#DearWhitePeople - A Reflection on Relationship

In the last post I wrote about how the movie Dear White People is about identity. We unfortunately place our identities in faulty things when the truth is that God is calling us to place our identities in Him.

This movie is also about RELATIONSHIP.

A majority of the movie centered on relationships that were rooted in deceit, pride, and prejudice. These relationships were never based on authenticity, humility, or reconciliation. Only at the end of the movie do we get a glimpse of all three merging into any relationship. That moment came when Sam, the main character of the film, opens up to her boyfriend about her struggles with her dad battling cancer. In a beautiful moment, Sam is open and honest with him at the same moment he realizes that he needs to humbly listen and comfort her. When both of those happen in tandem it become clear that reconciliation is occurring.

So, the main question is this: Are your relationships marked by authenticity?

So, are our relationship with one another marked by authenticity? Most people feel like being completely authentic with someone is impossible, for one reason or another. Maybe the fear is that they won’t accept you. Maybe the guilt you feel is too heavy to be forgiven. Maybe you feel like it’s not a big deal and it’s no one’s business.

Trust me, the best relationships I have today are due to a reciprocal authenticity with the other people. Just the other week I was sitting in someone’s living room crying about how I feel like no matter what I did I would not be accepted and that I am a disappointment. This painfully beautiful conversation was the beginning of a reconciled relationship between a brother in Christ.

"We believe the best about one another. We wade through the worst with one another.”
- Pastor Kevin Larson

No one in Dear White People is ever completely authentic to who they are until the end of the movie, and even then there is only a flash, a glimpse into authentic relationship.

You guys, do not wait until the end of your story to be completely authentic. Being honest with someone is hard, but the rewards of being honest are a kind of unity that only comes from loving, being loved, forgiving, and being forgiven.

As important as being authentic with others is for your life, being authentic with God is eternally more important. God already knows how flawed and imperfect you are, and that’s exactly why Jesus needed to die on the cross to forgive your sins. He needed to rise again to defeat Satan, sin and death. He already knows you - the real, authentic you. Place your faith in Jesus. He was perfectly authentic - sinless, full of grace, and full of mercy.

Being authentic is to be done by faith. It is to be done in God’s grace. It is to be done among God’s people, and it is to be done on mission to share the good news of Jesus with the world.

God is good and gracious

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Saturday Morning Prayer and the Grace of God

I woke up today at 5:30am.

Now, that might seem a little too early for a Saturday morning for most people, but this has become a normal waking time for Ali and I. We had a hard time initially waking up this early on “our only day off.” Over time though, this waking time has become something we look forward to.

We wake up to go to a small group gathering called Morning Prayer. Karis Church, the church that we have been members at for some time now, started a morning prayer time for each day of the week. Each morning, at 6am, there is an organized time to pray for God to work in our lives, our friends and family, the city of Columbia, and for the church.

As the elders introduced this to the church I immediately felt a conviction. I didn’t understand what the conviction was at first, but I knew I desired to be involved with a Morning Prayer time. I remember hearing that there were still two morning slots that needed leaders - Tuesdays and Saturdays. 

I can’t remember much of the sermon that morning because all I was thinking about was if I should step up and lead one of the open dates. I immediately crossed off Tuesdays because I have Staff Meeting for the church on those mornings, so I knew that it would conflict with that time. So… Saturday was all that was left.

I sat in the pew that morning thinking about why I would want to do this. Did I want to do it because “real” leaders step up? Did I want to do it because I wanted to conquer a challenge? Did I want to do it because I could tell people I am choosing “the hardest morning?” (By the way, waking up at 5:30am is hard any day of the week!)

Those are all twisted reasons to get involved in leading others in prayer, but the one reason that came out from all of it was this:

I struggle with prayer.

I remember sitting there being struck with this healthy conviction that I am robbing myself of God’s intimacy by not spending time in prayer. This reality struck me because I knew it affected my relationship with God.

Why do I say that? Well, I say that because I see how easy it is to fall into believing lies that influence my heart and thoughts about God and His grace. I, like most people, stray into focusing too much on my sin and not our Savior.

