Character Study #3 : Jonah

What do you think when you hear the name Jonah? Coward, whale, or selfish may come to mind. If you were raised in church, it's pretty likely that you have at least heard the story of Jonah. If not, then maybe you've seen the Veggie Tales movie. Regardless, the part of his story I want to focus on today is not that part that we've heard a hundred times. I want to look at the very first glimpse of Jonah we see: a man on the run.

Starts out plain and simple enough: God calls Jonah, a prophet, to preach to an extremely violent city. Jonah doesn't like this, doesn't want to do it, and decides to run in the opposite direction.

Jonah 1:1The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

3But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

The chapter heading in my Bible for Jonah 1 reads: Jonah runs from the Lord. I remember hearing this story as a kid and judging Jonah so harshly. I remember thinking "You get such an obvious calling from God and you not ONLY ignore it but you run the other way? You really think you can outrun God?!" I remember actually thinking it is laughable how cowardly Jonah acts!

 Through further study of the Word as an adult, my opinion of Jonah is different. Would some of us not be guilty of the very same thing? The job God called Jonah to do doesn't sound fun, does it? God calls us to do certain things and when we don't like them, what do we do? We run. We make excuses. Well, maybe that wasn't really God's call after all. Someone else will do the job. I'm not ready for this just yet. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's okay that Jonah chose to ignore God's call! We all know that he isn't able to outrun God. None of us are! God is with us when we do what we are called to do, but He is also present when we choose not to answer. He is with us when we remain quiet while others mock our beliefs. He is with us when we say "Someone else will help the sick and poor." He is with us when we think we aren't good enough to teach or preach. He is with us when we are too scared to go to the bad parts of the world or even our community. And He is with us in the belly of a fish.

 Jonah, the man who ran. How often do we run? I've certainly been guilty of running. But that doesn't mean that God still can't use us. Just remember that God is with you every single step of the journey...even when we disobey! God still used him to preach to more than 120,000 people of Ninevah.

If a book about you were to be included in the Bible, would you want it to be a book about how you ran from God's calling? Would the header be: "[Your name] runs from the Lord"? Would yours' be a book about ignoring, repenting, and then answering God's call? Would it be about answering without questioning? What I want you to think about is this: If God is calling you to do something outside of your comfort zone, how do you answer? Do you obey or do you run? 

When We're Stuck

Life can overwhelm us with a variety of difficult things - cruel people, hard jobs, financial instability, and broken relationships, just to name a few. My first instinct is to just run away! But that isn't an appropriate response. So what should we do when we're "stuck" in the lives we didn't plan?

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I'm going to be completely honest today and tell you, yes, I've heard 1 Peter 5:7 my entire life! I was consistently taught this in church and at home. It's a very popular verse, "Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you." It's definitely an encouraging verse! But let's take a look at the verse which precedes that one. 1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourself therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time."

I am also a reader of the Message Bible and it's translation reads:

So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; He’ll promote you at the right time. 

I'm not trying to tell you to just give up. If you aren't living the life you always planned and you can change it, take some action! Change the things you can! But sometimes, our timing is just wrong. I believe that God gives us seasons of life when we just feel stuck. We can't change anything about it, but it is then we surrender or humble ourselves before God. We learn to be content with who and where we are and not forgot that God is watching us. He has a plan for our future and when the time is right, a door will open or an opportunity will rise. Our timing is different from God's and if you're like me, patience isn't easy. But I have a feeling that God's plan will be worth the wait!

Psalm 37:2 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act. 

I pray that today, we will quit worrying about our situations. I pray that we will fully humble ourselves before God, and that we would rely completely on Him. I surrender this to Him and I am done feeling such negativity about where I am. I hope that if you are going through something difficult, you will find the courage to give it up and hand it to Him as well.

This is just a quick devotion today, but it's something I've been dealing with lately. I hope that some of you can relate to this, but even if it was just for myself, I wanted to share.

Courage

Courage is scary, because in order to have courage, you must go through something intimidating. Today instead of doing a specific character study, I'm going to share a few people from the book of Daniel who lived with great courage, and a few verses that apply to being courageous in our lives today.

1) Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. These three men showed a huge amount of courage. The king had built a huge statue that he wanted his people to worship. These guys didn't think it was right! They had only one King they wanted to worship, and it wasn't Nebuchadnezzar. But rebellion had a price, and Nebuchadnezzar is to throw anyone who disobeys his commands into a fiery furnace. Check out this dynamic voice of courage found in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 3:16-18Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn't, it wouldn't make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn't serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up."

