Rest!

Rest

The young black Lab wiggled with excitement. His whole body wagged along with his tail. His master took him to the center of the dog show ring. He was told to sit. After several commands he obeyed. However, his front feet tapped the ground and he whimpered with enthusiasm. Then the master told the pup to stay, and he walked away. 

The master stopped and turned to the dog, who was beside himself with eagerness. You could see it took everything he had to stay in place. He quivered with tension. The master took a breath and before the sound of  "Come" could be heard, the dog took off at a run. Half-way to the dog's goal the master said, "Down." The pup dropped down but in his great hurry he slid across the ground landing only a few feet from his master. The audience laughed with empathy at the dog who just couldn't contain his love to serve.

This was the story that I remembered when Pastor Greg preached on taking time to rest. How there are times when we refuse to take the time to recoup and be in the moment, because we are so enthusiastic to serve. God whispers for us to rest, but we weigh ourselves down with unneeded guilt about what has to be accomplished. Even when sickness, or a disabling accident forces us to sit still we quiver with anxiety that things aren't happening the way we would do it.

God tells us to sit. Stay. Rest. Get alone with Him. Listen to His quiet voice. Allow a time of rest to revive you and draw you closer to Jesus. Regain strength for the road ahead.

Mathew 11:28
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Wisdom

Wisdom

WISDOM. I know that sometimes we want others to listen to our wisdom. We want it so bad, and we're so sure we are right, we talk smack. We might even use ridicule or shout our wisdom at them to drive it into their heads. @#%#$%^# After a good argument on Facebook where we have called them liars and fakes, there's a thrill of satisfaction. 

At the close of Pastor Greg's sermon series, this is where Jonah found himself. Then when the Ninevites  repented in a big way, Jonah was maaaaad. "I told you so, God. I knew they would repent. They don't deserve your mercy. They should have been punished for being so dumb." But God had a better plan.

Here's a thought that came directly from a point from one of Pastor Todd's sermons:

True wisdom puts people first. In James it says if you are truly wise, show it by your life and your deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. True wisdom is shown in love for others.

BECAUSE ACCORDING TO GOD PEOPLE ARE:

• worth losing an argument for
• worth letting a wrong person win.
• worth yielding when you are right
• worth making peace with

ACCORDING TO JESUS PEOPLE ARE WORTH DYING FOR!

No!

NO!

"Your doing it wrong!" "That's bad for you."  "No!" "Uh, uh." "Follow the rules."  "Don't do that."

Yeah, sure, that will change anyone's mind. 

When God first called Jonah, he told him to preach against Nineveh, When Jonah turned his running away into I will obey, God's command had been reworded. Now Jonah was to proclaim to Nineveh. 

Did God's change of wording have to do with His dealing with Jonah? I wonder? Perhaps, God knowing how Jonah would react to the redemption of the wicked, presented a harsher sermon to preach. 

When Jonah relented and followed his mission, God relented in how the news would be presented. God could have wanted Jonah to see the difference. 

There is a difference in how we present God to those who do not know Him yet. By charging ahead with condemnation over lifestyles and rules to follow we only show the law. What Jesus came to abolish. When we present God's love, compassion, and power to give hope we proclaim to others a lifeline. 

I'm not saying there is no sin to repent from. I'm not saying we can't guide new Christians in their journey closer to God. But when reaching out to people who are on the other side of a relationship with God, we can paint with colors of love, compassion, and a listening heart. 

Dark, Frantic, and Broken

Dark, Frantic, and Broken

"Seaweed was wrapped around my head." I don't remember this being a part of the story. For some reason this time it struck me with a clear picture of humiliation and being dragged into the depths of despair.  Of his being plunged to his darkest hours. How did Jonah get to this point?

Have we all, at some point, rebelled to the point of such despondency?

Jonah would not let go of his anger, resentment, and pride long enough to obey God. He needed to repent of his holier-than-thou attitude and simply give a group of people a chance to turn to God. It hurt so much to release these people of their guilt that he ran until he was swallowed by a fish. Even then, though he turned to God, he didn't say he would go. Not until later in the story did he make his way back to Nineveh. 

So easy to be judgmental of Jonah, isn't it. But I have been in this place where, until I really took in  the tumultuous waves and darkness around me, did I bring myself back to where God needed me to be.  A turn of thought or a change of perspective can rescue a heart from brokenness and frantic fear. When God allows us to go off on our own He reminds us how dark it can be without him. The struggle we find ourselves in is not the hard part, it's facing these  consequences without the help of God.

