When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

Jonah 1:17-2:10 

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” Jonah 2:7-9

I continue my study in Jonah to supplement my church's current sermon series in this book.  In the text today, after Jonah is thrown overboard, God "appoints" a fish to swallow Jonah, Jonah prays to God, and God speaks to the fish and the fish spits out Jonah on dry land. Here are my observations using the Sword Bible Study Method.  

• What do we learn from the text about God?: Consistent with my post yesterday, we must see how God is sovereign over Creation as in 1:17 He "appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah" and how God speaks to the fish in 2:10 and how this causes the fish to vomit Jonah "out upon dry land."  Note how God orchestrates all the details - in this case Jonah is not spit out under water nor into the sea, but "upon dry land."  Clearly God wants Jonah to live and to complete the mission to get Nineveh to repent from its evil and sin.  God wants everyone to repent as He hates sin. God hears our cries and our prayers (2x in 2:2) - we are encouraged to repent and pray.  
• What do we learn from the text about people?: Jonah thought he was going to die, and even after he was swallowed by the fish he still considered himself in peril. Similar to the mariners from my post yesterday who prayed to God, Jonah also prays to God - God calls us to pray, including ceaselessly (see also 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Jonah's prayer is genuine and reflects repentance and how God alone offers grace - so should our prayers!  Jonah makes a vow to sacrifice to Him (2:9).   
• Is there anything from the text God wants us to obey (SPEC: Sins to avoid, Promises to claim, Examples to follow, Commands to obey?): God does not like it when we flee from Him.  Claim the promise that God always hears and responds to our prayers - He appreciates a repentant heart.  Follow Jonah's example to pray, and pray ceaselessly.  Thank God in all circumstances as He is always at work - we may not understand what He is doing but He is at work in all things for good!

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God that is always at work and You always hear my cries and prayers!  Thank You for these blessings and how You save.  I am not deserving of how You love and save.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others. Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

Jonah 1:7-16 

So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. Jonah 1:15-16

I continue my study in Jonah to supplement my church's current sermon series in this book.  Here are my observations using the Sword Bible Study Method.  

• What do we learn from the text about God?: As I posted yesterday,  the mariners threw the cargo overboard and "each cried out to his god," but neither of these actions moved God to relent of his wrath towards Jonah. God wanted Jonah's attention and he got it in the text today...He also got the attention of the captain and his crew as vv15-16 share how once Jonah was thrown overboard, the sea (God) immediately "ceased from its raging[, and]...the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows." The text today does not detail what these vows were but my sense is that they made vows to the Lord to believe and trust Him.  God made the sea rage to not only get the attention of Jonah but also of the captain and his crew.  God wants everyone's full attention!    
• What do we learn from the text about people?: Fear is a great motivator and it often pushes people to desperation.  The ship's captain and crew clearly sought to avoid death, and once they learned how Jonah was a Hebrew but running from God, and then saw how throwing him overboard calmed the sea, they instantly believed (including prayer to God to seek forgiveness for throwing Jonah overboard) in God as King of Kings and sovereign over all including Creation.  Jonah, at the same time, saw God's wrath and recognized that the raging sea was due to his disobedience - nothing anyone could do (including tossing cargo overboard and crying out to their pagan gods).  We often do not discern how our circumstances reflect God's work and in this case God was disciplining Jonah.  God's discipline may also reflect His desire to mold us into more of His image and to prepare us for future ministry.  God wanted to use Jonah to reach the gentiles in Nineveh and for them to repent and Jonah for some reason did not want to perform this mission.  Don't miss what and how God is working in your life - he could be punishing you OR he could just be preparing you for future ministry - discipline as training.       
• Is there anything from the text God wants us to obey (SPEC: Sins to avoid, Promises to claim, Examples to follow, Commands to obey?): Avoid missing how God is using your circumstances where He is using discipline as training.  Claim the promise that nothing is hidden from Him and God is sovereign over all. Follow the example of Jonah and the mariners - Jonah repented from his sin and the mariners prayed to God.  Trust and depend on God for everything in your life as He holds your life in His hands.  

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who loves and saves.  You are in control of all details and You seek my full attention....and You deserve it!  You saved me!  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such love and blessing.  My sin is great and it continues....daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

 Isaiah 45

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Isaiah 45:9

Today, I pause once again my study of 1,2,3 John using the Christ-Centered Exposition commentary series volume for these books to use DesiringGod.com's Solid Joys daily devotional, which today first ensures we know that God is sovereign over everything in the universe and all of its inhabitants (see also post yesterday) - John Piper wants us to see how once we acknowledge this - our natural response is to submit to Him and recognize that we are totally dependent on Him.  Piper uses Isaiah 45:9 and Psalm 100:3 as scriptural reference points for us on these matters.  He goes further by sharing that we are not just totally dependent on Him, but that He is for us! See Isaiah 33:21, 64:4 and Romans 8:31.  Piper concludes the devotion with an awe inspiring and encouraging word by sharing a rhetorical questions that "[c]an you think of anything (I mean anything) that is more comforting and assuring and delighting than that the Lord in his majesty is for you?"  I can't - of course not.  Who can have anything greater than God - nobody!

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of grace and compassion for me - always working for me while I am totally dependent on You - the Creator and Sustainer of All.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such love and compassion and blessing.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:31-33.

