A true prophet of the Lord is someone who is chosen by the Lord. He/She is someone who speaks what only the Lord tells them. They do not preach falsehood like the false prophets. The men of God faced ridicule from the Romans and everyone else who denied God and Jesus, and they were generally not treated well. The prophets were known as kind of "buzzkills", so this caused them to be hated by many citizens and kings, because they were being judged. Knowing Satan and his temptations to God followers, I cant imagine what kind of temptation Satan brought to the minds of the Prophets. Satan's goal is to get us to turn away from God and follow sinful things. Also all the questions and ridicule the prophets received, how easy would it be for them to give in to the ridicule? They did not give in, they kept their eyes on God. Their job would be ridiculously hard because of the temptations, and risk they faced in preaching the gospel.
Verse 3:4 of Jonah- Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” That verse represents the story of Jonah, and what he prophesied. Jonah went to Nineveh to try to get the people to repent. I think this applies to todays culture because of how we all know what were doing is wrong, but we dont repent. Nineveh repents and starts to follow God and he saves them. When are we going to repent? I feel as if America would not be capable of repenting. So many people dispise God in our country. Why would they listen to a prophet? Or why would they listen to any follower of christ? Thats why I feel as if all christians in the world are viewed as our own little family or "city". I just feel it would be so hard to get an entire country or city to repent. This brings up the thought of, when is our time? When is God going to take us out?
I would say the whole kings unit has kind of been on repentance. God really tries to drive home the point that, we need to repent! I am a part of society and culture too. I have things I need to repent from too. I think sometimes as Christians we label others, especially non believers. I think its important to realize that sometimes, we are no better than any other sinners. We need to all repent as a whole family of God.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Summary: Jonah 1- God calls Jonah to the capital of Assyria, Nineva. Jonah does not obey, and he flees to tarsish, away from God. God sends a great wind and tears the boat apart, and all the men are calling to their Gods, the captain comes down to awake Jonah and asks him to ask his God for help so that they may not perish. They then throw lots and one lands on Jonah and he is asked who he is, and when jonah tells them they know he is fleeing from the prescense of God. Jonah tells them to throw him over board because he does not want them to perish because of him. As soon as he is thrown overboard, the wind and rain stops. They all fear the Lord and offer him sacrifices.
Jonah 2- Jonah is swallowed by a fish and in the belly of the fish, Jonah prays a prayer of sorrow and asks for forgiveness and the fish spits him up onto dry land.
Jonah3- God calls upon Jonah a second time and Jonah goes to Ninevah and says that they will perish in 48 days. They all repent and fasted and when the word got to the king he removed his robe and layed in ashes. he issued a decree saying to not eat or drink. The whole capitol repented. When God saw this, being the awesome God he is, he did not punish them.
Jonah 4- Jonah tells God of his anger, and how he did not want the Assyrians to be saved. He went out of the city and layed under a tree and God grew a plant over his head so he is comforted. The next day God sends a worm to eat the plant so it is withered. Jonah asks to die and God says no because he pities Ninevah.
Verse: Jonah 3:10 " When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." I liked this verse because it shows Gods great mercy, even when the Assyrians were so sinful. It shows that it does not matter how deep of a hole you have dug yourself into, You can still receive Gods salvation.
Application: I would say this applied to me because sometimes the things that he requests of me, I have a really hard time doing. Lately I feel he has been telling me to stop obsessing over my truck, and getting my license.. sounds lame I know. I have spent so much time and money on it. There have been multiple sermons Ive heard in the past two months to not obsess over worldy things. Then just the other day I found out I cant take my test to get my license until 2 weeks after my birthday. Which at first I was mad, but then I thought its just God telling me that I need to focus on other things. Id say this applies to when Jonah just kind of flees from what God asked him to do.
Jonah 2- Jonah is swallowed by a fish and in the belly of the fish, Jonah prays a prayer of sorrow and asks for forgiveness and the fish spits him up onto dry land.
Jonah3- God calls upon Jonah a second time and Jonah goes to Ninevah and says that they will perish in 48 days. They all repent and fasted and when the word got to the king he removed his robe and layed in ashes. he issued a decree saying to not eat or drink. The whole capitol repented. When God saw this, being the awesome God he is, he did not punish them.
