Often times we make choices as though they don’t carry any consequences. The truth is that every choice carries a consequence with it. The single greatest choice you can make to turn your financial situation around is to start trusting God and begin tithing.

The bondage of debt is one of the biggest roadblocks that keeps us off the road to financial freedom; it also hinders us from giving the way we would like to give. Debt robs us of our choices and makes us feel powerless, but the reality is that we all have a choice: bondage or blessing.

Everything that we have comes from God. That means a godly perspective is critical experiencing financial freedom. Without it, we are doomed. We will spend our lives thinking that honoring God with our wealth is where I want to end up instead of realizing that honoring God with my wealth is where I begin.

Isis. The other party’s candidate. The bully at work or at school. We love it when the bad guy loses. The Ninevites were Jonah’s “bad guys” – and for good reason! Yet, Jonah let hatred consume him, distorting his view of reality. In spite of knowing God’s character, he becomes angry and bitter, missing entirely what God was trying to teach him: that God loves all people. Even our enemies. Long before Jesus taught us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” God rejected hated and demonstrated compassion to his enemies. Do we?

Obedience is faith put in action. Josh Antonopulos, our Children's minister, shares on Jonah 3.

From the belly of the great fish, Jonah realizes that he is sunk. He's done everything he can to run from God, yet he finds himself in the depths of the sea in the dark. He calls out to God, acknowledges his lowly place, and asks for help. At the end, he relents and vows to carry out God's wish--to preach against Nineveh. What is our fish? What does God desire of us?

Few of us are as bold as Jonah. When God tells us to do something we hem and haw; we procrastinate. But it’s very rare when we offer God an outright, “no.” Whatever else you think about Jonah, at least he had the courage of his convictions, wrong headed as they were. Ironically, even though Jonah is a prophet of God, the most spiritually mature people in this story are the pagan sailors. In recognizing God’s sovereignty and submitted to him, both they and Jonah learned that, our participation in God’s Story might be optional, but his sovereignty over our us isn’t.

As we live in the world today, Paul is calling us to die to ourselves and put on Christ. His living is the skin we should have on. How are you living Jesus today?

A chance for a new life means being able to change everything – thoughts, behavior – everything. Your identity as a follower of Jesus is demonstrated in actions that are consistent with that new identity. Just as a prince or princess would never be clothed in the filthy rags of a beggar, Christ followers strip off the garments of our old identity and put on new apparel that reveals Christ living in us.

In choosing to put on flesh, God did more than just show us who He is; in the person of Jesus Christ, God liberates us from the power and penalty of sin. No longer burdened by the weight of guilt, or oppressed by the unattainable rules and regulations, we are made alive in Jesus Christ. This new identity means that followers of Jesus are already citizens of the Kingdom of God, and are empowered to act differently.