"We stayed in our missionary friend’s house, as promised, until they returned. Now it was time for us to move to the jungle-like area of Belize – known as the ‘forgotten’ land. This is probably because there is . . ."
What’s the difference between being faithful and having faith? How can we prove ourselves faithful and do the right thing? Barbara Sandbek shares the answers to these questions on today's episode of "Grace Notes".
"Things had been falling nicely into place for the Sandbeks in their
quest to build the first Christian radio station in southern Belize. God had prepared people to pray, donate and work toward the
establishment of that station even before they arrived. But God . . ."
Listen to this edition of "Grace Notes" to learn what God had in mind.
Three days after we arrived in the sun-scorched land of Belize we finally made it to our destination. God had provided the home of two missionaries on furlough for us to use for our first three months. They needed someone to watch their house and we definitely needed a place to stay. In retrospect, we can’t imagine what it would have been like to try to set up housekeeping from scratch.
On our program today, Barbara Sandbek will show us how God worked good out of some tough situations situations that arose
when she and her husband, Dale, first arrived in southern Belize, where they were planning to build the first Christian radio station.
So far, we’ve discussed the fact that we need to identify our calling, accept the burden that goes along with it, pray to love those we are going to serve, and count the cost before we begin. Now we’re ready to start the planning process – which you’ll see is key to a successful mission.
So you want to go on the mission field, do you? Have you counted the cost? Oh, I don’t mean just in dollars and cents. That’s obviously needful, but there’s more to it than that.
From the world’s perspective, the ROGET Thesaurus lists synonyms for missionary as ‘Holy Joe’, ‘Bible Beater’ and ‘Glory-roader’. Could it be that the general perception of a missionary might be incorrect?
Faithfulness…what does it mean? Webster defines it as loyal. And ‘loyal’ is defined as faithful to a trust or confidence – true to duty or love. Is that the definition you had in mind? On this Grace Notes program, Barbara begins a new series which will take us on a journey with the prophet Elijah. We’ll see how God worked THROUGH Elijah to demonstrate His faithfulness to His people, Israel, despite their unfaithfulness.
We’ll also see how God worked IN Elijah to groom him to truly be a man for the times. So, buckle your seat belts, and get ready to roll with the prophet of old.
In describing Jonah’s personality, one commentator wrote…
He was a proud, self-centered egotist: willful, pouting, jealous, and
blood thirsty; a good patriot and lover of Israel, but without proper
respect for God or love for his enemies.
What a poor assessment of a man who is supposed to be God’s spokesman. Do you think God will use Jonah with an attitude like that? We’d say ‘no’, but that’s where God’s mercy comes in. God extended mercy to Jonah by saving his life, and in His mercy, gave him another chance to obey. The poet Robert Frost said, "After Jonah, you could never trust God NOT to be merciful again." …So true.
God is a God of second chances and we’ll see that demonstrated on our program today.
So far in our study of Jonah, we’ve learned that God wanted to REACH out to the pagan Gentiles of Ninevah with His mercy, so He REVEALED a message to His prophet, Jonah, and told him to go there and preach it, but Jonah REACTED by RUNNING away. On this program, we’re going to reenact what happened as a result of Jonah’s disobedience. The setting is Joppa, a seaport about 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem - known today as Jaffa. A ship is docked there and about ready to leave. It’s destination - Tarshish, a mining colony in Spain.
Looks like a nice day for a cruise. Hey…there’s Jonah boarding the boat now.
The definition for the word ‘repent’ is ‘to feel remorse, contrition or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do’. Oswald Chambers writes…
Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying “I have sinned.”
The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means
it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes.
On this program Barbara Sandbek, will look at Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish and see if he is truly repentant.
In our study of the book of Jonah we’ve seen God SPEAK a command to Jonah, Jonah SIN by running away, God SEEK out Jonah, Jonah SURRENDER to the call, God SPARE Jonah’s life, and finally God SPEAK His command to Jonah a SECOND time.
God was merciful to Jonah in saving his life and in giving him another chance. It’s now time for Jonah to extend God’s mercy to the Ninevites. Jonah still doesn’t agree with what God is going to do, as we’ll see later, but he does yield his will to do what God commands. On our program today we’ll follow Jonah to Nineveh and see why God was so insistent on having this mission completed.
