Congrats John! This is John's second Helmet of the 2012/13 Btln Season! At the end it was Austin and John battling it out for the Helmet. Austin is tied for first in the race for Winston so he had everyone gunning for him! Austin fought hard but in the end it was John pulling out the big win!
We haven't played Handball in over a month so it was time to pull out the nets! This week the teams were totally uneven. Not sure what happened but Ben's team had most of the big guys. My team was down 5-0 early and we were chasing the rest of the game. We restarted the game and decided to play to five. Ben's team worked us over again winning 5-1!
This week in Bible study we looked at Jonah in our continuing series "The History of the World" or "His Story". (The book of Jonah)
The story of Jonah actually took place before Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So we are doing things a little out of order but no big deal right?
Jonah 1:1-6 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 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. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Jonah disobeys God and is found sleeping! You would think that his conscience would be bothering him. And how could a prophet of God think that he could run away from God? Where was Jonah going to go to get away from God? Jonah should have listened to David!
Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
Jonah 1:11-12 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Isn't it sad that Jonah would rather die than deliver God's message to the people of Nineveh? If Jonah had prayed to God and asked for forgiveness I am sure that God would have calmed the sea but Jonah was not ready to listen to God!
Jonah 2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
Jonah 2:7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
Why do we wait until we have hit rock bottom before we turn to God? Jonah's life was ebbing away before he called to God for help!
Jonah 3:1-5 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah should have been excited to see that God was going to save the people of Nineveh but instead he was disappointed!
Jonah 4:1-2 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
We need to have compassion for those that haven't accepted Jesus! It took Jonah a long time to figure this out! The Lord God is a God of second chances for the unsaved and for the saved! How many mistakes did Jonah make and God was still willing to use him! We can all be thankful that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love!
THE CAPTAIN
Jonah 4:1-2 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
We need to have compassion for those that haven't accepted Jesus! It took Jonah a long time to figure this out! The Lord God is a God of second chances for the unsaved and for the saved! How many mistakes did Jonah make and God was still willing to use him! We can all be thankful that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love!
THE CAPTAIN
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