NEIGHBORS: Those Ninevites around us!

"Then God said to Jonah, 'Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?' And he said, 'I have good reason to be angry, even to death.' Then the LORD said, 'You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?'"

Jonah 4:9-11

A couple attended a neighborhood wedding reception. While there they had a wonderful time conversing with a very polite young man. Eventually, he excused himself but was quickly replaced by a friend and neighbor. They apologized for not introducing the young man but admitted they didn’t know his name. “O’ that’s all right,” she said. “We already know him, he’s our son.”

This illustrates a problem of our time; frustrated with the sad state of our world we complain loudly yet insulate ourselves from our own neighbors. How can we expect our voice to be heard when we so uninvolved. This attitude is close to calling into question the very character of God (perhaps even his nature).

God has clearly told us to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” [Matthew 22:39] He also provided the parable of the “good Samaritan” [Matthew 10:30-37] for the same reason. God wants us to know our neighbors.

Only when we sincerely seek the redemption of our fallen neighbors, rather than their capitulation to our world-view, will we understand how God is “slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness” [4:2] toward all men!

Only when we serve God unconditionally will we ever understand how God is “a gracious and compassionate God” [4:2] toward all men!

Jonah was a normal, everyday human being, from a normal common in life; but he was RUNNING FROM GOD. God was just not doing things the way Jonah wanted them done.

Jonah was living his life pretty much as God asked him to; but these Ninevites? AARRRGHHHH!!!!!!

Christianity, Illustrations,
Neighbors, Religion

CALL: Run If You Want!

Southern California is earning a well-deserved reputation as the “freeway-chase capitol” of the world … and rightly so. At least once or twice a week now, the evening news reports on another semi-brain dead simpleton who apparently believes he can outrun the police.

Recently, however, one chase was especially interesting. The suspect speed off like all the other car-chase celebrities but then added an extra component … running out of gas, he jumped from his vehicle and fled on foot; then, jumping a guardrail, he inadvertently leaped over the edge of a 400 foot embankment … the final section of which was a vertical, 75 foot drop to the canyon floor.

The suspect broke his pelvis, both shoulders, and suffered multiple head and body lacerations and scrapes. He was arrested in the hospital after being treated for his injuries. Local authorities expect a lawsuit to follow.

I recall another man who tried to run from a higher authority: the prophet Jonah. He tried to flee from God when called upon to preach to Nineveh. In the case of the prophet his leap was aided by fellow travelers and ended in the gut of a great fish.

In the end his injuries were more emotional than physical … and of course the cliff-jumper will end up in prison, while the prophet ended up in the gospels, being cited by the Lord Jesus Christ as the only sign this adulterous generation will ever receive. But the lesson is the same: run, but don’t expect to hide when God is calling!

Christianity, Illustrations,
Religion, Calling

DELIVERANCE: Hello, God?

"Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, 'I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. ... Salvation is from the LORD.' Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land."

Jonah 2:1-2, 9b, 10

The great quake of August 18, 1999, in Turkey brought us an interesting story ... a relationship between tragedy and technology.

A CBS report related how a man in an apartment building found himself suddenly cast into the deep. At the moment of the quake he was visiting friends in the basement of the multi-storied structure … building came down on top of them. The edifice encompassed them to the point of death. Trapped, the five used the man’s cell phone to call out to rescuers.

From the stomach of the fish Jonah called out to his Rescuer. He “cried out” from the deep, even though the water encompassed him to the point of death.

We must remember: no matter what encompasses us, we’ve a Rescuer; and we can call out to Him from the deepest of depths.

Christianity, Illustration,
Jonah, Religion, Salvation