Wreckage and Mercy

The other day I heard a sermon from the book of Jonah. All week I have thought on the truths found in the book of Jonah. I want to share two particular truths the Lord has shown me.

First, a person’s rebellion against God’s will and especially a Christian’s rebellion against the directives of God causes wreckage in others lives as well as his/her own.

Secondly, God loves repentance and mercy over justice.

 The book of Jonah is found in the Old Testament. It is not a parable or a fictional story but a truly historical narrative. The names and places in the book are historical.  Jesus also spoke about Jonah not as a fictional story or parable but as history.

Jonah was a prophet of Israel and God. God told Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because it was so wicked. Ninevah was the capital of Assyria, a very wicked and immoral nation. Israel considered the Assyrians a threat and hated them. So when God told His man, His prophet, Jonah to preach to them, Jonah in his rebellion and his own wisdom decided to not do what the Lord asked of him but to run the very opposite way.

Jonah 1:1-3: “Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.” (KJV)

 We see Jonah rebel and go his own way. Have you ever God, “No, Lord, I don’t want to do that”? Have you gone your own way instead of God’s way whether through sin or slackness or fear or just saying NO to God? Oh, maybe you justify the waywardness or sin but deep down you know it is wrong, you feel guilty and shame but it is not enough to stop you or turn you back to complete surrender to the Lord’s will.

          FIRST TRUTH–when a person rebels against the Lord there will always be wreckage!

Jonah 1:4-6 says, “Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”

Now we start seeing the wreckage in other’s lives caused by one man’s rebellion against God. Because of the great storm the crew lost their cargo and was in peril of their lives. What was Jonah doing? He was sleeping!

 Romans 14:7 says, “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.” What we do affects others whether for good or bad. Most of us would like to ignore this fact but it is a truth! When we are in rebellion or sin, we don’t pray as we should, we don’t set the example as we should, a lot of times we become very selfish and self-minded and say, “It is my life! Leave me alone!”

  We don’t want to acknowledge that what we are doing affects others adversely and most of the time it is the ones closest to us that is affected—our family, our children, our spouse, our friends, our church, our community! Exodus 34:7 says “…Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

 Not only is there wreckage in other’s lives but in our own when we rebel against the Lord. We see Jonah going down to Joppa, then down in to the ship and eventually, down into the ocean.

Jonah 1:11-16:  The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they (the sailors) asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the Lord, “O Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O Lord, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. (NIV)

Finally, Jonah mans up and says—Hey, this is my fault and I am going to own up to my mistakes, my rebellion, my sin even if it means my death.

           SECOND TRUTH– God loves repentance and mercy over justice.

Jonah 1:17,“But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” (NIV)

God showed mercy to Jonah. Instead of a watery grave for Jonah, God sent a great fish to preserve him. Inside of that fish, Jonah repented of his sins, asked God to forgive him and surrendered his life, his will, his ambitions, his hopes, his all once more to God.

Jonah 2:9,10: But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.”

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Jonah 3:1-4: Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”

 Then the Lord brought Jonah back to where he should have been and gave him back his ministry. Praise God!

Sometimes our place of preservation is not the most pleasant and it certainly wasn’t for Jonah—inside the belly of the fish. Jonah called it the pit. Have you repented and are spending time in the place of preservation and it seems like things are not going your way? You wonder why? God is teaching you, fortifying you and perhaps even testing you to see if you will stick to the course this time, if you will prove true to Him, if you really will love Him above all else? I am sure being vomited out of the place of preservation wasn’t fun either but Jonah was a true man of God and listened for God’s voice and was obedient to do what God had called him to do.

 Our Lord and Savior Jesus is not a hard taskmaster but loving, kind and merciful. Psalms 91:4 says, “His huge outstretched arms protect you – under them you’re perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm.” (The Message Bible). He puts us in the cleft of the rock and keeps us from harm. (Exodus 33:22) As we want the best for our children and when they mess up or make a mistake, we correct them and instruct them, most of all we love them. How much more does our Creator, our Heavenly Father, want the best for us? He knows our talents, our character, the direction that our lives should go. If we go the wrong direction and go down instead of up, our God will do what he needs to do to correct our paths so we can go up and see His glory!

 Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh and they heard the word and repented—the whole city! Yet, Jonah became extremely angry. He knew these people had greatly sinned! They deserved punishment! Have you ever seen perhaps a Christian leader, someone whom you admired and respected, get caught in some bad sin? You were hurt. Then they repented, God had mercy upon them, even though they had to pay the price for their sin, you didn’t think it was enough. You despised them in your heart? Perhaps you were like the Sons of Thunder, the apostles James and John, who wanted to call down fire from heaven on a group of people for the disrespect to our Lord and Savior Jesus? (Luke 9:52-56)

I have been there and done that. I’ve had to repent over my attitude of wanting God’s justice instead of God’s mercy and forgiveness. The Lord pointed out my own failings, my own missing the mark, my own rebellion. When He opened my eyes and showed me His great mercy to me, how He restored me, how He brought me through; I fell on my face and wept. Who was I to point a finger at my brother?

God wants to show mercy to a clueless people, He wants people to repent of their sins. He wants to restore people to who they should be.

 John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (NIV)

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

 Let us be a people who shows our neighbor, friend, brother or sister God’s compassion, mercy, kindness instead of judgment and harshness. Let the following verse be our creed in life—to love mercy!

Consecrate Yourself

Have you heard God tell you something? He just drops it into your heart and mind faster than you could even say it to somebody and you know that you know it is God!!!

The other day I was visiting with a friend. It was a good conversation about the things of the Lord. Then without expectation God spoke to me the following words:

Joy leapt up in my heart! With these words I felt the Lord was taking me deeper in Him. I am a mature Christian but I felt like the Lord was dealing with me in a strong way. Sometimes, we go about our daily lives and maybe get lax or complacent or even self-satisfied. I thought I knew what to consecrate myself meant but wanted to do more of an in-depth study on consecration. During my Christian walk, I want to be real, honest, open.

When God speaks to you like He did me, He wants you to ponder the words, seek His face, be obedient to what He tells you. I don’t believe I know the whole of the message right now but I do want what He wants for my life.

Let’s study a little about consecration.

 What does it mean to be consecrated?

The word consecrate means to be set apart for the service of God. There were four main words that were used in the Hebrew to describe this:

1. Haram – to devote
2. Nazar – To separate
3. Qadhesh – To set apart
4. Mille yadh – to fill the hand: used to describe the ordinations of priests

The term consecrate was applied to several aspects of the Jewish life:

• Places: Holy of Holies – The inner most part of the temple
• People: Priests and prophets
• Things: Altar of Incense and the Ark of the Covenant
• Times: Various feasts and special days such as Yom Kippur or Passover

Consecration is for all Christians. It is not optional but required since we are all priests for God.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

“For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

And that he died for all, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.”

The Constraining power of the Lord’s Love—

Constrained means “pressed on from all sides,” tightly confined on all sides. Christ’s love binds us. He shed His blood because He loves us. Because of that great love, we are His. We are wrapped in His love. Praise God!!!

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

“Love is a basis of consecration. Love has bound us up, and we cannot run away. When a person is in love, he will have a sense of bondage. We are bound by Him; we have no way out. He has died for us, and we should live unto Him today. Hence, love is the basis of consecration. A man consecrates himself to the Lord because of the Lord’s love. No one can consecrate himself unless he first touches the Lord’s love. A man must touch the Lord’s love before he can consecrate himself to Him. When one touches the Lord’s love, consecration spontaneously follows.” (Watchman Nee)

The Lord’s expectation of Consecration in our lives:

1 Cor. 6:19-20

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Because the Lord bought our lives with His own sinless blood, he has the right to ask us to consecrate ourselves.

Consecration unto service to God—it is the receiving of the ministry of service to God. It is to say to the Lord, “Because you have loved me, saved me, brought me out of darkness into your marvelous light, because you protect me and keep me, because You have so drastically changed my life for the better, because you have made a new person of me—I will serve you and do what you ask of me!”

In order to be consecrated we must first ask Jesus to forgive us, to cleanse of all unrighteousness, of all sin. Repent! We have been bought with a price—The Blood of Jesus. Our entire beings belongs to Him alone.

The Hebrew word consecration means “to have one’s hands filled”. “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God which is your reasonable service” Rom. 12:1

A saturation of Christ is what God calls consecration. God calls us to service and we answer, “Yes, Lord I am yours body, soul, will, emotions. I am grateful and privileged to serve you however you see fit.” See Romans 6

Consecration is service or to “wait upon the Lord”. Be prepared to serve. We present our bodies to serve God in whatever capacity the Lord has for us. We need to be flexible. The Lord comes first.

