What mistake is that?  I’m glad you asked.  The mistake they make in “Jonah” is to assume that Jonah is the central character of that story.  I know it sounds kind of silly that the main character in the BOOK OF JONAH is not Jonah, but its the truth.  They have a song that’s playing in my twin’s room right now that says:

“Jonah was a prophet, but he really never got it
And if you watch him, you can spot it
He did not get the point. . .
Compassion and mercy, from me to you and you to me
Exactly what God wants to see, and yes that is the point.”

This is kind of like a Bible study curriculum I saw recently on the book of Jonah whose subtitle was “A whale of a lesson on obedience.”  Or how about the popular kids’ song I grew up singing:

Come and listen to my fearful tale
Of the ocean blue
How a man got swallowed by a whale
Yes I know it’s true

(Chorus)
Jonah! Jonah! Did not obey God immediately
Jonah! Jonah! Down in the depths of the deep, blue sea

Jonah did not like what God had said
So he made a plan
Jonah sailed the ocean blue instead
Then a storm began

(Chorus)
Jonah! Jonah! Did not obey God immediately
Jonah! Jonah! Down in the depths of the deep, blue sea

If you try to run from God, BEWARE!
You’ll discover too
That the Lord above is everywhere
Watching all you do

(Chorus)
Jonah! Jonah! Did not obey God immediately
Jonah! Jonah! Down in the depths of the deep, blue sea

We continually see the book of Jonah center around Jonah.  At this point you might be thinking, “Duh.  Its called Jonah.  The book is named after the guy.”  But the book of Jonah is very unfulfilling and disappointing if Jonah really is the central character.  The book becomes this lesson about obedience that teaches you that God is standing there waiting to smite you (or feed you to fishes) if you step out of line.

But lets step back from this simplistic look at the book of Jonah for a minute and consider who the main character really is.  I would contend that the main character in any Bible story should be God.  And each story should be approached with the question, “What does this teach me about God?”  It matters a lot less to explore the question, “What does this teach me about Jonah? or Joseph? or Daniel? or David?”

So what does the book of Jonah teach us about God?  First, I think it teaches us that God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.  Did the Ninevites deserve God’s grace?  Obviously not.  Jonah certainly didn’t think so.  Notice that so often we hear that Jonah didn’t go to Ninevah because he was afraid of the Ninevites.  But the truth is that Jonah wasn’t afraid of the Ninevites, he was afraid that God would show mercy to the Ninevites.  He didn’t run away from God’s command because he was afraid of the Ninevites.  He ran away because he thought he could thwart God’s plan of redemption for the Ninevites.  But even though the Ninevites didn’t deserve God’s grace and mercy, He chose to show it to them.

Secondly, I think Jonah teaches us that God will move Heaven and earth (and fishes and reluctant prophets) to accomplish His purposes.  When God set out to show His mercy to the Ninevites, He didn’t let a disobedient prophet get in His way.  The story of Jonah is not primarily about Jonah’s disobedience, but rather about God’s persistence in bringing His message to His elect.

Third, we learn that God is not a respecter of persons in the sense that the gospel is for all people of every class, nation, tribe, and language.  The Ninevites were not members of the Israelite covenant.  They instead were their enemies.  But God showed His mercy to them anyway.  We become like Jonah when we fail to realize God’s saving purposes for people of all types.  We should never turn down our noses towards someone and think that they couldn’t possibly deserve God’s mercy or our time and energy.

The problem with VeggieTales is that you never really see God show up.  The stories are a bunch of moralistic tales that teach a lesson that is a good lesson, but is missing the power behind the lesson.  I can tell my kids to be compassionate unlike Jonah, but they can’t work up compassion in themselves.  They need Christ to do that in them.  So rather than focusing on themselves and trying to become more compassionate, they need to focus on Christ and let Christ create the compassion in them.

So let me encourage those of you who are teachers of the Word of God.  Let God be the main character of every Bible story.  The story of Jonah is not about a disobedient prophet.  The story of David is not about a courageous young boy.  The story of Daniel is not simply about praying despite the consequences.  The story of Joseph is not just about a dreamer of dreams.  Jonah is about God moving Heaven and earth to show His grace and mercy to a people group who didn’t deserve it.  David is about God saving His own people in a most unusual way so everyone would know it was God that won the victory.  Daniel is about God preserving His children, even when they were under persecution.  And Joseph is about God sovereignly moving men’s hearts and nature’s forces to preserve His chosen people.  Let kids walk away from a Bible lesson, not thinking what a great guy Daniel was or what a lousy prophet Jonah was, but rather, what an awesome God we serve.

You may be wondering why we are looking elsewhere.  I have found it is a very difficult thing to leave a ministry.  It has come with much prayer and deliberation.  The truth is, I feel like I have gotten too far away from what I’m really good at.  After stepping in to teach science at Silver State in an emergency situation, I felt I wanted to stay on and continue to contribute to the ministry I had grown up in.  When I learned that there was an opening to manage technology I thought it would be a good fit.  I have a lot of ideas about technology that I’ve wanted to try out in a small school setting and I thought this would be a good opportunity.

