“The book of Jonah is a shot across the bow. God asks , how can we look at anyone — even those with deeply opposing beliefs and practices — with no compassion? If your compassion is going to resemble God’s, you must abandon a cozy world of self-protection.”- Timothy Keller “These inward trials I employ, […]
“God does not have a ‘love’ part and a ‘righteousness’ part that must be reconciled. What we see as being in tension is ultimately a perfect unity. However, that unity can be seen only in the light of the work of Jesus Christ. To be confused or angry at God is quite natural. But if […]
“Jonah is like the ungrateful servant who, having been forgiven, refuses to forgive others (Matthew 18:21-35). Despite all this, God is patient with him. Jonah returns to the same angry opposition to God he had at the outset. This time, however, God . . . instead begins to counsel Jonah gently. . . . This […]
“Shallow Christian identities . . . [come] because it is not Christ’s love but the world’s power, approval, comfort, and control that are the real roots of our self-identity.”- Timothy Keller “And [Jonah] said to them, ‘I am a Hebrew, and the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land […]
“Someone might object that the world has a right to rebuke the church, but there is biblical warrant for doing exactly that. . . . We deserve the critique of the world if the church does not exhibit visible love in practical deeds.”- Timothy Keller “Let your light shine before others, that they may see […]
“We . . . know that God can save through weaknesses, suffering, and apparent defeat. . . . God’s salvation came into the world through suffering, so his saving grace and power can work in our lives more and more as we go through difficulty and sorrow. There’s mercy deep inside our storms.”- Timothy Keller […]
“Every act of disobedience has a storm attached to it. This is one of the great themes of the Old Testament wisdom literature. . . . The Bible does not say that every difficulty is the result of sin — but it does teach that every sin will bring you into difficulty.”- Timothy Keller “[Jonah] […]
“So Jonah had a problem with the job he was given. But he had a bigger problem with the One who gave it to him. Jonah concluded that because he could not see any good reasons for God’s command, there couldn’t be any. . . . We have all had that experience. . . . […]
“In a deliberate parody of God’s call to ‘arise, go to Nineveh,’ Jonah ‘arose’ to go in the opposite direction. . . . Called to go east, he went west. Directed to travel overland, he went to sea. Sent to the big city, he bought a one-way ticket to the end of the world.”- Timothy […]
“Jonah wants a God of his own making. . . . When the real God — not Jonah’s counterfeit — keeps showing up, Jonah is thrown into fury or despair. Jonah finds the real God to be an enigma because he cannot reconcile the mercy of God with his justice.”- Timothy Keller “The men of […]
“The corrective influence a loving person can have on our distorted perception of reality is very great. We need people. Never underestimate the healing God can administer through a friend.”- Ruth Graham, In Every Pew Sits a Broken Heart (2004) “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, […]
” . . . a seemingly commonplace activity has sacred import because God [works] in, through, and behind people to serve His creation. These . . . can effectively be accomplished through anyone – believers or not. Christians, however, recognize God’s activity through them, rejoice in it, seek to grow in it, and desire God’s […]