Tara Leigh God is using you so beautifully!!!! also you are my total Bible hype girl. God bless you abundantly💛😊

I just finished my first time through the Bible in June. Started my round 2 on 7/1/24.

Day 188 Today we finish our 18th book of the Bible-Jonah He lives around 750 BC The main point in this book is that God shows mercy and love to many of His enemies. God commissions Jonah to rebuke the Ninevites for the wicked ways. Jonah does not want to do this because he knows that the Lord will forgive them if they repent. He hates the Ninevites. ( Is there anyone in my life that I feel that way towards? ) We are not to have an us like them mentality towards any person or nationality. God’s love is spread out to all the nations. Jonah gets on a ship to Tarshish- probably Spain. Ninevah was in the opposite direction. A storm hits and threatens to sink the ship. Jonah confesses to the sailors that it is his fault. It appears that the pagan sailors have a higher regard for following God than Jonah does. They throw cargo and other things overboard before finally throwing Jonah overboard at his insistence. The sailors pray for mercy and forgiveness to God before they do this. We never sin in a vacuum. Jonah’s sin impacted all the people around him. Once Jonah is thrown out of the boat, the storm calms. The sailors are in fear and awe of God. God appoints a big fish to swallow Jonah and rescue him from death. Jonah stays in the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus will actually reference this in Matthew paralleling His time in the grave. In the darkness and stench of the fish’s stomach,Jonah prays a prayer of thanksgiving to God. But interestingly, not a prayer of repentance. After this prayer, God commanded the fish to vomit Jonah up onto dry land. This part makes my imagination go wild. Was the fish trying to hold it back while swimming as fast as he could to the shore 😂 God repeats the call to Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to repent. Jonah goes unrepentant himself to tell others to repent. Jonah rebukes the people and tells them to repent. The people and the king repent, even going as far as sackcloth and ashes and fasting. The people of Ninevah repent more than Jonah himself. God relents and gives His forgiveness to the people of Ninevah. God is always eager to forgive. Oh the great love of God! God used Jonah, reluctant, and bitter to help accomplish this. Personally, I believe that God chose Jonah because of this very reason. Jonah needed a wake up call to view his self focused bitter heart. Jonah is angry and asks God to kill him. He makes a tent within the view of the city, possibly hoping to see the destruction of the town. Even in Jonah’s bitterness, God comforts him with a plant that makes shade. Jonah wants God‘s mercy for himself, but not for anyone else. The shade plant dies, and Jonah gets angry. God confronts Jonah that he is more concerned over a shade plant than he is the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and animals. God references the people as those who do not know the right hand from their left hand, possibly meaning children. Look also how God mentions the animals too. He cares about them as well. I love His heart! Jonah 2:8-Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. Chasing after fleeting joys leave us empty. But when we engage with the one true living God we are met with His steadfast love. He patiently waits for us to notice His great love. He alone is trustworthy and worthy of our love.

God is a universal God who has an interest in all nations and wants salvation proclaimed to everyone (Jonah 1:2); He is a gracious God, who does not treat us as our sins deserve, but offers forgiveness freely to all (Jonah 3:10); and He is a compassionate God who responds to our suffering with a heart bursting with deep love, with a compassion that moves Him to step into our lives (Jonah 4:2).❤️

This was a GREAT REMINDER for us there are people that GOD wants us to reach out to and we act like Jonah, I"m I the only one who feels this? Thank GOD HE is where the JOY is!!

Jesus says that He proves Who He is by fulfilling the Sign of Jonah (Matt 12:39-41). What did Jesus do to fulfill and perfect what Jonah was meant to do? He pursued those who reject Him. His will is relentless; we can’t hide from Him because, as a godly man told me years ago-the father of a dear family friend-when I needed most to be turned back to the Lord-he looked at me intently and said, “God wants you to know: He will not let you go! He will not let you go!” That’s Who our God is. He is “merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, and filled with unfailing love” (Jonah 4:2), even, or especially, when I have needed to be brought back to Him. God’s sign of Jonah for me is that “He will not let me go!”

