we are to show God to all that surround, but only within the limits of our talents and passions that He placed in us. To go against that would be to please human quota and neglect God's designs.

So you can take your guilt trippin' pulpit poundin' self-pleasin' rants offa my plate, I won't have it. I want what that shiny guy with the holes in his wrists is havin'!

[SomethingFundy]

this stuff has made me physically ill. It's just pure, unfiltered legalism.

[senda wales]

(12-17-2011 08:59 PM)zeusTHEgoose Wrote:  It took me ten years to realize two important factors from this story:

Some other takeaways I've gotten from Jonah:

-Things don't always work out the way we expect them to. This is okay and to be expected.

-Sometimes God answers back not with definite answers, but with questions.

-Even an important prophet like Jonah sat around and wallowed in self-pity.

[Tiarali]

- Action was required to provoke change. The people of Nineveh were not silently loved into changing.

- God uses people to do his work.

- But God was still in control. There was NOTHING Jonah could have done to stop God sending a warning to the people of Nineveh.

- It was GOOD to rebuke the people of Nineveh. They were heading towards destruction, and they didn't know it. The bitter dissenter saved their lives.

[Tiarali]

Jonah 3:6-8
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.


The proper response from a leader who's been caught abusing his position.

[Yael]

Thoughts from Jonah:

Just because I hate someone doesn't mean God does; my political enemies are not God's political enemies.

How other people respond to God is between them and God; they're not required to adhere to what I might consider proper. How stupid is it to put sackcloth on animals and have animals fast? I can laugh at the people doing this and tell them they have it all wrong, I can try to correct them by telling them the 'right way' to approach God, or I can realize they're doing just fine on their own and be happy for them.

The people repented and were spared, yet nothing was sacrificed.

We Jews were shown that God was more than just our God.

[notdrinkingthekoolaid]

Studying Jonah in a women's Bible study. (Book written by Priscilla (Evans) Shirer--Jonah: An Interrupted Life.) God doesn't need us to be part of His story, but chooses to use our lives to further accomplish His work, even if we don't like where we know He's directing. That doesn't make Him any less loving, merciful or faithful.