Here comes the judge!

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Here comes the Judge!

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah…we look at him and see stubbornness, disobedience, rebellion and definitely ungratefulness.

Yes, he did thank God for saving him from the belly of the great fish, and yes, he did finally obey and head for Nineveh. What he didn’t expect was for the people to believe, repent and turn from their wickedness.

Jonah arrives in Nineveh, (a city that takes three days to walk through!), and just one day inside he starts preaching the Word of the Lord. He told the people, in this wicked city, that they had 40 days to repent or the entire city, and everything in it, would be destroyed. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”

They believed God, they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth (a sign of repentance and humility) even down to the least of them.

Word had come from the king himself, he had taken off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes! He said,

“Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger,that we perish not?”

The desperate situation called for desperate measures. They humbled their souls with fasting and what happened?

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Jonah 3:3-10.

Did they change the mind of God? Of course they did!

Turning FROM sin and turning TO God will cause the Lord to reach out a hand of MERCY!

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This is what Jehovah wanted them to do!

But it is NOT what Jonah wanted them to do. At all.

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. “So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.  Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” Jonah 4:1-3 NLT.

Can’t you just see Jonah complaining to God? “I told you, Lord! I told you this would happen!” He says he knew all along if they repented God would go soft. And he was mad about it! He was upset that these people that he literally despised were going to receive the forgiveness of God…just like he had.

Now here is where we think Jonah is One Selfish and Self-Righteous Dude.

But is he really any different than so many of the rest of us? Haven’t there been times in our lives where we have been a little aggravated at some of the Ninevites in our own lives? Do we think they can’t be saved, that God surely wouldn’t bother with them; His mercy couldn’t possibly extend that far?

And when they do come to the Lord? When they DO repent? We doubt and say, “They won’t stick with it, that’s just how they are.” We second guess their motives, “They aren’t really sincere, they are just coming to church to put on a show or to be seen.” We are sure there is nothing to their experience.

We reason it in our minds…and sometimes speak it with our mouths.

Worst of all? Looking deep in our hearts we might discover we just do not like them. Maybe they have hurt us in the past, done something against us that we are struggling to forgive. We actually want to see them continue in their sinful life, they are deserving of judgment!

God is no respecter of persons. And the story of Jonah and the Ninevites is a wonderful example of the mercy of a loving God. It was a wicked city, the Assyrians were bent on world domination, they didn’t care who got in their way. They even sacrificed their children and served the idol Dagon! But when they heard the warning, and their king took it seriously, they believed, they repented and they were forgiven. They were spared!

Just like God told Jonah, “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

Can we just be grateful that God had mercy on us, that He loved us, in spite of ourselves, overlooked our faults, failures and sins?

Let us not be judgmental when it comes to the sins of others. Let’s not be critical of their motives when it comes to salvation.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV.

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So, I thought I could raise the dead…

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So, I thought I could raise the dead…

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” – Max Lucado

Several years ago, coming home from church one evening, I was about a half mile from our house when I saw a young woman, with a baby on her hip and cell phone to her ear, pacing back and forth in the road. I was hesitant, it was dark, and the road was out in the middle of absolutely no where with not too many houses around. I had my son with me who was about 15 at the time so I felt a little safer and yet didn’t want to put him in danger either.

But I stopped.

When I pulled alongside her, I could make out that she was talking to a 911 operator. Screaming, cursing and lamenting, “Where in the ******* are you?!” She disconnected the call and tried to tell me the story in a nutshell. Her boyfriend’s father was in the house dying. He had been in a fight with his girlfriend and she had kicked him in the chest. He came to their house in extreme pain and then sat down on the couch and stopped breathing.

I pulled into the driveway, told Korey to lock the doors, call his dad and tell him where we were and I would be right back. “Mom, this is crazy, wait for Dad, wait for the ambulance, wait for somebody!”

The trailer-modified house was definitely not inviting. In fact, it was a little scary, hidden back in the woods and not very well kept at all. A couple of dogs roamed around but I made my way to the steps where another little girl, about four or five, sat crying. She looks up at me with the most pitiful eyes and says, “Don’t go in there! Please, don’t go! It’s awful in there!” I assured her everything would be alright even though I could hear screaming, more cursing and horrible grieving coming from the open door. Once more she tried to keep me from entering, “It’s dirty in there!”

Have you ever felt that you had been sent somewhere? Sent by God, to be His hands and His feet in a situation? That is the way I would describe myself at that moment. I was sure the Almighty had sent me, not that I was anything whatsoever, but that HE was EVERYTHING and He was about to do something miraculous. I was terrified, anxious and expectant all at the same time.

On the couch sat a man about 55 years old, over six feet tall and probably 230 pounds. His head was lying on a pillow on the back of the couch and he was NOT breathing. On either side of him were his two sons, early 20’s at the most. They were hysterical, cursing one minute and praying the next when I walked up beside them.

I knew their father was dead.

His color was gray, almost white, there was no breath whatsoever coming from this man. One of the sons grabbed me and fell on my shoulder sobbing, “Please pray for Dad! Tell him to wake up!”

I begin to pray. I had faith to believe that God was going to raise this man from the dead! Or, if there were any chance that the EMT’s could revive him, if they ever arrived, we would praise God for that as well. Either way, we needed a miracle and fast.

