Jonah 2 Prayer Changes The Heart/祈りは心を変えます

Last week in review:  Jonah 1    

He calls us to Know Him.  He calls us to serve Him.  He empowers us to the task.

          BUT--     Prejudices hold us back   Pre-conceived ideas trick us

The Problem with Calling

Jonah 2  ヨナ2    July 08, 2012
Prayer Changes the Heart-esp. in the stomach of a fish-at times, life at times, is hard as well…祈りは心を変えます

Last week, we had the chance to start our voyage with Jonah and his un-happy crew on the good ship to Tarshish.   Remember that he had received a call of God to go to Nineveh, but instead, he goes the very opposite direction.  In the entire Bible, Jonah is the only prophet who does not obey God’s call on his life.  Others might not have liked it or misunderstood the call but only Jonah said “no”.

Chapter Two opens with a prayer.  It is in a very different tone than Chapter one and done in a different style.  The first chapter was in a third-person narrative, but here, a first person prayer.  Let us listen to his prayer and learn from it information that can help us in our times of stress. (Being inside a large fish is stressful!)  Read Jonah 2.  Prayer changes the heart—but not yet for Jonah.  He has yet to learn some important facts about prayer.

The sailors understood that someone was to blame for this storm. He had told them before that he was running away from the Lord (1:10).  He had told the shipmates: ¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”  They heard him but they were not ready to perform this strange act!  They also had a hard time being that ‘mean’.  These men from all sorts of different ‘faith walks’ had a hard time dealing with killing an innocent man.  They tried to work things out humanly.  Try as they did, they could not bring the ship to land.  

Then they cried out to the Lord, “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for You, Lord, have done as You pleased.” ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard,

This was not the response I would have expected of sailors of that time.  In fact, sailors of any time!  No one wants to drown.  Seemed like a good idea.  One less person’s weight to deal with. He was not helping anyway.  Get rid of the unwanted baggage.  So they cried out to the God of Jonah…the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land, and asked for forgiveness!  THEN they cast him overboard.  And…and the raging sea grew calm.

  ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to Him.

These unbelieving men gave God the glory.  Not the prophet of that same God.  Jonah was sinking into the deep. And as he sank, he prayed                     

Ps 139:7+9 might be something Jonah could have prayed…

Jonah is cut off from humans. --Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible "No place is amiss (incorrect) for prayer. Men may shut us from communion with one another, but not from communion with God." How true it was for Jonah. With the Lord, there is always an opening.  “Come to Me and taste and see that the Lord is good!” 

Prayer Changes the Direction of my cries:  He cries to the Lord. Verse 2 私の叫びの方向：   彼は主に泣く。 “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me.  From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry.”

Once I realize where I am and that I am away from where God wants me to be, I need to direct my heart and my prayers toward Him.  When I am distressed, I call on Him.  When I am in doubt, I call on Him.  When I am lost, I call on Him.  When I am in pain, I call on Him. When I am in Joy, I call on Him. And guess what?  He will answer.  Have you found that true yourself? You will have a chance to tell that life story next week at Covered Dish Sunday.  Tell how He answered you when you called on Him. 

For Jonah, he must have felt he was ever so close to death.  In the belly of a fish, under the ocean…and for three days!  He was indeed in the realm of the dead and it was from this bottom position, he called out for help.  As I understand the workings of AA, a person in need can really only help himself when he is at the bottom and helpless-unmanageable life.
These are the original Twelve Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous: (1)   匿名アルコール中毒患者の12のステップに注意してください）
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol —that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a higher Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10 Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The great truth here is that this also covers any other areas of concern.  Another program called Celebrate Recovery is a program designed to help those struggling with hurts, hang-ups, and habits by showing them the loving Power of Jesus Christ through the recovery process. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—hurts, hang-ups, and habits —that our lives had become unmanageable. It really looks like Jonah was one of them.  He followed the steps very well.  There is a CR program at the Ekoda Biblical Church.  If you are interested, please contact them for help.  A very successful program in Japanese.