"Dear Father, teach us to give our greater efforts to reveling in Your grace rather than groveling in our sin.” Art Azurdia

My lack of prayer reveals that I am more focused on my sin than the grace of God, and I know that the more I focus on my sin the more that I feel guilt and shame for falling short. Sinning in the first place is not “reveling in [God’s] grace,” but refusing to come to God in prayer is also not reveling in His grace. 

There are plenty of reasons why most of us don’t pray: guilt, shame, pride, self-sufficient lies, unbelief, anger, etc. I think of the reasons that I struggle with prayer because I feel extreme guilt and God won’t forgive me for something so offensive to His holiness. While it is true that my sin does affect my relationship with God, the truth is that my sin does not change my standing in Christ. I have placed my life in the grace of God for my salvation and not my works, so when I fall short - and I certainly will - His grace is sufficient to forgive me.

The same thing is true for you if you have trusted in Christ: His grace is sufficient to forgive you and His love for you is the motivation to come before Him for forgiveness and thank Him for His glorious grace.

We have the freedom to come before God, humble ourselves, and ask Him to give us eyes to see Him as He truly is. God is faithful and forgiving to those who are humbled before His holiness and His glory.  

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:9-10 ESV)

Saturday mornings have now become a blessing from God. It started off with just my wife and I, but now we have three others joining us. I wake up groggy each time, but I wake up knowing that God is faithful to hear our prayers. 

If you are interested in joining me pray, please let me know and I would love to connect with you. 

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Pretty Little Lies

To set the scene for this post I would like to describe my Saturday night activities.

Ali and I sit across the room from one another as we do separate things. Three light are on in our living room, and one of them is the light from the laptop I am typing on. The glow of her iPhone gives me a vague outline of her face. The last light is coming from a our very small TV, and the show we are attempting to watch is a show based on lying to the ones closest to you. I dare not share the show’s name to remain above reproach to all people groups. 

With all that in mind, it has made me think about a topic that I believe we undervalue:

Honesty.

Honesty is an interesting thing, isn’t it? We would all say that we want to be told the truth. When we are lied to we feel betrayed. I can also make the general assumption that when we find out we have been lied to by our friends we are much more devastated than if we were to discover we were lied to by our barista. 

The closer the person is to us, the more a lie hurts us.

But, do you really want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 

Well, do you?

This is the part that gets pretty honest. This is where I tell you that you have been deceived and you have actually enjoyed seeking out the lies. You have passionately sought out things that will tear away at your heart. You have mercilessly pursued something that offers the world and gives you death.

The reality of your life is that you have always wanted the lies but you reject the truth. The reality is that the truth is something you have fought with every once of your being. The thought of the lies makes your mouth water with anticipation. An issue with accepting this is that plenty of people will tell you lies as “truth” because they are also deceived. The ripple effect of the very first deception is still creating waves after waves of destruction, so the best way to find an answer is to look at the start of all the lies in the world.

The first lie in all of history was Satan telling Eve that if she ate a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil she would not die. The first ever lie was about the result of her action, not the action itself. He said the result of her disobedience to God’s loving command was not what God had told her. Simply put, Satan called God a liar.

Think about that. The first lie was a created being calling God a liar. Satan deceived Adam and Eve. 

But, if this were the end of the story it would appear that we are victims and not a part of the problem. Take a closer look:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
(Genesis 3:4-7 ESV)

It said that they were lied to, but it says that Eve looked and thought it was “good,” “a delight,” and “to be desired.” They took the fruit because they thought disobeying God’s commands was good, a delight, and desirable. They wanted to disobey God. 

You are no different. You might think that looking at porn is a good thing. You might think that getting stoned, drunk, or cross-faded is a delight. You also might think that being the best, strongest, most rational, most put-together, most religious, and most responsible person you know is the most desirable thing on the planet. 

Reality check: All of those things are LIES.

To those who believe the lies and disobey God: you are not able to believe God because you actively reject God’s reign. This inability is due to sin’s effect in your heart. Sin promises satisfaction but leaves you wanting more. Your habit, addiction, or passion might feel good, but if this feeling is leading you to death would you want someone to tell you?

All this being said, this may be you. You might believe the lie that you will not die from your sin, but know this: Death only entered the world because of sin, and since we are all sinners you should know that your sin does lead to death.

