[Bible Verses I'd Like to Share (Originally "posted" on the 1st week of June, 2024): Matt. 5:13-16; Mark 1:15 ]

Jonah is an interesting character, a central figure in the Book of Jonah who lived almost 2,800 years ago; he was called by YHWH God to deliver the message of repentance and forgiveness to the city of Nineveh (around the present city of Mosul), but he refused to go.

Why was he a reluctant prophet, an unwilling messenger? A deep personal animosity seemed to have developed within a Jewish personality of Jonah against the Assyrian neighbors, who were cruel, aggressive, feared and loathsome conquerors,  oppressors to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, where Jonah hailed from, and its inhabitants and the people around in the Near East at the time.

Life was very hard under the rule of Assyrian masters; several places in Scripture  such as 2 Kings 15:19-20, Hosea 5:13; 7:11; 8:9; Micah 5:5-6 describe the burden of heavy taxation that was levied on the Jewish landowners / people and the condemnation the Jewish prophets spoke against the Assryian empire. As we all know the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its 10 ("lost") tribes would eventually fall to the invading Assyrians in 721 B.C. as its mighty military power swept across the northern region as the Capital City Samaria was  devastated; the conquered  Northern Kingdom's proceeding fate and whereabouts have now been lost to history forever (even in the midst of recently  claimed aliyahs by remnants of several lost tribes). 

Our Lord mentions Jonah in Matthew 12:40 ("For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”); Jonah is an essential figure to all of us in that we all should bear a burden of being God's messenger -- much like Jonah -- to the unrepenting world outside.

We are indeed the voice crying out in the wilderness as the secular world becomes even more intolerable, sinful and wicked in the eyes of God and consequently hostile against us believers. 

The SBC Annual Meeting with its Pastors' Meeting is upon us next week with the theme of "Faithful: Pursuing Your Mission.", June 9-19; Victoria and I are highly anticipatory and excited for the event to say the least. We can honestly testify to the fact that God has been with us every step of the way to get us both to this stage. 😀😃  Amen. And His grace and mercy,  which are bountiful. 

Ready to serve the SBC Annual Conference as volunteers.

1. We are the salt; and we are the light

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A13-16&version=KJV

2.  We have a message to deliver 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%201%3A15&version=KJV