THE Blog
I don't always have enough room in my Instagram posts to write all I want sooo over here I'll be writing
longer articles (but let's be real they won't all be long).
longer articles (but let's be real they won't all be long).
Read: Jonah 4 & Matthew 5:7 Jonah was angry at the Lord's mercy. He completely forgot that it was that SAME mercy that prevented the whale from having him for dinner! Look in the very first verse in this chapter! Verse 1 says "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry." Jonah saw his mission as pointless but we of course know this wasn't the case. I can definitely see and understand Jonah's perspective though, especaiy from the position of getting annoyed when people are abusing the grace of God. But this is NO reason for it to affect our obedience to God's instructions. Jonah was being very dramatic in this chapter...look at verses 3-4, this makes me laugh I mean how could Jonah want to die and request to God to die!! God's grace transcends our human understanding. I really like the way the message bible puts verses 4-11. God is saying to Jonah and to us; don't get angry at what you didn't work for! Jonah didn't look after all the plants and allow them to die! God used this metaphor of the plants to describe the city of Nineveh. He is saying that he wants to see that plant (the city of Nineveh) grow, live, and flourish. Not die. I think this chapter is a real wake up call to 'Christians' who consider other people unworthy of God's grace. Remember that same amazing grace that saved YOU. Anyone can be saved no matter what they have done. Rejoice when people turn to God because it means you have gained another brother or sister in Christ and are helping to fufill the Great Commission. Be careful not to look down from a position of pride. Be careful not to be selfish with your saved status. We all as Christians should desire one another to be saved. God didn't have to explain himself to Jonah, but he did anyways! He wants us to all understand his grace. God is sovereign in any decision He makes.
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Read: Jonah 3, Micah 7:19, James 2:14, & Romans 10:13-14 "Actions speak louder....faith without works is dead." (James 2:14) The people of Ninevah 'believed' in God (v. 5) but that belief just wasn't enough. The KING of the city of Ninevah fasted and used his authority to instruct everyone in the land to fast and call out to God. They humbled themselves before God by physically showing their repentance. Contrary to popular belief God's grace and mercy existed all throughout the Bible, not just the New Testament. Grace is receiving something you don't deserve and mercy is the witholding of what you do deserve! (I talked about this in a recent post) In chapter 3 of Jonah, God's mercy is evident. Your obedience and repentance can save a nation How will they hear without a preacher? How will people hear about God if you do or tell them? How will people hear about God if we don't support our missionaries and evangelists? How will people hear about God and be saved if you don't grow in the faith, obey God, and speak up? See how a city was saved because Jonah FINALLY headed to God's instructions. If he contributed to resist...the blood of this city would be on his hands, he would have been held accountable. The people of Ninevah would have perished for theiri lack of knowledge but thank God that wasn't the case here. Understand the things that God tells us to do, the thing He considers to be our purpose has a greater impact. The purpose isn't just for you! It's for others to benefit from. You accomplishing your purpose is you being a point of provision for someone else in 'need'! You accomplishing your purpose and God-given assignment is allowing someone else to hear God's word and get a chance to be saved! This was exactly the case with Jonah, and it is the same for us. Our obedience to God is so key. If you don't want to obey God for yourself, please at least obey Him for others that will benefit from your obedience. Remember: obedience is key, obedience is key, obedience is key Read: Jonah 2, Psalm 119:71, & John 1:1 Afflictions and storms cause us to be totally dependent on the only ANCHOR that can fight waves- God. I'm sure a lot of you know the song 'Cornerstone' by Hillsong along with many other artists and in one of the lines it says 'my anchor holds within the veil'. This is the hope every one of us as believers has that no matter what, our Anchor being God will hold! Having Faith in the Prayers made During the Storm Jonah had faith that God heard his prayer and delivered him from his situation (you know that one where he was in the whale for 3 days) In verses 1&2 I think Jonah really did believe that God 'actually' delivered his prayers! This is the kind of faith we should have, storm or no storm! We need to believe that God hears our prayers and will answer according to His sovereign will! After all, Jonah did spend 3 days inside a giant fish!!! Most of us (including me) would have given up after day one but Jonah was different. He persevered through it all and turned to God instead of losing hope. Weeds of the Mind and the Importanve of FELLOWSHIP! Jonah said the weeds entangled his head. In this case head = mind...look at the features of weeds: they are quite annoying plants, anyone with a garden would know. Weeds can grow just about anywhere in your yard and without weed killer, it seems like you can't get rid of them! Those 'weeds' Jonah was talking about are the negative thoughts that are there in the absence of 'weed killer'–The Word of God (John 1:1), God, and Fellowship. Fellowship is so important. Lack of fellowship with others leaves you in a way lost on a spiritual level. We need others to tell us what we are doing wrong and people to be here for us in celebration. In the Bible there are numerous accounts of Jesus and fellowship. When He first started His ministry, what did he do? He went and found himself disciples! When God created the world, who was with Him? The Holy Spirit and wisdom. Adam was given to Eve. Need I say more...FELLOWSHIP is key! The examples are just endless! Lesson Learned: Have faith in God with your prayers, trust He hears them no matter what, and fellowship is key. So I've been doing a Jonah devotion lately on the Bible app and this series is inspired by that devotion series! This will be a 4 part series covering the story of Jonah!
