Hello everyone, it's Aunt Frenita.
We're studying Lesson Twelve.
"Out Of Darkness"
The message for this week is: God will help me share His message of salvation with others.
The memory verse is from Second Peter, chapter 3, verse 9.
It says, “[God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish”
Akiko squinted several times as she came out into the bright sunshine from the cave she and her class had been exploring at the zoo.
It felt good to come into the sunshine and the fresh air.
Jonah was so happy to be on dry land again!
First he took some really deep breaths of fresh air. (breathes deeply)
It smelled so good after the fishy smell of the last three days.
He blinked a lot.
The light probably hurt his eyes after three days inside the fish.
He stretched and moved around.
How good it was to be able to move freely again.
Jonah rejoiced and praised God for saving his life.
Suddenly God spoke to him again.
“Jonah! I still want you to go to Nineveh."
"I need you to preach the message I will give you.”
Jonah still did not want to go to Nineveh
but he had promised God that he would obey Him.
So he went.
Jonah began to preach as soon as he arrived.
He told everyone God’s special message for the people living in Nineveh.
“In 40 days Nineveh is going to be destroyed.”
The news spread quickly throughout the city.
"Nineveh is going to be destroyed?"
"How could this possibly happen?"
"What can we do to stop it?”
Everyone was serious.
They believed the message Jonah delivered.
Soon people began to wonder.
“Maybe if God sees that we are truly sorry for doing wrong, He will save us."
"Maybe He wouldn’t destroy our city."
"Let’s show Him how sorry we are."
"We should stop eating food for a while and not wear our regular nice clothes."
"This will show God that the most important thing to us right now is to talk to Him and have him listen to us."
So everyone put on sackcloth to show how sorry they were for their sins.
They fasted and prayed for forgiveness.
The king of Nineveh heard what was happening in the city.
He knew at once that Jonah’s warning came from God.
He believed the message.
He decided to show God how sorry he was for all the wicked things he and his people had done.
He took off his royal clothes and put on sackcloth—
simple, coarse clothes.
Then he sat in the dust and prayed to God.
The king sent out a message to all the people in Nineveh.
“No man, woman, child, animal, herd, or flock is to eat or drink anything."
"Everyone is to wear sackcloth."
"We need to pray to God urgently."
"Let us stop being violent and unkind to one another."
"Maybe God will be merciful to us."
"Maybe He will forgive us for all the wrong things we have done and not destroy our city.”
Everyone did just as the king commanded.
God saw the people.
He could see how sorry the people of Nineveh were.
He believed that they were really sorry.
So He forgave them and decided not to destroy the city.
The people of Nineveh were grateful.
God had shown them His love and mercy.
And they would change their ways.
They began by praising God for His love and forgiveness.
Jonah had done what God asked him to do.
He had given the message that God gave him.
God had shown that He cared about the people of Nineveh.
He wanted them to be good people.
He wants us to care about others too.
He wants to use us to share His loving message of salvation with others.