Very interesting that this was day 316.

God, I pray against pride in my heart. Uproot it completely and help me to have a heart yielded to Your will, obedient to Your voice for Christ' sake Amen

I think my book summary would be this. The book of Jonah, where God prods a slick but false prophet to reluctantly rescue the enemy of the prophet’s people. With the context of 2 Kings we know that Israel is an evil nation at this time, no better than the people of Ninevah. They know God, but have rejected them. The Ninevites, and the fisherman for that matter, do not know God and yet repent.

What a beautiful prayer ❤ Thank you! 🙏🏻

Aloha and praise the Lord BR family. Even though Jonah was angry with God, he said I know that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love. He is where the JOY is!!!

Here's the irony in the Book of Jonah: It's ironic that that an unrepentant prophet like Jonah urges a group like the Ninevites to repent, yet he himself won't repent of those similar sins. Any questions?

That tribe of Ephraim are mad 😡 that they can’t fight again… they are not allowed to go to war with Judah. 😂😂

Thank you Lord for also chasing us down

God you are so faithful. I want to walk in freedom and follow you. I want to walk in peace you are where the joy is 🙌🏽

I love what you said in this takeaway about waiting. It is about enduring and being able to do so because we are united with God.

My God shot today is I shouldn't find it so difficult/scared/shy to do things that pleases and honors the Lord, when the diciples in the Bible (even our brothers in sisters that are in countries that are being persecuted for sharing The Word) struggled and even sacrificed their life, their safety, their comfort to bring the Good News to His people. I pray that the Lord will use me boldly to bring glory to His name.

There’s a great song called Blue Yodel #17 about the parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collecter

Where is this "book of annuls" of the kings,.or are we reading it??

Amen TLC!

Hey Bible Readers!

I too love Tara Lee's humorous comments. But the wonderful part of how God works is that when she's being funny it helps me remember exactly what it was I was supposed to because of how funny it was God sure knows how to use his people wisely Praise Him🙌👏

Hey bible Family ❤️👍🏾💯🙌🏾 He is where the Joy is 💯❤️

Thank you for explaining the bible. I love God so much.

❤❤❤❤❤

One question: She mentioned generational punishment can be done by God. In OT I do read this but is this still true under the NT?

This morning I was feeling a tad defeated as I was struggling with all the names and changes in kingship. I paused for a hot second and said, "ok, what does this all mean?" Well. The lack of all of those kings' success, even the good ones, points me to remembering the absolute need for our ONE true King. The King of kings. These guys were all temporary and imperfect. Jesus is not. That seemed to help me to feel less pressured about remembering all the details and focus on the main point. For the moment, ha! ❤ I pray that my heart will be FULLY yielded and I can steer away from the path of pride and disobedience. Father, help me. Have a blessed day my Bible readin' buddies!

King Amaziah kills those who were responsible for his fathers death. But he doesn’t kill their families. God commanded people not to carry out justice generationally. God is the decider of what’s just. God is the one who can be trusted with that. He alone knows hearts. We see once made king, King Amaziah leaves the high places alone and doesn’t tear them down. Again this is an ongoing issue with kings. Eventually this turning your head to allow idol worship leads to his fall. ( Search my heart Lord and show me if there is any unpleasing thing to You. Reveal any idols I have ) The king hires an enemy army to help him win a battle. A man of God confronts him on this issue. Despite him paying the army almost $ 1.5 million in today’s terms, he sends the army home. Its with this obedience to God he wins the battle. But on their way home the angry troops kill 3 thousand people and raid the cities of Judah. Obedience is costly. But it was the Kings disobedience that brought the cost. He would have lost far more if he hadn’t listened to the prophet. This God given victory leads the king down a path of pride. My how the heart can get success twisted. God was the one who gave him success. King Amaziah begans to worship the gods of the people they defeated. God sends a prophet to tell the king how wicked these actions are. He does not listen and threatens to kill the prophet. The teachabiliy the king once had is gone. In his pride and arrogance he decides to go to war against King Jehoash and loses and suffers great loss. In the Northern kingdom of Israel Jeroboam’s son becomes king. He is an evil king. Yet he restores much of the land and boundaries for the people as prophesied earlier. We see all victory and loss are in God’s hands. All God’s ways are true and right. God knows hearts. Lord lead our hearts to always be on Your side.