What ended up happening was I became stretched too thin.  I was doing too many things I wasn’t really trained to do and as I tried to learn on the job, I soon found myself just struggling to keep up.  On top of that, I felt we as a family were going in a different direction than the church in a number of areas.  I have much respect for Pastor Heinze and the rest of the pastoral staff here and have truly enjoyed working with them.  I just feel our family doesn’t quite fit right.  I have no ill will toward people here and will miss the friendships I have been able to develop.

I will also miss the school relationships I’ve been able to enjoy.  Silver State has a tremendous faculty and I have learned a lot from them.  I have also developed great relationships with the students and will miss them tremendously.

We don’t know what God has planned for us and it is a bit scary stepping out and looking for a job in this economy.  We appreciate your prayers as we move on.

And a happy birthday to my little princess, Ella Bella.  She has grown up overnight and all of a sudden we can have a conversation and I get to enjoy her singing to me all the time.  She makes me so happy every day (nights are a different story, just kidding).  I love you, Ella.

In no particular order:

1)  I don’t want them to associate the Christmas story with fairy tale.  Someday they’re going to realize Santa is not real (despite all attempts by Hollywood to convince them otherwise).  When that happens, I don’t want them to question all elements of the Christmas story.  Let’s be honest.  Many Bible tales sound fairy tale-ish.  I want them to be clear on what elements are real and what are fiction.

2)  The concept of a being who “sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake” is a bit disturbing when you think about it.  Since when does another being, fairy tale or not, deserve the non-communicable attributes of God.  Unless the character is a representation of God in the story, which if that’s the case here, then it leads to a malformed view of God.

3)  The whole idea of gifts as a result of good-behavior is a distortion of what the Christmas story was all about.  God didn’t send His Greatest Gift to us because we were on the nice list instead of the naughty list.  We were all on the naughty list.  None of us deserve anything.  I want my kids to understand that they don’t deserve the gifts that they get, but the gifts flow out of love and graciousness from their father and mother who enjoy showering blessings on them.  This will produce a proper view of gifts in relation to God’s gift of salvation.

4)  To me, the modern conception of Santa Claus encourages the materialistic culture surrounding Christmas as an American holiday.  It’s hard enough to encourage my kids to think about Christ at Christmastime.  I’m tempted to throw out the whole gift-giving all together (although I would have to give back my ESV Study Bible and Third Day Chronologies).  

5)  The modern view of Santa Claus does a disservice to the true story of Nicholas of Myra (see a summary here).  I plan to teach my kids about the real Nicholas who, as far as we can tell, was an orthodox believer who ministered to the poor and needy.  The story of Nicholas is a story that encourages giving sacrificially rather than receiving.  The modern Santa Claus is a poor representation of that brother in Christ.

6)  This may be selfish, but I worked hard to provide the gifts I give my children, and so did their grandparents and aunts and uncles.  I don’t want some jolly elf swooping in and taking credit for what I’ve provided for my children.

This is not intended to be a polemic to get everybody to abandon Santa Claus.  I wouldn’t mind if that happened, but it doesn’t bother me that friends and family still tell their kids he’s real.  This is just what we’ve decided as a family and how we got there. 

This is also not an argument against make-believe.  I believe in the power and importance of a good imagination.  My kids are constantly making up stories, reading fairy tales, and watching Pixar movies.  I just don’t want my kids to confuse make-believe with real-life, especially when it comes to the birth of Christ.

I get my kids a book every Christmas and we read it Christmas morning before opening presents (after reading Luke 2).  This year I found a book by Karen Kingsbury called We Believe In Christmas that said what I wanted to tell my kids about Christmas.  On the page with a picture of a kid on Santa’s lap she writes:

“And should they whisper ‘I believe. . .’
when sitting on his knee,
Whisper, ‘I believer this more,’ 
and there will Christmas be.”

Guitar Praise – basically guitar hero for Christians

A new watch – my old one just stopped working.  I’m tired of looking at my cell phone for the time.

Buffalo wings – my favorite food (especially boneless)

1.  The ESV Study Bible – I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and I really like my ESV.

2.  Come Weary Saints – I get my recommended daily allowance of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs from Sovereign Grace.

3.  Chronology Vol. 1 and 2 – Third Day is one of my all-time favorite bands.  I saw them in concert for my birthday and thoroughly enjoyed their great Christian testimony.

4.  Slippers – not super picky.  They just need to be comfy.

5.  Starbucks – unless somebody would like to bring Dunkin’ Donuts to CO.

6.  Rockettheme Pro Membership – These guys make the best looking Joomla sites out there.  I’ve used them for every site I’ve built so far.

7.  Wii Fit – because I can barely keep up with high school basketball players anymore.

8.  The Dark Knight – still haven’t seen it