The Wideness Of God's Mercy

"Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it." Jonah 1:2

       At the court of Jeroboam the Second, Jonah prophesied success against Syria, and his prediction was fulfilled, for Jeroboam recovered Damascus and Hamath and restored the borders of Israel. The word of God now came to Jonah to go against the great city of Nineveh and pronounce its doom, unless it repented of its sins. The prophet was in an evil case. His patriotism forbade him to reach out a hand or foot to serve that great nation which would one day swallow up his own people, while his fear of God was a strong motive in his breast to obey. Before his eyes passed a vision of the time when the armies of Asshur and the fierce warriors of Chaldaea would swoop down from the northern plains upon that little nation and carry them away captive, planting the deserted villages and lands of Samaria with the people of Arva and Cutha and Sippara. These strange people with their strange gods would hold their riots in the halls that were once blest, while the Hebrews would be placed in'Halah and Habor, cities by the river Gozan, separated from all they held dear, and surrounded by a proud idolatrous race. Such a night mare hovered over Jonah, and compelled him to fly far from his homeland. In Balaam we have the case of a prophet who wished to carry a message contrary to the will of God. Here we have the instance of a prophet who wished to avoid performing a duty the Lord had laid upon him. In the long run, conscience proved stronger than fear or patriotism. But the battle was fiercely contested and protracted within the prophet's soul. Loth to convey a message that might prove the salvation of his national foes, he took ship for Tarshish, a port in Spain, with Phoenician merchants. But his purpose was frustrated by the storm, and he was cast into the waters, and then from the depths of Sheol he cried with a bitter cry to Jehovah to save him from his peril. The Lord had mercy upon him, and, after an experience which we need not discuss now, he was cast out upon the shore. There, as he lay helpless on the beach, the word of the Lord came to him and bade him hasten to Nineveh and deliver his message.

       The original opportunity indeed was now gone. The prophet had lost the honor of at once obeying the Divine commands; he had tasted the agony implied in preferring his own inclinations to the will of God. But God had brought good out of evil, had taught him the beauty of repentance and the greatness of His mercy. And, surest proof of all that he was quite forgiven, the Divine Spirit had come back, the great impulse arose, which formerly he had fought against and beaten down, " Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it." With a heart purified by repentance and softened by pardon, Jonah was now able to enter into the mind of God, to comprehend the feelings with which He looked down on a vast community of human beings who had forgotten His name and His nature. He him self had experienced the unfathomable pity that was in the Divine heart, God's earnest desire to show mercy, His unwillingness that any should perish. He had discovered that the heathen were not necessarily destitute of every human virtue, and that they were not completely averse to the worship of the true God. So wonderful indeed are God's ways of dealing with the hearts of men that Jonah was probably a fitter messenger to Nineveh after his attempted flight than he had been before. By our very failures, God educates us to do His will.  C. H. Gomill, The Prophets of Israel 

Focus Your Thinking & Lather up with a bit of SOAP:

Scripture: "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it." Jonah 1:2

Observation: What strikes me the most about the life of Jonah is not this old prophet's disloyalty. Most of us are disloyal to God before we are trained to be otherwise. What strikes me the most about the journey of Jonah is that God doesn't let Jonah abandon what is best or right for him to do concerning the ministry he has been called to. God's loyalty to Jonah's calling is tenacious, to say the least. He doesn't let Jonah resist to the point of failure, he guides him and then rescues Jonah's calling when all seems to be impossible, for nothing is impossible for God. 
Application: Complaining doesn't prevent God from accomplishing His will and His will is to save us from our own depravity! God is the master fisherman.  
Prayer: Dear Lord, when I feel like fleeing or giving up, pull me back and create in me a tenacious spirit. Amen.

Plastic sleeves make tipping in a breeze with a bit of washi tape!

The sea horse is copper leaf on it's backside.

Focus On Illustrating & Illuminating The Scripture:

       I chose to use some paper cut-outs of a sperm whale, sea horse and star fish to illustrate my scripture. Thread a small fine needle and trap your own select sea creatures between a plastic sleeve. I chose to write out the scripture on transparent vellum and sandwich it between the sleeve as well. The page is double sided and is tipped between the pages of my Creative Bible with the use of some decorative washi tape. With this method you may avoid covering text and give paper items some protection from wear and tear.