Wow! They have such faith in God, stating the He will rescue them. But really what makes a mark? When they say "But even if he doesn't, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." They believe that God will take care of them, but if He doesn't, they will not regret their decision. Can you be much more courageous? We know the story. The people watching them be thrown into the furnace see not just 3 figures in the furnace, but a very mysterious 4th figure is also in the fire. The men are retrieved from the furnace with no scars, not even their clothes were burned.

2) Daniel. Something I did not understand as a kid is that Daniel was actually well acquainted with the three men we just talked about! I never knew that until recent study of the Bible.

If we read on in the book of Daniel, we find our next character of awesome courage, Daniel. There's a new king in town, King Darius. His officials are jealous of Daniel, and they are able to talk the king into enforcing a decree that nobody in the land can pray or serve anyone but the king for 30 days. Anyone who disobeys will be fed to the lions. These officials did this because they knew that Daniel was a very faithful servant of God and they could find no other way to get rid of him. As the Message Bible puts it, "They searched for skeletons in his closet but found none."

As they planned, Daniel keeps praying to his God. The officials bring it to Darius' attention. He regrets making the law, because he greatly respects Daniel.

Daniel 6:16 The king caved in and ordered Daniel brought and thrown into the lions' den. But he said to Daniel, "Your God, to whom you are so loyal, is going to get you out of this." 

Daniel's courage is so great that it even causes the king to have faith in a God he doesn't serve! The next morning, when the king has had enough, he goes to check on his friend. Daniel is unscathed, completely protected. His courage changes the entire land.

Daniel 6:25-27 King Darius published this proclamation to every race, color, and creed on earth:

Peace to you! Abundant peace! I decree that Daniel's God shall be worshiped and feared in all parts of my kingdom. He is the living God, world without end. His kingdom never falls. His rule continues eternally. He is a savior and rescuer. He performs astonishing miracles in heaven and on earth. He saved Daniel from the power of the lions.

You've probably heard or read those stories countless times, but it's such a great reminder. These men all showed such exemplary accounts of courage! Here are just a few encouraging verses about courage.

Deuteronomy 31:6 
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. 

Psalm 56:3-4 When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? 

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 

 How can you be courageous in your faith today?

Character Study #2: Abraham

Abraham, the father of many nations, wasn't always the man of unwavering faith we hear about. Yes, Abraham did almost sacrifice his son Isaac for God, because that is what God told him to do:

Genesis 22:

1 After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, "Abraham!" "Yes?" answered Abraham. "I'm listening."

2 He said, "Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll point out to you."

 

We know the story, Abraham takes his son and is ready to sacrifice him to God, when God provides a ram for sacrifice instead. This is one of the scariest tests of faith offered to us in the Bible! I heard a quote once that went something like this, "I will never understand Abraham's true act of obedience until I am 100 years old when I have a son and then God asks me to sacrifice that son." How true is that? I, being a childless 21 year old, cannot fully imagine the pain and sorrow that Abraham must have felt when God asked him to do this. But he follows the command, and God provides.

This is not the side of Abraham I planned to share though. We're going to backtrack a bit, heading to Genesis 12. At this point of the story, Abraham is called Abram and his wife Sarah is called Sarai. God has promised many nations and blessings to Abram. God even promises to "Bless those who bless Abram and to curse those who curse him."

Genesis 12:13 Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, "Look. We both know that you're a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they're going to say, 'Aha! That's his wife!' and kill me. But they'll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you're my sister. Because of you, they'll welcome me and let me live."

Okay, here we see Abram showing little faith. God promised to take care of Abram, yet he still feels threatened and takes matters into his own hands. He lies to the Egyptians about Sarai, not because God tells him to, but out of fear. And guess what? He does it again eight chapters later!

Genesis 20: 1-2 Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She's my sister."

This man, who later shows more faith than most Bible characters, actually ends up lying to protect himself! He fears that God will not protect as He promised, so he devises his own plan of protection. This is just another example of how God uses people who make mistakes. God does protect both Abraham and Sarah, but He would have if Abraham hadn't lied. Because of Abraham's lie, God intervenes. He reveals the truth to Abimelech through a dream in Genesis 20.

Genesis 20: 

3But that night God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you have taken is already married!”

4But Abimelech had not slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?5Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I acted in complete innocence! My hands are clean.”

6In the dream God responded, “Yes, I know you are innocent. That’s why I kept you from sinning against me, and why I did not let you touch her. 

Just two chapters later, we read Abraham is going to sacrifice his own son for God? Can you see the radical change of faith? Abraham was a human. He made mistakes and like us, his faith faltered at times. I don't want to say that we should be encouraged by Abraham's mistakes, but to be honest, I am. This character of such legendary faith, only two chapters earlier, showed none.

 Do you always trust in God and know that He will take care of you? It's easy to give up on God and try to take control of the situation, but I believe that God blesses those who are willing to trust wholly and completely in Him. This story shows us how God provides, even when we are faithless. And just like when we studied Adam and Eve, we see how God uses a sinner to do amazing things. Abraham becomes the father of many nations.

