Jonah #4: God's Heart & His Struggle with Israel & Us (Sinners in the Hands of a Gracious King)

Sinners in the Hands of a Gracious God"Salvation comes from Yahweh" (Jonah 2.9, Jerusalem Bible)Greetings from the land of Saguaros and Scorpions. I have continued to read, meditate and even pray (source of lectio divina the last few days) through the Book of Jonah. I have found the book so incredibly powerful, incredibly paradigm challenging, and incredibly unnerving. I have come to realize, as I have reflected on some of the readings of Jonah...

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Jonah #3: God's Heart & His Struggle with Israel & Us - Late Night Memories

Late Night Memories of Jonah"Salvation belongs to and comes from Yahweh" (Jonah 2.9, BV version)I have attended "church" all my life. I have wracked my brain but I do not remember a time when I did not "know" the story of Jonah. I had VBS's and Sunday school lessons on Jonah as a child. I can not recall, however, even one adult class or sermon on the book of Jonah. I do recall encountering material on Jonah that was apologetic in nature but this...

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Jonah #2: God's Heart & His Struggle with Israel and Us, Pt 2

"Salvation is at the LORD'S discretion ..." (Jonah 2.9)What Did Jonah Buy? A Brief StudyWhen the Lord God called Jonah to cry out to Nineveh he was so upset he lost his mind for all intents and purposes. The writer informs us that Jonah wished to flee from the presence of the Lord and this is dramatized by his flight to Tarshish. According to Isaiah 66.19 Tarshish was a place that knew neither the fame nor glory of the Lord. Jonah thinks this...

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Jonah #1: God's Heart & His Struggle with Israel and Us #1

"Salvation is at the LORD'S discretion" (Jonah 2.9)Jonah is one of the best known and least understood stories in the Bible. It is also one of the most profound works within the Hebrew canon. It also happens to be one of my favorite books. I hope to do a series of blogs on the book of Jonah and unworthy as I am to lay hands on this deep work I shall attempt to take Jonah seriously and rescue this work from the flannel board. What follow are some...

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What Happened to the Land? An Exercise in Biblical Probing

"I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess" (Gen. 15.7, NRSV)"And I will give to you and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding, and I will be there God" (Gen 17.8, NRSV).God's promise to Abraham is a controlling axis in the story of Scripture. Christians know that through that promise Yahweh chose the line of Abraham to ultimately...

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Things I Do NOT Believe

Some times people will attempt to write a short summary of what they believe and hold dear. This summary is often called a creed. Because I am feeling cranky right now :-)Not really!! I have composed a short Anti-Creed. That is a statement of things I do not believe. In so doing perhaps it will highlight what I really do believe.1. I do not believe in a distant God. Rather God is deeply involved in the world working to redeem his good creation.2....

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Africa, Scripture ... and Christian History

"As a historian of the ancient world, I find that many New Testament scholars are confined by tunnel vision to the immediate text, with little awareness of its broader background" (Edwin Yamauchi, Africa and the Bible, p. 161)Over the last month I have been reading and studying three books that converge on Scripture, Christian history, and Africa. A couple of reasons moved me in this direction for reading: 1) I have had a long interest in the historical...

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