Prayer Changes the Direction of my devotion [verse 4 ] 私の献身の方向：

Nevertheless, or yet…  Here is the recognition of REDEMPTION that only comes from the Lord. He could have complained: “O, what a mess I am in!  Oh, me!  Woe is me!  I am undone!  Look at the problems I have!  If it were different, I would be happy!  IF God really loved me, this would not have happened.  If only…  If only…  If … “

In truth, Jonah comes to understand NOT the why of the situation but that the situation was as it was.  God alone held the key to life and to salvation.  Even when it appeared that God had pulled the plug on life, as he knew it, he needed to turn to Him.  Jonah messed up, no question.  Here he was sitting in a very uncomfortable location—inside the fish—and here Jonah is having a prayer time.

Much like later, under different circumstances, Paul and Sails are chained in a Philippi's jail—late at night—after a beating.  They started singing.  They started praising the God of Israel and they came close to God—rather, God came close to them.  He not only broke the chains that held them to the walls of the jail. The chains of disbelief were broken in the life and family of the jailer and the Church grew…from the inside of a jail.  Here with Jonah, Jonah also sees beyond the guts of the fish and see God where He really sits. On the Throne of Life and even when Jonah could not see Him, Nevertheless God’s eyes were on Him. And Jonah knew that!

Ever experienced that reality? Darkness, confusion, disbelief, pain, lostness? And God was there.  When we hit the bottom of what life throws at us or when we threw away most of what the Lord has given to us, we, like Jonah will “look again toward Your Holy Temple.”  We see Him high and lifted up. Our own eyes and the eyes of our hearts are lifted up to His Face.  We get a redirection of our devotion.

¹Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, ²and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me.  I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.  ³"For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.  ⁴So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight.  Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.'"

Prayer Changes the Direction of my life: Verses 6 & 7  私の人生の中における方向：

Here Jonah was…the farthest from where life and heart wanted to be.  He is all tangled with the weeds of the sea... (Pride of his own life that kept him from the surface).  In short, Jonah was very close to death’s door.  The door of Death sure looked different for him then he had thought.  Like a good Jew, he wanted to feel the presence of the Good Shepherd.  He wanted to hear Abraham’s voice calling to him.  Instead, all Jonah got was a fishy smell and of rotten sea weeds and who knows what else?!

Close to death experiences make good drama.  I have found them exciting to read.  I, however, do not really wait for that in my own life.  Not really.  I’m excited about going to Heaven like you all, but this life is what I know.  I rather like it here.  I would not mind being in Hawaii one more time, or fishing in VA or in Cape Cod Bay or off the coast of Mexico—looking for Yellow Tail!  To walk thru the National park in MT.  Visit the Solomon Islands.  But to be really AT the door of death—no thank you very much.

When Jonah was at that location, his heart was drawn to seeing his God. (I hope that would be true for me as well when the time comes.)  

Prayer Changes the Direction of what I hold on to: verse 8-9 私が固持している方向：

It is very true that prayer does change the way we look at things.  When we become honest with God, and allow ourselves to see things the way He sees them, we are changed.  We need the change anyway.  Again, our ways are not His ways SO we need to stop what we are doing and thinking and look at what He is doing and saying and follow His lead.  Depending on His Holy Spirit is what is needed.  Is it really necessary to be placed in the belly of a fish to get our attention?  We are smart people! Why do we wait so long before we allow His Hand in our lives? Really?!

 8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.  9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You.  What I have vowed I will make good.

What is it that you cling to?  What is your idol?  Come on now, we all put something in front of us to replace His Heart because the Scriptures say that we are wicked in every way!  For Jonah, he put something in front of himself that did not allow for God’s Hand to move him.  These past three days and nights in the belly of the fish were long enough for him to see the light.  He sees the error of his ways.  Jonah placed a vain idol before himself and that got him in deep water.  This vain idol was put there by himself replacing his first call. 

Jesus asked His followers to follow Him, knowing very well that they will be pulled away by fear or unbelief—but He still calls them and then assures even Peter that AFTER he returns to the relationship, God will hold him up and forgive him.  All Jonah needed to do from the first was to do what he was told to do.  Jesus says for us to do what He says for us to do.  Nike says, “Just do it!” and that sells shoes.  Why is it so hard to do it for Jesus?  Jonah let go his faithfulness in his God and was experiencing almost death because of his choice.  So we let go of the worthless things and cling/turn to God!

