Living the Message

Today, under clear blue sunny skies and next to the Grand River, we heard the story of God's grace in the book of Jonah. (I almost wrote Noah :) ) We heard about how God provided for Jonah by sending a great fish to keep him alive when he was tossed overboard into the sea. God kept Jonah alive so he could go on to share His grace with the people of Ninevah. And we heard again how God provided a tree to shade him when the sun was hot. When the tree died and Jonah too was wanting to die because of the heat, God said,

God wanted Jonah to keep sharing His grace, but Jonah was reluctant because he knew that God was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and could stop from destroying the city of Niniveh with out his involvement. But the truth is, God uses His people to show His grace and compassion.

Question of the Week: When has God's grace reached you in a dark time?
I can remember times many years ago when I was in such physical suffering that I thought I would be better off dead. I thought of that time when Amy was reading Jonah's words in chapter 4. God and my friends were there during this time to show compassion so that I could keep trusting Him through it. And now I am still here to share His grace with others who need it and I bless God for that.

Today MCC was blessed to have our seminary intern Mary bring us the message from the book of Daniel. Judy, Megan and Henry John read from Daniel 6: 1-23 where we find the story of Daniel in the lion's den. In this story, the advisors of King Darius grew jealous of Daniel and made a plan to get rid of him. Daniel sets himself apart in the story by refusing to compromise his relationship with God. He shows bravery in the midst of great danger, and just when it looks like the bad guys' expectations are going to be met, God saves Daniel from the mouths of the lions.

Question of the week: How do the people who live, work and play around me know I belong to Jesus Christ?

It's so important that we who bear the name of Christ live our lives with honesty and integrity so they see Christ in us. We need to treat all others as fellow image bearers or our witness to Him will not ring true. And like Daniel, we should never let anyone compromise our relationship with God.

Today, Henry & Amy read us the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel from 1 Kings 18. Mary painted a picture of the showdown that occurred on Mount Carmel between Ahab and his 850 prophets vs. Elijah. The pagan prophets raved all afternoon with no answer because their gods were made of wood and stone. When Elijah prayed to the God of Israel, he answered because He is the only God who is alive and gives us life.

Question of the week: What mini-Baals get in the way of your walk with God? What about them is appealing? What helps you get your focus back on God?

Things that cause us to depend on something other than God can become our gods if we devote our life to them - things like power, status, appearance or material possessions. These can be appealing at times because they are things that would seem to make us god of our own life. But these are not the things that give us life! We only need to look to the Bible for what really gives us life. Amen.

This week at MCC, Pastor Henry talked about the story of David and Goliath. In this story, we see how God can defeat the biggest of giants when we look past the giants and up to God. Cathy answered this week's question from her own experience.

Question of the Week: At what point in your life have you had to look up to God?

In the last year, I have been "looking UP" to God a lot more than usual. I have realized that almost any situation can become a "Goliath" situation if I have not had a conversation about it with God. This started when some obvious "Goliath" things happened about a year ago--getting hit in the head last summer, having other health concerns over the last year, challenges in different relationships, financial crunches at home and on the job...Anyhow, as I prayed about those Goliaths, God took care of things. It became more natural after that to go to Him with everything.