“Our entire life is directed toward the service of God. Consecration is not how much we can give to God. It is being accepted by God and being granted the honor of serving Him.” (Watchman Nee)

Consecration means that we say, “Lord, You have given me the opportunity and the right to come before You and to serve You.” It is saying, “Lord, I am Yours. My ears were purchased by the blood; they belong to You. My hands were purchased by the blood; they belong to You. My feet were purchased by the blood; they belong to You. From now on I can no longer use them for myself.” (Watchman Nee)

(Watchman Nee was a devout Chinese Christian who died in 1972. He spent the last 20 years of his life in prison being persecuted by the Communist in China. He wrote about the Christian life and founded many churches in China.)

Jesus is to be first in our lives!

Let’s look in Mark 10:17-31. A rich young man came to Jesus and ask what must he do to inherit eternal life? The young man told Jesus that he had kept the commandments but Jesus said he needed to go and sell everything, give that to the poor and then follow him. The young man didn’t do it.

Jesus looked into the heart of this young man. Jesus wasn’t saying that you couldn’t have money to be saved but that you must not have idols or anything that was more important that the Lord. The young man wanted to go to heaven but he put riches and wealth above the service and love of the Lord.

Consecration is putting Jesus absolutely first in your life, above all else, be ready, be prepared to serve him and do what He asks. Christianity is not casual. Christ asks us to take up our cross daily. Luke 9:23 “Then he said to them all: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Following Jesus, being a committed Christian is not burdensome. When the Lord said take up our cross daily, He was saying, “die to self” each and every day. Surrender your will, ambitions, life, politics, opinions, dreams, hopes, fears, to the Lord each day. Listen to his voice and do what He says. The Cross represents death. Jesus died on the cross. Living a Christian life is great joy but the dying to self is often what is hard. Discipleship is sacrifice. It means taking all idols out of your life like the rich young man and following Him.

If you wonder if you are ready to take up your cross, consider these questions:

• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing some of your closest friends?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means alienation from your family?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means the loss of your reputation?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your job?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your life?

In some places of the world, these consequences are reality. But notice the questions are phrased, “Are you willing?” Following Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean all these things will happen to you, but are you willing to take up your cross? If there comes a point in your life where you are faced with a choice—Jesus or the comforts of this life—which will you choose? (taken from GotQuestions.org)

Consecration is putting Jesus first, setting yourself apart from what you once were, dedicate yourself to the things of God, prepare yourself to be sensitive to the voice of God and when He calls—answer.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Joshua 3:5 says, “Joshua told the people, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

God wanted them to:  Turn their hearts to God. Put their faith and trust in God and His promises. Put away sin and do good as the Lord showed them. Make a true commitment to God’s ways! Be an overcomer! Many of us look good on the outside but harbor anger, bitterness, unforgiveness.

We often manipulate people and try to be in control of every situation. To see God’s amazing works in our lives, we must examine ourselves and motives and commit ourselves to Him in every area. This surrendering involves every part of our lives—physical, mental, and spiritual.

God wants us to grow and not remain spiritual babies but become His useful servants. Absolutely know you have been bought with a price! The Bible says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Romans 14:8 says, “Whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s.”

In other words, we are owned by Christ. Not unwillingly but we give our lives to the Lord when we ask Him to forgive us and save us from our sins.  We consciously and willingly become God’s servants or slaves. Yet, many people say, “I only want to serve God or do for God a certain extent.” They want to go to church, feel good about themselves, but still keep a part of their lives and hearts apart so they can do what they want. They want to be independent instead of acknowledging to God, to the world, to themselves that they have been bought with a price and they are literally owned by our Savior Jesus Christ. So they stray away, or never grow as a Christian because they are always fighting against God’s service.

When we consecrate ourselves to God, we sacrifice our desires not because we have to but because we want to. We are in a love relationship with Jesus. Because we love the Lord, we are willing to lay aside our own wishes and do what the Lord asks. It is not grievous; it is a joy because we know the Lord has our best interests in mind. He is divine, He knows what is ahead, He is Sovereign.

