Jonah and the Fish Named Grace
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,
You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and any cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
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.
Labels: Old Testament
Great Expectations
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.
Labels: Old Testament
What Brings Us Life
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.
Labels: Old Testament
Bigger Than Goliath
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.
Labels: Old Testament
Wake Up Calls
Today, the Raidna family told us what they heard in the story of Samuel from
1 Samuel 3. On a poster board, they illustrated the things that get in the way of us hearing God. When these things are removed, we can hear God and see the things that really matter.
Mary described how the people at the time of this story in Israel didn't know the stories of God. But God called Samuel and gave him a message for Eli. Samuel heard Him and responded as is necessary in a relationship with God.
Question of the week: How has God called you? How can we hear God's call amidst the noise and confusion of our world?
Labels: Old Testament
Grace in the Story of Ruth
16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Today, we talked about the story of Ruth from the Old Testament. Pastor Amy read the story and asked us to look for signs of God's grace in it. One of the things that stands out to me is the faith that Ruth has been given. She must see in her husband's family's character something that she knows she must follow and this is the God of Israel. God is with Ruth when she takes the step out in faith. In the story, she follows Naomi back to Bethlehem, her life is redeemed through Boaz and as we know, she becomes part of the line to David. Boaz healed her brokeness as Christ our Redeemer heals our brokeness.
Question of the Week: When did you see God's grace during a hard time in your own life?
Like Ruth, I think it has been important to me to follow and/or be with people who I know serve the God of Israel who gave us Jesus because His people offer grace to me in different ways all the time. I have been blessed to know so many people who know Jesus.
Labels: Old Testament
Samson and a Grain of Rice
We've heard what faith the size of a mustard seed can do, but have you ever thought about what sin the size of a grain of rice does? While holding a teeny tiny grain of rice throughout all of Pastor Henry's message, all I could think about was how much it was bugging me. I was developing a cramp in my thumb and if I set it on the bump on my shirt, I had to concentrate on it too hard. When I told Henry about it after church, he told me I needed to learn to let go.
Today at MCC, we read the story of Samson from
Judges 16 and everyone was given a grain of rice. Henry asked us if Samson was good or bad. The answer to that we found out is "yes". He was good and bad. Samson thought he could handle a little bit of sin, but we saw how it distorted his whole life. When he didn't keep his eyes on God, he messed up badly.
We saw a picture of how pine beetles the size of grains of rice killed the pine trees in Colorado. Even little sins do the same thing to us, so how do we overcome them? The only way is by handing them over to God who can do something about it. He gave us Jesus for the forgiveness of sin so we look to Him.
Question of the Week: What most surprised you about the Samson story? Maybe it wasn't new, but it was interesting to note that after Samson's eyes were poked out, he really
looked to God and prayed, "O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more..."
Labels: Old Testament
Surprised by Jericho
The Koopman family gave us their reading on the story of Jericho today. Watch it
here!Pastor Amy told us many elements in the Jericho story found in
Joshua 6 that I had never heard before. Recall that the city of Jericho was a large wealthy city surrounded by walls in the Promised Land which the Israelites had enterred. The Israelites marched around the city 6 days in a row while blowing the shofar and on the 7th day, they marched around 7 times, shouted and the walls came down. The Israelites destroyed every living thing in the city except for Rahab and her family because she had helped them. Rahab had a real faith with deeds and that saved her.
Today's Question of the Week: What surprised you about the Jericho story?
I had never heard about the
Legend of Keret. The things which God told the Israelites to do were parallel to and maybe a mockery of the rituals of the Canaanites at that time. In addition, archeological discoveries also point to the truth of this story - for instance the 15 foot stone wall, the 3 foot layer of ash above the rubble of the walls, and the full jars of grain. I also found it interesting to think about how the "trumpets" they blasted were in reality shofars which were both military and spiritual symbols. The priest blew the shofars as a call to confession, and by blowing them around Jericho, perhaps they were calling the city to confess.
Labels: Old Testament
Burning Bushes and Snapshot Moments
Today, our summer intern, Mary Stegink, spoke about the story of Moses and the burning bush found in
Exodus 3. She talked about those "snapshot moments" in life where we sense that God is calling us to change our direction. When we look back, we can see where our life was kind of "frozen" in that moment and we remember it as the time when nothing was ever the same again.
The story of Moses and the burning bush is a good example of one of these snapshot moments. God called Moses out of the burning bush to lead His people out of Egypt. Moses didn't feel worthy of the calling, but are we any more eager to follow God's call than Moses was? We can see how God had been equipping Moses throughout his life for this call, and through this, we should be encouraged to trust that God goes before us when we answer His call.
Meagan and Kyle showed us a painting they made to illustrate what this story said to them. It showed calm waters at the bottom with a blazing fire at the top. This shows how when we answer God's call, our calm lives are set on fire. Some people shared stories of snapshot moments in their own lives... do you have any to tell about?
Labels: Old Testament
Abraham's Test
Today, our intern Jason talked about Abraham's near sacrifice of his son Isaac - the story found in
Genesis 22. God told Abraham to take his ONLY son Isaac to Moriah to sacrifice him. The Bolt family gave us their input on the story and noted that this phrase "only son" reminded them of John 3:16 - for God so loved the world that He gave His only son..." Jason pointed out that this story is a typology - it foreshadowed the story of Jesus' sacrifice in so many ways. At the end of the story, God promises that because Abraham did not withold his only son, He would bless him and make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Today, we are asked by God through His word to offer our bodies as living sacrifices(see Romans 12:1). How can you do this?
Labels: Old Testament
Listening to God in the Story of Noah
Today Pastor Henry asked us to reflect on the story of Noah's Ark. He suggested we listen to the story "with fresh ears". What does the story say about God? About humanity? About God's desire for our relationship with Him? Ultimately, God created us to be in relationship with Him. He wants us close to Him, and to be close to Him we need to listen to (hear) what He tells us.
Question of the week: If God would wash out one thing that is corrupting my life right now that is preventing me from walking in faith with him, what would it be?
I have a tendency to believe Satan's lies and to let his lies make me afraid of the future. I would want God to erase all my memories that are filled with Satan's lies.
Thanks to Cathy R. for writing this today!
Labels: Old Testament
In the Beginning...
Today, we read the story of the creation of the world in
Genesis 1 & 2. The Reeds shared that in talking about the story of creation at home, they also read the book
You are Special by Max Lucado which is a good reminder for all of us to seek daily the one who created us because He is the One who tells us what we are worth.
Pastor Amy contrasted the biblical story of creation with the Babylonian or Mesopotamian creation epic, the Enuma Elish. She noted especially that in the Bible, God (one God) made
order out of chaos, while other ancient traditions spoke of many gods who made things and people to serve them and constantly fought over what they had made and with each other. Creation was a result of God speaking. Even today, we can see how God sorts out situations and infuses them with His life.
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
What new perspective about the creation story did you learn today?I loved the story Amy told about her grandpa who wrote the book, "Science God & You". He thought about how we can't even see some of the stars that God created yet because their light hasn't reached us yet. That was cool to think about because then I was thinking about how we haven't seen all He has created because He is still creating through His people, us! And hopefully, we too are making order out of the chaos in people's lives.
Labels: Old Testament
