Hello everyone, it's Aunt Frenita.
And we're studying Lesson Eleven: "Something Smells Fishy"
The message for this week is: God helps me to admit my mistakes and make them right.
The memory verse is from First John, chapter 1, verse 9.
“If we confess our sins, he . . . will forgive us”
Sven walked slowly into the kitchen.
He really hated doing the dishes and he had put it off for as long as he could.
However, Mama would be home soon and she was expecting a clean kitchen when she came.
He walked to the sink, took a dismal look around and slowly turned the faucet on.
One of God’s friends was asked to do something that he did not want to do.
This may have been just how he felt.
Jonah had run away from God.
He did not care where he went, just as long as it was far away from Nineveh.
Now he was on a boat going to Tarshish, which was about as far away from Nineveh as he could get.
How wrong Jonah was!
God knew exactly where he was and what he was doing.
God sent a terrible storm to rock that boat.
The sailors were terrified. They had never seen such a storm.
They cast lots and learned that Jonah’s God had sent the storm.
He admitted it.
They asked, “What have you done? Why is your God so angry with you?”
“I’m running away from what He wants me to do,” Jonah answered.
“He wanted me to go to Nineveh, but it is such a dreadful place."
"I didn’t want to go there. So I ran away from the Creator of the land and sea."
"The only way to calm the storm is to throw me overboard.”
The men did not want to throw Jonah overboard.
Instead they tried to row back to land.
They could not.
The waves got higher. The wind blew harder. The lightning flashed and the thunder roared.
The sailors tried even harder to row the boat to shore, but they got nowhere.
“Are you sure that throwing you overboard is going to end this terrible storm?” the sailors asked Jonah.
“Yes,” answered Jonah. “You must throw me overboard.”
The men believed Jonah, and they pleaded with God.
“Do not hold us guilty of killing this man,” they prayed.
Then they threw Jonah over the side.
As he disappeared under the waves, the wind immediately stopped blowing.
The thunder and lightning stopped.
The sea became calm.
The sailors could hardly believe it.
Immediately they prayed to Jonah’s God, promising to serve Him.
Jonah sank deeper and deeper in the water.
It was cold and wet and dark.
Suddenly it felt different. He was not sinking anymore.
He was inside something damp, warm, and clammy.
It smelled terrible!
God had prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah!
Jonah began to think about what he had done.
He knew God still loved him, even though he had run away.
So from inside the fish he prayed:
“Thank You for hearing my prayer. As I sank beneath the waves I was sure that I was going to die."
"I could feel the seaweed around my legs, and it was getting hard to breathe. "
"Thank You for saving me. You have given me back my life. "
"I know that You are the most wonderful God."
"You are the God of power, unlike the gods of wood and stone."
"I will do whatever You want me to do. My life belongs to You.”
After three days the big fish spat Jonah out on dry land.
The sailors suffered because of Jonah.
But they also learned about the true God, the God who created the land and sea.
God still loved Jonah. And Jonah was still part of God’s family.
God still had work for him to do.
God loves us in just the same way.
We belong to Him even when we make mistakes.