RUNNING FROM GOD

The story begins with a man minding his own business, and then one day, God asks the man to go and take the people of a great city, the message of His love, forgiveness and their need for repentance. The man's name was Jonah. Jonah turned the opposite direction that God had asked him to go and ran away. 

At first, Jonah responded to God’s request by going in the opposite direction, but keep in mind that God foreknew what Jonah’s response was going to be before He even asked Jonah to go. I am sure that while Jonah knew enough about God to know that he should not disobey Him, he stubbornly set aside what he knew to be truth and went with his feelings. Jonah's focus was in the wrong place. 

His focus was on having it his way and not God’s way, and he was willing to make a run for it. I would argue that Jonah did not disobey God when he got on the boat to run from what he knew God wanted him to do, but at the moment God had asked him and said in his heart, "I will not go". You see God had asked Jonah to do something that He knew Jonah did not want to do. Jonah despised the people of Nineveh; they were not descended from Abraham and in fact had a history of treating the Israelites cruelly. The last thing he wanted to do was to take the love of God to a people that he despised. He even stated to God, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” and even in his knowing this, he did not want them to share in the same love and forgiveness that God’s people received. 

Jonah’s disobedient choice ended him up in a whirlwind of disappointment and despair, slap dab in the middle of the belly of an enormous fish. God had placed Jonah in a situation (a time out chair so-to-speak) that was going to make or break his will so that God’s will would rise up and surface in the life of Jonah and accomplish what God had meant for good, to change Jonah and save a people from destruction. But even though Jonah ended up exactly where God wanted him to go, Nineveh, and did exactly what God asked him to do, become the instrument God would use in saving an alien people, Jonah was still angry at God. 

You see, just because Jonah was doing God's will, did not mean that he was happy about it. Jonah prayed and told God exactly how he felt. However, because God loved Jonah and was compassionate to his frustrations, and slow to anger, God really did not want to send calamity into Jonah's life. He instead showed compassion to Jonah by making a vine to grow over Jonah’s head to provide shelter from the hot sun where Jonah had camped out at.  Instead of sending fire and brimstone on Jonah for his lack of love and concern for others, in which he probably deserved, God showed favor. 

This is why in the middle of our own disobedience; God continues to show us favor. Not because we may be doing everything right or wrong, but because He loves us in-spite of how we treat Him or others and God uses His kindness towards us as object lessons for us to learn from. Jonah's selfish heart was revealed when he became angry as the vine that gave him shelter from the sun withered up and died. God had sent a worm that chewed it and caused it to die. Upon Jonah's complaint concerning the dead vine, God asked Jonah if he thought he had a right to be angry, and Jonah actually said yes, he sure did. Jonah said that he was so angry, enough to "even die". 

You see Jonah really believed in his heart that he was in the right. He thought he had every right to be angry and felt like God was being unfair by everything happening to him. This is a prime example of how God tells us as well, that His ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts, and ours not His! Some important lessons that we can learn from Jonah are that when we focus on disappointment and not truth, love and compassion we will in fact become angry, disappointed and many times spiritually walk away from the Lord in certain areas of our lives. It is at that point that we begin a roller coaster ride of emotions and questions as to why we feel so disconnected from God. It almost always has something to do with us either denying what the truth is, or an unwillingness to accept the fact that we may not be able to change the situation. And in our struggle for control, we simply choose to be angry and have a disconnect from God.                                                          

You see, God knows the source of our anger and the inner workings of our mind and spirits, and He knows our limitations even when we don’t. He knows the events and experiences that make us angry. He knows our emotions and feelings of helplessness, fear, confusion, and dismay that lead to our anger. He knows all about our situation. Just as Jonah owned up to God about how he felt, we too need to express our anger to God when we are going through trials and tribulations that seem to push us over the edge and be repentful. He will hold our hand and walk through the anger with us, providing light. It is up to us however, whether we open our minds/eyes to what He is saying. Be sure not to turn away from His truth because it is not what you want to hear. Otherwise, you too may stay in “the whale’s belly” of sorts, as long as it takes to get you to see what God wants you to see or learn what He wants you to learn. And while God does not necessarily send all pain into our lives, He does allow it and He wants to use everything that touches us to grow us and make us more like Him. 

