God's Grace

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Jonah 4:1:

”But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.”

Then we go straight to the Book of Luke 15:28:

“But he was angry and would not go in.”

Jonah was so upset because the whole city of Nineveh got saved from their wicked ways. He was very upset about it. He said, ”It’s not fair.” Have you been like that? What about the young son, the two boys? The one was an absolute rebel, a prodigal son, he went off into the far country, wasted all his money, came back and his father loved him. The older son never went anywhere. He stayed at home, worked hard, he was a good boy, and there was his father having a beautiful banquet because his lost son had come home. He was very angry about it. He wouldn’t even go into the party. The Bible tells us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. ”Oh but it’s not fair.” Oh folks, we need to be very compassionate with people who come to Christ at a late stage in their lives.

We praise God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that we serve a God who is a Friend of sinners, a God who is slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness. That’s what Jonah said about the Lord and the Lord relented. It means He changed His mind. He did not blot out Nineveh off the face of the earth. No, He relented. He changed His mind and He gave them a second chance and He did it because Jonah went and gave them an opportunity, but Jonah couldn’t see what he had done. He was just upset because they got saved. Have you ever been in that situation? 

You know, I remember when my children were quite young. One of my daughters, when she was a beautiful young teenager, came to me and said, ”Dad, you know, I don’t have a testimony, like some of these other people I read about -  you know, of an alcoholic turning to Christ and being completely set free, of a drug addict, of a prostitute coming to Christ, of a thief being in jail, coming out, changing his whole life and coming miraculously to Jesus.” I said to her, ”Oh my sweetheart, you have no idea what these people have been through before they come to Christ, the pain, the shame, the guilt that they’ve had to go through, the grace of Christ that they have to lean on in order to get through one day at a time.

If you come from a Christian home you should be so happy and you should go and thank your parents that they’ve brought you up and spared you from the ravages of the devil. Today, do not be sad, do not be resentful that you haven’t got a testimony. You’ve got a fantastic testimony. Just keep telling people about Jesus! 

Until next time, God bless you and goodbye.