Focus On Listening

MercyMe performs "Even If"

His Name Is Jesus

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

       In one sense, there is nothing in a name. The nature of the thing is independent of it. It is not in the power of any name to make evil good, or good evil; and our Savior, Jesus Christ, would have been what He is, by whatever name He had been called. But in another view there is something in a name. It stands for the thing, and, through frequent use, comes to be identified with it. It is therefore of the highest moment that the name should correspond with the thing, and convey a correct idea of it. Exactness of thought requires exactness of language. Knowledge depends for its accuracy on the right use of words, and the great instructors of mankind are as careful of the expression as of the idea. Words are things. We deal with them, not as sounds but as substances, and look not so much at them as at the verities in them. Names are persons. When one is mentioned in our hearing, it brings the man before us, and awakens the feelings which would be excited if he were present himself.

       Now, we may see this, above all, in the adorable name of Jesus. That name, above all others, ought to show us what a name means; for it is the name of the Son of Man, the one perfect and sinless man, the pattern of all men; and therefore it must be a perfect name, and a pattern for all names. And it was given to the Lord not by man, but by God; and therefore it must show and mean not merely some outward accident about Him, something which He seemed to be, or looked like, in men's eyes; no, the name of Jesus must mean what the Lord was in the sight of His Father in Heaven; what He was in the eternal purpose of God the Father; what He was, really and absolutely, in Himself; it must mean and declare the very substance of His being. And so, indeed, it does; for the adorable name of Jesus means nothing else but God the Savior - God who saves. This is His name, and was, and ever will be. This name He fulfilled on earth, and proved it to be His character, His exact description, His very name, in short, which made Him different from all other beings in heaven or earth, create or un-create; and therefore He bears His name to all eternity, for a mark of what He has been, and is, and will be forever - God the Savior; and this is the perfect name, the pattern of all other names of men. Amiel's Journal

Focus Your Thinking & Lather up with a bit of SOAP:

Scripture: "and thou shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Observation: It is interesting here that the illustrator chooses to begin the book of Matthew by illustrating a cross in the very place where the scripture is describing the birth of Jesus. But it is also fitting in that the whole story of Jesus' life revolves around it's end. We are given a clue by an angelic messenger in the scripture I have chosen to focus on. The angel tells Joseph in a dream that he is to name his first born son Jesus because the name means "deliverance." And the angel goes even further to explain to Joseph that this is the purpose for him being born, to deliver his people from their sins, not to deliver them from political forces, human kingdoms or even pain and suffering... but from themselves. He was born to deliver us from the very nature of sin itself.

Application: And so the very mystery of both our beginning long ago in the garden of Eden, as a fallen people and the mysterious story of Jesus as our deliverer begin in this collected work we call the Bible. Our story in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament and His story in Matthew, the first book of the New Testament.

Prayer: My dear, sweet Lord, open my heart and mind to the mysteries of your testaments as I study and illuminate your precious words. Amen

Focus On Illustrating & Illuminating The Scripture:

      The illustrator chose to begin the book of Matthew with the end of Christ's life, as shown his hand nailed to the cross, in my Creative Bible. I included a little traced sketch of baby Jesus on tracing paper next to my colored interpretation of the crucifixion scene because the name Jesus means deliverer. This is the cycle of the life of Christ at a glance.
      My Creative Bible shown below is a coloring bible, but it also comes as a note taker's bible as well, for those who would prefer it without illustrations. Of all the coloring bibles I own, this one is in my opinion, the most challenging to finish. However, each coloring bible has it's own unique perspective and I will be sharing more of these in the future.

Above, you can see the beginning pages that I am working on in the Gospel of Matthew.

On the left is the tipped in, drawing of baby Jesus from the back side and on the right is what it looks like from the front. I used a permanent ink pen to trace my image (a baby in a basket of bunting and cotton) on tracing paper.

Focus On Listening

"His Name is Jesus" sung by Fred Hammond