Sharing is Caring

  Day 29: Jonah 2:3-4, 8-10       Even so, I will look to the Lord again.   We tend to resist the difficult realities given to us, often expressing it through complaints and resentment.  However, if we can find God's blessings even in the midst of accepting those challenging realities, we can truly say that person is a blessed believer.  Jonah the prophet is considered to be one of such individuals.  The reality he faced was that he was on the verge of life and death physically, and spiritually, he felt cast away from God, experiencing the weariness of soul.   However, even in such circumstances, Jonah resolved, "Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple" (Jonah 2:4), looking to the Creator God, who is greater than "the deep" and its "billows" (v. 3).   Through this, he came to realize the grace God bestowed upon him (v. 8), and he was reaffirmed in his calling as a worshiper (v. 9).  He was reborn not as...

  ‘God, help me to be a worm-like pastor’     “But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered” (Jonah 4:7).     God, help me not to be a disobedient pastor like Jonah.   Help me not to be the pastor who runs away instead of going to the mission field that God sent me. Help me not be a pastor who forgets God's mission and backslides. Help me not to be the pastor who doesn’t embrace the souls that God has entrusted to me.    God, help me to be a worm-like pastor.   Help me to walk faithfully to the place of the ministry that You have sent me. Help me to go where God wants me to go even though I am slow like the worm. Help me to walk like a turtle while looking at the destiny that You gave me.   Help me to be driven by the mission that You gave me. Help me to be driven by the promises Word of God (Jn. 6:1-15; Mt. 16:18). God, I want to move forward by dreaming only Your vision.   Help me to be t...

  God who prepares  the unprepared servant of the Lord     “Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight” (Jonah 4:10-11).                  One of the steps that must be taken in preparing to become a minister by God's calling is to go to the seminary and study theology.  And the seminary students have to study Biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, practical theology, and so on.  But the problem is that pastors who studied very hard can graduate from the seminary like laity.  Although compare to entering into the seminary, they have the increased biblical and theological knowledge, but they can become not only more arrogant, but also more stubborn people.  When I think about what the cause is, I think it may b...

  "Do you have good reason to be angry?”     “The LORD said, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry?’”  (Jonah 4:4).                     Do we have good reason to be angry?  Do we have the right to be angry at this moment?  In this world we live in, there are many things that are irritating, and I often hear people say 'I'm annoyed'.  Also, there are too many reasons for us to be angry in this world.  It seems that there are many people who are on the brink of anger.  When I think about why so many people are angry both internally and externally, I think one of the reasons is dissatisfaction.  Because we don’t have the satisfaction of life, we lost the balance of emotions and we get angry.                   Prophet Jonah was angry (Jonah ...

  Prophet Jonah who does not have  the heart of God       “But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.  He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.  Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life” (Jonah 4:1-3).                     The postmodern era emphasizes emotion over reason.  So people pursue emotional and sensual things in all areas, speak and act as they go through their emotions.  In a word, one of the characteristics of the postmodern era is emotionalism (Kim).  I think there are two big problems with th...

  Jonah’s God (8)     [Jonah 4:1-11]                     The theologian and humanist, Dallas Willard, gives us words that make us think about "spiritual development and emotions" in his book “Renovation of the Heart”.  Among them I would like to share with you three precious lessons and applicable words: (1) ‘We should listen to the words of reason even when we express emotions or are caught up in emotions.’  Our lives must be driven by the facts rather than feelings,  We must live the Word-driven life.  Here, the Word-driven life is being led by the Word and is living by faith.  (2) ‘Self-control refers to the continuing ability to control self in order to accomplish the actions and personality that one chooses or decides, even if he doesn’t feel that way.  Self-control is we do things that we need to do even though we don’...

  God who turns His will     “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it” (Jonah 3:10).                     We often feel guilty when our sins are exposed through the Word of God.  And often we are disappointed and discouraged by ourselves.  And this disappointment and discouragement can lead us to spiritual depression.  But here is a very scary strategy of Satan.  It is that Satan makes us to keep on looking at ourselves (our sins, our guilt and so on) and not allowing us to look at Jesus Christ who died of the cross to forgive our sins.  Satan never lets us look at Jesus and what He has done on the cross but making us concentrate on what we didn’t do that we supposed to do and what we did that we not ...

  Jonah’s God (7)     [Jonah 3:5-10]     Long time ago, when my kids were little, I was little bit shock by what one of my kids said to her sibling.  At that time I was watching a Korean drama and a guy was making a loud voice in his speech.  And my kids were playing toys together and one of the kids who heard his speech told her sibling that ‘Daddy makes loud too.’  When her sibling heard her saying it, he said to me, ‘Daddy, she said your preaching is loud.’  When I heard him saying that, I was surprised.  I thought that these two kids were thinking of my sermon as if it was “a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).  So I thought I should repent.  Especially on that day afternoon, I learned from my mentor pastor that 'Preaching is the power of influencing' (the power of sermons and the work of the Holy Spirit), but my sermon has lost its meaning to my children because my sermon...