The Old Testament is a great tool to show us who we are without Jesus.

It is not about us being able to watch the mistakes and judge them, it is about us being able to read it as a mirror.

This is who we are without our gospel.

This is who we are without Jesus capturing our destiny.

It is who we are when we wake up and begin to walk in a different direction than where God is taking us.

Our beautiful country is example of that today.  When you begin to pile days and weeks and even years of walking the other direction from God, things erode very quickly.

Jonah is a great read to remind of us.

Jonah 1 1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

In asking Jonah to minister to the city of Nineveh, God was asking the impossible.  These people were barbarians.  They were murderers.  They HATED God.  And there is a good chance that they had sinned greatly against Jonah.  And, WHY?  He was a worker for God.  He was doing what God had called him to do with great obedience.  Why would God call him to go give a gift to the very people who had, quite frankly, spit in his face?

Even as I write this paragraph, my heart begins to side with Jonah.  “Yes, Jonah.  This is not your job.  Go the other way.”  And this is exactly what he does.

The miracle in this story has nothing to do with a very large fish (in my mind, an ENORMOUS great white) fully ingesting him.

The miracle is what happens to an entire city of barbarian God-haters.

The second miracle is the one that happens in Jonah’s heart.

(Read Jonah–Great book!)

But let’s make this work for 2 minutes for you today.

Here goes.  Here is some truth that I am grabbing from this:

TRUTH 1-  God’s mercy is the ONLY thing that will save us, and it doesn’t work if you don’t use it.

TRUTH 2-  We don’t get justice for them and mercy for us.

TRUTH 3-  Free Will gives us a choice.  With choice, we get sin.  And with sin, we have broken the world.  We destroy perfect systems, we destroy governments, and we destroy families.  Free will allows for terrible decisions.

TRUTH 4-  ONLY Jesus redeems that brokenness.  ONLY Jesus.

Our God is not underplaying Justice.  And He isn’t giving out too much Mercy.  

After all, if he played out the appropriate amount of justice, we would be sitting ducks for Hell.  

And …  if He gave out too much mercy, we would be living in Eutopia—continuing in our path to destruction without even being able to say or see evil or all the things that are going on.

And so I finish with this:

TRUTH 5-  We are accountable.  We will take a last breath.  And we will stand before the King.  It is the reality for all of us and all those who we love.  And denial won’t make this go away.

As I sit here and ponder what goes on today, I simply marvel at how much we need Him.

Without Him, we have no hope.

I accept His gospel.

I accept His mercy, and His grace, and His correction.

I accept Him.

Lord, help me make this work.

You, and You alone, are my only hope.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J