Repentace // Jonah's BIG problem

Repentance isn't a word we use much on a day to day basis. As Christians, repentance is when someone turns from the bad they are doing to try and live a life worthy of Christ.

If you aren't familliar with the story of Jonah it can be sumed up like this:

1) Jonah has a word from God telling him to go to Nineveh to save the people there.

2) Jonah disobeys God and gets on a ship that heads in a completely different direction to Tarshish.

3) Not long after boarding a boat to Tarshish God sends a big storm, which causes the men on the boat to throw Jonah overboard, only for a big fish to find him and swallow him.

4) Three days and three nights later Jonah repents and God commands the fish to spit Jonah back up.

5) Jonah gets another word from God to go to Nineveh and this time he actually goes.

6) When he gets there Nineveh repents and Jonah is quite upset about this.

And if thats not detailed enough for you feel free to read the book of Jonah here (It's only 4 chapters so it wont take long).

For now we'll concentrate on chapter 2 of Jonah.

This chapter is where we read Jonah's repentance to God. Instead of puting in a link for you to read it here it is:

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called to help, 

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,

and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me.

Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, 

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around me head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought me up form the pit.

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple.

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good. 

I will say, 'Salvation come from the Lord.'"

You might think thats a long prayer, but Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights. This was the last thing Jonah did when he was inside the fish (as in the next verse God commands the fish to vomit Jonah up) and it takes about 30 secends to read!

So one thing we can be absolutely sure of about Jonah's repentance is that it came slow.

The bible doesn't say what else Jonah got up to in the fish but I'm pretty sure he would have been trying to get out without God's help. But that isn't what saved him, prayer and repentance is what saved Jonah.

Jonah's repentance prayer, I've found, is split into three parts:

Part one is Jonah's recognition. This is where Jonah realises what he's done is wrong. This is verses 2-7:

"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called to help, 

and you listened to my cry.

You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas,

and the currents swirled about me;

all your waves and breakers swept over me.

Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

The engulfing waters threatened me, 

the deep surrounded me;

seaweed was wrapped around me head.

To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

the earth beneath barred me in forever.

But you, Lord my God, brought me up form the pit.

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,

and my prayer rose to you,

to your holy temple.

Next came Jonah's actual repentance in verses 8 - 9:

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.

But I, with shouts of grateful praise,

will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will make good. 

I will say, 'Salvation come from the Lord.'"

And finally came Jonah's redemption in verse 10:

"And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomitied Jonah onto dry land."

Recognition, Repentance and Redemption.

After reading the book of Jonah I've come to realise that Jonah was never actually in any real danger. Not when he was on a boat heading to be shipwrecked, not when he was thrown into the stormy sea, not even when he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish! This is because Jonah was protected by God, and as shown in the book of Jonah, God didn't let Jonah come to any harm.

The only time that Jonah was in any real danger was when Jonah thought he could do things better his own way.
And that is still the same today, for all of us.

Proverbs 3:5 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

You can also find us at all of these other places!

Twitter

Tumblr

Google+

Jesus // The Boy in The Temple

The book of Luke is the only place in the Gospels where we get a little glimpse of what the early years of Jesus' life were like. Everywhere else we don't see what Jesus gets up to for the first 30 years of his life.
In Luke 2:41-52 Mary, Joseph and a twelve year old Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover feast and then, when it finishes, Mary and Joseph leave without Jesus - because they think he is with them - and they take three whole days to find him again.

I assume that anyone who reads this will have been 12 years old, is twelve years old, or will be twelve years old very soon. What were you doing at the age of 12?
Playing computer games?
Watching TV?
Playing with your friends?
Waiting to finally become a teenager?

I think I can safely say probably no other twelve year old has spent 3 whole days straight at their nearest temple or chapel listening and asking questions about God.

Something that really struck me when I read this the first time was that Jesus had to learn. These verses don't say that Jesus was teaching the other people, he was being taught. He even asked them questions!

When Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus sitting in the temple learning his mother says "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." To this Jesus replies "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my Fathers House?"

Notice that Jesus is quick to make a comparison between his earthly and Heavenly Father. Mary says "Your Father and I have been searching for you" and Jesus says "Didn't you know I'd be in my Fathers house?"
From an early age Jesus realised, just like we should realise, he had an earthly and Heavenly Father.

Another thing that struck me was that these are the first words of Jesus ever recorded in the Gospels.

"Why were you searching for me?"

Why are you here? Why are you reading this blog post? Why are you searching for Jesus?

Are you searching for Jesus? 

The last thing I'll mention, and it's something that when I worked out I just sat back in awe. Everything in the Bible points in some way to Jesus and the cross and Resurrection. 

It took Mary and Joseph 3 days to find Jesus. Jesus, as a twelve year old boy was lost for 3 days. 33 years later Jesus died and 3 days after that he came back to life!

Jesus saw the importance of asking questions about God and his faith from the very young age of 12, if you have any questions you would like to ask us please feel free to email us at christianunion.blog@gmail.com. 

Also, we aren't just on Blogger anymore! 

Twitter

Tumblr

Google+

He is alive!

So we've learnt about His life, we've learnt about the ultimate sacrifice He made because He loves us.

Now, we're going to learn about his Resurrection.

After he died, Jesus was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb, with a huge stone rolled across to seal it. In Matthew, we're told that Pilate had guards placed in front of the tomb too - it was a super secure tomb.

So at this point, Jesus had been dead for 3 days. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb fully expecting to find Jesus - and didn't! She ran straight to Simon Peter and he went to the tomb and saw the linen that Jesus was wrapped in, but no Jesus.

Can you imagine how freaked out they would've been?! What would you have done in that situation?

In John 20:11-18 we see what Mary did.

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying?' 

  'They have taken my Lord away' she said, 'and I don't know where they have put him.' At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. 

  He asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.' 

  Jesus said to her, 'Mary'. 

She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic,'Rabboni!' (which means 'Teacher'). 

  Jesus said, 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my  brothers and tell them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."'

  Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: 'I have seen the Lord!' and she told them that he had said these things to her. 

To Jesus, death was just a nap! Now there's something I want to draw your attention to here (apart from the obvious Resurrection!); 

The disciples forgot what Jesus had told them in scripture (John 20:9). Jesus had already told them that in three days he would rise again. 

Here's what I'm trying to say: Jesus is alive, and he's alive for us. We should never forget his teachings. 

If you guys have got any questions about ANYTHING you can contact us at: christianunion.blog@gmail.com

Twitter
Tumblr
Google+