SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/23/2025 7:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “A Rebuking Message”
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Jonah 3:-3b-4
Message of the verses: “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
We can see that after Jonah arrived at Nineveh, the Assyria’s capital that Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk. Now this detail highlights the swiftness with which the message swept through the very large city of Nineveh. Before Jonah even reached the middle or midpoint of the city, having completed only just one third of his journey, his warning of judgment and call for repentance had spread throughout the entire metropolis; see verses 4-5). What should have necessitated at least three days was actually accomplished in one single day. I think that one could call this a “Holy Spirit Revival.” The speed of Nineveh’s surrender to the Lord testified to the sincerity of their repentance and also to God’s might work in the hearts of the people. Just think about what was happening in this city as God would send His prophet who was actually unwilling to go at first, and then he had an encounter with a very large fish which actually helped to change his mind about ministering to the people of Nineveh. Then after realizing that this is what the Lord had called him to do he then went again towards Nineveh giving the message of salvation to a people that God had prepared their hearts, and so Jonah could see this even before he got through the entire city. God had prepared the hearts of the Ninevites for receiving His salvation, and then had actually prepared His prophet to go and give out the message, and let me just say that this is how people are saved in our world today. God had been preparing my heart before I went to Florida in January of 1974, prepared my heart to receive the Word of God which came from messages from Hal Lindsey and then it was the Holy Spirit of God who did the work of receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, something that has changed me completely from a man who could not say a sentence without a curse word to a man who has not cursed after receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. It works the same way as what was about to happen to the population in Nineveh, that is to confess that you are a sinner in need of salvation, something you can never do on your own, as you just have to receive it by grace through faith, believe that in the case of Jonah’s time that God would send His Son to care for your sin problem as He would suffer and die on the cross to pay for your sins. Today we look back to when Jesus did that as we then must receive Him as Savior and Lord, like so many are doing in what is called the church age. This is very exciting to me to see when people receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord as I know from experience that this will truly be the greatest day of their lives when this happens, and also realize it is a miracle when this happens to someone today or any other day.
Well I have done it again as I kind of got off the track in talking about how a sinner can be saved, but truly that is the best thing that can happen to anyone. I want to quote one paragraph at this time from John MacArthur’s commentary and then, Lord willing will continue looking at these verses in tomorrow’s SD.
“While the timing demonstrates how swiftly the city responded to the prophet’s message, it equally indicates that Nineveh’s repentance did not depend on the skill of the preacher. Jonah spent hardly any time with the Ninevites. He only began to go into the city before revival broke out. Having gone only a third of the way through Nineveh’s metropolitan area, the prophet was still outside the city center. Yet, the entire city responded. Clearly, this turning from sin could never be attributed to Jonah—especially since the prophet, thought obedient, did not want the Ninevites to repent (cf. 4:1-3). Rather, the speed and scope of Nineveh’s repentance was entirely and exclusively the work of God, as the preacher’s message spread by word of mouth (cf. 3:3).”
Like MacArthur’s writes that it is all about God when a person is saved from their sins, and turns to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and as I go back to my story about when I became a born-again believer I sadly have to say that my high school friend who allowed me to listen to the tapes I listened to when I became a believer told me a few years later that he was not into that any more.
Spiritual meaning For my Life Today: Just continue to spread the Word of God as I talk to people, and as I write my Spiritual Diaries and put them onto my blogs so that the Holy Spirit can use them as He calls people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I continue to trust the Lord that He will guide my wife to seek the treatment she needs to remove the cancer from her body.
10/23/2025 10:59 AM
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