Because… Salvation comes from the Lord—ALONE 9B 救いは主から来る

Remember those men up in the boat three days and nights before?  They started to praise God and made vows to Him.  Even in their very little knowledge of the Divine, they knew what to do.  Their lives were spared. They were thankful.  They responded.  Maybe not the same way we would respond BUT they responded.  Some of us would remain silent and not say a word. We would let others do the praising.  We would not allow ourselves to be put into that position.  Would it be pride that holds us back? Or would it be that we just don’t get excited over things like salvation.  Don’t get excited over changed lives.  (or we don’t pray/ or we just don’t see it!) The Scriptures say—I would suggest command us—to give Him praise! Sure made a huge difference to Jonah’s life!  Jesus told the religious leaders when He came into Jerusalem that if His People did not cry out praises, the rocks would. We know, deep within our hearts that we are to be thankful people. We are to give back to Him in our tithes, offerings and life in such a way as to show gratitude and praise.  Being joyful—giving back to Him of what He has given to us. We would be deeply amiss if we were not thankful people.  Think of why those sailors AND Jonah gave praise.  They recognized that their salvation was only from His Hand.  He had done a good thing.  He kept all of them alive...alive for another time-chance-to follow His direction and obey Him.  Salvation is from the Lord.  Prayer changed Jonah’s heart as the Lord had placed Jonah in just the right place to gain his attention.

Where does He need to get us to get our attention? Maybe you feel like you have been thrown overboard and feel you might be in a fish’s belly.  Prayer changes things. Prayer can change you!

 (1) Alcoholics Anonymous (June 2001). "Chapter 5: How It Works" (PDF). Alcoholics Anonymous (4th ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. ISBN 1-893007-16-2. OCLC 32014950

New Series: Jonah 1

The Problem with Calling.   神から召命を受けたことに関する問題。

   WHAT WAS JONAH’S PROBLEM? He got a call from the Lord…do this for Me!  A very clear calling.  Go to the people who live in the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me. What was Jonah’s problem that he would run away from God? It was the people he was to go to.  The people of Nineveh (ニネベ) had been the arched enemies of Israel.  They hated each other.  Most people living in Israel at that time would have had a deep anger and hatred toward them. Saving them from destruction would be the last thing any good Jew would want to see happen.  Throw them all over a cliff and watch them die!  

The Call　召命。

   Here is your calling Jonah.  I have chosen you to take this great message to these evil people so that they could be saved.

Jonah’s answer　ヨナの対応。

   Jonah’s answer:  Doesn’t even give one.  He takes off heading the direct opposite and runs away.  It is kinda funny, if it was not so sad! God sent me East—I’m going west!  Got to get away from this task.  I want the people of Nineveh to DIE!  BURN! Be dashed on the rocks!

   In short, he rejects God’s call on his life and runs away.

   The modern name for the city of Nineveh is Mosul, Iraq.  Today, Mosul is once again on the map of Iraqi hotspots.  On one of the two most prominent mounds of Nineveh’s ruins is the Mosque of Prophet Younis "Jonah", the son of Amittai, from the 8th century BC, which is believed to be the burial place of the fishy prophet. I have read that this old shrine is standing on the site of a Christian church which is a mere stone's throw from the built-up walls and gates of Nineveh.

   In our story of Jonah, we learn that Jonah uses the power of information to convince the citizens that there’s a better way. Jonah is hesitant at first, believing that God really ought to smite or thrash the Ninevites. But Jonah comes around and uses straight teaching to persuade the citizens that there’s a better way. He just tells the truth and look what happened!

   There is a great deal of bigotry that plays into this story, but not in the way we often think.  We tend to assume that Jonah simply didn’t like the people of Nineveh and simply didn’t want to go on that basis.  But it might be more accurate to say that Jonah was afraid of the success of his mission.  Sure, he and his people really hated those people—and why not?  They have been trying to kill off the Hebrew nation.  Why get them saved?  His questions might be our questions!  彼の疑問はわたしたちの疑問でもあるだろう。  Do we reflect his concerns as well?

