let your light shine

(my notes from Part 3 of CF's current series, "Jonah" - message delivered by Pastors Todd Mullins/Daniel Young, May 28, 2016)

Pastor Todd Mullins' last sentence in his video message still echoes in my head
"Let your light shine"

Let your light shine - I can't echo it loud enough. 

Let.your.light.shine - I can't stress it enough

LET.YOUR.LIGHT.SHINE - I can't punctuate it enough


The message resonates with me so well. 
I was hit. 

And i am sure that many others were hit. 
All the Jonahs of the world...
and in the world 

...who have been called and chose to flee. 
...who were called and fled 
...who were called and missed the instructions 
...who were called and ignored the calling 


them who thought the story of Jonah was about Jonah 
them who thought the story of Jonah was about the whale 
them who thought the story of Jonah was about the Ninehvites

they didn't get it 
that the story of Jonah was about God 

How great is it that our God is a God of second chances..
and third chances..and fourteen chances....

so that even if we fail to recognize his calling
we still get chances to turn around and heed it on the nth time 

Yes, how great it is that God gives us Groundhog Days

so that we can do things all over again 
or..that we can go back and choose a different action for the same situation 

so that if we missed His call the first time or the second time or the third time he called,
We are called again and given the chance to heed the call on the nth time 

Because the event of calling would recur many times ...until we finally choose to change our response 
Because finally, we would come out of hibernation and out of that hole we retreated to 


Many of us would finally do a 180 when we find ourselves drowning 
...and gasping for air 
flailing our arms looking for something to hold on to 

it is the same with spiritual drowning.

we slowly smother ourselves 
burying ourselves in the pit of sins 
right in the depths of the sea of sins

and we don't recognize it right away 
we stay there to hibernate
we mistake the joy of hibernation as the good life 

until we slowly lose air 

gasps...
gasps...
gasps...

we are drowning spiritually 

and just when we thought we are ready to heave our last breath 

God calls....again

for the nth time


and then we see the whale engulfing us

and inside the belly of the whale, we change our 

posture
perspective
path 

and the whale vomits 


 "...And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." (Jonah 2:10)

 "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,..."  (Jonah 3:1)


Truths

God will call you out to call you up 
God calls you because he chose you
God calls you for a purpose 
God equips you 
God sends you out to shout his name 
God chose us for something new...
...something better 
...something GREAT


22 years ago, I was called
The first call was wrapped in swaddling clothes 
I called him Jonas, the last of my three children 

I did not even know it was a call 


Over the years he sent storms:
some mild storms
some fierce 

he sent floods 

in some I managed to keep my head above the water 
in some, I swallowed murky water that made me sick 
...sick to the bones 
...sick in my gut 

if He ever sent a whale
I never recognized 

I had to be drowning before I was able to recognize the whale 

Because in the depths of sin, in the depths of the ocean of sins 
is where you can see whales 

When you are fighting for your last breath of air 
Is when you see the outline of a fish 
...fish big enough to swallow you whole 

In between gasping for air and struggling to swim into the surface, 
the movie of my life started 

in between treading shallow waters of sin
God was getting me equipped 

He provided me with the gift of writing 
He sent people to equip me physically 
I was provided the tools for writing 
but I was still blind about the purpose 

and the gift fell into my hands 
which I used in vain 
I trampled the pearls that God gave me 

6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Matthew 7:6New King James Version (NKJV)


I was the biblical dog...and the biblical swine ...we all are...
who were thrown pearls and trampled them under our feet 


I was like a child who was given crayons 
and drew stick figures on the wall, 
instead of using them in my coloring book 


or the teenage band player 
who played blasphemous music instead of praise 


or the preacher who was given the Bible 
and started preaching about material prosperity 
instead of proclaiming the Gospel 


We missed the purpose of our calling 

Because we did not recognize the whales 

And our God of infinite chances and infinite grace never tires to call us again 


I had close calls
They were instances when I thought I was ready to obey God 

I used my writing skills 
here: 
http://onethousandverses.blogspot.com/


and here: 
http://inmybrokenness.blogspot.com/



Inspirations came in spurts...

...bursts 


Random
Intermittent 
Sporadic 
Fragmented


And God disguises whales too.
Because I avoided the waters. 

I kept missing the whales, 
so he put a lighthouse in my path instead

my very own lighthouse 


I will shout because I have something great to shout about 
I will get loud because something amazing is new and fresh in my life 


MY.VERY.OWN.LIGHTHOUSE 




My payer is for God to give me the conviction to say that:

I am SAVED. 


and that I will never forget that I am saved and from what I am saved.