There’s only two options: believe the lie or believe the Truth.

Jesus is the one man to have ever believed God’s words, spoke the truth in love at all times, resisted Satan’s temptation to doubt God, and perfectly obeyed God’s will for His life. He obeyed perfectly to save you. He believed God was worthy to be trusted in all things, at all times, and in all circumstances. 

God isn’t asking for your perfect faith, but God is calling you to place your life and your small faith in Jesus Christ. He is worthy. He is faithful. He is God.

We can either believe the lie that we can save ourselves or we can believe that the only Way to be saved is found in the perfect Lamb of God — His perfect life, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His triumphant resurrection from the grave.

Don’t believe the lie; even if the lie is a pretty little lie.

Be Faithful, Be Passionate, Be Uncomfortable

For those who might not know, I am an intern at Karis Church in Columbia, Missouri. There have been a lot of twists and turns when it comes to who God is calling my wife and I to reach out to, but only as of late do we feel like we truly know where God is calling us to live and pour out our lives.

Ali and I started the internship just starting the transition to a group that focused on the center of the city, but after about 6 months we decided it was best to multiply into multiple Missional Communities (small groups), so Ali and I chose to go to a Missional Community called Ethnos, which translates to “For the Nations.” We have now been focusing our time and effort to making connections with Latino men and women at the University of Missouri. Things have been going well, and only as of late have we started seeing relationships forming. But – as it normally happens - we are now moving to an area of Columbia that we truly believe God is calling us: Douglass Park.

There might be some questions that are arising in your mind, and honestly we have had or still have all of those questions. But, Ali and I are called to follow God wherever He is calling us to live, and we are attempting to follow God as best as we can and that might include bouncing around in the same city. What we have learned in the past year comes to down to sticking to three principles:

Be Faithful

God has called Ali and I to follow Jesus Christ, our Savior, God, King, High Priest, and our Lord over all creation.

The most important responsibility that we have is not each other. Our highest calling is to love God with all of our hearts, our souls, and our might. I have found through trial after trail that what I am called to do is to follow Christ and seek to be faithful. When followers of Christ genuinely seek Him, He will reveal His grace and glory.

God has called Ali and I to be faithful to our calling as children of the living God.

Be Passionate

God has called Ali and I to be passionate about loving people in any area, any people group, and in any situation to show God’s love.

We are to be passionate about Jesus and in turn we are to be passionate about loving people. When Jesus was asked to tell the crowds what the most important commandment was He said to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that we are to love God and that in turn makes us passionate about loving everyone in our lives. Neighbor doesn’t always mean your direct neighbors, but that doesn’t excuse the people that live in your immediate neighborhood. Ali and I are intentionally living in a dangerous neighborhood in Columbia so that we can love broken families, drug addicts, single moms, wandering men, and anyone else that God puts in our lives.

God has called us to passionately love Him and passionately sacrifice our lives so that men, women, and children may come to know our loving, holy, and beautiful Savior.

Be Uncomfortable

God has called Ali and I to be comfortable being uncomfortable so that Jesus may be known deeply in the hearts of who God is calling us to share the gospel with.

Honestly, we have struggled with comfort and complacency. We would rather stay in our house and keep to ourselves, but we are called to be lights to the world. We can’t help but go around and share the hope that is only found in Christ. We can’t help but go and sacrifice our comfort so that we can build relationships, disciple men and women, and boldly preach the gospel in any context. If we are comfortable, we are not being faithful and we are not being passionate – at least that’s what I have noticed in our lives. Being uncomfortable should be so normal that we become comfortable being uncomfortable. Sacrificing our preferences, our habits, and our norms so that people may love Jesus is worth it.

God has called us to be uncomfortable so that our friends, families, and neighbors might come to know the One True God.

These findings go for you all too. God has called you.

Go. Preach. Disciple. Love. Believe.

Be faithful. Be passionate. Be uncomfortable.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Busyness Won't Save Me

photo courtesy of David De Lossy

The last couple of days have been... slow.

After receiving an ice storm this past weekend and receiving over a foot of snow in the past 36 hours I have realized something about myself:

I struggle with rest.