Character Study #1: Adam and Eve

So, I am rereading the Bible and while doing so, I'm using a different perspective. This time, I am really focusing on the characters. I wrote a post on my personal blog about how God uses people, you can read it here. God uses weak people to do great things. So I have decided that I am going to post character studies about some of the most fascinating people in the Bible, discuss their strengths, weaknesses, how God used them, and how we can relate to their stories today.

What better place to start than right at the beginning?

The first humans. A story you've probably read and heard a dozen times. Adam was the first man, made in God's image. God decided it wasn't good for him to be alone, so he created Eve, a helper.

Before God created Eve, He gave Adam some very important instructions. Instructions that would shape history:

Genesis 2:16-17 God commanded the Man, "You can eat from any tree in the garden, except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don't eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you're dead."

We all know what happens next. The devil uses a clever disguise to tempt both Eve and Adam to eat from the forbidden tree. The devil knows exactly what we want and he uses that against us to tempt us and lead us astray from God. In this case, what Adam and Eve craved was power. How absolutely human this is! People still crave God's power and knowledge today and this impossible desire still leads humans to sin in our generation!

Adam blamed Eve and Eve blames the devil. Also, a very human characteristic. Point the finger at someone else rather than accept the fact that you are the one who sinned.

Genesis 3:

12The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it."God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"

13"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Through the years, a LOT of blame has been put on Eve for the situation. While yes, she did eat from the tree first, Adam did not try to stop her. In fact, he couldn't resist the temptation either, and he at from it as well. Both characters are to blame for the consequences that we still face today.

Genesis 3:16 He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you."

17-19 He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, 'Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."

So, what do we learn from this story? It demonstrates the free will that humans have. We are given choices and a brain that helps us to make these choices. But we must be able to obey God, or accept the consequences that go along with disobeying God. We are faced with temptations on a daily basis. How we handle these temptations may not affect mankind as much as the "first sin", but it will still affect YOUR life, and possibly those around you. God gives us a guideline to live by in His word, and when we go against these things, we are sinning. How do we handle the decisions WE face?

The story ends well, because ultimately, Adam and Eve DO fulfill God's purpose. They reproduce which leads to the start of the human race.

God used two sinners to begin the human race. He can use low, mistake-making people to do great things and in the end, serve a pretty big purpose!

Singleness

All the single ladies (and men), this one is for you.

Have you ever felt alone in a world full of married couples and fiances?  I've certainly been in those shoes before. And those shoes aren't comfortable. Some say they are called by God to be single, and that can be  true! God does call some people to lead single lives. The apostle Paul, for example, shares some insight into his lifelong singleness:

31Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.

32I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. 33But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. 34His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband. (1 Corinthians 7:31-34 NLT)

Paul shares that it is actually a blessing to be single. Still unsure how being alone can be joyful? Well, if we are Christians, we aren't alone. We have a gracious and loving Father who knows us better than we know ourselves! He created us. He knew the story line of our life before we even began playing our role.

16You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed. (Psalm 139:16)

And He knows what is best for us. But these verses don't imply that God has called all of us to be single.  I don't believe God just ignores a true desire for companionship. We all know He created Eve for Adam, so Adam would no longer be lonely. But that doesn't mean while we are single, we should be whining about our loneliness, just waiting for God to drop our future spouse from heaven (complete with an angelic chorus and glowing engagement ring.)

Now is a golden opportunity in our lives. We should spend this time focusing our time and energy on serving and pleasing God, while we don't have the pressure of pleasing a mate. We should be utilizing this time to become the best servants of God that we can be! I truly believe that if we live for God, He will make good on the promise that He will bless us.

So even in these times of loneliness, let us not forget to Whom we belong:

19So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 NLT)

We are never alone if we belong to God. The relationship we share with Him is more important than any earthly relationship we can build. What can you be pouring your love and energy into right now, while waiting for the one God has planned for you? Maybe you need to start reading your Bible or praying. Maybe you already do those things, but need to start serving. Serving can be as simple as sending an elder a card or buying a stranger's lunch. Let us single folk make a pact to work on our relationship with God before we go on a search for "a soul mate".

Welcome!

Hey guys,
This is my first post. This is just an introduction to my new blog, which is going to be hopefully an encouragement to someone! I've felt burdened for a while to share my faith with others, and I think this will be an outlet for me to do so. I don't know how often I will post, but I have big plans. In the future I'd like to post devotionals, do studies of Bible characters, and talk about all kinds of faith related topics. I hope you guys will stick around and certainly tell me if you have any ideas or any topics you'd like to discuss!
As always, thanks for reading!