Exodus 21:1-6 shows us a picture of our love relationship with the Lord. Verse 5 – 6 says, “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.”

If only all of us would say of our love, “I do not ever want to be free of the Lord. I am His man or woman forever. I am His servant, His slave. Do with me what you want! Your way is the best for me!” Not making this commitment in just words but in deeds!

Consecration is not just for our own benefit but also for the Body of Christ. When we consecrate ourselves, we are able to help other people whether Christian or the ungodly. Through consecration we will be in the right place at the right time because we will hear the voice of God and know what to do.

How can we consecrate ourselves?

1. Be willing to spend time alone with God. Try to set a time that you will not be interrupted.
2. Examine your life. Ask God to show you things that you are thinking or doing that would come between Him and you.
3. Ask forgiveness for wrong attitudes, wrong thinking, unforgiveness, busyness, any idolatry. Idolatry is anything you set above doing the will of God in your life—whether it is wealth, the accumulating of wealth, your family, your pride.
4. Want to be used of the Lord regardless of whatever way. Not everyone is called to be a missionary or be a pastor but everyone is called into service someway.
5. Grow up in the things of God, surrender all to Him, read and study your Bible.

These are but a few of the ways to consecrate yourself to the Lord. Ask God to help you!

“Solitude, silence, and unceasing prayer form the core concepts of the spirituality of the desert.”

Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

I am desperate for the Lord and I want hear his voice! I want to be constrained by Christ! I want to do what the Lord said to me and have the results of what the Lord said to me!

The Healed Heart

The other night when I was in church the Lord gave me a prophetic vision that I would like to share.

In this vision I was weeping with a great sorrow and praying for the Lord to help me. I saw myself take my heart out of my body and lay it on the church’s altar. The heart I laid on the altar was cracked, broken, bleeding, creviced, hurting, splintered, laboring to beat, not whole. I then saw the Lord Jesus take up the heart I had offered him. He so tenderly picked it up with his hands and put it in the crook of his arms as he would hold a newborn babe. Jesus started carrying around my heart. He spoke softly, gently caressing that broken, bleeding, creviced, splintered, hurting heart of mine that beat so irregularly. As he lovingly touched my heart, I could feel the healing and tremendous compassion He had for me.

He spoke and said, “I am healing your heart, no longer will you be out of sync with me, I am pouring my blood into your heart, into your situation, into your life. As you have given me your heart, as you have poured out your sorrow and hurt to me, know that I am here for you. I see your every need. Lay your head upon my bosom, hear my heartbeat. Let your heartbeat be in sync with my heartbeat. Give all to Me and I will do a great healing in your life.”

I then saw the Lord take my heart and it was no longer bleeding, broken, creviced. It was new and pure, it had beautiful wings as if it could fly. The Lord with His hands took my heart and placed it back into me and I felt a great lightness in my body.

I wasn’t sure why I saw my heart this vision as I didn’t feel like I had broken, hurting heart. The Lord spoke to me and said it was for me to share to hurting people. He let me feel their hurt and His great compassion for them.

The Lord wants us to give Him our broken hearts; to give Him our needs, our concerns, our dreams, our goals, our lives. When we do that, we allow the Lord to do a work in us. We grow in grace and knowledge of the truth.

Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Our Lord Jesus will turn situations around, strengthen, heal and guide us. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalms 73:26

In Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.”

 Jesus has walked where we have walked. He has experienced the pain and hurt that life can bring and he handled it correctly, He put his trust in God, His Father. He did not sin. Because He did not sin is why we can trust Him. He knows how to help us in those broken times, He knows how to cleanse us and create newness in us. He knows how to make us better and not bitter. We can trust our Lord with our heart whatever condition it is in.

Jesus is our heart-healer, our heart-maker, our heart-cleanser, our heart-restorer, our heart-deliverer, our heart-renewer, our heart-tuner, our greatest heart-love!

Bow before the Lord, ask Him to help you, give Him your cares, burdens, heartbreaks, be obedient to His word, repent of any sin. All you have to do is sincerely say, “Jesus, I need you! I can’t do it on my own. Help me! I will listen to you!” As you seek Him, you will hear His heartbeat and you can be in sync with Him. He loves and cares for you!

“Leave the broken, irreversible past in God’s hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.” ~ Oswald Chambers