Wayside Bible Chapel

God will generously give wisdom to those who ask. Wisdom is how to live rightly, which God longs for us to do. That wisdom helps us to see what is truly valuable and eternal. That means that we see the trials we face in a different light. Instead of temporary frustration and disappointment, we can see by faith what God is producing in our lives that is eternal.

An to the book of James, when it was written, to whom it was written, and the reason behind it and need for it. Also addressed is the claim that it is in contrast to the writings of Apostle Paul.

Jonah thought the nice shade plant that shaded him was a gift from God. The next morning a worm killed the plant and the east wind drove the heat into his bones. He asked God to die, but God had a lesson for Jonah and for us! You will also see the reason Jesus declared He is greater than Jonah.

We often get an idea of what we would like God to do. Then when He orchestrates events in a different way, we become angry with God. We do not understand why He allows certain things. Jonah was so angry that he just wanted to die. He did not see that he was about to learn some attitude altering lessons. He was right where God would have him to transform his perspectives.

The psalmist prays for God’s steadfast love and salvation, according to His promise. He trusts in God’s truth and hopes in his word, which sets him in a wide place of freedom. He asks God to not let him be put to shame but to help him delight in his commandments and love his law.

The king joined the repentance and fasting and issued an edict that everyone participate. There was genuine repentance verified by them changing their ways. It is the very thing we long to see in our own nation. Lincoln's proclamation for a day of prayer and fasting is exactly what we need in our day. If it can happen in Nineveh, it can happen here.

Jonah is given a second chance to do God's will. Traumatized by the experience in the great fish, he has not surrendered to God's will. He makes the journey of hundreds of miles not yet knowing the exact message. Finally there, he proclaims the message God gave him. "Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed!" What would God have a prophet today declare to our nation?

This passage of Psalm 119 is filled with humble petitions of prayer, repentance, and fear rooted in the righteousness that could only be granted by God alone.

Jonah's prayer in chapter two is filled with quotations from Messianic psalms. There is even a declaration which in Hebrew reads, "Yeshua makes peace with God." That too is a quotation from the psalms. In this beautiful prayer we see Jonah's confession and declaration of faith. There are many expressions that are not understood without some knowledge of the culture and Hebrew expressions.

Jonah was willing to die so his shipmates might live. When that storm ceased after throwing Jonah into the waves, the Gentile mariners prayed to Jonah's God. They may be his first converts. Is it possible for someone to survive in a great fish for three days and nights?