Read: Jonah 1 & 1 Samuel 15:22 Meet Jonah, a prophet to a place called 'Nineveh', a city in Northern Israel. Nineveh was a sin-filled gross city BUT that was not what God intended for that city, God gave Jonah the special instructions to go to the city of Nineveh to bring it into repentance. We don’t know how Jonah received these instructions from God, whether it was verbal, in a dream or vision, writing on a wall or through another prophet, but we know Jonah didn’t respond well, he just ran and rebelled against God’s command. When God calls us to do something, He really means for us to do it! (duh) Down is never good when God is up! Notice that verses 3-4 say that Jonah went ‘down’ to Tarshish and ‘down’ to Joppa (which means beautiful) Eventually he ended up DOWN in the belly of a whale, which Jonah himself describes as ‘sheol’ which is another name for hell. While this storm is going on, Jonah was sleeping (Jonah 1:5). This shows his ignorance and just disobedience to God and everyone else on the ship with him. A trap many of us fall into! We sleep when we need to "wake up" and obey God's Word, To obey is better than sacrifice, OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN ENDING UP IN A WHALE! (1 SAMUEL 15:22) Don’t deny God in the midst of your storm. Simple as that. In verse 9 we read about Jonah as he states his identity and who he believes in, even in the midst of the storm… what can we learn from that? Even in our mess, don't deny the God that you serve. For this is the one reason why in verse 16 we see that these men who served other gods now feared the Lord God Almighty and made sacrifices & vows unto Him. Without Jonah telling them this, they wouldn’t have known. Jonah took responsibility for his disobedience (Jonah 1:12). In psychology there is something we call ‘Diffusion of Responsibility’ where everybody shares in the blame or the glory of a situation. There was none of that there because Jonah stepped forward and said “cast me out for the sea to calm down.” Very noble of him I would say. Lesson Learned: if you would only get one thing out of this devotion it would be to OBEY God when He calls you to do something. Don't be like Jonah and run away from His commandment, instead run TOWARD it and fulfill it. AHHH YES I AM A BLOGGER IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!! One of my main goals for this blog is for y'all to connect with me more personally than on my Instagram account, and I thought for the grand opening of this blog and for this first blog post, I would just talk about my experiences with making my instagram account! Today is actually the day where one whole year ago I entered into the world of Christian instagramming.
On June 8th, 2014 I first created my Christian account. It was really just something to do for fun and I didn't take it too seriously. I never knew I would be here today making a blog, and posting to the possibility of 10,000 people seeing my posts on my instagram account. That is just mind blowing. When I first was starting out, I posted about 3 times a day with edits that literally took a minute to make and a caption that was all over the place lol [I'm different now PROMISE] I saw it as something to occupy me during the summer but then I started taking it a little more seriously and taking my time on edits and posts. People started to respond. I have been told multiple times how much my account has helped them and that just makes my day. God is working through my account and I know that sounds kinda weird like "what, God working through an INSTAGRAM account??" But because of my account God has healed people from depression and I've even helped someone recommit their lives to Christ. All because of my Instagram account. It's just amazing to see God working in people's lives. I've been told of so many places where my posts reach to. A majority is all around the U.S. but there's some people from the UK, Brazil, India, Norway, Ireland, Africa, and even Greenland. THATS CRAZY!! To think my posts are reaching that far around the world and touching people's hearts is insane. I've had many ups and downs with this account but overall it's been such an amazing experience and I can't wait to see what God has in store for this account next. In 5-10 years who knows what will happen! This could be the start of something big. xoxo Lauren |
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July 2017
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