Wow I never saw that about circumcision and the women, thank you so much

I see the extreme level of detail in the design and making of all aspects of the ark of the covenant to be a thing of such beauty, and it hit me that while we are all unique, He has done the same thing in making each of us with the same level of detail and the result that each of us holds the same degree of beauty. I/we must stop seeing and focusing on what we see as our flaws, the mistakes we've made, and the aspects of our fallen nature, and instead, focus our attention on the beauty He has made and designed in us.

Staying humble is the hardest part. It really does bother bc it can be so misleading

I see God's hand Israel and Judah's history, always working and moving to bring about His purposes. Everything happened "in accordance with the word of the Lord" (2Kgs 14:25).

It seems that Amaziah exemplifies the war we have within ourselves; our instinct is to build up our own kingdom based on our accomplishments, when we can hear God speaking clearly to us, “Rely on Me. I’ll give you more than you imagine (Eph 3:20).” Amaziah forgot how God reduced the troops of Gideon to almost nothing, just to show him how much the Lord can be trusted. And there are real consequences for not trusting the Lord. Today’s passage shows that He doesn’t wring His hands and shrug His shoulders, wishing we’d hear and obey. The Lord is to be heard, feared, loved, and obeyed, and He may orchestrate circumstances where His presence is unavoidable.

Aloha and praise the Lord BR family. Great way to start my day reading God’s words. I am so glad that I am on this journey with each of you especially TLC. I want to be on the right with God TLC because he is where the JOY is!!❤

Happy 4th of July 2024❤️💯🤗☺️🇺🇸 thanking those who fought for our Freedom but most of all for the sacrifice Jesus made to bring us back into reconciliation with God and His blood redeems us from sin and eternal separation from God ❤❤❤He is where the Joy is Family 💗

Just got this book from Target can’t wait to start it I have a hard time reading the bible so hope this helps 🙏🏾

God you are so faithful even in our sinful times. You’re always there for us and you never turn your back on your people. Even when we break your heart. You are definitely where the joy is.

Amen TLC!

Hey Bible Readers!

God bless all of you!

Anyone who says that Obadiah was written in 400 B.C. is saying so because they don’t believe Obadiah to be prophecy, but something written after the fact.

I don't think Elijah died. I think you should say something like, "After Elijah left the scene..." 😀

Agree with you about Psalm 22 and Jesus quoting this on the cross

I always get to this story, and it is one of those questions I can't wai have answer in heaven!

The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He shows concern for His people ( 2 Kgs 13:23). ❤️

That story of cannibalism was SO very disturbing

God will turn you over to your sinful desires. If you deny Him, He will deny you. ‭Romans 1:21-24 NIV‬ [21] For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. [24] Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

I wonder why Elijah didn't finish God's instructions tho. And neither did Elisha. The other prophets finished it. 🤔 Interesting.

I broke my heart reading that the Moabite king sacrificed his son to an idol. Jesus came and died for them, though. Thanks be to God.

I see Jesus! Reading the accounts of Elisha makes me recognize Him. I see how they both fed many with a little bit of food that was multiplied and how they both raised the dead. However, listening to this explanation of Elisha and the mocking youth shows me a reflection of the religious leaders of Jesus' day, mocking Jesus and falsely accusing Him of blasphemy sorcery and lies. How sad that so many in Israel continue to miss that truth. I pray not to be in that number. I pray for God to continue revealing Himself and that our eyes and hearts will be opened to see Him for who He truly is Amen