Day 64: Amos 5-9, Obadiah, and Jonah

Jonah and the big fish is probably one of the most recognizable children’s Bible stories. It is top 10 most told in most churches.

It’s up there with Noah’s Ark, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Joshua and the walls of Jericho, and Jesus’ life. And almost none of those stories are actually child appropriate. Other than Jesus, they are stories of disobedience and slaughtering.

But I digress… back to Jonah. Jonah is probably the most American-ish person in the Bible. You can make a case for the rich, young ruler… but I’m going with Jonah.

If we look at Jonah’s 4 chapter life:
- Chapter 1 – He runs away from God instead of obeying, He claims to be the follower of God and yet the other sailors are the only ones who fear God, and Jonah attempts suicide instead of obeying God
- Chapter 2 – Jonah is stuck in the fish, so He asks God’s forgiveness (it seems genuine… and most children’s stories would make this seem like he is repenting… I have my doubts)
- Chapter 3 – Jonah gives a 7 word altar call, he never says anything about God
- Chapter 4 – Jonah gets mad at God for forgiving Nineveh, he wants to see fireworks (Sodom and Gomorrah style), then he got mad when God’s blessing is taken away

Jonah is a quality hero of the faith. He is never seen in a positive light. BUT… we teach our children that he is a hero.

Why? Because he gets eaten by a fish? Because he gets spit out by a fish? Because God uses him to save 120,000 people?

And all this, through a terrible attitude.

Wow… does this sound like American church or what? We want God to use us… we claim to “follow” the One true, but when it gets hard… we run away.

How many times in my life have I run away instead of obeying God’s voice? Too many to count.

How many times has God done something great and I had a bad attitude about it? Too many to count.

I can remember one time very specifically. I was in Brazil on a mission’s trip. Our group was performing skits and giving testimonies. I had volunteered to share the gospel at the end and was all excited and had all these verses I was going to use.

Then, one by one the skits went and with each skit one of the teens gave a testimony. And get this, they used my verses. They started talking about MY verses.

So, finally I got up there after all the skits and testimonies and I went to share the gospel. The only verse I had left was Romans 6:23. So, I talked about my 1 verse and we sang a song.

The whole evening, I was kind of ticked that everyone had stolen my thunder. They used MY verses.

2 women came forward and accepted Christ as their Savior that night. And while that was exciting, I was unhappy that it wasn’t ALL ME.

Then later, we were on the bus on the way back to the Santos’ home where we were staying. And Misti said something to me that I will never forget. She said “You didn’t get to do it all, because God used us all.”

And still I was not happy. This was my moment.

After about 20 minutes of being back at the Santos before our nightly devotions, I was on the toilet. (TRUE STORY) And I was thinking about what had happened and what Misti had said (which I wasn’t happy about).

And God basically punched me in the stomach. I realized how prideful and full of myself I was. I realized it’s not about me. It is all about God.

All I cared about was MY verses. It’s God’s Bible. It’s His Words. I just had the privilege of sharing them with these Brazilians.

I was Jonah. But, God changed my attitude. I can only hope that eventually God changed Jonah’s attitude.

As a youth pastor, I find myself falling into this trap still. It’s not MY ministry. It is GOD’s ministry that He allows me to lead.