Ok...yesterday we closed out our "Beyond" series with the topic "Choosing your God." We were talking about how HUGELY important it is to choose to serve The Living God.
To talk about that, we were in Nahum 1.
Yes...you read it right...
The Book of Nahum...on Sunday morning...
How do you like them apples? :-)
Some thots on yesterday:
- The COOLEST Story -- This book was AMAZINGLY relevant to our lives at the start of the 21st century. It was awesome.
- Why Nahum? We were into Nahum because it's "the rest of the story" of what happened to the ancient Assyrian capital of Ninevah, after the end of the book of Jonah. After this MAJOR revival at the end of Jonah, they were unable to do Children's & Youth ministry successfully...they weren't able to pass on THEIR relationship God to their grandchildren & great-grandchildren.
- Diving into the Dates -- Nahum was written somewhere between 663-654 BC (after the fall of Thebes, but before it was rebuilt). Taking the date of Jonah to be between 784-772 BC (during the reign of Jereboam), that puts the date of Nahum 109-130 years after Jonah.
- A Popular Book? -- As I started, I asked people to raise their hands if they'd EVER heard centered in Nahum. In 3 services, only 2 hands went up...and 1 of them laughingly later tole me they didn't count because they were raising their hand from hearing us talk about Nahum in the office. :-)
- The COOLEST Moments -- The coolest moments were life changes we heard about:
- We had multiple people in EACH service raise their hand to say they had prayed with me to receive Christ as their Lord & Savior. That never gets old.
- One wrote, "Our family has recently started attending Grace Church. I have to say I feel as though a fresh breeze is blowing through my soul as I soak [it] up..."
- Another wrote, "I prayed with Tim to get help to talk about Jesus to my brother. Thank you! This is the exact thing I need."
- Last Week's COOL Moments -- I didn't have the chance the add these comments to last week's blog entry on "Wrestling with God."
- One wrote, "This message was one I needed big time. I've grown so much at Grace. Thanks."
- Another wrote, "Tim, I got something out of your message before you prayed and really got into the message. God can use whoever He wants to do WHATEVER He wants. Why do we get so fired up over [stuff]? The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and it is God who can move it anyone He wants. I think I saw that instead of getting FIRED UP, We need to simply pray to see the changes we want to happen through whatever vessel God chooses to use. Thanks..."
- The Amazing Prophecies -- The book of Nahum is filled with prophecies about the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. For a list of 12 of them with verse references, check out this link to pg.1495 of The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament.
Next week, we're on to the subject of "Extraordinary Prayer"...one of my FAVORITE topics. We'll be talking about some thing's God's been re-teaching me recently & taking me deeper. I cannot wait for Sunday!
Don't forget that tomorrow night's Bible Study topic is "How to Receive DIRECTION from God" from Numbers 9-10. Check it out live, or via our online video feed from 6:45-8:00p.
L8R.
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