Family Chapel

Creation: Suffering was not a part of God's original design

Fall: Suffering is a result of sin

Redemption: Suffering is ultimately experienced and overcome by God at the cross

Restoration: Suffering will be no more one day

We will be wrapping up our short series in Jonah this upcoming Sunday. We'll see the surprising reason why Jonah ran away when God first called him, and that's because He did not want the Ninevites to receive God's mercy! (Jonah was a nationalistic racist!!) While he rejoiced in receiving God's mercy, he could not bear to see others receive God's mercy. From our passage, we'll see that we ought to have God's heart of compassion towards those we see as "others". As we have received mercy, we ought to show others mercy.

As we continue in the book of Jonah, in chapter 3, we'll see God graciously call upon Nineveh to repent. And then we'll see how God graciously responds to Nineveh's repentance with mercy. Repentance, from beginning to end, is an act of grace - the call to repentance, the act of repentance, and the response to repentance are all truly God's gracious gifts to us!

We'll be kicking off a new series (4 weeks) through the book of Jonah. For this Sunday, we'll focus on the call of God. God calls us to obey Him. Oftentimes, it is difficult to obey, but we should obey the call of God placed on our lives because God is the sovereign Lord who is worthy of our obedience and His call will come to pass. Instead of running away, we should obey the call of God by living in the presence of God.