Jonah - Begins

Jonah 1:1-2 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

Now normally, I like to pick the lives of women out of the Bible to study - mostly because I can relate better in one way or another - but Jonah, lots of good stuff here as well, so I'm ready to begin on a journey to Ninevah. Join me, won't you?

So the Bible tells us that the Lord came to Jonah. Now I don't know whether He spoke out loud or in a dream or wrote on a wall - but it was a definite word from God. Apparently the city of Nineveh - very prominent in its day - maybe equal to New York City or some other financially booming, populated city - was in need of revival.

We can look at this a couple of ways: Remembering that we all sin and the way our country is headed, we're not far off Nineveh as it is - I get the fear that Noah may have had for his people as I type this during Tropical Storm Fay and worry about the power going off. Anyway, the people of Nineveh have gotten off the right track - God's track - so, they can either get upset and angry that someone would tell them how they needed to stop acting the way they were and get right with God, or they could be pleased that someone loved them enough to tell them God wanted them to repent because He loved them so much.

People are no different today. You can expect the same response when you're faced with the task of sharing the gospel - either they resent you for trying to tell them how to live, or they appreciate that you care enough to tell them about Jesus. The thing is, it's not our job to worry about the response - we're called to share the Truth with everyone, regardless of what their opinion is of why we are doing it. It is not easy though - such is the life of Jonah - who can relate??