Brown's Daily Word 7/28/10

Good morning,
Praise the Lord. It is going to be a brilliant day, indeed it is a gift from the Lord. We will gather for mid-week food, fellowship, Bible study, and the children's ministry this evening starting at 6 PM.
Praise the Lord that He is the Lord of the second chance. We all have at times longed for an opportunity to undo some of the mistakes we have made in our lives. We have all made mistakes in our finances, our careers, our parenting, our marriages… which leads us to wish we could have one more chance, an opportunity to begin again. Louisa Tarkington wrote about it for us in a poem entitled, “The Land of Begin Again”
“I wish that I there were some wonderful place called the land of Begin Again, where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all our poor selfish grief…. Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again. I wish that there were some wonderful place called The Land Of Begin Again.”
Jonah’s experiences remind us that there is such a place, and we serve God who will use those who repent and turn to Him.
First, Jonah discovered that God Gives Second Chances ( 3:1) “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time….” Although our failures can leave us feeling that God could never use us again, that God could never bless us again, and that we are useless in God's work and God’s plan, this feeling comes not from God, but from the enemy of our souls. Jonah found out about this as God gave him a second chance to do His will.
Secondly, Jonah Found Out God Still Had A Plan For His Life (3:2),“saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you."
We serve an awesome God! He has plans for each of us and our multitudes of failures can never be enough to change those plans. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not harm, to give you a future with hope.”
Jonah had failed when he was first called to go to Nineveh, but his failure was only temporary. It has been said that failure is not fatal and does not have to be final. There is a huge difference between “failing” at something and being a failure. Jonah was not the only person in the Bible who “failed” God at some point. Abraham was another. When God promised him that his wife, Sarah, would give him a son Abraham decided to "help" God. Abraham had a child by his wife’s servant. In other words, he “failed” to believe God but God did not give up on him. God made Abraham the “father of many nations”.
Jacob also failed the Lord. Jacob lied to his father, and stole his brother’s birthright and blessing. He “failed” to live as God intended him to live, and consented only after God had wrestled him into obedience, yet God gave him the name “Israel”, representing God’s people.
When the word of the Lord came to Jonah “the second time” it came with the same commission he had received the first time. It was God plan for Jonah to go to Nineveh (1:2) it is still God’s plan for Jonah to go to Ninevah. God’s plan for Jonah had not changed, but Jonah changed. The first time the word of the Lord came to Jonah telling him to go to Nineveh, Jonah had run away, but, having learned his lesson the hard way about the consequences of disobedience, Jonah obeyed.
The truth is that the Lord has things He wants you to do though many of these things never get accomplished. The people God has set apart to accomplish His often refuse to surrender to Him.
Jonah Found Out How Much God Can Do With One Person. (3:3-5) “So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Jonah entered the city and began to proclaim the message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" In the English Bible it is only eight words, and in the Hebrew the message of Jonah contained only five words. This seems hardly impressive, yet those simple words had tremendous results.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 that Jonah was a SIGN to the people of Nineveh.
Because Jonah surrendered to go and because Jonah surrendered to speak God used even the terrible experience of his time in the belly of the fish for His glory. God will do the same thing with our grief and pain. He takes the bad things in our lives and uses them to His advantage. That is what Paul meant when he said in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Because of Jonah’s obedience God’s power moved a whole city to repentance.
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61LamkXfwk