I woke up on each of the past four days with this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I think it all comes from the idea of not being in a rhythm. When I slow down and sit to ponder what happened in my day I am overcome with this restlessness that is unexplainable. I have tried to explain it a couple of times to people, but deep down I have an issue with stopping after I get home.

Ali helped me realize this a while back, so now I intentionally don’t answer emails or notifications that pop up on my phone until the following day because I know that I just desperately want to keep busy. I have tried to make a small step to resting. But, when the phone buzzes or rings I immediately wonder what am I needed for. I immediately rush with curiosity what I could do to keep busy and productive.

This feeling is not just for work. This feeling is the feeling I have a lot of the time in my walk of faith in Christ. I don’t know about a lot of people, but I usually have the thought that I should be doing more. I should sharing the gospel more, I should be building up the community of saints more often, I should read the Bible more, I should pray more, etc. While all that might be slightly true I find myself feeling restless and anxious to get out and do more.

Wanting to do those things is actually good, but we begin to overcome our minds with worry and/or anxiety then it reveals something about us that needs to be addressed. In some manner, this points to something that we believe in our relationship with God.

Aarik Danielson, pastor at Karis Church, said:

"A lot of us have busy hearts. Hearts that pump out as much anxiety and worry as they do bloog. They're always churning inside about what people think or how we performed today or how we can move on to something better. We sit around with this anxious feeling, like we're supposed to be doing... something. Something else. But what?"

I hope that this is helpful and gives you an honest picture in my struggles at this present time.

I have just begun to dig into why I struggle with rest, but here are some of my early findings.

I Am Needy

To be honest, I struggle with the truth that I am a needy person. We are all needy people, but we usually like to think of the people that suck the energy out of you as the needy people. We all like to think of the ones who text us too much, call us too much, or email us too much as the truly needy and clingy people.

I am a needy person. I don’t always want to see how broken I truly am. I don’t always want to see much I have fallen short of God’s demands. I want to be seen as mature. I don’t always want to see how much I have chosen to rebel against God’s law. I normally want to be seen as a young man growing in holiness. I don’t always want to be seen as weak. I normally want to be seen as strong.

The truth is that I am more broken than I will ever see. I have and will sin against the God of the universe in more ways than I want to believe. In the light of acknowledging these things I am a needy sinner in need of God’s eternal and brilliant grace. The only way that God can forgive me is that He gives me grace. This leads me to my next point…

My Busyness Will Not Save Me

When I grew up I believed that if you did good things that means that you are a good person and that earns your way to heaven. I thought that heaven is the reward for those who tried to do some good things in life and didn’t hurt that many people. Those things more line up with Buddhism and the idea of Karma then with Christianity. Why do I say that? Because the Bible says that.

All over the place I read that there is nothing that I can do that warrants eternal life, but instead the Bible is very clear that I actually wanted to rebel against God. I openly and emphatically chose rebellion over loving obedience to His law. If my works give me anything, they give me what I deserve: hell.

Now, I know that talking about hell is usually seen as fire and brimstone, but hell is not a theory. Hell is not something that God created only for the super-villains. Hell is not only a place for the worst of the worst. The saddest and more humbling part of all of this is that without God’s help I would actually choose to rebel against Him in every way so that I end up in hell.

My work will not save me. So, what will?

The grace of God. 

Stop. Follow me closely.

Jesus’ works include a sinless life. Our works include a sinful life. Jesus’ works include perfect submission to God the Father. Our works include rebellion against God the Father. Jesus’ works include a complete trust in God the Father. Our works include doubting God the Father. Jesus’ works include willingly dying for sinners. Our works include rejecting Jesus’ life and death on the cross as unimportant and irrelevant. Jesus’ works include raising from the grave and ascending into heaven. Our works include calling Jesus’ power impossible and ridiculous. 

So, how does God offer us reconciliation? He offers us all of Jesus’ righteousness by having faith that Jesus is God. God will give us Jesus’ righteousness if we have faith that Jesus died died for us while we openly rejected Him.

If we have faith in what Jesus did we will be given a new nature that won’t desire to rebel against God anymore. We are to repent of our sin against Him and begin following Jesus for the rest of our lives.

I have faith in Jesus’ works, not my own works. So, whenever I struggle with rest I am struggling with God’s works being enough to save me. 

