JONAH - The Life Interrupted 3 (part1)

Wow...It's been busy the last few days...
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Let's get right to it shall we!!!...

The reading on the 2nd day of my Jonah study started out with a verse from I Corinthians 3:9, and it says, "For we are God's fellow workers."

Priscilla begins by telling us a story about a women that she knows, who works for one of the most people in the country. She says that her friend had to completely change her lifestyle to fit this position because it was so demanding of her that she be willing to drop what ever she was doing at the exact moment her boss would call her.

She always makes sure her communcation devices are charged up and ready to go at an arms length away for when she is called to do something. When Priscilla asked her if she ever felt overwhelmed or disgusted with having to be able to drop everything in a second, her friend responded my saying "No way. It's an honor to have this job. And he's a nice guy. While everything he asks for is not always convenient, he's very considerate. I want to do a good job.".

When we choose to follow Christ, we are accepting a lifestyle of being open to God's "divine interventions" (God's interruptions). Even though His timing is always perfect, we should have the same attitude as the woman above and be willing to put down everything else that doesn't matter and be willing to serve God in what ever way He would have us. We need to remember that being able to partner with God is an honor because we are given the opportunity to help God fulfill His purposes for this generation. In Psalm 145:17, we are given a promise that will not soon be broken, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds."
Partnering with HIm doesnt mean we can't have any plans or ambitions of our own, it just means to hold them loosely and to always leave room to make adjustments as the Lord would have us to do.

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Let's go back and re-write the equations we learned from the previous day...

1. Insignificant Person + Insignificant Task = Interruption
2. Significan Person + Significant Tast = Divine Intervention

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Based on how Jonah responded to the Lord's calling, would you think he considered it as an interruption or devine intervention?
         - I believe that he considered it an interruption because he chose to run from God instead of following what He had said to him first.

Priscilla noted a could more verses to look at and asked that we determine whethere the people refereneced considered God's words to be and interruption or an intervention?

1. First was, Noah (Gen. 6:13-14, 17-22):
• ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress^[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
• ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” ²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

           My thoughts are that he considered this a "divine intervention" because he began doing what God told him to do without asking any questions

      2.  Second was, Gideon (Judges 6:11-27):

• ¹¹ The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” ¹³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
  ¹⁴ The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
  ¹⁵ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
  ¹⁶ The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
  ¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”
  And the LORD said, “I will wait until you return.”
  ¹⁹ Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah^[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
  ²⁰ The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹ Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. ²² When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”
  ²³ But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
  ²⁴ So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
  ²⁵ That same night the LORD said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old.^[b] Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole^[c] beside it. ²⁶ Then build a proper kind of^[d] altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second^[e] bull as a burnt offering.”
  ²⁷ So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.

           My thoughts are that he considered it to be both because even though they listened to God and what He told them to do, they still did it at night because they were fearful.

      3.   Third was, Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8):

•  ¹ At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. ² He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. ³ One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!” ⁴ Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.
  The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. ⁵ Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
  ⁷ When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. ⁸ He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

           My thoughts are that Cornelius considered God's words to be a divine intervention because he did just as God told him to do without question.

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I will be back to post the second part to this day later, but I have to get some work done now...I pray that your day goes well and that you are able to open your eyes and heart to what God has to say to you...