If your struggle is in loving someone or having compassion, God will most certainly send a wind your way to cause you discomfort in order to change your attitude. He wants you to learn that while going through the storm if you will keep your focus on Him and not your frustrations as Jonah did while He is working on you, then the process will not be as bad, nor will it take as long to get through it. He wants you to see yourself as He sees you, or maybe I should say He wants you to see your sin as He sees it. 

In the first chapter of Jonah, Jonah states that he knew that he was in that storm because of his disobedience and because the storm that God sent for Jonah’s sake was having an effect on the people around him in the boat. When Jonah requested, they throw him overboard, that too was Jonah's choice. Once we see it as God sees it, then we can deal with it and overcome it.

Hold Fast,

-Bren                                                                                                                                                     

YOUR FAILURES ARE STEPPINGSTONES

As you read through the four chapters in the book of Jonah, you will see how God demonstrates again and again that His way of working in this world is often, fundamentally different than how or what we would expect or how we would work in that same situation if we were in control of it. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 

God’s infinite thoughts are far greater than our limited ability to comprehend them. The psalmist confirmed this truth in Psalm 139:17, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” God’s thoughts and His ways may not always make sense to us, but we can rest in the knowledge that He is always good and therefore, everything He does is good according to Psalm 13:6, "I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me."

God does not restrict Himself to reaching out to those that we reach out to according to the mercy and grace that we want to extend. For our tendency is to reach out to those we love and who are important to us. God however, reaches out to those we do not reach out to.

In the beginning of Jonah chapter one, the sailors who were pagans, (meaning non Hebrew people) upon the impending storm that was approaching their vessel, “cried out to his own god” Jonah 1:5. While there is no indication that Jonah seemed to think of these gentile sailors as a mission field but merely a means to an end, to get him where he had determined to run away from God to. These men were only as important to his journey as the mast and sails of the ship, but not to anyone to whom his prophetic message might apply. 

God however, did not share Jonah’s perspective. Instead, God reached out to the sailors through his unwilling prophet. The only thing Jonah was willing to say about his God was that He was, “The Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land”  in 1:9. By that time the sailors were beginning to fear God and in verse 14, they “cried out to the Lord,” rather than to their individual gods and in verse 15. God revealed His awesome power, displaying that He truly was the God Jonah spoke of and that He alone created and controlled all of heaven and earth.

The scriptures say that, “the raging sea grew calm.” Whether there was instantaneous calm, or a more natural lessening of the storm, it was abrupt enough to deeply impress the sailors. They “greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him” in verse 16. 

The evidence that these men made sacrifices and vows reflected a change in their beliefs as well as conversions to a faith in the one true God on the part of the sailors.  It is also evidence of God’s tendency to how he does not work by our rules, ways and thoughts. There was probably no one praying for these sailors; no intentional reaching out or building relationships on the part of the missionary; this may very well have been the first time they had even heard the name of God. And yet God worked through what satan was meaning for all their harm, to God using Jonah and his surroundings, completely without Jonah realizing it, to bring these sailors to salvation.

God wastes nothing in our lives, even our rebellion and mistakes. God uses everything to complete the work that He intends to do. Just like Jonah, thinking that he could run from what God was asking of him to do, he quickly discovered that there was no place so far or so deep to run, that God would not find him and make the needed correction in Jonah's life to bring him into obedience. What are you running from today my friend, that is keeping you from surrendering your life to God? Your wrong doings and failures may feel like a waste to you, but to God, they are simply steppingstones to something greater. They are steppingstones to get you to Him.

Hold Fast,

-Bren                                                                                                                                      

GOD WILL USE ANY SOURCE HE CHOOSES

The Bible records a plethora of inconceivable, but true, accounts of God using any source he chooses to make His will known to man. And the story of a talking donkey is in good company along with a burning bush in Exodus 3:2 or the gentle breeze in 1 Kings 19:12, as well as a huge fish big enough to swallow a man as did in Jonah 1:17, as proof of the miraculous mouthpieces God may choose to speak through. 

In the story of Balaam, we find a man who professed obedience to the Lord but grappled with a greedy heart. Balaam was highly regarded by the Moabites and Midianites as a soothsayer Joshua 13:22 and Numbers 24:2-9 who was able to bless or curse with his words. 