That’s a tough pill to swallow, but its important to know so that my faith and trust in God’s works might increase and I might rest more confidently in God’s finished work on the cross.

If we trust in Jesus and repent of trying to save ourselves, He is faithful to forgive us.

I am an needy sinner in need of God’s grace in every moment of my life, and I pray that you see that you are in need of God’s grace for salvation. Place any work that attempts to save you before God and place your faith in what Jesus did for you.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

God: Gracious

“God is gracious.”

Let me begin by stating this up front: There is too much to say about how God is gracious. The amount of things that I could write about, explain, and expose are going to be limited and not the entirety of God’s graciousness. He is infinitely gracious and immeasurably gracious to all of us, so I have chosen to look at a couple amazing truths about God’s grace.

Grace is undeserved.

Seriously stop and think about this. I mean it. Stop and think about it.

The pure, huge, and infinite God of all creation chooses to be gracious to men and women who consistently disregard His rule and reign. We constantly seek after things that kill us, but the worst part of it is that we want to sin against God. We openly, blatantly and emphatically sin because we think it leads to a free life when in reality it leads to death (Genesis 6:5, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 6:23).

If we have sinned against God, and we openly acknowledge that we have, we must realize that there is nothing that could make us earn His favor. By grace’s very definition it means that God gives us unmerited favor and blessing. 

Karis Church, the church I am an intern and have been a member at for two years, sums up God’s grace like this:

Our God is a God of grace. He welcomes undeserving people to His table even though He is not obligated to do so. As frail, finite sinners we can do nothing on our own. We deserve nothing at all - that is, except judgment.

The good news is that even though all we are owed is to be separated from His presence, He gives us Jesus to reconcile the relationship that we damaged. 

Grace is found in Jesus. 

Jesus lived the life we could never lived, died the death that we deserve, and ascended into heaven to give us new life. 

God is gracious to forgive us from all of our sins. God is gracious to forgive us for our sinful motives behind our “good” deeds. God is gracious to come to the help of needy sinners who need His grace for salvation. God is gracious to choose us when we would never choose Him. God is gracious to sustain our faith in His grace until we die, and God is gracious to come back to take His children from all over the world to heaven. 

Grace frees us from proving ourselves.

Let’s be honest with one another… We all feel like we have something to prove to someone, to some group, to ourselves, to our family, to our professors, to our children, to our spouse, or to our boss. We all feel like that to some extent, but God flips all of that on its head!

Since we know that we can do nothing in our own strength to reconcile ourselves to God, we have to trust that His works are enough to save us. When we place our trust in Jesus’s works and not our own we are free from feeling like we need to prove ourselves to God. God knows that we are finite and frail human beings, and when we see that we are to respond by faith and trust that He is enough for us.

Grace enables us to fight and kill sin in our lives.

After we place our trust in God’s grace for salvation we aren’t done with God’s grace. God’s grace is what enables us to stop pursuing and committing sins. Romans 8 tells us that is we have the Holy Spirit within us, then we will, not might at times, kill sins in our lives (Romans 8:12-17). Clearly we will never have a sinless day, but God is making us more like Jesus moment by moment if we lean on His grace.

John Piper also says that God’s grace is “not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon” (emphasis added). 

Grace is not simply just the access point of faith in Jesus, but grace is interwoven in all facets of the Christian faith that it is impossible to fully depict God’s perfect, holy, and beautiful grace in our lives.

Grace is available for you.

Do you trust in Jesus Christ? Have you placed your life in God’s hands? Are you in need of a Savior? 

God’s perfect, loving, and forgiving grace is only found in Jesus and His perfect life, His brutal crucifixion, and His power to rise from the dead and defeat Satan, sin and death!

Jesus died so that the world would place their lives, their hopes, their dreams, and their desires in His gracious hands.

If you have not placed your trust in His hands, I would plead that you would. He is gracious to forgive if you whole-heartedly ask Him to forgive you. Pray and ask for Jesus’s grace to change your heart to love and pursue Him.