• What if that terrible family down the street becomes Christians and starts going to our church?
• What if that guy where I work became a believer and started expecting me to mentor him in his Walk of Faith?
• What if so-and-so in our extended family got serious about reading the Bible and started asking me why, if I’m also a Christ-follower, have I done some of the things I’ve done?
• What if those homeless people I prayed with downtown and left my phone number with really expects us to help them out?
• What if all the people who put up their hands at the Christmas outreach…would come to next week’s service, there would be more of them than us?!
• That’s the woman who hit our car in the parking lot last month.  What’s she doing at our small group meeting?

   If that is the case, we’d better start looking for a ship bound for Spain! God does want that family down the street to believe in His Son. It would be great for you to start mentoring the man at work. Our life style should be honest and without blemish. We really should be helping the homeless. What if they all did become believers—would not God supply all our needs? And if that lady who hit your car does show up at the Bible study—she needs to be there and so do you.

   That is the problem of a call of God.  He calls us to Know Him. He calls us to serve Him. And He empowers us to complete the task.  Do we really believe that?  So many Christians want to see people come to Jesus.  We really do, but, what if they DID!?  We’d have to be ready to set up more chairs on Sunday. Might have to dig a little deeper in the teaching to get all the new believers up and running.  We might have to be really about the Master’s Work.

   In truth: Prejudices hold us back.  偏見がわたしたちに二の足を踏ませる。They tend to be deeply hidden inside our feelings. (or not!)  When we go to the airport, and in line, we see a couple who are dressed like Arabs, we get concerned…could be terrorist!  We get on the bus, and the only seat that is open is next to a foreigner… do we sit down next to that person? I have seen this during this past week more than once.  The train is full and I am sitting alone.  We see a homeless person sitting on the curb and we tend to walk a little faster, looking away from his gaze.  I know I am not alone in this!

   It is also true that pre conceived ideas trick us into believing those misconceptions.  思いこみがわたしたちを惑わす。 What if Jonah did go right away to the city of Nineveh? What then? The people on the boat would not have this divine encounter and they would not have had the chance to praise the God of Israel.

   The people of Nineveh would have heard sooner rather than later.  Jonah’s reputation would be different now had he just done what he was told!

But life is not like that.  We find excuses for going the other way.  We make up falsehoods to support our own agenda.  Why do we do that? Because we are just like Jonah and he is just like us.  We are human. We make mistakes.  We blow it—sometimes in a really big way.  And when we blow it and when we disobey the Lord’s call on our lives, He is willing to forgive us and to restore us with a closer relationship.   より身近な関係への召命。  Psalm 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Ps 71:20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.  One more: Ps 58:4 Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.

   Why does God do that?  He has a story to be told through our lives.  In the weeks to come, I’d like some of you to tell of your story.  あなたの話しを語るべき。 Tell us how He led you to follow Him.  Tell us of His way with your heart. Give testimony as to how the Lord restored your soul and put your feet on solid ground.  Might be a story of being in the belly of a large fish, and that one has already been told—but never mind!  Tell it and give Glory to God.  That is coming up in two weeks.  Covered Dish Sunday.  Be here to hear and to give Him praise for what He has done among us.

Now back to Jonah.  A very crazy thing about this man Jonah, the Prophet of God, is that he accurately HEARD the voice of God to do something – heard the voice of God speaking to him.   
   Look at 1 Cor 2:14~17 ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.

   You see that a man with the Spirit of God cannot receive that information.  Jonah was able to hear it! The problem was—and here is the dangerous truth—he did not act upon it! He understood what were God’s good purposes—which His good graces were going to be extended to these people and he refused to do what God wanted him to do. It was worse than unbelief; it was believing what God was, in fact, going to do JUST what He had planned and then, not acting on it. Setting that aside and refused to do God’s best for him and for the people of Nineveh.