Although Balaam lived among pagan idolaters, he himself professed great knowledge of God. As the Israelites encroached on the plains of Moab, the king of the Moabites, Balak, summoned Balaam. He feared the Israelites would attack, and he wanted Balaam to put a curse on them. At first Balaam was reluctant, but in the end, the money that Balak offered him for cursing them outweighed any other reason Balaam had not to do it.

Balaam rode his donkey along with the Moabites to go and curse the Israelites. God knew Balaam’s heart and his ways. To end Balaam’s misplaced anger, greed and selfishness, God sends an angel to block the path. But Balaam, intent on his assignment, doesn’t notice the angel. But the donkey does. Three times.

The first time, it causes the donkey to swerve away. And in an unsettling reveal of Balaam’s true nature, Balaam beats the frightened donkey back onto the path. The second time, the angel stands in a narrow path with walls on both sides. Again, Balaam burst out his frustration by beating the poor donkey. Finally, on the third account, the angel stands where “there is no room to turn, either to the right or the left” in Numbers 20:26.

The donkey was so frightened that it laid down, with Balaam still on his back. Balaam responded by beating the terrified animal who did not have any control over the situation at all.

At this point, Scripture tells us that the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and the donkey spoke. He asks Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” the outraged Balaam cried out, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now” Numbers 20:29.

The donkey reasoned with Balaam asking, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” Then God opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel in the road, sword drawn. It was only at that point that Balaam fell on his face in reverence. The angel admonishes Balaam, asking why he beat his donkey heartlessly instead of realizing that his path was reckless. 

Now Balaam, a man who claims such devotion to God he can speak his very words, admits that he has sinned. He responds with “I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back” Numbers 20:34. With that said, Balaam turned back and stood by his pledge to only do what the Lord told him to do, by not cursing the Israelites.

In this account, the voice of God came through a donkey to convince Balaam of how his desire for prize money was blinding him and separating him from the work God had called him toward. In other accounts like the prophet Jonah, God used a storm, a huge fish and a tiny worm to speak on His behalf to a selfish prophet to reveal Jonah's sinful heart towards a people that was in need of God's grace, His mercy and salvation.

Disobeying God never pays off. We cannot run from God, nor can we thwart His plans to do a thing. Scripture is full of wisdom and life lessons if we will seek them out and follow the right path. 

Hold Fast,

-Bren

HOW GOD SEES YOU

 Do you see yourself as limited in some way? Do you think of yourself as being less than what you think you should be? If so, sweet friend, may I tell you to know that your negative attitude will quickly change when you begin to see yourself in the light of how God sees you. It’s an incredible experience to discover how God perceives us, as it shapes our identity and sense of worth. The beauty of scripture reveals that we are valued, loved, and cherished in the eyes of our Creator. When we engage with His Word, we find comfort and encouragement that guides us through the challenges and joys of life.

Though sin certainly stains and tarnishes our life in many ways, God sees us the way that you and I were created to be and not defined by our events, wrong choices and circumstances. He knows that we are all sinners and fall short because the scriptures tell us this in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. He did not wait for us to repent of sin, get perfect or do anything at all to love us, He just loved us. Even while we are at our worst, He died for us because he loves us that much.  When He looks at us, He sees the potential that He created in us to have.

Understanding that we are created in His image is one of the most foundational truths about how God sees us. This truth assures us that we possess a value and dignity that is not of our own making. As His creation, and through the power of His Holy Spirit, we can reflect His qualities, such as love, creativity, kindness and grace to others as we are called to represent Him on Earth by being His hands and feet. When we embrace this truth, it not only empowers us but also encourages us to see ourselves and others in a new light. It would serve us well to remind ourselves daily, of our divine origin, knowing that God created and crafted us with purpose.

Now with that being said, it is up to us to make the effort towards reaching that potential, but even in our frailties and weakness, God sees in us the best that we “can be”, when surrendered to His will. His very word encourages us to renew our minds to His way of thinking and that we put on the new man, which is the new nature that God places in us, as we turn to Christ in repentance for salvation. For it is that new nature in us that seeks to be like God in true righteousness and holiness according to Ephesians 4:23-24. It is the new nature that allows us to see things as God sees them. 