If you have already trusted in Him for salvation, please pray and ask God to continue to change your heart, your desires, and your mind so that He will be what you seek for joy and fulfillment. He loves you and He wants you to keep pursuing Him.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Romans 3: Faith Alone

The Cross - Billy Graham Message

Jesus Is The Better Jonah

On Wednesday July 10, I taught Jonah 1:4-6 to the Center City MC, the Missional Community I am a part of at Karis Church. This post will be a brie look into what I talked about on Wednesday.

This will not be exhaustive, but I hope it reflects the points I tried to make on Wednesday.

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Jonah 1:4-6 :

But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

We are Jonah.

That is the thing that we need to see over and over again while we read the book of Jonah. Jonah is a sinful man who is running away from what God has called for him to do. As we see in these three verses, Jonah not only is taking a step away from the mission, but Jonah is also taking a step away from community.

When we sin we are like Jonah, we take a step away from community and we take a step away from the mission that God has called for us. But Jesus reveals authentic community and a total willingness and submission to God's mission.

The first thing that we see is that God causes the storm to occur. Why in the world would He do that? Why would God create a storm to potentially tear this ship apart?

We will ultimately see that as we read the book of Jonah that God creates the storm to ultimate bring people to repentance and faith in His steadfast and unfailing love. The entire city of Nineveh repents and places their faith in the One God of the world!

We we move into verse 5, we see mariners - not believers in the God of the Bible - frantically freaking out and pleading with their gods to save them from this huge storm. After they cry out, they begin to throw things overboard to save themselves from their inevitable death.

We act like this all of the time. We cry out and frantically do anything we can to save ourselves from the storm that is coming our way and rocking us back and forth. We sometimes think that our family, friends, our significant other, our sexual desires, lying, power, wealth, or our public image will satisfy us. We think that if we are liked by everyone, if we drink another beer, if we hook up with one more person, or if we get all of the money and power we can, we will be completely satisfied in this life.

It does not work. Trust me. Only God can truly satisfy our desires, needs, and longings.

Take a look at Matthew 8:23-27

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

Do you see all the resemblances? There was a storm, people were freaking out, the main character is asleep during the storm, and they seek for something or Someone to save them!

In both stories the entire point of these stories is that they come to the main character looking for something or Someone to save them.

The men on the boat in Jonah ask him to go to his God to save them from the storm. The disciples of Jesus come to Jesus to save them.

This is a huge difference:

Jonah can not save the men on that boat. Only God can do that.
Jesus can save the men on the boat. He DOES do that.

Some people might be quick to point out that Jesus solely saved them physically on the boat, but if you look deeply into the entire point of Jesus' life it was centered on saving people for eternity. He talks about this over and over again. Read the four gospels and you will see Jesus say that He is the only way to go before the Father (John 14:1-11).

Jesus not only saves the disciples from the destruction of a storm, but He also saved them from their sin and the judgement that comes from the act of rebellion.

Jonah was in rebellion against God's plan. Jesus found joy in God's plan. Jonah could not calm the storm or save anyone on the boat. Jesus calmed the storm to show His saving power and He saved everyone on that boat. Jonah was hard-hearted. Jesus showed compassion. Jonah lacked faith. Jesus is the One we need to place our faith in!

Jesus is the better Jonah. The perfect Jonah. The fufillment of what Jonah should have been.

Jesus saves those who cry out to Him to save them. He did it in that boat and He still does it to this day. He saves people in addiction, in their pride, in their bitterness, in their darkness, and in their rebellion towards God's will and plan. He saves us from ourselves and brings us to see His way is what we were made for. His will and plan are ultimately our joy because we were created to enjoy His goodness, His faithfulness, His love, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Go Into All The World

I thought I would share this cool background and the verses that inspired it.

via Pocketfuel

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20, ESV)

I am not saved by grace through faith for solely my own life. Christians are not to live as if saving grace is something to withhold from anybody. Christians are not to be self-centered after they have received forgiveness. Christians are to be gospel-centered. They are to be centered on the good news that Jesus came down from His throne in heaven, lived a perfect life, died so that we may have life in Him, and rose from the grave to proclaim that He is God and in control over life and death.

This good news should move us to the point that we cannot hold back from talking about it. We should go into all the world and share this good news with those whom God has called to be His children.

God is good, gracious, great, and glorious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales