The rest of the story - Jonah!

If you spent any of your youth in Sunday School, you know all about Jonah. I think Jonah and I have a lot in common.   I HAVE ignored the calling of the Lord on occasion and I certainly have argued with him over the direction of my life. I guess God has given me a break by not having me thrown into the sea and he hasn't sent a BIG fish to devour me.

My Sunday school teachers always emphasized Jonah running from the Lord and him changing his mind after getting swallowed by a big fish. But, why was Jonah running?  As a kid, I always thought after Jonah went to Nineveh he lived happily ever after. My Sunday School didn't spend much time on the less spectacular part of the story.

 Jonah's reaction AFTER he went to Nineveh says a lot about his reasons for turning and
 running from his calling.

                     Jonah 3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil 
          ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. 

                    Jonah 4:1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He              prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is                  what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and                  compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from              sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to            live.”

Jonah didn't run from the Lord because he thought he wasn't up to the task. He KNEW how effective he would be and he knew the Lord would show mercy to this sinful people. He was MAD that these people were going to be forgiven! He wanted them to suffer for their wrongdoing. 

Are we any different than Jonah?  

My wife and I went to Peru this fall on a mission trip. It was our first trip outside our country. The conditions these people lived in were unbelievable. Their housing conditions, their financial status, and their lives were so different than our own. We went into an open market and saw STACKS of dead rotting fish being sold. We saw live "grubs" being sold as delicacies. We witnessed young children chasing flying ants to eat just like candy. It would be easy to claim we were so much more superior than these people. Our carpeted, 3000 square foot homes, our $30,000 vehicles, and our College Educations are so superior than their own thatched roof huts with no walls, there three wheeled "Moto-cars", and their lack of advanced education. Or are they?

In reality, when these people find the Lord, THEY REALLY FIND THE LORD. When they accepted Christ as their savior, their lives change and they devote EVERYTHING they have to him. In our country even many of the MOST devoted followers of Christ sacrifice very little for their faith. An "Evangelist" in Peru, travels into extreme hostile conditions to share the Gospel. He walks miles and miles to attempt to convert people whose entire lives have been devoted to witchcraft and have never heard of Jesus. They have no Bibles and most of the villagers can't read or write. The gospel has to be shared by word of mouth or more importantly straight from the hearts of believers. 

We are so much like Jonah when we pick  and choose who we share the gospel message with. We want to make sure we share the gospel with those WE choose. We often look for the EASY target and those WE  think are worthy of our message. Bikers often are not considered worthy because they are a hard sell. Many people view bikers as the lowest of the low. They detest their party attitudes. They misunderstand their brotherhood and they only look at the sin that may fill their lives. They are often shunned by the community. In turn, Bikers, are skeptical and suspicious because of the hypocrisy they see in the ranks of the followers of Jesus. They view us as self-righteous and fake. They watch us. Before we ever get the chance to share the gospel, THEY want to make sure our walk matches our talk.  They want to see OUR meaning of love. We don't always set a great example. 

I see so many churches put their faith in programs and activities to draw people to the church. They plan flashy services and hire talented entertainers to share the message. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where is instructs us to put together a concert once a week to draw people to Christ. The message is simple. It just says, GO! It doesn't say, SIT! It doesn't say "Build it and they will come". We are called:

                    "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name            of  the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

As we near the end of 2019 and head into another year. Let's all commit to getting out into the lost and dying world. Get out of your comfort zone. Get out of you church pew and go into the world to share the Good News that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world!  The world needs Jesus and yes there may be many in your church that don't TRULY know him, there is a great big world out there that doesn't know Jesus at all. They need to take the FIRST STEPS to a relationship with him! They may never step a foot into a church and will only hear about him if you GO!  Be bold in serving your savior! 

Going can mean many different things. I choose to go search out Bikers. But, maybe God has given you a passion for Prison or Jail ministry. Maybe he has wired you to work with the homeless. Maybe he has asked you to help families in crisis, pregnant teens, or maybe you are called to go into your own neighborhood. Regardless, GO and serve the Lord. The Lord has called you to be his hands and feet at a time such as this!

Why Lord?

I know I haven't written in such a long time.

Now is a really good time for me to start again.

I am on vacation with my awesome wife, granddaughter and her friend. We have been planning this trip for nearly two years. You see, we have a deal with our grandkids that between their junior and senior years of high school they can plan a trip and we will take them on it. Well, this is Hannah's Senior trip. We had planned a whirlwind three week vacation out west seeing Arches National Park, San Fransisco, Alcatras, Yosemite, Sequoia, Zion, Grand Canyon, and home. The trip was going great until we got to the mountains of Colorado. On the down hill run on I-70, the truck lost power, I could tell we were down a cylinder and she just stopped.

That started a chain of events that just has me puzzled.

To shorten the story, the truck needs to have a NEW motor. The cost will be in the thousands. I mean REALLY in the thousands. SO, here we sit between a rock and a hard place. It is cheaper buying a new motor than a new truck, but this whole thing was just not in the plans. While we are waiting on the replacement, we are continuing the trip. God is amazing and he has a way to humble us. We have rented a car and are back in a TENT camping without our beautiful fifth wheel. We are roughing it. (It's really not that bad). We have seen Alcartaz. The Arches National Park was replaced with Rocky Mountain National Park as we waited on the diagnosis of the truck. THAT was a great swap. We have plans on seeing all our sights and hopefully the truck will be done when we are ready to come home.

