Morning Musing: Jonah‬ ‭3:5-6‬‬

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“Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth — from the greatest of them to the least. When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever witnessed something incredible happening? I’m not worried about exactly what it was right now, but have you seen it with your own eyes? Better yet, have you ever seen something incredible happen that was the direct result of something you had done? What happened right here in the city of Nineveh was incredible. But, while it may look like it, it had a lot less to do with what Jonah did than you might think.

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Celebrate Sunday

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Yesterday was Celebrate Sunday in the life of First Baptist Oakboro. We spent the morning celebrating all the great work our faithful God has done in our midst for the past year. It was a fun morning to say the least. This wasn’t about being excited about what we’ve got going on, but rather about delighting in what our God has done and prayerfully seeking to abide in Him so that He can do even more in the year ahead. This all being the case, I didn’t have a regular sermon to deliver, but because I think it’s worthwhile sharing what God has done and because I’m really proud of what He’s doing here, this is what I said. Thanks for celebrating with us.

A Celebration of Generosity

Isn’t it good to just praise the Lord together, to sing His praises among His people? This kind of stuff moves my heart in a way few other things do. I love this Sunday morning. I look forward to this every single year. There’s just something special about celebrating what God has done. This isn’t about what we’ve done. This isn’t about any particular program, this is about celebrating what God has done and what we are looking forward to Him doing more of as we follow Him into the great future He has for us.

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Morning Musing: Jonah 3:3b-4

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“Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ‘In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

If you google “not my job memes,” you will find some pretty funny images. Most of them are pictures of road striping work where the stripes go right over something in the path that could have been easily moved out of the way. It wasn’t the striper’s job to do it, so he didn’t. My favorite is a picture of a python that has wrapped itself around a terrified-looking young boy’s leg with the National Geographic logo in one corner and in the other corner you can see a National Geographic cameraman crouched and actively taking a picture of the scene rather than helping. Of course, the guy taking a picture of the guy taking the picture wasn’t helping either, so… In any event, what Jonah does here is worthy of a “Not My Job” award. Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: Jonah 3:1-3a

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“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.’ Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the parenting books I read early on in this journey was Have a New Kid by Friday by Kevin Leman. Leman is a good writer and his sense of humor made it a fun read, but there was one idea that has really stuck with me over the years. The principle goes like this: B can’t happen until A does. The idea is that, if you’ve asked your kids to do something you want or need them to do (A), they can’t do whatever it is they might want to do (B) until they’ve accomplished A. We see a bit of this on the display in Jonah’s life right here.

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Morning Musing: Jonah 2:7

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“As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

There’s something about good things happening at the last second that inspires us. Bottom of the ninth home runs in baseball or buzzer beaters in basketball are the most exciting ways for a team to achieve victory. I think there’s a very good reason for this and we see a hint of it right here in Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish.

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