Brown's Daily Word 10-30-07

Good morning,
Robert Robinson had been saved through George Whitefield’s ministry in England. Shortly after that, at the age of twenty-three, Robinson wrote the hymn “Come, Thou Fount.”
Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

While many begin their race with the Lord well, often at some time along the way they stumble and fall, and find themselves wandering off the trail. They end up running from God. Jonah is the patron saint of all of us, those who love the Lord and are prone to run from Him. Jonah is called the "disobedient prophet" and is typical of someone who is running from God. Sometimes this is called backsliding. It is one who has fallen back from a previous position, like someone on a slippery hill.
God told Jonah to go East, so Jonah went West. He went in the opposite direction of God’s calling. Why do you think he did that? The basic answer is that Jonah questioned God’s plan.
Nineveh was the capital Assyria. The Assyrians were known for their brutality and evil. To travel there was risky enough. To preach the judgment of God against them would mean certain death. Even if he wasn’t killed and they did repent, Nineveh would be saved from God’s wrath and Israel would still face destruction. To Jonah it seemed like a lose/lose situation.
Remember when Israel was lead out of Egypt by Moses and they complained the whole way? First it was the army, then it was no water, then it was no food, then it was that the people In the promised land were too powerful. At every turn they doubted God’s plan.
We learn from Jonah that we can’t run from our problems and that we cannot hide from God. Jonah tried to run to the farthest place he could get a ticket. Often people think that they can run away from their problems. People think, "This marriage is hard so I’ll leave and find a new one. This church has problems so I’ll find a new one." This does not work because often the problems we face are not a result of our surroundings but they are from within us and we take them wherever we go. Until we deal with ourselves, they remain.
Keith Green wrote a song called "Run to the End of the Highway", that said:

"Well you can run to the end of the highway and not find what you’re looking for,
Moving won’t make your troubles disappear.
And you can search to the end of the highway and come back no better than
before
To find yourself you’ve got to start right here."

God knows us and sees us wherever we go – whether that is in the bottom of a ship or in the belly of a whale. Sometimes people try to hide from God, but they cannot. Saint Augustine wrote “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” When we run from God our fellowship with Him is broken. Running from God puts us in a struggle with Him. As Jacob learned, you cannot wrestle with God and expect to win.

Keep Sunita in prayer. She is back in Burundi after a brief stay in Rwanda. She returns to Washington, DC on Sunday.
Pray for Linda Ayer, who is going to consult a surgeon today.
Pray for Jack Black, Jack Hoppess, Irving Rosenbarker, and Mahlon Tewksbury.
Pray for our friend, Lauren Helveston (with the Mission Society), as he travels on a mission trip to Russia in November.
Those who live around here, please join us for a special day of worship and celebration on Sunday, November 11. The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble will be with us for worship at 8:30 and 11:00, and then will be presenting a special concert at 7:00 in the evening. These men are very gifted, talented, and anointed. You will be blessed.

In Christ our Lord and Saviour,
Brown

Just click here:http://www.godtube.com/view_video?viewkey=8b47551ad4a26ce3f11a