Happy New Year

I haven't posted in a few days as I have been extremely busy with other things. Next week I hope to begin posting on Daniel as we begin a new series a week from Sunday on that wonderful Old Testament book. In the past year we studied from Hebrews, Philippians, Jonah as well as the Lord's prayer. It was a great year and I learned much. Now I am looking forward to another great year.
Have a blessed and prosperous New Year and spend time with God and His Word.

Family Tree

Thanks to Sacred Sandwich for this:

http://sacredsandwich.com/

Peanuts Christmas

Linus does a great job in explaining what Christmas is all about.

Welland Food Court Flash Mob

Flash mobs have become popular this Christmas. This one from the food court at a mall in Welland Ontario is one of the best and a must see.

A Social Network Christmas

What if?

iPad

The Bibles for Missions national board decided to go paperless so to make it work we all have iPads. Now these are fun, handy and more. How about the following? I am not there yet (and probably never).

Why Christmas Re-visited

A number of years ago I wrote a little booklet called Why Christmas. In that booklet I looked at the various people and events of that time and asked the question Why? If I was to do it again I would add another chapter. I willl outline it here.

Why Christmas?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1,14

Christmas is about God with us. The Creator of the universe became a man so that He could be our Saviour. As I said before He came at the right time. Galatians 4:4. He came in the right way, born of a virgin under the Law. It was not the work of man but a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 4:4. Finally, He came to do the right thing, He came to redeem us. Galatians 4:5.

Why Christmas? Christmas tells us that God became man to redeem us.

Left and RIght

The Lord told Jonah that He had thousands of people in Nineveh who didn't know their left hand from their right. Now knowing left from right is important, especially in following directions. But what did the Lord mean when He said that they didn't know their left from their right?
Some think it may mean children but I don't think that fits the context of the book.
Others felt that it could mean uneducated but I don't think so.
I think it means that they were morally corrupt. My son told me that in Nepal the people were careful to keep their right and left hand separate. The left was used for cleaning themselves, especially after going to the bathroom, while the right was used for eating and greeting people. These people were so morally bankrupt that they had no concept of right or wrong, right or left.

He wrote the book.

Well we finished our series on Jonah and I will never see Jonah the same again. Someone asked if there was a fifth chapter as the book ends abruptly. What happened to Jonah? Did he see his sin?
Personally I think he did because he wrote the book. He was the one that told us about his encounter with God. Yes, he wrote the book.

The Sign of Jonah

We read in Luke 11:29 - 32, "As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here."
Note they repented at the preaching of Jonah not his miracles. The people responded to the preaching of Jonah as soon as they heard it not like us today. Jonah pointed to the greatest of all preachers, Jesus Christ.
One of the great signs of today is the preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the world.

A Dirty Trick

When Jonah saw that the people repented he became angry and went out of the city. There a plant grew that gave him shade from the sun but the next day it died. Again Jonah expressed his anger to God. Why had God made the plant and then destroy it? What kind of a dirty trick is that?
The Lord did it because He had a lesson to teach Jonah (and us). The lesson is simple: I (God) don't make things to destroy them. I am the Creator not the destroyer. You feel that way about the plant Jonah which I made but you do not feel that way about the city I made. Jonah and we have to learn this principle. God does not create to destroy. Blessings come quickly judgment comes slowly. Repent and the Lord blesses quickly, reject and the Lord remains patient, not wanting to destroy. This is how He acted with Nineveh and this is how He acts with us.

Questions

When my children were young they asked many questions. Most of the questions were why questions and that is how they learned. When I was teaching I asked a of questions of my students to help them learn but I knew they were learning when they asked me questions.
God asks questions but not to get information that He doesn't know but to make us examine our own hearts. For example:
In Genesis 3 He asked Adam and Eve "Where are you?", "Who told you that you were naked?", and "What have you done?"
In Genesis 4 He asked Cain "Where is your brother?" and "What have you done?"
In Matthew 16 Jesus aced His disciples "But who do you say that I am?"
In Jonah 4 the Lord shows Jonah how gracious He is by asking Jonah questions rather than issuing indictments. These questions are given so that Jonah will examine his heart. What is the Lord asking you today? Maybe He is asking the same question He put to Isaiah ;"Who will go and who can I send?"

Mercy

It is interesting that Jonah's life hinges on the mercy he despises. God showed mercy to Jonah by sending a fish and a plant but Jonah was not interested in extending that mercy to others, especially the Ninevites.
Are we any different? We expect that God will be merciful to us in our sins but that He will judge the sins of others. Jesus called this the speck and the plank in the eye.

Angry at God

Jonah got angry with God. " But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry." Jonah 4:1 It is interesting that if what we see is right and it doesn't come out that way we get angry with God. God just didn't see it my way so He must be wrong. Who is God anyway? Did Jonah think he was better than God?
I met with a lady to day who is bitter over the death of a loved one. I don't know if she blames God, I don't think she believes that she does, but the way she acts says something else. Her behaviour is more like a person who blames God for what happened than for one who sees God as the wise, all knowing, all powerful one.

Does God Repent?

The King James Version of the Bible says that God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to Nineveh. Does this accurately describe what God did? THe New Century Bible says that he changed his mind. The NIV says that he relented. What we need to know here is that God's judgment always comes with a condition. "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned." Jeremiah 18:7-8 Too often we quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 saying that God will heal our land if we repent but that may be true only because God is a merciful God and not because of what we did. Our repentance does not guarantee healing, only God's mercy does that.
Just thinking.

Jonah Like

I wonder if we are Jonah like sitting outside the city waiting for God's judgment to fall? Sometimes instead of working to redeem our cities we are just waiting for the judgment of God. God will judge but not until He has given an opportunity to repent. Jonah preached repentance and God stayed His judgment for 150 years. When Nahum preached to Nineveh judgment came because they did not repent.

What was he thinking?

I wonder what Jonah was thinking the second time he was called to preach in Nineveh? The first time he was told specifically what the message would be but now he was to go and then God would relate the message to him. Maybe he thought that God had changed the message so that he could proclaim that there would be no time to repent but judgment was imminent. He was ready to preach what God commanded him.