Thoughts from a Friend on Jonah...

Jonah gets a bad rap... but if we really look into his story, and see how and why God chose Jonah for this journey, it begins to make much more, much deeper sense than the flannel graph Bible story you heard in 2nd grade.  Thoughts from a good friend of mine...

God knows what he is doing in calling you to what he wants for you. Sometimes, you might balk at it, you might reason your way out of it, you might push against it, you might run from what you think God is asking of you. But what I see in Jonah, is that beneath his resistance, behind his fleeing, hidden away in his soul there is something there that God already knew about . . . and it comes to the surface in a crisis moment. The kind of person Jonah is comes into view when the pressure is the greatest . . . and God already knew what kind of man Jonah was. In spite of Jonah’s initial fleeing, he cannot deny living as the man God knows him to be.

In other words, the call that God gives to Jonah is one way that God is going to put on display the kind of man that Jonah really is . . . and we see that here, in the storm, on the sea, with the pagan sailors, as Jonah offers to sacrifice his life so that they can live.

And that drives me to wonder: What is it that God knows about me that he intends to put on display for his glory through the challenges and the call he extends to me? What will become evident in us as the pressure rises?

Tell of His Goodness...

this will be, as many previous posts, a random and disjointed recollection of the things on my mind and in my life (to be literal, in my journal) from recent days... I basically learned so much in one week at Ballet Mag in Mississippi that I'll have to expound on it later, but I want to get down all the nuggets that were thrown at me in one post - both to finally put something out there, and to remember them, soak them in again, let them change the way I think once again...


Before I left...
   Just a little something to get this started: God, the ultimate Healer, completely healed my grandpa of three different kinds of Leukemia.  At Christmas this past year, he was looking at a month more of life, and at present, a bone marrow scan shows no sign of cancer and full remission status.  Actual. miracle.


Day 1...  after hearing of literal miracles and the way the Lord worked through Omega in Europe
   Already, I'm encouraged, not just by the work you do through this ministry, but by what you're showing to me about yourself...
You keep your promises.  You hear (and answer) our prayers.  You are not bound by practicality or logistics.  You know and love each one, each frame.  You are the same God in Stuttgart, Germany as you are in Jackson, Mississippi and Belgorod, Russia.  You are creative... you created everything... who am I to say something of your plan doesn't make sense?  You have purpose in every part - you do not waste our time - every piece fits.  You love, and care, and have concern for me, even in my weakness, my doubt, my fear.


O, house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD.  Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.  Jeremiah 18:6


Day 2...  what I would have hi-lighted were I not reading /Beyond Opinion, Ravi Zacharias/ during our chill time at Barnes and Noble (as in, the book wasn't mine...).
   Credo quia absurdum.  I believe because it is absurd.
"... the Christian faith has not so much failed to reflect reality, as that it never attempted to so do in the first place."  Michael Ramsden
Weltanschaung - a word that means "conception of life", I'm assuming in German


... the end goal is not any goal of mine - no desire or dream or objective smaller than the glorious day of His return.   It's all about that Glorious Day!


First Bible Study with the girls...
-Eternal Perspective
-How many times have you (in your own life) seen the Red Sea parted?  How could you forget His goodness?
-... for in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell... Wow.
-The word of the Lord is flawless. (Rev. 12:11)
-If we're not completely lost searching for Him, we have no idea who we're supposed to reflect.
-Tolerance is the virtue of those who believe in nothing.
-If truth were all inclusive, nothing would be false.
-Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  - Jesus


Day 3...


I want to know you. 
When I'm reading your word.  When I'm in Bible study.  When I'm seeking you in prayer.  When I'm dancing.  I want to truly know you.  


I don't receive because I don't ask... and furthermore, my fear of asking for specific things, praying for more than just your generic 'will to be done' is really simply just a lack of faith under the guise of submissive prayer.  Yikes.


It doesn't take much - when you said a mustard seed, you meant it.


