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“Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea”
              Jonah 1:4a

“But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah”
              Jonah 1:17a

God gave Jonah the assignment to go and preach repentence to Ninevah. Jonah didn’t like the assignment and ran in the opposite direction. He boarded a ship headed for Tarsus. You all know the story. God intervened. First, he caused a great wind to stir up the sea. Eventually, Jonah confessed that he was the cause of the storm and instructed the sailors to throw him overboard. They resisted, but when it was clear that they would all die if they did not, they did what seemed to be the unthinkable. They threw Jonah in the sea. But God was a part of the whole plan. God “provided” (I love that word) the great fish that swallowed Jonah.

As you read through the book of Jonah, be watchful for God’s actions. It is an exciting book of miracles from beginning to end. It is a book of God reaching down and intervening in the lives of men and women on earth to accomplish His purposes. He will even use the wind and the sea and all the creatures in the sea to help those men and women along their paths toward obedience.

I’ve blogged a couple of other articles on Jonah. Click on Jonah under Categories>Bible References at the right for more reading on Jonah.

• Doesn’t Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 make so much more sense, having just read Genesis & Exodus in the past couple of months? It does to me. Stephen’s speech used to seem long and boring. But now I find it an amazingly compact telling of the story of the Old Testament. Reading the O.T. so enriches the N.T.

• Notice the position of Jesus as Stephen saw Him:

⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

In Luke 22 Jesus says that he will be seated at the right hand of God after His resurrection. In Colossians 3 Jesus is described as being seated at the right hand of God. Apparently Jesus stands up when He sees His saints martyred. Stephen looked up and saw Jesus standing. How hard it must be for Jesus not to come rushing in to save us. But thankfully, He sees the bigger picture.

• Did you notice the young man who stood by and watched the clothes of those who stoned Stephen? Yes, that was Saul, who later became Paul. At the time of Stephen’s stoning, Saul was a righteous young man in agreement with those throwing the stones.

⁵⁷At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him [Stephen], ⁵⁸dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Our God is a God who can change the heart of anyone. Thank you Lord!

The book of Ruth has many subtexts in it – some describe it as a love story; some see it as an illustration of what happens when we leave Bethlehem (which means “House of Bread) – like Naomi (which means “pleasant”), God deals with us severely and we return as Mara (which means “bitter”); some see it as a pre-Christ example of being redeemed by our kinsman-redeemer.

I read the entire book in one sitting. The underlying theme I read today was one of the blessings that follow those who are faithful to do the right thing.

Ruth could have gone back home to her family in Moab, but she chose to honor her dead husband and follow her beloved mother-in-law to a strange land. Once there, she willingly served her mother-in-law. Scripture says she went into the field from early morning until dusk, then threshed all she had picked into wheat. She did this for many months. When Boaz found her in his fields the first day, he treated her kindly and instructed his servants to treat her well. When Naomi told Ruth to go to Boaz as their family (kinsman) redeemer, she did so. When Boaz found Ruth at the foot of his bed, he treated her honorably that night and made a point of sending grain home with her to Naomi. Then Boaz did the right thing by first going to a family member closer than he to ask if this man wanted to become the kinsman-redeemer. When he would not, Boaz married Ruth, she gave birth to a son and Mara (Naomi) was no longer bitter, but was blessed.

The journey from Moab to Bethlehem could not have been easy for either Ruth or Naomi. Finding herself in a strange city and venturing out to gather grain could not have been easy for Ruth. I imagine that following her mother-in-law’s instructions to go to Boaz at night held its share of fearful consequences for Ruth. Perhaps even marrying Boaz was an act of obedience in the midst of fear. He had treated her honorably, but one could hardly say she knew him.

Life had not treated Ruth kindly. But she continued to do the right things and God showed Himself to be faithful to her.

Sometimes we’re in a time in our life where things are not easy. God does not always seem to be near and bad things happen to good people. But Ruth showed herself to be a woman of character by continuing to do the right thing in the midst of it all. And God honored her faithfulness. He provided a kinsman-redeemer, someone to care for her. He provided a family for her. He gave her a son, Obed, and he gave her a lasting legacy. Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. That would be King David, a man after God’s own heart.

I’ve just been reading in Leviticus about all the offerings the Israelites were to offer to God and what (finally) struck me is that in every case, they use the word “offering.” It might have been a peace offering or a guilt offering or some other kind of offering, but they were always an “offering.” They may have been required offerings, but they were still offerings. That is, the Lord required these offerings as a way for them to receive forgiveness (albeit temporary forgiveness) for their sins or show their devotion to Him. And yet, they are called “offerings.”

What began to sink in was the attitude of humility that the word “offering” carries with it. An offering is something given in hopes that it will be accepted – the husband-to-be offers his hand in marriage to the woman in hopes that she will say “yes” or an offending co-worker brings a cup of coffee or donut in hopes that relationships can be restored and peace can returned to the office. An apology is an offering – it is given in humility and in the hopes that it will be accepted. The attitude of the heart in each case is humility and hopefulness. Of course with hopefulness there is anticipation of good things to come.

When I read in Leviticus 5 that a person is to bring a lamb or a goat, but if he cannot afford that he can bring two young doves or pigeons, and if he cannot afford that he is to bring a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, I am ashamed to admit that the thought that ran across my brain was “who’s to say what he can afford?” Immediately the Lord whispered in my ear – “It’s a heart issue.” In other words, our hearts ought to be so devoted to God and so sorry for our sin that we desire to bring the very best and most we can. It’s not a “how little can we get away with to make up for our sins?” Rather, it’s how much can I offer to the Lord to show Him how sorry I am and how much I love Him?

