Friday 7/20/12 Fish Stories 5

Jonah 2:10 - And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.  (NIV)

Please stop right now and pray.  There has been a shooting in a theater in Colorado.  Early reports, 14 dead and 50 in the hospital.  This is in America, brothers and sisters, not some other country.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters.  It is Friday and a nice, cooler day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole.  Friday and the day we pray for all those who work for Jesus in the fields of harvest.  All of them, and YOU should be on that prayer list ... Also pray for those listed above, including the shooter.

Fish Stories (Day Five).  We have been talking this week about Jonah, and how he did love the Lord but ran from God when he did not like an assignment from God.  We know Jonah took a ship and was sleeping in an area under the main deck when the seas started to rage.  We also know that all the sailors started to pray to their own gods, meaning then many of the sailors had different things or gods they prayed to.  Then they placed blame on Jonah, who said, yes, he caused this as God was upset with him for running from Him.  We know that Jonah told the sailors to toss him overboard and the seas would calm down.  Then this strange thing happened, the sailors became saved, saved from the raging sea, and their souls saved, as they started praying to God.  The seas became calm, God placed Jonah inside the big fish for three days and three nights to protect him, and then we learn today that God commanded the fish, and up came Jonah.

Now if this accounting from our Old Testament does not tell you that God is in charge of everything, I want you to let us know so we all can pray for you.  God made the raging seas, and then calmed them.  Did He do it just to shake up Jonah and bring him back from his walk-about, his walk from the Lord?  No, He did this to bring the sailors to Him and to show all who in the future would read about this event and know that God is in the driver's seat, and although God gave us free will, He still does run the place.  Once again, I want to call your attention to two scriptures that I use often ...

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  (NIV)

John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and walked among us.  For we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (NIV)

Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (NIV)

So we know that God, God in the beginning, our Lord God who was with Jonah then is Jesus who is with us this day.  Does God still do things that set us in our place from time to time when we drift from Him or upset Him?  Yes, He does, and I know that for a fact.  What about you, if you were saved, born again, and then drifted from God, what happened to you to bring you back to Jesus?

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for giving us a way to heaven, a way home to be where You are, and thanks for forgiving us when we mess up.  And Jesus, thanks for dying for me, so that I may be set free of my sins.  Lord Jesus, You did Your part, and now it is up to us ... Lord, help us to repent from sin and walk in Your light.  May we honor You this day for giving us another day, by living to please You.  Please be with the people involved in the shooting and heal those who were injured, and Lord, heal the families who lost loved ones.  And Lord, help me understand why there were so many "underage" children in a midnight showing of a violent movie.  And please, Father, send Jesus back to get us, and until then help us to keep in touch with Jesus and tell others the true love story of Jesus ... In Jesus' Name, I pray ... Amen.

Let me close today by asking you this.  If today, a gunman were to start shooting in a place where you were and you were hit and killed, would you go Heaven or Hell?  Think about that, and go forth sharing your blessings.  Next week, yes, some more fish stories from the Bible.  Love ya, Pastor Dan.