I kept praying for him and for his boys. They were screaming at the ambulance, which wasn’t there. They had called over a half an hour earlier and the girlfriend was still out in the driveway trying to give directions. Even in the midst of chaos, I was wondering why their GPS couldn’t find this house!

It seemed an eternity, and found out later it was over 40 minutes, before the emergency team arrived. I moved out of the way, out onto the porch with the little girl and held her while they worked on the injured man. By then, The Sweetheart had arrived and was trying to comfort and pray for the boys. They had both been drinking so they had enough sense to know they couldn’t drive so he drove them to the hospital.

And that is where they pronounced him dead.

They told us later that he was definitely already deceased at the house but they took him to the hospital for the boys sake.

The Sweetheart stayed with them until the wee hours of the morning and then we attended the funeral a couple of days later. They were so appreciative and when we walked in they both hugged us and thanked us for being there.

So many thoughts were swimming in my head those few days but I hadn’t expressed them until we left the funeral home.

Why?

Why, when I prayed for this man, stepped out in faith and believed, did he not come to? All things are for the glory of God and this seemed like it would bring so much glory to Him!

When I felt for sure that He had me stop, had me enter that “scary place” as the little girl had said, why were my prayers not answered so that others could see His greatness and experience a true miracle that would have awakened them to the power of God?

This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. Psalm 18:30 ESV.

I do not know why, but this I do know:

We don’t answer prayers, God does. We don’t raise the dead, God does. We are His hands and His feet and we go where He wants us to go, do what He wants us to do and do it all in His name. From there, HE decides what happens. HE decides who is healed, who is raised to life and who will see His glory and HE decides when that timing is perfect.

What I can’t see, what you can’t see, is down the road, the bigger picture. We only exist in the here and now and our finite minds are fixated on the why’s because we only know what we see.

I am trusting that the things that happened on that dark and gloomy night will some day come full circle for those boys. Or maybe for the girlfriend? Or maybe even for the little girl who was sitting on the steps who is now at least a teenager. I pray that when prayers were said in that place that those sons remember feeling the power of God and the peace that only He brings, even into chaos and confusion.

I pray that the little girl will remember the kind lady who held her and prayed over her while everyone was screaming, crying and saying things a little girl shouldn’t hear. I pray she remembers that while someone was whispering, “Jesus” that she felt safe and secure.

And even though I thought I was going in there to see the dead raised to life that maybe God’s purpose was totally different. Maybe He had something else in mind. Perhaps I will never know on this side of heaven what it was truly all about but I do know He called, I do know He gave me unbelievable strength, courage and faith to do the unthinkable because I knew I was not doing it alone.

Have you ever had a situation where you felt God was leading you to step out of your comfort zone and when you did, it was nothing like you thought it would be? That God didn’t answer the prayer that you prayed and you almost felt stupid? Prayer is never a bad thing, it blesses the one that you are praying for and it blesses you as well. And God is working behind the scenes preparing something greater for His glory, all in His perfect timing.

Don’t be afraid to be His hands and feet! We are called to minister to one another, to reach out to the poor, the needy, the sick and the lost. If we don’t, who will? But if we DO…HE will!

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That time you didn’t tell the truth.

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That time you didn’t tell the truth.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

It’s #FiveMinuteFriday and I didn’t want to pass up this word prompt: Truth!

I have a dear friend that I remember when we were teenagers always ending a statement or answering someone else with “This is true!” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that were the case? That everything we said was true?

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is told in Acts, chapter 5. This couple had sold a piece of property and then brought part of the profit to the apostles. The problem was that they claimed it was the full amount when it wasn’t. Peter confronts them and asks if it is the full amount and Ananias replies that it is. Here is where it gets interesting:

Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

Peter makes it clear that Ananias did not have to give the money to the church, it was his money, he could as he wished. The problem was that he lied, not to them but to God.

As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.

Ananias paid for his sin immediately…can you imagine if that were the case today? That if you lied, you died!

Things got worse from there because about three hours later his wife, Sapphira walks in and Peter asks her the same question he asked Ananias and she tells the same story, the same lie. Look at the beginning of the chapter again: He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.

With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. Sapphira not only knew about the lie, she was in agreement with it. So, when she walked in and lied to Peter?

And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” Instantly, she fell to the floor and died.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Ephesians 4:25

I love this quote! It is so much easier to tell the truth because you don’t have to remember the lie that you made up!! Yes, sometimes the truth hurts but a lie will follow you forever. Whether it is in the guilt or the worry that you will be found out, or the condemnation that trails you…as the saying goes, Be sure your sin will find you out!

If you have lied? If the guilt is weighing you down, Jesus is in the forgiveness business! He wants you to come to Him, to confess your weaknesses. He is ready and willing to forgive and forget! Don’t let the enemy intimidate you an make you think that forgiveness can’t be found. That is also a lie! He is the father of lies and wants you to think that you are stuck with that guilt and condemnation. Not so, friend, not so! Repenting is turning around, away from the sin and not repeating it over again. Confessing and giving it to God is the best remedy for that guilt. Do it today!

It’s so much easier to be honest, so much easier to not have to apologize later or worry you will be found out. And most of all, your heart is right with your God and that is worth it all.

For the kingdom