Presby-Musings

This week we are continuing the sermon series that we've been working on together for the past few weeks--it's the third installment, to be precise, of a series on the book of Jonah.   I believe that the very heart of this book is about understanding and doing the will of God, which is not an easy task.  I asked this question last week, but it bears repeating.  How many of you here have struggled sometimes to understand to do the will of God?  Maybe you just struggled trying to figure out what God is up to... I feel you.   When we last left Jonah, he was being regurgitated on to the beach by a whale or a large fish.  And when I say regurgitated I mean regurgitated.   He was slimed. Covered in goop.  And all of this happened after he was told by God to go prophesy to the city of Nineveh to tell the people there to repent.  Instead of doing God's will, he got in a boat heading the other direction, and the boat is nearly sunk by a storm...

This week I am launching a brand new sermon series for the month of August, based on the book of Jonah.  In fact, we are going to be studying the book of Jonah chapter by chapter--which isn't a lot, to be honest.  There's only four chapters and I think there's only like 48 verses total.   But it's hard to find a story in the Bible that isn't as well known as the story of Jonah and the Whale, right?  When I was a kid, I was fascinated with this story.  If you have no idea what I am talking about--the story basically goes like this:   God tells this guy Jonah to go tell a city full of wicked people that unless they repent they are going to be destroyed. Jonah decides to run away and gets on a ship going as far away as he can get.  A storm ensues and threatens to destroy the boat.  Jonah has the guys in the boat throw him overboard and then he's swallowed by a big fish / a whale / a large sea creature...   I know.  It's sounds kind...