A Lesson In Compassion
Self-centredness and self-entitlement are ugly things. Like Jonah, we can easily care more about our own comfort than the salvation of others. We need God to give us his heart for the world.
Self-centredness and self-entitlement are ugly things. Like Jonah, we can easily care more about our own comfort than the salvation of others. We need God to give us his heart for the world.
After the whole city of Nineveh repented, you would have thought Jonah would have been ecstatic – it was an incredibly successful street outreach!
However, his self-righteous prayer shows just how much he still had to learn about the mercy of God. We may be the means of God’s mission, but we must also heed the message for ourselves.
Despite our disobedience, God refuses to give up on us – his mission is far too important. Through Jonah, God used a message of judgement to change a whole city. As we are obedient to God’s missional call, we may well be surprised by how people respond.
In the middle of a crisis, most people will try praying. It took being swallowed by a fish for Jonah to finally pray to his God and to remember salvation is found in him alone.
Like Jonah, we often try in vain to run from God’s call to mission, but he will use any means necessary to get our attention and to expose our fears and prejudices: sometimes storms, sometimes the very people we are trying so hard to avoid.
A celebration of salvation. We joined together and heard from different voices sharing what God has done in their lives, and we remembered the significance of the resurrection for us all.
We all want peace: world peace and personal peace. But do we know what will bring us the peace we all seek?
In his final week on earth, Jesus entered a city that was in turmoil, but they didn’t recognise him as the one who offered the only thing we all really need – peace with God.
This is the word that earliest Christians would repeat to one another – a cry that Jesus would come quickly. That history would be resolved. That all would be well. It’s a good prayer!
Christianity is a realistic religion. It doesn’t avoid the truth that life can involve pain. Physical pain, relational pain, mental pain. But all this pain won’t get the last word. The tears may last a while, but there’s joy coming.
The world has too many evil regimes. Too many people are oppressed. Too many suffer at the hands of the powerful. How will this be brought to an end by a rider on a white horse?
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Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance
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