Day 128: Recap

What a week it has been, I am just finishing finals weeks and move out day, and I am on my way home, but here is the recap of the week.

Day 121: From Adam to Jesus
Today we talked about to connection between Adam and Jesus, and how Jesus is referred to as the second Adam. We focused on quite a few scriptures today: 1 Corinthians 15:45, Colossians 1:15, Philippians 2:8, 1 Peter 2:24, and Colossians 2:14.

"Jesus did what Adam could not do by carrying the sin of every man on His shoulders and taking it to the grave and being raised from the dead three days later. By doing so he defeated the power of sin and death, so we no longer have to live in sin. We are no longer connected to the sin of Adam."

Day 122: Don't Wear Yourself Out

Today we talked about taking care of ourselves, our physical bodies. Something that gets neglected often when it comes to our faith. We focused on Genesis 2:2-3, Mark 2:27, Exodus 34:21, John 4:3-6, and Mark 4:38.

"...All this to say, Know your limits. I know we all want to be limitless and superhuman, but our bodies can only take so much. Listen to your body when it’s telling you to stop or rest, most times it’s right."

Day 123: No One Compares

Today we dived into Psalms 89:6-7, and talked about what we really mean or believe when we say no one compares to God.

"If we know that there is nobody or nothing that compares to God. Why do we act like there are things that can compare to the goodness of God? What I mean by that is sometimes we use God as a last resort like He couldn’t give us what we needed had we gone to Him first."

Day 124: Let's Not Jump to Conclusions

Today we talked about how many times we jump to conclusions too quick. We focused on Genesis 12:10-20 and Proverbs 2:8.

"...We think we know how the story is going to end or what will happen because we got a small taste of something. when we really have no idea. "

Day 125: On the Detour

Today we explored the book of Jonah, and how even though Jonah tried to run from God, he encountered God in the midst of his running. We focused on Jonah 1-3:5.

"I think many of us know what it’s like to not only run from God but encounter Him in the midst of our running. We, like Jonah, often have to go through the hard times in order to learn."

Day 126: Carrying the Wrong Cargo

Today we continued with the story of Jonah, but we focused on the men on the ship. These men tried to save Jonah even though it was causing them all to suffer.

"Sometimes we try to play superhero to people not realizing we are getting in the way of God’s plan. God knew what He was doing, the only way for the storm to cease was for Jonah to be thrown overboard, which is why they never made it to shore."

I love you, I hope you have and amazing Sunday, enjoy your day, go back and read your favorite from this week, share it with someone, and come back tomorrow for Day 129!

For those of you graduating and preparing to graduate, CONGRATULATIONS! For those of you finishing up finals week, you made it, get some rest. For those of you preparing for finals week, I'm praying for you. You got this!

Day 126: On the Detour

We all know the story of Jonah and how he ran from God. I want to break it down a bit and talk about how we encounter God on the detour.

Jonah was a prophet of God, meaning he was God’s mouthpiece. Chosen to speak the words God told him directly. So God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, and tell the people that if they don’t repent destruction is coming. Instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah was like nope, I’m out. He tried to go to Tarshish. He went to Joppa, hopped on a ship and was on his way to Tarshish. He never even made it there, God sent a storm when he got on the boat and the people staring praying to their gods, and throwing cargo over, but Jonah was the cargo that really needed to be thrown over. They go to Jonah, who was sleep. He was sleeping, he has brought havoc on these people's lives because he don’t want to list and now he’s down there sleeping while they are dealing with the storm caused by him.  So they go to him and ask him what he did, and he tells them he was fleeing from the presence of God. (Jonah 1:7) Then he tells them to cast him into the sea, and then the storm will be stopped. They tried to get back to dry land so they wouldn’t have to throw him overboard, but it was impossible. So they picked him up and threw him into the sea, and the scripture says, in the same sentence, “the sea ceased from its raging” Then it say God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah up. Hold up, okay so God appointed a great fish. He instructed a fish to go and swallow Jonah! That’s mind blowing! Okay back to the story. Jonah stays in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

Now when I’ve seen this story depicted in picture books and things of that sort, it made it look like Jonah was in a motel. But I don’t think it was that way at all, I’ve never been in the belly of a fish and I don’t plan on it. Most people in the belly of fishes are dead so no thank you. But Jonah wasn’t dead, that’s a miracle in itself, God allowed a fish to swallow him but not kill him. Leave to God to do something miraculous like that, that only He can do. But Jonah is in the belly of this fish, and I imagine it’s dark, probably slimy and wet, very uncomfortable. But Jonah is in the belly of the whale and it is there that he starts praying, and it was then that God ordered the fish to somit Jonah up. After that experience Jonah then goes to Nineveh to do what God told him to do from the very beginning.

I think many of us know what it’s like to not only run from God but encounter Him in the midst of our running. We, like Jonah, often have to go through the hard times in order to learn. Growing up my parents would often let us make mistakes fr ourselves so that we can learn from them because telling us wasn’t enough we had to experience it in order to take their word for it. This is a common thing within humanity. Why is that so, why do we have to bump our heads to see that it hurts. Why do we have to take a detour before we realize that the straight path was there all along. Some people may disagree with me when I say this, but experience produces growth in many cases. Sometimes we have to fall to know that we can get back up. Sometimes we have to experience bad things in order to know what is good. I think God use the very disobedience of Jonah to have an encounter with him, to get his attention. There was no one else he could talk to but God while in the belly of the fish, No one else. We sometimes cause detours and bring certain things upon ourselves, we run away from God, but He will not let us get too far, even if that means taking drastic measure like causing a whole person to be swallowed by a fish. When we read the scripture we will see that Jonah never made it to Tarshish, he set out to go to a place God told him not to but his plan was intercepted. We might try to run away from God but He sees us and HE sees what we are trying to do and He will step right in and block it because He knows that his plan is better than whatever it is we are trying to do.

Response

Today I want you to read the book of Jonah or at least the first three chapters, and read what was talked about today, and responds. There is no prompt today. After that, have a conversation with god, talk to him about whatever is on your heart.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone and be sure to come back tomorrow for day 127!