But, I am struggling. I believe in a wonderfully powerful God who sacrificed everything for me. He gave his son that I might live forever with him. Stephanie and I are devoting our retirement to serving him through motorcycle ministry. So, WHY would the Lord allow this to happen?  The money we spend on fixing the truck would have been used for our ministry plans. So, why would the Lord, who is completely in charge of our life's plans, allow this to happen?  He has helped us all along this trip of retirement, to get us to ready for service. We have motorcycle ministry scheduled all summer with the fifth wheel. We have a trip to Peru, and more service before the end of the year. WHY LORD?

But, you know what?  We are safe, Hannah is getting her trip. Sure we were a little inconvenienced and sure we are having to spend money we didn't plan to spend. But REALLY that's it. It is not that big of deal. God will still use us, he will provide whatever resources we need and I have to stop feeling sorry for myself. It seems trite, but it is JUST money. We have it, God has blessed us with it and we will spend it so we can serve him.

Today I spent the afternoon with Stephanie, Hannah and Kallee exploring Yosemite. This is my go to place in this world. I just love this place and the wonderful beauty GOD HAS CREATED. Seeing Half Dome, marveling at the MERCED RIVER, seeing El Capitan, and the meadows of Yosemite Valley are CLEAR PROOF of an amazing, all powerful, God. I can not let any small setback keep me from serving this wonderfully powerful God. THE GOD. THE ONE AND ONLY GOD.

Dear Lord, I LOVE YOU. I am so blessed with the life you have given me. I praise you today just as much as I praised you the first day of this trip. I am in awe of you and the sacrifices you have made for me, the greatest is the sacrifice of your Son JESUS. Please forgive me for my lack of faith. Please forgive me for me weaknesses and the sin of doubt. You are MY LORD. You are my redeemer and I will trust you until the end of my day.

We have to fix this!

I haven't written a blog post in a long time. Most of you know I have dedicated this blog to my thoughts about study of the word of the Lord. My love of the Lord has not changed. My love of His word has not changed. My love of pursuing God will never change. But I think I am going in a different direction with my writing. I really don't know if or HOW it will continue beyond this post. I need to let the Spirit of the Lord move me. I think he is moving me right now.

We have to FIX this!

Just like a lot of Americans, I am caught up in the debate about immigration and building the wall. I have to admit I want us to build a wall. I think it is so important for us to protect our country. I love this country. Yes, I love the things it stands for, God, Liberty, Freedom, and love of mankind.  I love that we have found a way, for more than 200 years, to make ourselves better. We have debated and literally fought each other to make this country free for EVERYONE. So many men have sacrificed everything to maintain our basic liberties, the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and the right to bear arms. They have fought to keep this Republic safe and to guarantee freedoms for so many other countries around the world. We also have people, entire groups and countries that want us to die. We have fought them and their only goal is to eliminate our way of life. This weighs so heavily on many Americans that we just want to close ALL our borders and effectively isolate ourselves from the world.  I think we have lost our way and right now we are at a significant turning point. Something has to change.

Our Immigration System is completely broken. Our country has always been so open to others searching for a NEW life. We have always been the land of opportunity. Immigrants have rushed to our shores to pursue a dream of a better life. I love this part of our country's heritage. Our society is so inviting to others around the world. We are STILL unique in the freedoms we provide. But, along the way in the past two centuries, we have lost our way. Our perfect REPUBLIC has been turned into a government control by bureaucrats, money, power, and privilege. IT needs to return to the people. ALL the people. Politicians mascarade themselves with calls of duty and honor, when in fact they really only know selfishness and personal gain. We have such a diverse population, that we still will have major challenges even if we snatch our leadership away from the political elite. But I believe we can do it. But, for now, I have some advice for the politicians in charge:

- Build the Wall - We must use physical walls, personnel, technology, and laws to make sure people entering our country do so the RIGHT WAY.

- Create a path for citizenship for ALL illegals in the country right now - That path needs to include extensive background checks AND rules if they violate significant laws in a 10 year period of time, such as murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, or similar crimes, they are sent back to their country. This system won't be perfect but it is necessary.  There will be backlogs, there will be those that BEAT the system. But, we need to go back to being a country that provides opportunity for those that dream of a new future.

- Set up a BETTER system to allow those interested in coming into our country PERMANENTLY for the right reasons to have a path where they can prove their loyalty to this country.  That should include getting jobs, paying taxes and following our laws, We need to do a better job tracking them during this time period. This is going to take MONEY and PEOPLE to make sure this is done. Harshly deal with those that violate the rules and SEND THEM BACK if they do not follow our laws and immigration policies. Instead of abolishing ICE, we need to expand their ranks and duties to make sure those that enter follow the laws and rules. WE CAN BE COMPASSIONATE, CARING, and A COUNTRY OF LAWS.

- HARSHLY deal with those that come into this country illegally. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!!!!! That includes families or individuals. WE MUST BE A COUNTRY OF LAWS but we MUST DO THAT WITH COMPASSION.

Our country is the greatest in the world. We need to set an example for the rest of the world. We are COLLECTIVELY ignoring the problem and turning it into a political talking point.  WE NEED TO FIX THE PROBLEM. WE NEED TO GET TOGETHER, COMPROMISE, AND TRULY SOLVE THIS PROBLEM.