   Even WITH the Mind of Christ  (キリストの心), we really have to be careful! Was Jonah living in open rebellion? We see that even his sleep was not bothered. HE SEEMED TO BE AT PEACE! Even with the storm, he was not shaken! (See Jesus on the lake in the storm.)  What can be our guard against this way of responding?  何が間違った？ Having an open, growing relationship that is ALWAYS on guard for the lies of the evil one. God’s choice was not a wrong one when He choose Jonah; God needed to be patient with him—while Jonah was being partially digested inside the large fish—tenderizing him to the Ways of the Lord.  We will see in the weeks to come that even with a willing prophet, Jonah still has a few things to learn…(as we do) as he deals with the problem of a calling from God.

Stealing From God 神から盗む

I spent some time in a youth prison while I was in Bible School---not as an inmate but as a Bible teacher.  All sorts of kids from all sorts of backgrounds were there at the JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER-close to the Broad River north of Columbia, SC.  Short kids, tall kids, white kids and black kids.  Some were as young as 11 and as old as 17.  When a teenager turned 18 and he still had some time left of his sentence, he would be sent to adult prison. 

One factor was common with ALL the kids: they all were innocent.  “Didn’t do it!”  “Not me!”  “I was set up!”  100% of the inmates were all innocent children!  (That is what they said, but…) But after talking with them for some time, you learn that this innocent was short lived.  They had been doing all sorts of crime from an early age and the chances of them returning to crime was very high.  Law enforcement officials I have met told me that South Carolina had the worst reputation of all the States concerning the prisons. 

The kids were tough and so were the guards.  I would not hesitate to say that they were cruel and unkind.  One guard I knew in the Rhode Island prison system liked working there so he could beat up people real good.  This is in no way implying ALL prison guards are like this, but…

And the men…and the youth in the prisons were all innocent.

We find that same attitude today in our passage.

The People of Israel were feeling pretty good about themselves.  Even as their country was falling apart around them, the enemy nations were pressing in on every border, their economy was being stretched well beyond any possibility of recovery, and God gives them this piece of news that they reject.  “You are stealing from Me!”

Every well respecting Jewish person knew the Commandments Moses passed on to them.  They knew the Five Books of Moses and for some of them, had even memorized them! They wore the right kind of cloths.  They followed—for the most part—those ceremonies of their so-called Faith.  They had some holes in the outworking of their Faith but they felt smug. They felt that they were the “Chosen Ones” of God and that alone would save them from defeat.  Save them from disaster.  Save them from the horrors of captivity. After all, they had ‘made it’ through the Babylonian captivity.  They were living through the Medo-Persian Empire’s captivity.  How hard could it get?

They will need to learn a very hard lesson.  And they will learn it rather soon.  As background, lets look at when all this happened.

Date   Book	Theme	Prophecies to/about	Major Sins Addressed
520       Haggai	The restoration Temple points to the Church	Zerubbabel, Joshua and the returned remnant	Neglect in building God's House. Procrastination.
520-518    Zechariah	The coming of God's Kingdom preceded by building of Temple	Zerubbabel, Joshua and the returned remnant	Joshua's filthy garments. Lack of judgment, mercy and peace. Living in evil ways.
c. 400       Malachi	Be prepared for the Messenger that is to come	Israel and 'Israel of God'	Priests neglect duties. People chided for divorce, adultery, criticizing, robbing God.

Here is a chart of the timetable of years between 605BC and 400BC.

In just a short amount of time, Israel has been taken away three times—The Assyrians, the Babylonians and now the Persians.  For many of them, they might have felt: “What more could happen to us?”  Again, a lesson to be learnt the hard way—thru fire.  Fire, because they did not follow the commands in the first place.  (God had promised them that IF they followed His Laws, only good would come out of life—but, if they rejected His Plans and His Laws, they would be punished.)

Here we have the situation where the people just did not get it!  They felt that they could just sit back and let life move on without any effort on their part.  Even the idea of keeping the ‘easy’ laws of God became a burden to them.  And now, God is telling them that they are robbing God Himself. 