The Bible says that our ways and our thoughts are not His. But once we receive that new man or new nature that comes from God, the dimness of how we see ourselves becomes ever so clear to us and we become humbled and grateful to God for His deep and caring love. Since God’s love for us is so immeasurable, we need never to feel alone, unloved or unimportant, even in our darkest moments. For it is in those times that God is trying to turn our attention to Him. Once we surrender our all to Him, how we view ourselves and others will change and a sweet peace and joy will replace those negative feelings that the old sinful nature in us is fighting to have its way. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10

Hold Fast, 

-Bren

THE STORY OF THE HEM

There is a story that is recorded in Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48 about a woman who had suffered from a chronic issue of blood for twelve years and had spent all her resources seeking a cure without success. Hearing of Jesus, she approached Him in a crowd and touched the fringe or hem of His garment, believing that this act alone would heal her. Immediately, her bleeding stopped, and Jesus acknowledged her faith, saying, “Daughter, your faith has made you whole”.

In Jewish culture, the hem or fringe of a garment symbolized one's obedience to God’s commandments. That practice or significance of the tassel comes from Numbers 15:37–41, The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them this: ‘Tie several pieces of thread together and attach them to the corners of your clothes. Put a blue thread in each one of these tassels. Wear them from now on. You will have these tassels to look at to remind you of all the Lord’s commands. Then you will obey them and not be disloyal by following what your bodies and eyes want. Then you will remember to obey all my commands, and you will be God’s holy people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God."

Touching the tassel was an expression of faith in divine authority. What the woman in this story did, was a bold act because, under Levitical law, her condition made her ceremonially unclean, and she risked social and religious censure by entering the crowd and touching Jesus. Her deliberate action highlights both her courage and her deep belief in Jesus’ power to heal.

The hem of Jesus’ garment represents access to divine grace to meet our needs through faith. The narrative underscores that faith, even in a small act, can connect believers to God’s power and mercy. In the Gospel accounts, the word translated “hem” doesn’t mean the sewn bottom edge of a robe as much as it means the fringe/tassel on the edge of a garment. So, when she touched His hem, she most likely reached for one of the corner tassels on Jesus’ outer garment, his cloak. 

The tassels weren’t a magical object. They were a wearable reminder of God’s covenant Scripture woven into their daily life. By Jesus’ day, this practice was widely known, and Jesus Himself mentioned tassels when He was rebuking religious leaders for turning them into status symbols in Matthew 23:5.

This woman intentionally sought Jesus despite public and manmade restrictions, showing that faith often requires purposeful effort. She had lowered herself in all humility as low as she could get, knowing that even the tassels that hang low on Jesus' garment would be the easiest part to touch in a crowd and would be all that she needed to get from Him what she needed. It shows her mindset. She was not grabbing Jesus to stop Him, she was reaching for the smallest contact to Him, believing His power was enough.

She believed that by merely touching Jesus’ garment He would bring her healing, demonstrating her simple trust in God’s authority. This story emphasizes to us that faith can result in transformative, immediate outcomes, as Jesus recognized the power that went out from Him when she touched Him. Jesus’ response shows His awareness of an individual's faith and His willingness to respond with compassion and affirmation to it. I fear that many of us today have not because we do not have the true faith required of us, or we either ask with wrong motives. Faith can only come from a new heart, regenerated by God; therefore, faith itself is a gift from God. Faith takes our hope and puts feet to it to accomplish in us what is needed.

The hem of Jesus’ garment represents access to divine grace to meet our needs through faith. The narrative underscores that faith, even in a small act, can connect believers to God’s power and mercy. The point isn’t the hem/fabric; it’s that she believed even the slightest contact with Jesus was enough. This woman’s story is a profound example of faith, courage, and the transformative power of Jesus’ healing, illustrating that sincere belief and deliberate action can lead to spiritual and physical restoration within the will of God. Today sweet friend, your faith can lead you to Jesus to find the answer to your need, will you go to Him?

Hold Fast, 

-Bren

ARE YOU IN THE FAITH

 The Parable of the Wheat and Tares, from Matthew 13 in the Bible, tells of a farmer who sowed good seed, but an enemy sowed poisonous weeds called tares, that look like wheat. The similarity between these two plants is so great, that in some regions tares also known as darnel is called "false wheat". The tare bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears on the stem.

