Come to Your Senses, Turn to the Father

 Hello faithful readers! I feel that God put this blog on my heart to share. So sometimes we turn to sin and run away from God. This got me thinking about the parable of the prodigal son. So the son asks the father for his inheritance of the estate before his father even dies! He takes the money and goes out and lives wildly and spends all his money. He winds up being a servant to someone during a severe famine. One day he’s feeding the pigs (which this man is so far from his Jewish ways which would forbid having any dealings with pigs) and he wants to eat what the pigs are eating because he’s starving. Then he comes to his senses. He realizes his father treats his servants well and it would be better to be a servant in his father’s house than be a servant here. So he says he will say to his father,  I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” Luke 15:18-19. Get this he realized that he had sinned both against his Father and against God. When we sin we need to come to our senses and realize that sin is against God and others as well. Even though the son did not feel worthy to be his father’s son his father didn’t feel that way. The father always sees him as his son. Much like God always sees us as his son or daughter. So the son returns to the father.

²⁰ “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ²¹ His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.^[a]’ ²² “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. ²³ And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. Luke 15:20-24

One thing that stands out is the father saw his son from afar off meaning he was waiting on a daily basis for his son to return. God waits for us too and he is waiting to restore us into a right relationship with him. He wants that relationship with us. He longs for us to draw close and yes he longs for us to come to our senses and realize he has a better life for us, a life of redemption in place of sin. He is waiting for us to repent and he is waiting for us to rejoice with him when we return. He will celebrate when we return and he will clothe us with the robe of righteousness. The robe represented the favored son and was a covering to show others he belongs to his father and that he is his father’s son. He will give us sandals that represent the gospel of peace. The ring would be used to seal letters in wax bearing a message of his father’s words. The ring represents the authority that the son comes in the name of his father; much like we go in the father’s name when he gives us a mission. He also will give us his Holy Spirit which gives us authority to speak against the darkness in Jesus name. It is when we feel lost that he is waiting for us to be found.

One thing that stands out to me too is the father let the son have his inheritance and he let his son leave and go his own way but he never lost hope that his son would return-he waited for him to return. It is when we repent and turn from our sin that we can return to our Heavenly Father. He is waiting in anticipation with open arms. He is waiting to rejoice with you. Don’t allow the sin to keep you from your heavenly Father, repent, turn around and you’ll see he’s been waiting for you all along.

Don't Run Jonah!

             Ok you guys I’ve been away from my blog for a long time. I just felt like God wasn’t giving me material for a blog but he has given me so many insights in my journal. These blog posts may just be straight out of my journal with little editing. I want to download it to you the same way it was downloaded to me! It’s definitely going to be different. I’m writing a second and third book. My third book is called Get out of Your Boat and it’s about letting go of the past by getting out of your boat and stepping into your future which is the boat that has Jesus as a captain. So I feel like this new way of blogging will be me sharing excerpts from my books that I’m working on. So God gave me something really good from the book of Jonah. So here goes!

                Jonah on the boat what did his boat represent? Fleeing from God. Jonah had a purpose on that boat-he was a witness to God’s power. God was more powerful than they when they tried to get to shore they couldn’t. Jonah tells them to throw him off the boat. Jonah would rather die than obey God. Jonah did not know he would be swallowed by a fish and have to go to Nineveh anyway. Just because Jonah ran it didn’t change his assignment.

This is resonating with me. You’re trying to run from the library and being a leader. You can run it’s your choice but the assignment of being a leader won’t change. God called you to be a leader and you are a leader at work and in Life Group. Your assignment won’t change no matter how much you fight it and God it won’t change until You change. You have to change your mind about being surprised that you are a leader. You’ve been a leader at the library for 8 years! 8 Years! Get over your fear and disbelief. It’s time. You are the boss-accept it-stop complaining!

So Jonah disobeyed God much like you are doing when you snooze (I’ve been struggling with getting out of bed and getting into God’s word and I believe God told me to stop snoozing so I’ve been sinning and disobeying God by snoozing). I’m working on stopping the snoozing and living the full life God has for me. So getting back into Jonah. What can you learn from Jonah? When God gives you an assignment accept it and don’t run from it. Allow God to work a miracle through you. God has sent you to the library so many will give their hearts to Christ just by interacting with you.

Another thing you can learn from Jonah: You can’t run from God. The assignment will still be there once you repent and turn back to God. When you cry out to God he will intervene on his timing. Don’t wait three days, repent now, don’t make God use drastic measures to get through to you. Be a witness of God’s power. Don’t sleep while God is trying to speak to you. Jonah was asleep on the boat, on the run and sleeping. Don’t have a pity party. Don’t play the victim. Don’t value your comfort zone more than you value following God. Don’t value your past more than God’s future for you. Don’t be dramatic, Jonah would rather die than follow God’s commands. Don’t let your pride put you in a tough situation. Let your pride go. Don’t let your idea of what you want out of life get in the way of God’s plan for you. Don’t wait for God to bring a violent storm before you follow his voice and his command! Don’t make God angry! Be accountable, be responsible for your own actions. Someone just may come to Christ by witnessing how you react to the storms of life. What if a specific person will give their heart to Christ based on how you treat them?

Don’t delay, cry out to God now, don’t wait. You can lessen the storm by obeying the Lord. Wow Jonah’s prayer:

But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone. Jonah 2:9

Then the Lord caused the fish to spit Jonah out, it was when Jonah sought the Lord and after he said he would fulfill his vow, it was after that he was spit out. It was after that, that he was delivered out of the fish.

When you repent God changes his mind about the wrath he would pour out. I know since Jesus God’s wrath is kept back by the blood of Jesus. Jonah complained to the Lord, didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this Lord? Jonah 4:2

Why was it so important to bring the message to Nineveh through Jonah? It was not just for the people but for Jonah to learn something too!

That is why I ran away to Tarshish. I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God. Jonah 4:2

Jonah did not want the people to repent, he wanted them destroyed. I have felt this way too about my enemy. My enemy is the thorn in my side and I want them gone but I feel there’s a lesson I need to learn from my enemy so God will not release me from that person until I learn the lesson.

Slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Jonah 4:2

He is eager to save my enemy!

 And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed. Jonah 4:8

Change is better than living like this. It’s time to change before something worse happens. When people see what the Lord has done for you and through you they will give their hearts to Christ and make vows to the Lord.

Does Jonah fear the Lord? I think not! He was not afraid to run in the opposite direction from Nineveh. What did the waters represent for Jonah? Death. An escape from responsibility, an escape from the calling God place on his life. He was a prophet. Sleep for me is an escape from the calling God has on my life. No more snoozing! What did the waters represent for God? Life, obedience of his servant, an instrument of his peace for the men on the ship when the sea was calm. An instrument of his power. Water was a conduit for his prophet to fulfil his purpose. The library is a conduit for you to fulfill your purpose. God has a great calling on my life and I’m having a hard time accepting that he can use me to fulfill that calling but as the quote says,”God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”