STAND ON THE WORD WITH FRC
A TWO-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN

Do the Hard Thing – Man as Chaplain

– Jonah 1:1-2

What are the hard things God is calling you to do? More specifically, who are the hard people God has put near you? How are you responding to the hard call of God? Let’s be honest. Your faithfulness to God is not defined only by singing worship songs and listening to sermons in church on Sunday morning. That’s the easy part of the call of God. That doesn’t really define your level of commitment. No. It is when God prompts you to show grace to that annoying neighbor. You know, the guy who trash talks your friends or brags about his exploits. Or how about the guy who votes for what you consider to be bad candidates and he generally irritates you in every way. Dealing with that guy graciously is the hard call of God, who commands: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” It is part of our charge as Chaplains, and not only to our family members. The call of God to Jonah was hard too. God told him to go preach to the pagan people in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. They were not only pagan, but they were also a rising power. Within a lifetime, Assyria would wipe out the northern kingdom of Israel, and with it, Jonah’s homeland. Jonah not only ignored God’s call, he traveled to Joppa on the Mediterranean coast, then took a ship to the edge of the civilized world... in the opposite direction of God’s assignment.

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