By Ronald E. George Jr. at the
Fayetteville Baptist Church
The strangest Thanksgiving Day ever was the day that
Jonah was swallowed by the big fish. Think
about it. There was a man that
was happy to admit that he was the cause of a great storm. There was a shipload of thankful sailors who calmed the sea
by throwing the preacher overboard. A
giant fish that had a preacher
for thanksgiving. A
preacher who was just swallowed by a giant fish, and he was just thankful to
be alive. Then three days later
there was a preacher who was thankful to make someone else sick.
A big fish who was thankful to get sick and loose his lunch.
Finally God was able to convince the preacher to listen. Don’t you
think that God was thankful to Himself?
Wow what a strange thanksgiving day.
The first Thanksgiving Day would have been a strange sight for most of
us to behold. After the first
winter had taken its toll on the new colonists.
Only half of them survived the winter to participate in the first
Thanksgiving Day feast. Instead
of moaning groaning, and complaining of all their loses and their
inconveniences the first pilgrims were so thankful to the Heavenly Father that
they gathered for a three day celebration.
Some may say that the feast was in honor of the Indians, but it was
Governor Bradford’s own decree that declares the Thanksgiving Feast in honor
to God. Only 52 out of the 102
passengers on the Mayflower were able to make it through the winter.
Governor
Bradford of Massachusetts made this first Thanksgiving Proclamation three
years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth:
"Inasmuch
as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn,
wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests
to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has
protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence
and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates
of our own conscience.
Now
I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye
little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9
and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord
one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims
landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render
thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings." -- William Bradford
Jonah’s journey of life had brought him to many places. What points of interest have you reached in your journey of
life? Let’s think about the
points of interest that the preacher Jonah had reached in his life.
Scripture
Text:
Jonah 2:1 (KJS) Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the
fish's belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the
LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest
my voice. 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas;
and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over
me. 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. 5 The waters compassed me about, [even] to the soul: the
depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 I went
down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars [was] about me
for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer
came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying
vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the
voice of thanksgiving; I will pay [that] that I have vowed. Salvation [is]
of the LORD. 10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry [land].
These are the points of interest along the way that
Jonah stopped to see.
1.
Jonah reached the point of the depth of despair in the depth
of the ocean. He was ready
to look up. Are you ready to look
up? If you are looking down then
you need to be lowered. It all
depends on how you look at God. What’s
you perspective? Jonah had been
called upon by God to go preach to the city of Nineveh, but he refused.
For Jonah to reach the point of the depth of despair in his spiritual
life he had to run from God. He was traveling in the opposite direction of the way God had
desired in his life. If you are
going away from the Lord you may be heading for the greatest Thanksgiving Day
ever in your life. But to reach
this greatest Thanksgiving Day ever you may have to reach the depths of
despair.
2.
Jonah reached the point of return.
He was ready to come back to God.
Jonah reached the point of remembering the Lord.
He was sufficiently humble enough to come back.
And sufficiently thankful enough to be alive that he prayed to the
Lord. He turned from his way back
to God’s way. You may travel down the wrong way for sometime, but you have
to aware of the fact that there is a dead end.
Without God in your life you will die forever and be bound to a
devil’s hell. You must reach
the point of return before you are able to turn.
Even as a Christian in fellowship with the Lord you can turn from him
and go your way. Just as the
preacher Jonah. Have you reached
the point of return? Please
don’t go too far down to the next point.
3.
Jonah reached the point of sincere prayer.
No more lying vanities. He
was ready to get serious with the Lord. He
did not forsake his own mercy as his peers who chose to pray to gods without
ears. He took advantage of the Lord’s mercy. It all depends on how you look at it. Jonah could have bemoaned his sad condition and blamed God
for all his problems. But he
chose to thank God for saving him from certain death in the sea, by the
sending a rescue boat. Jonah
became the submariner in the belly of the big fish.
Then he realized how much mercy the Lord had given him. How much has the Lord given you?
Have you reached the point of sincere prayer? You don’t have to be in the whale of a belly to find the
point of sincere prayer. You can
be right in your chair. We must
become open to the desires of God for our lives to be at the place of sincere
prayer. Are you there yet? Do you need a belly of whale to get you there?
God can and will do what it takes to bring on board his boat.
Get off of your ship to Tarshish and get on board with the Lord.
Have you reached the point of sincere prayer?
Horatio G. Spafford, a successful Chicago lawyer, lost most of his
wealth in the financial crisis of 1873. He sent his wife and four daughters on
a trip to France, but on their way, their ship was struck by another, and
sank. Of 225 passengers, only 87 of them survived.
Mrs. Spafford was among the survivors, but the four daughters perished.
As soon as she reached land, she telegraphed to her husband: "Saved
alone. Children lost. What shall I do?"
Spafford left for France to join his wife and return her to Chicago. In
the depth of this bereavement, he wrote his only hymn: It is Well With My
Soul. Perhaps the words of the first stanza will take on new meaning for you,
as you ponder them:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrow like sea billow roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou
hast taught me to say, "It
is well, it is well with my soul."
-- Plus Magazine, Vol. 45:6, July/August, 1994, pp. 33-34.
4.
Jonah reached the point of True Thanksgiving.
I will pay what I have vowed. There
is only one way to be saved. God
will have to save you or you will be lost for all eternity.
Have you reached the point of True Thanksgiving?
Jonah was thankful for the salvation that he had received from the
Lord. After 3 nights and 3 days
in a whale of a belly, he was ready to look up.
Are you? Sometimes it takes God longer to convert the preacher than it
does the unbelievers. You may be
on a boat to Tarshish, but you will never out run the Lord.
You may think you can sin and get away with it but you will never run
out of God’s love for you. Jonah
was thankful that
God had heard him and delivered him from death even though Jonah had turned
his back on God. God will hear
you and accept you when you reach the point of True Thanksgiving.
5.
Jonah reached the point of True worship.
He was willing to pay what he had vowed.
Jonah had wanted to go with God, but he had wanted to go his way.
You can’t go with God your way.
We must be willing to go with God in his direction for our lives.
You can say that you are going with the Lord all you want, but the
truth of the matter is that you aren’t until you are.
Have you reached the point of true worship in your journey of life?
This point of interest is the place in your life when you truly submit
your life to God as a living sacrifice. Remember
that he gave his life for you. Are
you truly worshipping the Lord? Are
you truly thankful for all His blessings in your life?