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Sailors Rebuke
Jonah Jesus
one time spoke of the “sons of this world” in Luke 16.8.
The point He makes is that those of this world often show more wisdom
than the “sons of light.” We see
this in the Book of Jonah. Most if
not everyone has heard of the story of Jonah.
This man was told by God to go to They
prayed to their gods when they were in the midst of the storm.
Albeit their prayers were to a false deity and did no good, they were
still showing more faith in their false religion that Jonah in his religion.
It is interesting that many of our neighbors will talk about the power of
prayer and faith in God answering their prayers than we sometimes do.
We are told to pray without ceasing, 1 Thess. 5.17.
John tells us that God answers our prayers according to His will, 1 John
5.14. Our first thoughts when we
face trials and temptations should be to pray to God for help.
Likewise we should pray to God when things are going great. They
understood that Jonah tried to run away from his God.
Although their false gods did not really exist I dare say that they never
thought they could just run away from their gods.
One can not hide from deity. “Where
can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend
into heaven You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there”
(Psalm 139.7-8). There is not a
place we can go that God’s presence is not there.
Yet man sometimes tried to hide what they are doing.
Christians go on vacation and think that they are at liberty to gamble,
drink, curse, commit fornication and no one will know.
Yet God knows what occurred and He is the one that counts the most. The
sailors also understood that the storm was because of Jonah’s disobedience.
Most religions connect disobedience with punishment.
Yet some that profess to be Christians think they will not be punished
for their sins. Those that believe
in “grace only” or “faith only” belief they are saved apart from
obedience to God’s word. For the
life of me I can not figure out what they do with passages such as Matthew
7.21-23 and James 2.24, 26 except to ignore them.
They hold to their Calvinistic views and say that there is nothing we can
do to be saved if we are not of the elect. However,
the Bible plainly teaches that we must keep the words of God in order to be
saved. ”Though He was a Son, yet
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected,
He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews
5.8-9). Obedience like faithfulness
is a full time thing. One can not be
partially obedient no more than one can be partly faithful.
Either we are doing what God said or we are not.
This does not rule out repentance, for we can ask God for forgiveness and
be in fellowship with Him. Many in
this world are more committed to their religion than those that know the Gospel
of Christ. We see suicide bombers
killing themselves in service to Allah. We
see others wear strange clothes, or commit themselves to hours of personal
evangelism to spread their religion. Yet
those that believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God often are embarrassed to be
zealous in teaching His word, or want to blend in with those of the world in
their dress and speech. The
sailors with Jonah understood that Jonah should have obeyed His God and preached
to the people of |