January 09 - Jonah (Pt. 1)

No exercise today. I have decided I will take Sunday's off. Later into this year, I feel this will be a wise choice as my body will need time to recover and rest, as will yours if you are following this. Could I exercise today? Yes, since we are doing such low reps and time, but I am following the schedule as I would in week 53.


The next few days will be a continuation. Today, the passage is Jonah 1:1-12.

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me". 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and head to Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed from Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 The the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 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 the deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 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." 7 Then the sailors said to each other "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast  lots and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"9 He answered, "I am Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." 10 This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" 12 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..."


Have you ever done something that later down the road, whether it be minutes or years, you regretted doing it? Of course you have. We all have. Some people get tattoos and sometimes the next day they wish they hadn't gotten it, or wondered how it even got there. People play the lottery everyday until they don't have anymore money to even buy a tank of gas with. Teenagers take their first drink or smoke their first cigarette and regret it later down the road, because now they know the taste or the addiction has them gripped, as it slowly destroys their lives. We all make mistakes.

Jonah was called to preach the gospel. A lot of people think of a whale when they hear the name Jonah. I do. When I was really small, I once thought that Jonah was the name of the whale, much like other kids who got stories twisted. Thankfully, stories get corrected and truths are still found, just with different characters. Afterall, I don't think a whale would relay the word of God very well to humans, except for in this case...

God called Jonah to preach the word in a city called Nineveh. This was a big calling, because Nineveh was a big city. God sent Jonah because of the corrupt and sinful behavior that had been taking place there. Fear and pride took Jonah over and he ran away from the Lord. This isn't the first time someone has turned and tried to escape God. Adam did the same in the Garden of Eden. God didn't cause Jonah to step in a hole and twist his ankle. No, there is much more of a story to be told and a bigger experience for Jonah.

Jonah sets sail on a boat. Crazy enough, a storm comes and starts shaking up the scene. Somehow, Jonah decides to go to sleep while the ship is getting tossed around. Each sailor calls on their "gods" to try and cease the storm. Obviously, their gods aren't the creator of the seas, much less anything beyond false hope, so the storm continues to rage. They decided that Jonah was the one to blame. It turns out that he is the cause for this disaster. Imagine being the cause of a severe storm while on a boat in the middle of the sea, after all the cargo has been tossed overboard by and angry crew of sailors. From what I know, sailors have terrible language issues, so I am sure they weren't the most pleasant with Jonah.

However, Jonah is honest and truthful about the God that he serves. Maybe this will be a good opportunity for Jonah to show them how real his God is. His solution to stop the storm is a responsible one. He tells them to throw him overboard into the raging sea. Jonah must have some strong faith to say, I will brave the waters and trust the Lord will bring me out of this.

We are called to preach the gospel, to share the good news with everyone in our life. This isn't just a Sunday thing. We are to always present God to those around us, whether verbally or through our actions. We are very fearful of what someone might think. I am certainly guilty of this. "What would this waiter think if I mentioned church? What would happen if I spoke of Christ to my class today? What would that homeless man and everyone passing by think if I pulled over to pray with him?" are my thoughts. Thoughts can keep us from doing what is right.

If God were to call us and say "go to...", I think He might have a hard time picking a location, because we have all gotten so far away from His truths and pure intentions in our lives. The things we watch on TV cannot be pleasing to Him. The music that we tolerate on the radio, the video games we play, the thoughts that cycle our brain all day long, are not very good forms of worship for Him. Party Pooper, you say. Yeah, maybe...or we are so far distant from where we should be that even giving up one thing to become an inch closer to our Creator and King, hurts us because we depend on it. It is hard for us to watch a movie without a bank robbery scene in which someone gets their leg blown off or a movie that is based off of affairs and lies. Our list is too extensive to touch on everything.

The other night, Texas Chainsaw Massacre was on TV and my wife and I watched a few minutes of it. I had never seen it, so I watched it...which I regret. After I had seen a man get cut up, I went to bed. I couldn't do it. "It's just a movie", you say. Well, yeah it is, but the thoughts that go along with it are just as bad. Media is getting worse all the time. Less censorship, more gore. America pays to see it though. You don't believe me? Here:

Saw II brought in $87,039,965 in gross sales in 2002. And by gross, I mean gross.
The Saw franchise has made a total of $415,914,068 in the sales of 7 films.

We are called to preach the gospel. We can do one of two things: run/hide/stay neutral (all the same) or go. It's that simple. We are either doing His work or we are not. If God is willing to thrash a boat in the middle of the ocean to make his point clear and to reveal himself, maybe He is trying to use something in your life, or my life. I need to be more aware of how I am executing His plan for my life. Am I being lazy and neglectful in my daily walk? I have a feeling we could see some great things if we stepped up and lived by the Word...

It's a tough task, but that's what we've been called to do.