Day 4... A note from Jessica
   Trust Him.  Let go - don't hold back.  Cast your cares upon Him - haul, chuck, throw far away - and don't pick them back up. - Jessica
   Do I want what God wants, or do I want what God wants no matter the cost?  Until the will and affections are brought under the authority of Christ, we have not begun to understand, let alone to accept, His lordship.  - Elisabeth Elliot
   Do not let fear dissipate your energy.  Instead, invest your energy into trusting me, singing your song.  - Jesus Calling


While watching Alpha perform 
The Arrival... 
   Every time you feel me stirring something inside of you, you try to start figuring out all the plans for Me... I am God.  I love you, and I can do ANYthing.  Let ME do the planning for you.  Jump into my arms.  Don't retreat, staying back in the studio trying to analyze how the jump and catch works.  I will catch you!  Don't be the little girl at the pool, running in attempt to the side, yet constantly retreating out of fear... you keep wanting to know which direction to start planning, but I want you to just learn to wait for my plans AS I GIVE THEM.  Each step, each breath.  You already have all you need to know.  I can do ANYthing.  
Ruth...
Like the wheat, there is purpose in growth, in me making you ripe for harvest.
Let my Holy Spirit intertwine around your heart and guide you, as surely and as faithfully as this illustration in front of you.
These dancers...
By all common understanding, their abilities are miraculous.  Kathy is 55 stinkin years old, dancing with no limitations.  Hannah's scoliosis should be so severe that she'd have trouble with regular exercise.  Christina had an organ appear out of nowhere in her body, and an impending case of hip dysplasia cured.  Ashley started ballet at age 17.  John was a full on engineer before he quit his job to do this.  You are God.  You delight in using the weak to shame the strong, what is foolish in the world to shame the strong.  (I Cor. 1:27)


Day 5... John Vandervelde's wisdom


Deeds... from the heart-->outward, not the skin<--inward.  (If the motivation is right, then everything on the outside is a beautiful, pleasing aroma... if the motivation is wrong, the exact same offering is a stench that the Lord hates.)


Rewards to lay at the feet of Jesus in heaven - actually tangibly real, and subsequent to salvation... this is where motivation for godly living comes -->  faithfully completing the work that God has called us to do.  (I Corinthians 3:9-17)   We're created *apart from works* in order to do good works, that we could not do when we were not saved.  Everything we do now has *another* purpose.  


I'm an evangelist, carefully disguised as a Walmart worker.


The people in life who know why are the bosses of the people who know how.


Do not exclude the word sin.  "He who rebukes a man will, in the end, have more favor than he who has a flattering tongue."  Proverbs 28:23


Christians in the secular environment, with responsibility, power, honor, and respect:  Daniel (2nd in command of 3 dynasties), Joseph (2nd in command of Egypt)


Day 6...


"How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?  Is the enemy to revile your name forever?  Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?  Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!  Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."  Psalm 74:10-12


Merry's testimony... 
-danger: applying the side effects of dance to your spiritual life (perfection, people-pleasing, idolatry)   
-A testimony is not "all the bad things you did, and then: Jesus"... a testimony is: Jesus.


Miss Brenda...
[Nehemiah] [learn what it means to PONDER] [do not be distracted - stay on course] [don't get in the pit and wrangle with 'em]


All that was needed for life, GOD provided.


** It's not just about saving people - it's about their lives going on to bring glory to God after that.  (Whoa... )


Day 7


Nominal Christianity: a dangerous religion  [nominal: existing in name only]


On wisdom:
   "The unfolding of your words gives light, it imparts understanding to the simple.  I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.  Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.  Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me."  Psalm 119:130-133


A reminder, courtesy of Erin Beaver:
   ...You are the temple of the HOLY SPIRIT.  
   ...He speaks to His sheep.


   "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."  Hebrews 10:14


Day 8...


   "I get into some wild spots at times, but nothing I do is difficult.  It's not difficult because I'm driven by love.  I am compelled and motivated by love.  It is my passion for Jesus that causes me to pour compassion into others.  That's the gospel - a passion that births compassion.  All fruitfulness flows from intimacy unto a harvest... He is looking for servant-lovers who know who they are and are not afraid - so full of love that fear is not a word in their vocabulary.  Radical lovers of God move in radical compassion."  -Heidi Baker


Like I said... eclectic, long, and all over the place.  But kindof like a mosaic of the truths that He's been teaching me lately.