Sunday School Lesson Revisited

This weeks past lesson was definitly full of surprise insight. And to think I only thought of Jonah and the Whale as a big fish tale. Not so. I would have to say that the award for the deepest insight goes to Sean McAniff. I honestly never looked at it the way Sean interpreted it. To recap what he said...and Im paraphrasing," Every event and person in the book of Jonah obeyed God." "The weather obeyed God, the pagan sailors obeyed God, even the fish obeyed God." " Jonah, not so willing."

I guess you could say Jonah OBEYED God, he just did it with a rebelloius heart. After the second attempt he did go to Ninevah, he was just so bitter about it. I get a chuckle when I think about the revival happening in that city and Jonah off in the heat burning up. I'm sure it was not just his head that was burning, but the fire of bitterness and anger and possibly even jeoulousy that plagued his heart. I imagine that like Jonah, there have been times in our lives where we would rather see Gods judgement, not grace, on our enemies. The problem with that kind of logic is it weighs down the heart of the bitter person and doesn't allow the flow of Gods love in. Eventually, like the vine in Jonah, we dry up and wither until we come to the realization that Gods grace is for everyone. Even you!!!

Mission To The Community

For the month of March we find ourselves back into the Old Testament. In the book of Jonah to be exact. It is so amazing to me to see how Gods word, written thousands of years ago, is still so relevant today. Perhaps even more so than a years past. We are going to study this week about a prophet who gets a call to preach to a group of people in Ninevah. Probably when you were growing up Ninevah seemed as imaginary to you as the North Pole, however because of our world today I bet many of you would be surprised to know that Ninevah is actually very close to a region we are ALL to familiar with now. Does the city Mosul, Iraq sound familiar. Thats right, I think we can all kind of feel what Jonah was feeling when God sent him there? What if God called you to preach his word to Al-Qaeda,( Now I realize that most of the Iraqi's are not Al-qaeda, Im trying to make a point). Would you be willing to go to a region that was so hostile or would you rebell too?!!