Jonah 4- Jonah tells God of his anger, and how he did not want the Assyrians to be saved. He went out of the city and layed under a tree and God grew a plant over his head so he is comforted. The next day God sends a worm to eat the plant so it is withered. Jonah asks to die and God says no because he pities Ninevah.
Verse: Jonah 3:10 " When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." I liked this verse because it shows Gods great mercy, even when the Assyrians were so sinful. It shows that it does not matter how deep of a hole you have dug yourself into, You can still receive Gods salvation.
Application: I would say this applied to me because sometimes the things that he requests of me, I have a really hard time doing. Lately I feel he has been telling me to stop obsessing over my truck, and getting my license.. sounds lame I know. I have spent so much time and money on it. There have been multiple sermons Ive heard in the past two months to not obsess over worldy things. Then just the other day I found out I cant take my test to get my license until 2 weeks after my birthday. Which at first I was mad, but then I thought its just God telling me that I need to focus on other things. Id say this applies to when Jonah just kind of flees from what God asked him to do.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Summary
Hosea 1- The Lord spoke to Hosea and told him to bore a child with a woman and name is Jezreel and the house of Jehu is to be cursed. She then bore another son and his name was to mean "not my people" because if their God is not God, they're not his people.
Hosea 2- God punished Israel for their unfaithfulness. God has mercy on them and says they will now worship him and not Baal.
Hosea 3- Hosea redeems his wife from adultresness and the children of Israel now will worship the Lord their God.
Hosea 4- The Lord accuses Israel and speaks of the murder and swearing and lying happening in Israel. The Lord takes their sin and makes them into negatives, so they will not find pleasure in their sin any longer.
Hosea 5- God prepares to punish Israel for their sin. He speaks of all the people who will be punished and how they will be punished.
Hosea 6- In the beginning of the chapter it appears that Israel appears that they are going to repent. Then they do not and they start into they're sinful ways again and do not follow the ways of the Lord.
Hosea 14- The people of Isreal finally confess their sin to God, and God wants them to return to him and worship him. They offer sacrifices and Gods anger has turned from them.
Verse: HOSEA 14:4- "I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them."
Hosea 1- The Lord spoke to Hosea and told him to bore a child with a woman and name is Jezreel and the house of Jehu is to be cursed. She then bore another son and his name was to mean "not my people" because if their God is not God, they're not his people.
Hosea 2- God punished Israel for their unfaithfulness. God has mercy on them and says they will now worship him and not Baal.
Hosea 3- Hosea redeems his wife from adultresness and the children of Israel now will worship the Lord their God.
Hosea 4- The Lord accuses Israel and speaks of the murder and swearing and lying happening in Israel. The Lord takes their sin and makes them into negatives, so they will not find pleasure in their sin any longer.
Hosea 5- God prepares to punish Israel for their sin. He speaks of all the people who will be punished and how they will be punished.
Hosea 6- In the beginning of the chapter it appears that Israel appears that they are going to repent. Then they do not and they start into they're sinful ways again and do not follow the ways of the Lord.
Hosea 14- The people of Isreal finally confess their sin to God, and God wants them to return to him and worship him. They offer sacrifices and Gods anger has turned from them.
Verse: HOSEA 14:4- "I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them."
This verse stuck out to me because of how amazing Gods grace is, how Israel betrayed him so many times, but God does not give up on them, and he even forgives them.
Application: Id say this applies to not as much specifically to me, but what came to my mind is society. Of course I am part of society and I am no better than other sinners. It came to my mind specially when God said "The stealing.. Swearing.. Murdering.. adultery.." that was happening in Israel was causing him to punish them. This made me think, when are we going to be punished? I do not think it will just be the atheists and other religions that will get punished, I feel a lot of Christians will be too. Honestly I have to admit I love this world that God has made me and I love some worldly things, social media, friends, cars etc. I would say Ive given into this world no more than athiests have. I dont party or anything bad, but I feel that if someone saw me in a crowd, they wouldnt say "He is a Christian". This just makes me feel as if our situation is similar to Israel, we know were sinning, but sometimes we dont repent. Thats what came to my mind reading these chapters.
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