Children’s stories are never just for children.   The good children’s author exposes the deep magic of the universe in vivid clarity and simplicity, illustrating profound, abstract truth through familiar experiences of children and animals.  C. S. Lewis, in his essay, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” muses “I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story.”  Children’s stories are never just for children.  It is a critical and arrogant misstep to dismiss simple stories as simplistic.

This is a real danger for us when we read the stories of the Bible.  Our modern skepticism subtly tempts us to relegate the narratives of creation, of Joshua, Jonah, David, and Moses to the category of mythic moral allegory, best suited for children’s Bible storybooks.  We think we know what these stories are about.  But we often dismiss simple stories of men and women of faith as simplistic.

The story of the Exodus is a good example.  Often coopted in popular movies, Exodus is routinely distilled down to some predictable theme, missing the real point of the story.   The lavish 1960s epic, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, cast the story as an ancient version of Romeo and Juliet set among the visually stunning background of Egyptian grandeur and sensational catastrophes.  

And Disney’s Prince of Egypt with its memorable soundtrack and beautiful animation, reduces the story to the stock Disney conflict between a noble, oppressed protagonist and his privileged, tyrannical antagonist.  Like every Disney classic, the Prince of Egypt uses the Exodus as the backdrop for its hero to overcome oppression and adversity.  Unfortunately, Disney failed to identify the real hero of the story.

While we probably would not expect expositional clarity from Hollywood or Disney, has the story fared much better in the hands of Christians? Have we reduced it to the heroic story of Moses, a narrative of liberation, or a birth epic for the nation of Israel? Is Exodus just a bridge to get us from the patriarchs to the monarchy?

But Exodus is much more than any of these.  It is in Exodus we are introduced to the language of redemption that prepares us for the ministry of Jesus.  It is in Exodus that we learn God’s name, his character, his purpose, his power, and his plan to dwell with his people.  It is Exodus that show us how God is different from the gods of our invention and imagination.   And it is Exodus that reveals a God who always keeps his promises.  His ways are not our ways and his timing not our timing, but his promises never fail, fall by the wayside, or get buried in the sands of time or adversity.   God sees, he hears, he knows what is going on in our lives. And he is at work.

Exodus introduces us to the mercy, grace and presence of God with his people.   Exodus prepares us to grasp what it means when John writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And what John the Baptist means when he declares, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”   And the Exodus prepares us to understand what it means to live in covenant with God as those delivered from the “house of bondage.”   It is a simple story, but it is not simplistic.  

Join us this Lord’s Day as we begin our examination of the Exodus and consider its powerful story of the God who keeps his promises through long ages and against all odds – a story that prepares us for an even greater story of grace in our own lives.  

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube. 

A book’s conclusion often leaves a greater impression than its opening. We like our conclusions to resolve all tensions, restore what was broken, and answer all questions. Yet despite all the amazing things that happen in the short book of Jonah, we are left not with answers, but with a question. Jonah’s conclusion is a sad note after one of the greatest revivals in history.

In Jonah 1, Jonah fled on a boat enroute to Tarshish from the call of God to go to Nineveh, but the Lord sent a storm that eventually led the sailors on that boat to throw Jonah overboard. But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah. In chapter 2, in the belly of the fish, Jonah seeks the Lord and turns to Him for deliverance. The fish spits Jonah out, and in chapter 3, Jonah finally obeys the call of God as he is restored to his prophetic office. In that chapter, the Lord uses a message of judgment preached by Jonah to bring about the salvation of the people of Nineveh as they turn unto God.

We would expect a prophet to rejoice over such a revival! After all, the prophets were God’s prophets, and the desire of a prophet ought to be God’s honor and for the people to turn to Him. But Jonah does not respond with rejoicing. Jonah 4 details Jonah’s regret over the Lord’s saving the people of Nineveh. The Lord, however, is merciful with Jonah.

In one sense, the book ends on a sad note. But in another sense, it is a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger leaves the reader on the edge of their seat waiting for the next book, leaving the plot unresolved. As if to say, “To be continued…” In the final verse of Jonah 4, the Lord asks Jonah, “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Though we do not know how Jonah responds to this question, the cliffhanger actually involves all of the people of God. How do you respond to this question? Do you have compassion for the lost? What do you value more than the souls of your neighbors? Is it pride, that your sin is not like the sin of your neighbor? Is it your comfort? Perhaps your comfort zones?

Perhaps as you have read through the book of Jonah, you have been convicted. Maybe your life has been like that of the people of Nineveh, having no regard for God and living in opposition to His commands. Maybe you wonder how the Lord could ever receive you. But look at the grace and mercy shown to the people of Nineveh. If you run unto Jesus, you will find in Him a kind and merciful Savior.

Or, maybe you are a Christian who has been struggling with sins similar to that of Jonah. Perhaps pride has clouded your vision and you’ve lacked a zeal for the lost to come to faith. But dear friend, God was merciful to Jonah as well as He was to the people of Nineveh. Go to Jesus in repentance and faith, and you will find that He is faithful still. And if you have not desired the salvation of your neighbors, then pray to the Lord asking Him to change your desires. He is faithful to grow His people in conformity to His image and to keep them to the end.

Join us as we examine Jonah 4 and consider a sad conclusion and some hard and revealing questions. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube. 

Herman Melville wrote of a great white whale. And in his tragic tale, the whale takes center stage. But Melville’s magnum opus pales in comparison to the tale of the prophet Jonah – swallowed alive by a great fish, then spit out three days later. Melville’s work is fiction, but the events in Jonah are real historical events. Jonah was actually swallowed up and spit out by this fish at a real time in history, yet still, the fish is not the central theme of chapter 2. Rather, the One who is central is Jonah’s God.

In the first chapter of Jonah, we see that Jonah flees from his God, but his God pursues him. God is sovereign over all things, even over His prophet who is fleeing from His commands. Jonah was called to go to the people of Nineveh but ran away–he sought to chart out his own course. But God sent a storm to rage on the sea which Jonah was attempting to use as an escape route. Jonah was tossed into the sea to cause the storm to cease from its raging. But this was not the end of Jonah.

Jonah 1:17 says, “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” This fish was appointed by God to swallow up Jonah in order that Jonah would live. And in the belly of this fish, we see in chapter 2, Jonah calls out to God. In Jonah’s prayer we see the power and the sovereignty of Jonah’s God, and we also see the faithfulness of God to deliver His people. We see especially that God is absolutely sovereign in the salvation of His people: “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9)

This is a truth that comforted Jonah’s soul once again, and the truth that many have noted is the theme that runs through the entire book of Jonah. Jonah’s time in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights also points us to the one who died for sinners and on the third Day was raised from death. It is there, in the death of Christ for sinners and His victorious resurrection that we see most clearly that “Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube. 

As a recovering software engineer, the anthropology of software fascinates me far more than the technology.   Ideally, software is designed to automate and simplify human labor.  Or as Tony Reinke wrote, technology pushes back some effects of The Fall.  But more often than not technology, once deployed, outgrows its design.  Growing beyond automating human work, it defines it. Human work and behavior mimic the software designed to mimic its master.  It is an inevitable turn of events, a constant ebb and flow between who runs the show – man or machine. 

This is true not only of our work, but also our relationships.  Our tech now mediates the mechanics of relationships.  We no longer visit neighbors, we follow them.  We don’t talk to friends, we message them.  If this was a simple equivocation, then ‘OK.’  But social media is more than a new medium for communication.  It has become a virtual kabuki where actors market an assumed identity, not one that actually exists.   Is it any wonder that in such a world, even biological certainty falls victim to how I identify.

The phrase ‘going viral’ used to carry only bad connotations. But social media has made ‘going viral’ the goal of influencers, extroverts, and narcissists of all stripes. It means you are getting noticed. And all of us want to get noticed. Our online identity is digitally rendered. So, setting up a social media profile is no simple matter, less about who I am and more about who I want people to believe I am.

While Brad Paisley’s song, Online is a little off-color, his social commentary rings true when he sings ”I’m so much cooler online.”  Do people who view your profile wonder who you really are and what you are really like?  Now take that one step further.  Do those who view your spiritual profile, your profession of faith and your ‘life and conversation,’ wonder who you really are?  Are you WYSIWIG or is your profile as a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ a tidy bit of historical fiction?

At the beginning of the gospel many came to John the Baptist wanting to view John’s profile.  In John 1, the religious establishment in Jerusalem sent inquisitors to unearth John’s real identity.  But John’s concern was not who he was, but what he was – a witness.   What mattered most what not what John’s life said about John, but what it said about Jesus.

John comes out of nowhere.  Like Clint Eastwood in a spaghetti western, he is an apocalyptic figure.  Dressed in the prophetic garb of Elijah, he was fanatically different from the long line of false Messiah’s who filled the 400-year silence since the prophet Malachi.  His preaching was changing lives.  Those who cared nothing for ritual purity sought real purity – not the cleansing of the Pharisee’s ritual baptism but a spiritual baptism that washed away much more than dirt. 

His whole ministry and identity was as a witness to the ‘Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.”  And in that he is an exemplar for us. John is the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first of Jesus’ evangelists.  He is a radical, a revolutionary.  Surely this extremist is not the paradigm for the “profile of a disciple?”  Is this what we are to emulate?  Jesus later commented on this question when he was asked about greatness.  He said of John.

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

John 1:19-34 reveals John’s profile and as it does, reveals to us what it means to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.   John is an exemplar and not an extremist.   What does our profile look like as a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ?   Join us this Lord’s Day as we examine John 1:19-34 and consider our profile as witnesses.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.