Sunday/Jul/2010 13:59
July 25, 2010
The prophet Jonah is known primarily for his
extraordinary encounter with the "big fish." Born in a
small town in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II
(782-753 B.C.), Jonah's mission was to preach
repentance to one of Israel's dreaded enemies, Assyria,
in its capital city, Nineveh.
When God commanded Jonah to leave his native city in
Israel to go to Nineveh and preach, Jonah was furious.
Why should God care about those pagans? So Jonah
deliberately took a ship headed in the opposite
direction. A great storm arose and Jonah accepted
responsibility for the danger, requesting that he be
thrown overboard. A great fish swallowed him and after
three days he was disgorged onto the land. Chastened,
Jonah then went to Nineveh to preach. When the people
of Nineveh repented, Jonah was resentful. He sulked
outside the city. God then taught him a lesson, using a
plant. The point was, if Jonah could have pity on a bit
of vegetation, couldn't God have pity on an entire city
full of people?
Most of the discussion that surrounds the Book of Jonah
concerns whether or not these events could actually
have happened. Some argue that it reads like an
extended parable, and hence was not meant to be taken
literally. Others believe that it is better to let the
account speak for itself. The book looks like history,
with the prophet being named and the events of his life
being rather carefully described. That it took a
miracle for Jonah to survive his long stay inside the
fish is not denied. If God could create a world, fish,
and Jonah, he certainly could handle a matter like that
(1:17).
Today Pastor Rick concludes this five part teaching
series from the book of Jonah. Today we will discover
some of the unbelievable truths found in this small
book. Next week Pastor Rick begins a new teaching
series.
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Sunday/Jul/2010 13:26
July 18, 2010
A
few years ago there was a church here in the United
States that lost fifteen percent of its membership over
an issue regarding baseball caps. That's
right—fifteen percent of the people walked over
baseball caps.
This is what happened: A couple of high school athletes
were late getting home on a Saturday night, because
their team had played in a tournament a number of miles
away. The next morning, when they got up to attend
worship services, they didn't have time to take a
shower. They put on their nice clothes, but because
their hair was messy, they wore baseball caps. Before
the worship service started, one of the boy's moms
approached one of the pastors to explain the situation.
The pastor shrugged it off, saying, "No problem!" So
the boys wore their baseball caps during the service,
and nobody complained.
Here's where things got messy, though. The next Sunday,
even though the boys had plenty of time to shower and
get ready, they still wore their baseball caps. And
they wore them again, the Sunday after that. About the
fourth Sunday, some people were starting to get a
little bit upset.
To make a long story short, the leaders of this church
said to the pastor that he needed to fix the situation
because people were pretty worked up about it. The
pastor was back and forth on the issue, thinking, These
guys have a right to wear baseball caps if they want
to. It's not a big deal. There's nothing in the Bible
that says they shouldn't. But the more he thought about
it, the more he knew it was going to be a big issue. He
went to the boys and asked them to consider not wearing
their hats to services. They agreed. However, when the
boys' parents found out about this, they were very
upset. The whole thing snowballed and just like
that—fifteen percent of the members of this
church left over an issue concerning baseball caps.
The question for this morning is “What is
standing between me, and the people God is concerned
about, in my life that needs to die in order for me to
influence them toward Jesus?”
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Monday/Jul/2010 12:31
July 4, 2010
The Declaration of Independence, approved by the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, is a statement of
the principles that two days earlier had led Congress
to vote for the independence of the American colonies
from Great Britain. When we think of the Declaration of
Independence we should also acknowledge the Declaration
of Dependence the signers of the Declaration had upon
Almighty God.
In 1776, 99.85% of Americans professed Christianity as
their faith [98.3% Protestant, 1.55% Catholic] while
0.14% were Jewish and 0.01% claimed neither
Christianity nor Judaism. Is it likely that a nation
like this would have as its Founders men and women who
were not Christians? Benjamin Rush, the youngest signer
of the Declaration of Independence wrote in his letter
to his wife during his final illness: “Blessed
Jesus, wash away all my impurities, and receive me into
thy everlasting Kingdom.”
Thomas Jefferson had to defend his faith before the
world, as he wrote in a letter to his friend Benjamin
Rush, “I am a Christian in the only sense in
which He [Jesus] wished any one to be. [April 21,
1803]. In seeking independence from Great Britain the
colonists declared to the world their belief in a
personal, infinite God-“their Creator"-who
endowed them with certain "inalienable" or absolute
rights...God given rights. In this respect, the
Declaration of Independence was a Declaration of
Christianity.
In chapter three, Jonah proclaimed the message of the
Lord to the people of Nineveh and they turned from
their wicked ways and believed in God. The people of
Nineveh declared their dependence upon God. May we
learn from this account that God is the God of second
chances and we have hope when we place our dependence
upon God.
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