I continue my study looking at the life of Paul using John Piper's 30 Reasons Why I Love the Apostle Paul.  Today, I move to chapter twenty-five - Lover of God’s Sovereignty with Tears for the Lost.  Here, John Piper loves and admires Paul for how he understood the complexity of how God is both fully in control over all the details of creation, including the details of our lives, and deeply compassionate for the lost.  First John Piper provides scriptural examples of where Paul describes God's sovereignty, including Romans 9:15-18, 11:36, Ephesians 1:11, and 1 Corinthians 3:6. Piper then moves to show Paul's anguish over the lost, referring us to Romans 9:1-3 and 10:1.  In his anguish, Paul is hopeful because he understands God's sovereignty and power to overcome obstacles to save the lost - Piper emphasizes this hope.  Piper wraps the chapter by pointing us to Lamentations 3:31-33 where he sees "the sovereignty and the compassion of God interwoven in one glorious fabric of justice and mercy*." 

*John Piper. 30 Reasons Why I Love the Apostle Paul

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are good - full of love and mercy for all, including myself - despite my sin that You have washed away and the patience for my ongoing disobedience as my sin continues.  Thank You Jesus.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:14

I continue my study of Daniel in conjunction with a disciple/small group study with my church's men's wake up call. This morning my focus is Daniel 7:1-14 as I lean on my commentary for this text.  The commentary outlines two divisions for this text:

• God Is Sovereign over the Nations (7:1-8): The commentary first starts by emphasizing how God reigns amidst the chaos (depicted as raging seas in v2 where this image is also used in scripture (see also Isaiah 17:12, Job 41:31, and Revelation 17:15) in the world around us, including how nation states rise and fall.  It portrays the beasts which the commentary portrays as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome.  The fourth beast is also described as the anti-Christ. Ultimately all of these kingdoms, and all kingdoms rise and fall at the mercy of God's hand.
  
• God Is Sovereign over His Kingdom (7:9-14): this text is described in the commentary as "the most important verses in Daniel and some of the most important verses in the whole Bible. They are important theologically. They are important eschatologically. And they are important Christologically."  The commentary uses text from these verses to describe attributes of God: holy, pure, righteous, omnipresent, omniscient, wise, judge, in all things at all times, and both loving and wrathful. How the first three beasts are stripped of their power and authority demonstrates how God is full of grace and patience but still ultimately sovereign. Then in v13-14 we see how God is sovereign in how both God the Father and His Son reign. The commentary shares how the reference to the "Son of Man" v13 is a clear reference to Christ as scripture elsewhere refers to this description, including how this was Jesus's own "favorite designated title" (se also Acts 7:56, Revelation 1:13, Mark 10:45, etc.).
  

We should rest in how, despite the chaos in the world around us - don't you see it? - God is in control, and He is saving a place in heaven for us and the victory over sin and death is already won! 

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome and You are before, in, and in control of all things and I know You love and You have sealed me and my salvation for eternity - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of how You love me and saved me.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You...daily.  Help me grow in my faith and glorify You.  Please provide Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved[.]

Ephesians 1

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved[.] Ephesians 2:4-5

I continue my pause of a deep dive of Isaiah, based on the Precept Upon Precept study series, as I alternate the Isaiah study with a study of Ephesians for 3 days per week as I participate in a Discipleship (D) Group that is part of my church. This morning, my focus is Ephesians 1 again, with a specific focus as well on v15-23. Building on my post yesterday, and leaning on this commentary from Chuck Swindoll, Paul seeks for the church  in Ephesus (and all believers who follow) to fully appreciate the spiritual blessings of the inheritance we gain as children of God (adopted by Him).  This morning the text Paul praises God for the faith of the church in Ephesus and prays for them (v16-17), and Paul, through prayer, seeks for the church in Ephesus to: fully appreciate and grasp the hope they should have and the riches of their inheritance, which he defines as the "immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His great might" (v18-19). Paul then goes on to further elaborate on God's might "that He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come" (v20-21).  Finally, Paul wraps the chapter by describing how God reigns over all, including the church, which is described as "his body, the fullness of him who fills in all."  Of course, again, these are words all believers should take to heart and in so doing be encouraged and act boldly (supernaturally with Christ working through us) in light this encouragement. All of this should be understood in the context of where Paul is when he writes this letter - he is in prison in Rome!  Encouragement indeed!

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who adopted me as a child of God and in so doing blesses me with an incredible inheritance that cannot be taken from me. Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such blessings.  My sin is great and it continues.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation 4-8:1

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:13-14

I resumed my D-Group's study of Revelation using Stephen Witmer's commentary and study guide.  My focus this morning is Revelation 4-8:1 where we see a vision of God in Heaven on the throne and Jesus opening the scroll and seven seals representing God's plan for the end times. The memory verse for this week highlights that Jesus is worthy to open the scroll described in 5:1-14.  Jesus is of course the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8) and described in Colossians 1 as  

"the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Colossians 1:15-18

It is certainly important for John to see Jesus as sitting on the throne with God (as the slain lamb) and to hear one of the elders tell him not to weep because Jesus is worthy and able to open the scroll.  This is great news for many reasons because believers need to understand what is about to happen - how Jesus beats sin and death for the final time during the end times. 

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God - worthy and able to open the scroll to reveal to us the end times so we can see how You finally defeat sin and death - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such a God and such a blessing - that You would save me!  Thank You!  I am not deserving.  My sin continues.  Worry, anger, etc.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.