1. Robbing God: In tithes and offerings – Mal 3:8神から奪う：１０分の１献金と捧げものにおいて　マラキ3:8

The statement was given: You have stolen from Me.  They replied: “No, we are innocent!  Not true!”  (Just like those inmates in the DJJ Detention Center.)

I would guess it is a serious thing to steal from God.  Even as a young boy in Rhode Island, I just could not steal things.  Shoplifting was very popular with the people I went to school with.  I just could not do it. Glad I did not do it! As I spoke to the kids in the Center, they would tell of the things they stole—not that they were guilty of those crimes—and I would wonder- “What kind of conscious do they have?”  Not a very active one.

But stealing from God? Think about it in the sense of what could be stolen from the King of the Universe?  Does He have anything that I could indeed lift? It would be on a different level. Stealing time away from Him.  Neglecting devotional time—prayer time—time in His presence? Sure that would be stealing.  Here in this passage, the stealing was different than time or devotion—it was real robbing of money…of the tithes and offerings due to Him. 

Last week, we looked at the question of tithing and through our research; we found that a tithe (10%) was the starting point and that we are to add to that as we mature in our Faith.  Here, God’s People were robbing God even of that 10% plus offerings. They became callus to the things of God.  They became immature in their Faith.  In short, they were at the bottom looking down and not up.  If they were looking up, God would have helped them. They felt comfortable in this position.  And yet God wanted to give them more—so much more.  Read on in verse 10. God is inviting the people to bring in the tithe into the storehouse…to test Him at His Word.

Before we go to far, 2. Penalty For Robbing: Under a curse – Mal 3:9  強奪への制裁　呪いのもと　　マラキ3:9

Then in verse 11… “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, ” says the Lord Almighty.  So what was going on in their country? Pest was affecting their harvests. Their vines were drying up before the fruit would mature. And for an agricultural nation, this means certain death! 

3. Command: Bring In The Whole Tithe – Mal 3:10命令　全ての１０分の１献金を持ち寄る　マラキ3:10

I would imagine that we also need to put this to a test.  Bring to Him what is His due and see what the Lord God will do in our lives, in our families, and in our communities.  I do believe that IF—as in 2 Chronicles 7:14— “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” DO YOU BELIEVE HE WOULD DO THIS FOR US!  Do we need sins forgiven?  Does our land need healing?   Here He says: “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

The Lord also had a lot to say about the condition of your offerings.  Not the lame, cut, weak sheep, but healthy, whole spotless lambs would be the one’s the Lord required. 

Think of our gifts we bring to Him.  Are they the first fruits of our labor? Are they given out of a heart of gratitude or in a grudging manner? Identify the motives and make changes where necessary and move on to become mature in your Faith.

How?  There are programs out there to help us, but let’s look at just three simple steps:

            a. Program For Stewards: First Day of Week  – 1 Cor 16:1-2  仕える者に関するプログラム　週の最初の日　第１コリント16:1-2 ¹ Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. ² On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

            b. Prosperity Of Stewards: Sowing Generously – Reap Generously – 2 Cor 9:6仕える者の繁栄　ゆたかに撒き　ゆたかに刈り取る　第２コリント9:6  Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

            c. Possessions Of Stewards: Store Up Treasures In Heaven – Matt 6:20-21  仕える者の財産　天に宝を積む　マタイ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.      Where is your heart?

• Col 3:23  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.  Whatever you do, do with all your heart    何をするにも、心から働きなさい。　コロサイ 3:23

• 2 Cor 9:7  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver神は喜んで施す人を愛して下さるのである。第２コリント 9:7   Are you cheerful?

• Matt 10:8  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.  Freely you have received, freely give ただで受けたのだから、ただで与えるがよい。マタイ10:8

•Two Promises given: 与えよ.

• Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Give, and it will be given      えよ。そうすれば、自分にも与えられるであろう。　ルカ6:38

• Malachi 3:10.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will throw open the floodgates of heaven わたしがあなたがたのために、天の窓を開き、あふれるばかりの祝福をあなたがたに注ぐ. マラキ3:10

Are you getting ready for the floodgates to be opened?