Skip to main content

RUNNING AND GOING NOWHERE 022309

Jonah 3:1-10

1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 for word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.


Welcome to the new and improved Monday Morning Mediations with Elder Mike. I am so excited about the new look of the newsletter! Glory to God for the vision that he gave me this morning! First off, I got off to a late start this morning. I was running late for work and once I got there, I locked my keys in my vehicle. After getting my keys out I ran over to a 9 A.M. meeting and sat there in silent prayer. Lord knows I was not into the meeting.

Following the meeting I rushed home to change and get ready for a series of meetings, one meeting is at 12 and another at 1 P.M. After praying and doing some reading, I realized I was running late again! I rushed to my car just to see my door to the garage close behind and my keys were locked in the house. After a friend picked me up, in a rush again I closed my garage door and locked all my papers for my meetings in the car inside the garage! My God, the devil is busy today! Nonetheless, I made it to my office and the meetings went off without a hitch, just had to re-print the stuff locked in the garage. I was doing a great deal of running and rushing and was going nowhere today without my keys.

For many this would be considered a pretty bad day. But it was not for me! I had quality time with the Lord today. In between waiting for friends to pick me up and spending time in prayer and study. Yeah! I did not get the meditation out this morning but look at what God put into my spirit this afternoon. God had to slow me down a little bit to get me in the right mindset to allow his creativeness inside me to grow.

There is a host of little things I learned from this passage and form Jonah. (Suggest you read the entire book.) First, you can't outrun God. I tried today. I was like a hamster running on the circle wheel at full speed but each time I would look back there was the cross! My God! I was like that when God first called me to preach. You see who won that race. (SHOUT!) I didn't want to do it because I couldn't see how god could use someone like me for something as awesome as this. But no matter where I turned, God was there, reinforcing that Call.

The next little thing we can learn is God is in charge. Like Jonah we have trouble with that sometimes. But there it is, God is in charge. God has always been and always will be in charge. And the finally little things, like keys do not matter! Jonah gave a little sermon but God used it in a powerful way. The sailors had a little humility, enough to allow them to pray to God even though He wasn't their God. That little bit of humility and faith was enough to save them. And God used a little thing like a worm to teach Jonah about how much God loves the world and how much God wants to save the entire world.

A little thing such as this is now yours to share! Have a blessed week in the name of the Son, The father and the Holy Spirit! AMEN!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy New Year!

Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a vast waste, darkness covered the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. God said: "Let there be light," and there was light; and God saw the light was good, and he separated the light from darkness. He called the light day, and the darkness night. So evening came, and morning came; it was the first day. The year 2007 is gone, finished, past. We cannot reclaim it or undo it. The New Year, like a newborn child, which is placed in our hands as the old year passes away. We cannot rest on the things it has brought us. The days and weeks to come are God's gift; they carry God's blessing and the time to show our faith in Jesus as Lord. Let's journey forward, knowing that God already inhabits the future and promises to provide us refreshment. My prayer for the year ending is that all that was good in it remain with us an all that was harmful be left behind. We...

Time of Refreshings

Last week the women of Peace of God Outreach Ministries celebrated Mother’s Day followed by an anointed service on last Wednesday night, followed by a women’s conference on Saturday, and yesterday everything culminated with beautiful Sunday Service. The women of Peace of God Outreach Ministries are known as the Daughter of Thunder. Their theme this year came was “A Time of Refreshing” from Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” We indeed had a beautiful services all last week. First giving honor to God and to my Senior Pastors Gary and Patricia Stern for their vision and leadership. I give honor to the Daughters of Thunder for their hard work which showed throughout the outstanding programs and worship services. As for me, and the Sons of Thunder, it was a blessing to assist with setting up and breaking down. Everything was in place, decent and in order. Worship such a...

Put All Your Trust In God!

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. --Philippians 2:3-4 This past week, God blessed me to minister to my older sister in New Jersey. She called me because of a business deal that had not gone the way she had hoped. In short, a friend under cut the deal and gained the property in their own interest. For those who do not know my sister, she epitomizes this week's scripture. She is a wonderful person with a free and giving spirit. Over the years, I have and watched as she would give loans to family and friends many of these loans were never repaid. I can not recall one single instant where she has every asked for money back that she has given to me. She elected to stay in New Jersey to be close to our Mother, while the rest of us moved on and out of Newark, N.J. and til this day, I have never heard her complain or voice an...