Jonah 1:7-16: Jonah and the Sailors
‘Drawing straight lines with crooked sticks’, this is a one liner that I could write over this portion as we see God using an unwilling Jonah to do much more than he ever intended. Bringing good out of evil is another way we could summarise this portion. Jonah is running from God and being disobedient in not calling Nineveh to repentance. Jonah has brought ruin and judgement upon himself and the ships full of unbelieving sailors. Jonah has ruined his witness, but God! Despite Jonah God will use this attempt to damn gentiles to save gentiles. God will use...
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Romans 15:14-16: Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles
Introduction: You might think now that we have finished the doctrinal part of the letter to the Romans the last chapter and a half are unimportant and will be a let-down. You could not be more wrong. This last section of Romans gives us a tremendous window into the nature of Paul’s ministry helping us to think about our own ministry as a church. As well as a window into the life of the early church. In this closing section of the letter Paul reverts to personal comments as he did in the introduction of this letter. And just...
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