In the story the farmer forbids his servants from trying to pull them up in order to separate them knowing that they would uproot some of the wheat as well as the tares. Instead, he instructs them to let both grow up together until the harvest season and then at that point they could better distinguish between the two as the real wheat versus the false tare. Jesus was indicating that the field is not the church; it is the world.

This waiting process symbolizes the end of the age, when God's angels will separate the wicked which will be thrown into the fire, from the righteous that will be gathered into the barn that represents eternal glory. This parable teaches that good and evil coexist in the world and oftentimes wicked people mask themselves as God's children and can be found in the church houses all around the world. 

This will continue until the final judgment according to scripture and is symbolized by the great harvest of souls. At that point, all humanity will be separated from each other, the true child of God, from the false Christian. Jesus was teaching that any attempts to prematurely remove the wicked can harm the righteous.

The enemy in the parable is Satan. The field is the world. The devil tries to destroy Christ’s work by placing wicked people and false believers in the world to work unrighteousness even in the church house. But the church’s job is not to rid the world of sinners, any more than it is the wheat’s job to pluck up the tares, but simply to lead them to salvation through personal conversion to Christ. In the parable, Christ allows the tares to remain until His return. At that time, angels will separate the just from the unjust and the true from false believers. 

Judgment is coming, but in the meantime, God takes steps to ensure that His children are not adversely affected by His judgment on the wicked. God does not want to “uproot the wheat,” no matter how many tares there may be in the church.

Tares, especially in the early stages of growth, resemble wheat. Likewise, a false believer may resemble a true believer, at least superficially. In Matthew 7:22, Jesus warned that many profess faith, but do not know Him, and 2 Corinthians 13:5 reminds us that each person should examine his or her own relationship with Christ to confirm to themselves if they are in the faith or not. 

Hold Fast,

-Bren

MAPPING OUT YOUR DESTINATION

 When my husband travels, he always prepares his way by using Google maps to map out his destination. After he first puts in his destination, he likes to see his options on the different routes that he can choose from to take. Google maps as you may know inevitably offers multiple ways to arrive at most any destination.

The options offered may include the “avoid highways” route, the “tolls required” option, or the “fastest route.”  While Google Maps lets him be in the driver’s seat, literally and figuratively, it offers him many different ways to get to where he wants to go.

Many people believe that salvation works like Google Maps. While they may believe in heaven as a final destination, they believe that there are many ways to get there. Most people would tell you that they want to go to heaven when they die, yet they believe that there are multiple ways to get there, and they simply are free to choose the one that they prefer. This sounds great, however according to the Word of God it is not true.

While teaching his disciples concerning the eternal passageway to heaven in John 14, Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus in verse 5 asked the question (that was probably on all of the disciple's mind), “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”. In other words he meant, "we don’t know the destination, so how are we to know the route?".

Jesus answered Thomas in verse 6 by proclaiming, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In other words, there are no options on the route to eternal life, there is only one way, and Jesus is that way. Jesus didn’t say he would show them a way or that he would merely pave a path, but he said that he himself is the way. In John 12:46 Jesus proclaims "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." Yes, he even lights the way for us to find salvation through him, as we put our trust in him and believe that he is the truth and the way.

Jesus’s answer in verse 6 is astounding: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” His answer is clear and exclusive; no one will come to the Father any other way. Because Jesus had already told his disciples that he and the Father are one in John 10:30. His answer to Thomas declared that he, Jesus, was and is the standard for both, the destination and the route to heaven.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” Matthew 7:13-14. The word “narrow” is offensive to many. Today we live in an age of tolerance, except tolerance for what Jesus commands in Scripture. Society will tell us to “believe anything we want to believe.” But I can assure you that people have no authority to lower the standards that have been put in place by the God of the universe and the Savior of men’s souls. There is no bargaining with Him. Jesus confirmed that on the cross when he said, "It is finished".

Jesus is life. He is the author of life according to Acts 3:15. And he came to give his life for us and to us. Remarkably, Life himself made the way for us to have life through his death. Because Jesus willingly went into a tomb, he paved the way, the only way, to the other side of the tomb for all who believe in him.

Where do you place your eternal hope and choice to be? While mapping out your destination, which route will you take, it's your choice, but remember there is only one way and his name is Jesus. Believe in him and live.

Hold Fast,

-Bren