God needed Jonah to repent. He needed Nineveh to repent. When an archer aims their arrow at a target and misses, the term that is used to help them get back on target is to repent. Repent to one side or the other. Repent farther out or closer in. 

The story of Jonah is about repentance and of mercy. 

Who is Your Nineveh?

Who is Your Nineveh?

Bomb them all! Send them all back! One death deserves another. Don't take my money and give it to them. I'm not racist, you're a racist!  They don't deserve forgiveness. Why bother?

That is what Jonah would have said about Nineveh. You see these evil ones killed and tortured more people than ISIS. They sinned against God in more ways than a satanist cult. Nahum 3:2 says, "Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!"

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. He refused. He ran away from God. Tried to anyway. God loved Jonah and wanted to use him. He sent a fish to swallow him and bring him back to his senses.

Jonah could think of so many reasons why he should not go and preach repentance. The Ninevites  didn't deserve forgiveness, his time, or a second chance. He knew God would forgive them if they turned themselves around. To Jonah this did not seem fair to all the good people that had been hurt by these savages.

Jonah did finally preach to Nineveh. The biggest miracle here is not being swallowed by a big fish and living to tell about it, but that these people did repent. All of them, children, parents, they even put sack clothes on their livestock. 

Do you have a Nineveh? Someone that you've written off? Maybe a whole group of people you've heard bad things about and God whispers, "Drop the stone walls and open your heart." It could be someone on the other side of your politics, or a noisy neighbor you can't get along with. Can you let down your guard enough to share a conversation? 

Though this theme is not exactly where Pastor Greg lead us that day in his sermon, here is where I went with it. 

Love you enemies. Pray for those that persecute you. (disagree, or call you names.) Love your neighbor, like you love yourself. (Not just the kind ones, either. Or the ones that voted like you.) Press on in genuine love, mercy, and seek justice.  Yes, always, seek justice by being slow to judge and quick to listen when prejudices are uncovered or the hurt are crying for help. 

Downside up

Downside up

Have you ever felt like you're stepping over ceiling fans and tripping around chandeliers? The rest of the world is relaxing on couches and having dinner with table and chairs planted firmly on ground. Your drink tends to fall up as you sit by the crown molding.

Do you live upside down, or the downside up? Either way can make you disoriented. Christians live in this tumultuous world, led by our Messiah. Pastor Todd Spieker preached on this topic. He named ways Christ lived with gravity pulling up. Many of these I had never thought of before.  

I can see that we must step out from the crowd and choose helping the marginalized and poor instead of  being afraid of them. It makes more sense to be concerned they are taking advantage of us. "After all, how can we help anyone if we give too much away?" they say.  

Here are the ups and the downs Todd spoke of, and a few of mine. In case the words are hard to read on my sermon sketch. 

Crown of gold vs Crown of thorns

Lifted up on throne vs Lifted up on cross

About me vs Not about me

First best vs Last best

Love self vs Selfless

Greed and hate vs Generosity and love

Kingdom disciples make more disciples. Disciple apprentices teach us to love God and others.

Look for more of Todd's sermons on SoundCloud under BethelCov.

3=1

God is the Trinity

3=1? This is mind bending and difficult to understand. Finishing up on The Attributes of God series, Pastor Greg tackled the trinity.

The part of the sermon that struck me the most was that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. For some reason this hit me in a new way. It made so much sense in terms of understanding the trinity. In my sketch I tried to show Jesus coming out of the invisible God. The Holy Spirit, and God the Father billow behind Him as He steps out for us to see Him. 

Quotes from the Bible reveal Jesus has no beginning. He is the Word that was God and with God. All things were created by Him. 

Greg then talked about the old example about water. It can be ice, steam, and liquid. Three in one.

This gives us a bit of understanding but to me it does not reveal the full explanation. Because ice, steam, and liquid do not exist all at the same time. This is where God differs. It is as if you drew three circles but not beside each other, or even intertwined with one another. It would be more like if after you drew the first circle, you place your pencil right on top of the line you had just drawn. The molecules actually mingle together. The third line is drawn on top of the other two. All untied as one, but three circles at the same time. 

Below is the part of the picture that shows this for me. It is the names of God one on top of the other intertwined, three in one.