December 4, 2007

Good Tuesday morning, and a cloudy one it appears from my window. Today I read the terrifying, highlighting, and wonderful tale of Jonah. That story is not long, but it highlights our fear. We are all at one time or other just like Jonah, facing a calling from God to run a particular course... and just plain terrified. The tale tells of the wonder of serving God on the course that He has set before us. Jonah watched as a city, the entire city, of 120,000 repented, as the Bible says, "from the least to the greatest" all repented and were saved from certain destruction. If God can save the proud Assyrians of Nineveh, don't you think that a message of salvation can save the proud citizens of the United States? What a wonderful sign of the end it would be to have such a proud and destructive nation repent from the least to the greatest.

What about the course that God has set before us? How will we recognize it? Did God literally speak out load to Jonah? You might realize already that we do not know that Jonah "heard" God's voice through his own ears, God might have spoken as a voice in Jonah's mind. The Bible states plainly that people conversed with God as you or I would with each other, or they heard His voice in thunder, or as a still, small whisper, or even as an announcement from Heaven as they did when Jesus was baptized by John. What is going on that we don't hear God that way any more? The one great separating event occurred at Pentecost. Jesus had returned to Heaven and He sent the Holy Spirit out into hearts and minds. From that moment we are baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit of God. We hear the Lord in our thoughts and in the feelings of our heart. We hear the Lord in the ministry of those called to pastor churches. We hear the Lord in devotional messages, even in the writing of them! I am glad today for the healing, guiding, and saving Spirit of God in my life. Praise God the Father!

As the dark clouds turn to beautiful yellow and pink in the dawn, so I am reminded that the dark clouds of this world will soon give way to the Son of God!

Bucky