A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to Nineveh

The book of Jonah is the sixth shortest book found in the Old Testament, which makes it a quick read. The literary style of Jonah’s story is a satire. Literary satire aims to make fun of a person, idea, or institution. An author’s motive for using satire is typically deeper than mere entertainment. The book of Jonah is different from all the other Old Testament prophetic books bearing a prophet’s name, because it is not by Jonah but about Jonah. The Jonah narrative uses irony to expose some deep character flaws in this reluctant prophet.

The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

John 13:23 KJV
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

In our reference verse above the Apostle John makes it clear that he knew that Jesus loved him beyond a shadow of a doubt. Yet no where in his entire Gospel narrative does John use his given name or refer to himself as I. How is it in a first person account known as “The Gospel According to John”, that the author never mentions his personal name in the discourse of the account?

BE WHAT YOU ARE

Be what you are.
Cause if you ain’t what you are.
You are what you ain’t.

Jimmy Wolfenbarger taught me that little poem. Mr. Wolfenbarger passed away this past weekend. Jimmy loved his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength. Loving the Lord with all your, heart, soul, mind and strength is the first commandment, see Mark 12:29-31. I know that Mr. Wolfenbarger loved the Lord for two reasons.

“The magnitude of my mission and the ticking clock of time.” That was a statement that I read recently and it literally rocked my world. I was painfully reminded that my time on this planet is limited and there is still much to be accomplished. Goals for my family, objectives for our church, and then my own personal ambitions. Husband, dad, pastor, leader, coach, family member and friend are a few, but not all of the titles that I have. Wearing multiple hats is not always easy and often presses me to the point that I feel as if I am not wearing any of them as well as I would like to.

What in the world is going on? Sorrow upon sorrow, it seems like everyplace we look in the world something terrible is going on. Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters are happening worldwide. Terror in many forms is seemingly on every corner of the world. In the last two weeks, individual Terrorist attacks with vehicles have occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana and Magdeburg, Germany. School shootings are happening worldwide at unprecedented rates, especially here in the United States. Various wars of different scales are going on across the globe. According to the Global Peace Index there are currently 56 countries engaged in military conflicts. Those 56 countries in conflict does not include other countries aiding these combatants with financial or other types of military support. Such as, the United States supporting Ukraine.

This past Sunday my Pastor used John 6:60 for his sermon text. That particular passage reads as follows: “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?”

His thought was basically “Jesus had a lot of followers while everything seemed to be going well. However, once Jesus began to talk about spiritual matters, and the hardships that would soon come upon himself and his followers, many of them left and walked no more with Jesus. (John 6:66)

Luke 19:1-10 KJV – 1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. 4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. 6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

In 2 Corinthians: 8-9, Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to fulfill their pledge to contribute towards a love offering being taken up among the gentile churches for the poor saints at Jerusalem. You can read the details about Paul’s instructions to the church at Corinth for this offering in 1 Corinthians 16: 1-9. You can also read in Acts 11:28 about how a prophet named Agabus by the Spirit foretold this famine before it happened.

A reader recently asked me, “What does a secular contemporary song title have to do with the Bible?”
Previously I attempted to explain why I was using song titles or slight modifications thereof as my article titles. Evidently my earlier explanation was inadequate, as even the editors changed the title on the previous article. So, I’ll take another stab at explaining why I chose a modern song title as my article title.

2 Corinthians 4-7 is actually a continuation of Paul’s expression of true love to the Church at Corinth. The Apostle is serving the Corinthians by sacrificing his worldly fame to tell the whole truth of the Gospel. As many commentators before me have already said the message of the Cross of Christ is a paradox. Jesus told the brothers James and John in the presence of their Mother that Greatness in Heaven is obtained via becoming a servant. Jesus ushered in his Kingdom, by becoming a servant obedient to a death of crucifixion. God’s love for the world is his good news.