Dear Member of the Our Savior Lutheran Church Email Prayer Chain,
Please help us keep our weekly prayer list up to date. If you have any information about anyone listed on the prayer list below, please send me an email so we can update our list and give God thanks for His will being done in the lives of His people.
What's Your Nineveh?
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD." --Jonah 2:8-9
Have you ever run away from something that God wanted you to do? If so, then you've got a lot in common with Jonah. You know the story ...
Guy in a tunic hears from God.
Guy doesn't like what God wants him to do.
Guy runs in the other direction. Literally.
Guy gets on a boat.
Guy get tossed overboard during a storm.
Guy gets swallowed by a big fish.
Guy repents.
Guy goes and does what God tells him (a second time) to do.
Guy gets angry when God is compassionate to others (who guy doesn't think are deserving).
Guy gets rebuked, and God has the last word.
Jonah was running from Nineveh - a city with an idolatrous people so wicked that they would cut off the feet and hands of their captives just to intimidate others. And after all, they were Israel’s enemy!
So it's probably safe to say that all of us might have felt like Jonah did when thinking about ministering to the Ninevites: scared for himself and disbelieving that these people would ever repent and come to faith. Why even try, right?
But God wanted Jonah to preach and to reach out to others, because God has reached out to all of us. We are all undeserving of his love and his unmerited favor, but mercifully God forgives. Jonah didn't want to see this, and so he ran.
Perhaps you are running as well. You're trying to get as far away from your Nineveh ─ the thing that truly scares you, the thing that you know God is leading you toward.
I have run away from so many things in my life. But one of these days, maybe I will have grown enough in my faith that I will immediately say "Yes, Lord" when he gives me instruction.
Until that point in my maturation process, there's a current Nineveh that has been occupying a lot of my thoughts lately. It’s the writing of fall Bible study series I’ll be teaching on discipleship – what it means to truly live every moment of every day as a follower of Christ. Now, that's not so scary in and of itself. But you know what is? As I write this series of studies, I’m confronted with my own shortcomings as a follower of Jesus – how far I’ve missed the mark.
I confess that I've thought about dropping the writing of this series a few times already, as I've had too much time to think about my own failures as a disciple. I have a fear that I’ll fall short again, that I'll feel like a hypocrite trying to answer the questions in front of those who chose to participate and that I'll spend the entire length of the study in a fog of frustration and depression.
But I think I'm missing the most important point. What seems impossible to me is exactly what God wants me to do. So that I will learn. And grow. And draw closer to him as I work on understanding his Word.
Instead of running this time, and from this Nineveh, may God help me to run toward what he has purposed for good and look to him for strenght.
REFLECTIONS Stop running in the wrong direction. Repent and start moving obediently toward whatever God is calling you to do today – maybe he’s calling you to be Sunday School Superintendent, Sunday School teacher, ChristCare Leader, etc. Despite our proclivity toward unfaithfulness, he is always faithful!
Special Prayer Requests for the Week of August 2nd SPECIAL PRAYER NEEDS
Chris Fancik is stepping down as Sunday School Superintendent at the end of August. Several people have been approached and asked to consider taking on this position. None have accepted. Please pray that the Lord will lead us to that person(s) he has selected for this assignment. Or that he or she might step forward and volunteer by contacting either Chris, Paul Nickel or Karen McKinney.
We still have a need for a few more people to teach Sunday School classes beginning the end of August. Pray that God will also raise up these people to join him as he is working in and through our Sunday School ministry.
FOR THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE LORD FOR HEALING Steve Harrison [Father of Liz Nickel] Re-hospitalized and recovering from a second surgery
Eldon Tappendorf [Father of David Tappendorf] hospitalized with health concerns
Molly Pierce [Friend of Chapin Fausel] suffering seizures and is undergoing testing to determine the cause
Markus Puhakka Recovering from broken wrist and arm from a playground fall
Jean Albers [Sister-in-law of Velma Claus] recovering from hip replacement surgery
Christian Mehl [Son of Dave and Diane Mehl] undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma
Bill Griffin Suffering from an infected foot that is not healing
Frank Walker Rehab work at Baptist Hospital East, in the acute rehab center
Jim Trotter [Father of Aaron Trotter] heart concerns
Susan Creel Taggart [Friend of Paul Nickel] recovering from spinal surgery
Austin Speaker [Grandson of Billie and Harvey Detroy] recovering from hip surgery after an accident
Phyllis Kenrieck [Aunt of Mark Whitsett] hospitalized in critical condition with health concerns
Bob Wolke [Brother of Pat Otten] suffering from severe pain
Ty Hassler, Jr. [Friend of the Lindgren’s] health and life concerns
Orval Bestian [Brother of Shirley Atkins] heart problems
Kay Mitchell [Friend of Barbe Lamkin] major health concerns
Kim Hunter [Friend of Pat Kuecker] 37 yr. old suffering from multiple health concerns
Karen Jackson [Friend of Melissa Nelson] waiting for a transplant
Mary McKenzie [Friend of the Kaulitz Family] small child with a heart defect
FOR THOSE SUFFERING FROM CANCER Thomas Davidson, Christian Mehl, Phil Sanders, Barbara Robertson, Lorna Benkendorf, Ruth Smith, Laura Webster, Lu Aiella, Jim Bush, Kay Mitchell, Leona Walker, Pam Russo, Brock Douglas, Bill Berger, Joan Beck, Judy O’Neil, Kim Phillips, Karen Gardner, Roger, Sue Sexton, Jana Maher, Warren Mounts, Joe Howley, Judi Rice, Linda Dixon, Jack Quinlan, Mark Hayden, Joanne Leeming, Venessa Brady, Joey Eckler, Jim Siegfried, Karen Netherton, Brenda Rogers
FOR THOSE SUFFERING CHRONIC ILLNESS Ben Hutto, Daniel Shorter, Bob Farley, Christopher, Lance Muessle, Erin Brady Worsham, Nick Zimmer, Reinhart
FOR THOSE CONFINED AT HOME, A NURSING HOME OR REHABILITATION CENTER Mary Rose Crask, Jim Ashley, Ricky Hayes, Inge Kaulitz, Lydia Eggers, Mim Hawkinson, Nancy Heiden, Erna Kelley, Myrtle Wiggins, Glenna Goepfert, Elvera Weltzin, Jerry and Marge Tauscher, Isabella Tappendorf, Virginia Alexander, Helen, John Smith, Dennis Krause
FOR THOSE SERVING IN THE MILITARY Matthew Kuecker, Jason, Chris and Kim Wolter, Matt Fitzgibbon, Zachary Holland, Joshua Burkett, Roy Oberhaus, Don Wheeler, Lori Alix, James Marshburn, Tony Crespo, Donnie Tyler, Zachary Holland, Michael Alexander, Jeffrey Davis
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. --1 Peter 5:10-11
In Christ,
Paul E. Nickel
Director of Christian Education
Our Savior Lutheran Church
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