And that brought me to the question – “How do you view your offerings?” Are they obligations, or are they opportunities to express your love to God? Do you give them as a part of your Sunday morning routine, or with an attitude of humility? When you write out your check or search for the money in your wallet, is it just something you do out of duty, or is an act of worship? Don’t get me wrong. Obedience is a good thing. Bring your tithes into the storehouse (Malachi 3:10). But obedience that is not done with the right heart is its own form of rebellion. Think of the child who spits out his apology in obedience to his parent’s command. The child was being “obedient”, but not making a sincere offering from his heart. No, in his heart there was rebellion – “I’ll say I’m sorry, but I won’t mean it. So there!”

I doubt that you make your offerings with the same blatant attitude as that child, but I know that there are times when I unthinkingly offend God by giving my offerings with a heart that isn’t fully “in the moment” (that is, I’m not even thinking about it, I’m just on autopilot) or has a hidden agenda of expectations from God instead of humble anticipation of His acceptance of my offer. When we are “in the moment” and our attitude is humble anticipation, imagine the joy we can receive when we know that our offer has been accepted!

Scripture teaches that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). That doesn’t mean He loves the giver who is a cheerful person. That means he loves it when we give with a cheerful attitude – and that means we are in the moment – purposefully thinking about what we’re doing and doing it cheerfully.

Lord, forgive me for all the times I have spent the offering time on Sunday morning reading the bulletin instead of making my offering to You in humility and joy. Forgive me for the times I write out my check out of obligation instead of with joyful anticipation of bringing joy to the One I love the most.

The Offering God Gave
Notice that it was in this same attitude that God gave His offering – with His whole heart and in humble anticipation of the joy to come when His offering would be accepted by men and women. That offering, of course, was His Son Jesus, whom God gave as the sacrificial lamb – the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Do you see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament system of sacrifices and offerings? That He is our sacrificial lamb, offered once for all?

Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
                Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)

The question is “will you accept His offering?” It is an offering consistent with those we’ve read about in Leviticus, but of such a higher degree that it issues in a new covenant. The new covenant holds the promise of an eternal inheritance – life forever more – even for those who have not kept the old covenant.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
                Hebrews 9:13-15 (NIV)

Should you have any doubt, let me be clear. God is calling you. He is calling you to serve the living God. He is calling you in love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
                1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)

Will you accept his offering? What will you offer back to him in response?

I’m sitting in the library before my last class of my last course working towards my Master’s degree. Because of Phil’s heart attack, they’ve been gracious enough to give me extensions on a couple papers, so I still have 2 papers to write and 1 book to read…but attending my last class is still reaching a major milestone. I was thinking as I drove here today about priorities. If you had asked me a few years ago, before I returned to finish my Master’s, I would have told you that I didn’t have time in my schedule to miss one day a week of work and spend most evenings and Saturdays studying and/or writing. But then God put the desire into my heart, my husband encouraged me, and I took the big step. And today is my last class.

One thing this has taught me is that “I don’t have time” is a pretty poor excuse for not following dreams that God has put in your heart. I didn’t think I had time. But I re-arranged some things, I dropped some things, and I let some things slide (like housework – that’s always the thing I let slide!).

Another thing it’s taught me is the need to take action when we feel the nudge of God. I’ve wanted a Master’s degree for about two decades! I’ve looked into them before and always been discouraged because of how much time they would take and how much money they would cost. But this time, it was more than just me wanting something. It was a God-nudge that prompted me to action. And I’m so glad I responded. It’s pretty easy to ignore a God-nudge sometimes. Don’t do it. God nudges us toward our dreams because if we’re following after Him, He’s the one who has put those dreams in our hearts. He wants us to pursue them as much or more than we do.

A third thing is to not make assumptions or decisions based on the lack of earthly things – i.e., “I don’t have time, money, talent”…God provides. Don’t dismiss what seems like unachievable God-given plans because of lack. He provides.

 People often see me as “having it all together” and not being intimidated easily. That’s not always very true – I just put up a good front. For me to return to school alone was a real challenge for me. I’m afraid of driving long distances by myself, but every class I had to drive over four hours just to get to and from school. I’m easily afraid when I’m by myself at night, but every class I had to drive home over deserted country roads between 10pm and midnight. And I was very nervous attending classes alone (because I really am shy at heart). I don’t share these things to say “look at me, I overcame all this.” No, I share it to say YOU can overcome whatever is holding you back to pursue the dreams God has put in your heart.

For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.
               Philippians 4:13, NLT

You may have noticed that Thursday is a day that a blog usually appears – they were written from this library as I would read Scripture and pray as a transition between my work life and travel to getting ready for class. Guess I’ll have to find a new Thursday hang-out spot for writing blogs!

We’ve read through Genesis and Exodus and are now turning our attention to Leviticus. Leviticus is an instruction manual for priests. There are times when it may seem repetitive, but it reveals the holiness of God and his gracious recognition of the imperfection of man. The provisions in teh book made it possible for our perfect, holy God to live among the sinful Israelites. It points to our need for a Savior. For those who want to dig deeply, all the sacrifices and feasts point to Christ in some way.

We’ll also finish the book of Esther and read Ruth, Joel and Jonah before delving back into some of the Psalms. Jonah is one of my very favorite books – I’ve subtitled him “The Petulant Prophet.”

In the New Testament, we’re going to read the Acts of the Apostles.

I  hope you’re continuing in the journey through the Bible. Again, don’t get discouraged if you fall behind…just keep reading.

Recommended Reading Plan for March

To download a PDF of March’s reading schedule, click here.

Enjoy!