Salvation from Crisis

26 June 2007 – Salvation from Crisis

Jonah 1:16

The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

Today I have read about the story of Jonah, which I know that it is an interesting one, and meaningful. I am captured with the experience that Jonah had. Let me make an account for the storyline, Jonah was called by the Lord to deliver message to people of Nineveh that He will bring destruction to that place, but Jonah refused, he tried to run away from the Lord’s presence! Is that God doesn’t know? Of course not! He saw all these happenings.

So he went up a sailing ship to sail to the other side of the place, away from Nineveh. Lord has bring the wind to that water, that caused a great storm, this time, the sailor starts to become afraid and calling out to their gods, but Jonah was sleeping there (sarcastic huh?), Jonah knew that he is the cause of this great storm:

Jonah 1:

11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”

12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”

13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it.

14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!

At the end, surprisingly, the sailor, who was serving the other gods, has turned to the Lord and believed in Him!

What am I trying to emphasize in this story? I am putting out a point that even if we had done rebellious act to God, once the other people said that how we have changed and turned back, salvation will be there too! In the story, it was a storm at the sea, in this very world, it could be a crisis in a company, threat in a business, pressure in examinations of schools, etc. Jonah has rebelled against the Lord for not fulfilling his vows, so God used him in the meanwhile to make an impact to the sailors who were with him, God can make us to drew an impact to the person around us, even if we had done wrong before, it is not that a sinner cannot evangelize, in fact who are evangelizing everyday are all sinners!

Can you get the point? It is not necessary to have to words from mouth to evangelize, but instead, if we let others see the living testimonials, especially in adversity and hardships, the impact is still there too, might be even greater!

Franco