No Where to Run!

3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”

7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”

12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”

13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.

Chapter 2

Jonah’s Prayer

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said,

“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,

and he answered me.

I called to you from the land of the dead,

and Lord, you heard me!

3 You threw me into the ocean depths,

and I sank down to the heart of the sea.

The mighty waters engulfed me;

I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.

4 Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence.

Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’

5 “I sank beneath the waves,

and the waters closed over me.

Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.

I was imprisoned in the earth,

whose gates lock shut forever.

But you, O Lord my God,

snatched me from the jaws of death!

7 As my life was slipping away,

I remembered the Lord.

And my earnest prayer went out to you

in your holy Temple.

8 Those who worship false gods

turn their backs on all God’s mercies.

9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,

and I will fulfill all my vows.

For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

A guy says the bible is just a book of rules so he throws it away.

another guy gets it out of the trash and says don’t ever do that again.

he said let me tell you a story about that book.

he said when my moma died i inherted 70,000

i was so messed up in life i got two girl friends and a whole bunch of crack cocain.

he said we were partying all day and all night, i stop going to work and lost my job.

in just two months went from 70,000 to being evicted from my apartment.

so i had what little stuff i had left in a suitcase and a back pack. he still keep partying going fro cheap motel to cheap

motel and along the way i was lossing the little bit of stuff i had left.

he said the only thing he had left that his mother had given him was a bible that his mother had written a love letter to

him inside the front page and how that Jesus was the answer.

but now as he is bouncing around from place to place he realizes he has lost the backpack with the bible in it.

now all the money runs out the girls leave he has a crack habit. he is all alone leaving on the street for the next year and a

half.

now he has become a begger and one day while he is on the street a guy pulls up and offers him a job with a project of

cleaning out an old aprament buliding about 100 miles away. as he is sifting the the garbage in that apartment i came

across a dirty book on the floor, picked it up and whipped it off and opened it up it was the letter from his mom and the

bible she gave him as a kid. it had been a year and a half and a hundred miles away, and he said God if your going to chase

me the hard Im going to quit running.

see you cant run to far God cant find you

see when God is looking for you is is not because he dont know where your at it is he is just patient enough to let you stop running.

God will find you when your minding your buisness at walmart.

God will find you at the ball game on homecoing weekend

God will find you in the crack house

God will find you in the club dropping it like its hot

God will fin you at 7 on the dot in yo drop to crushing the streets

God will find you when you run into your dead in street and you find there is no where to run

because God doesnt show up for you God is Jehvah shamma the God that is present he was there already waiting for you.

because he loves you that much!