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Jonah 1:3 –Slapping God in the Face

By Jeremy Myers
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Jonah 1:3 –Slapping God in the Face
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/309124943-redeeminggod-66-jonah-13-slapping-god-in-the-face.mp3

I published a post this week on the blog about how a true understanding of grace allows you to just go sin all you want. If that is really what you want.

I am going to write more about that in the coming weeks, but I received several emails from readers who wanted to know if I meant intentional sin as well.

If a person intentionally and knowingly sins, will God still love them, forgive them, accept them, and keep them in His family?

The answer is yes. There is no sin, intentional or unintentional, which will cause God to stop loving you and forgiving you. This is a big theme in a lot of my writings and teachings. I teach a lot more about this in my course, The Gospel According to Scripture, but I’m bringing it up now because in the verse we are looking at today from Jonah, we see Jonah commit a pretty big sin. And he does it intentionally.

Jonah 1:3

Jonah pretty much slaps God in the face. He spits in God’s face. To put it more crudely, Jonah gives God the finger. You can’t get much worse or much more intentional than that. And we will see in future episodes how God responds. If you feel like you have sinned pretty badly, then make sure you keep listening to the podcast because you will be both challenged and encouraged.

Speaking of which, are you enjoying this podcast? If so, do me a favor. Can you invite someone else to listen to it? Send them an email. Tweet about it. Put a post on Facebook. If you have a blog, write a blog post about it. You can use the sharing buttons above to help with this.

If you want to know what link to share with others, here is the link for iTunes.

I very often wonder if publishing these podcasts is worth it. They take a lot of time to prepare, record, edit, and publish, and since I have a full time job, a wife, three kids, and am trying to write books, prepare courses, and run my blog in there as well, I sometimes wonder if this Podcast is worth the effort. So if you think it is, help me increase the number of people who listen to it by inviting others to listen to it as well. So if you enjoy this podcast and want me to keep them coming, invite other people through email, Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or just word of mouth to subscribe as well. Thanks!

The Text of Jonah 1:3

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:3 we look at:

  • What it means for Jonah to flee to Tarshish instead of go to Nineveh
  • The significance of the term “the presence of the Lord”
  • What the story is telling us by the repeated use of the word “down”

Resources:

  • Redeeming God Discipleship Area
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Jonah 1:3

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

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Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God Bible & Theology Topics: forgiveness, grace, honor, Jonah 1:3, One Verse Podcast, shame, sin

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God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

By Jeremy Myers
35 Comments

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.

The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Simple, right?

But not easy to believe.

It is not easy to believe that God’s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.

eternal life hard to believe

True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.

So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.

They start to look for the fine print.

They start to search for the catch.

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.

Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.

“Oh yes,” they say. “Eternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove you have it.”

Others say, “Well, you need to understand, if you truly are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don’t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.”

Then there is this argument: “Eternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner’s prayer.”

To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says “No! Eternal life is a free gift of God.”

Eternal life is by God’s grace from first to last.

There are no works needed to gain eternal life, keep eternal life, or prove you have eternal life.

Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.

Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That’s it!

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

hard to believeThis is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.

It sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too radical.

It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.

Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.

So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God’s grace in the offer of eternal life—that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it—they begin to ask questions.

One of the most frequent questions is this: “So if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?”

A man recently posed the question to me this way, “Are you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don’t have to stop sinning? I don’t have to read the Bible? I don’t have to go to church?”

While many Christians would answer “No” to these questions, my answer is always, “Yes!”

eternal life is freeNo ifs, ands, or buts.

Without qualification.

Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.

Yes, I know.

If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.

You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.

Pastors often preach against “those grace teachers,” but few people have ever really met one.

This is because most so-called “grace teachers” still include a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” in their teachings about grace. So the true “grace teacher” is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.

But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.

But I do.

Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.

I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: eternal life, free grace, gospel, grace, sin, soteriology, Theology of Salvation

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[#60] Genesis 4 Overview – Sin and Civilization

By Jeremy Myers
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[#60] Genesis 4 Overview – Sin and Civilization
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/297917455-redeeminggod-60-genesis-4-overview-sin-and-civilization.mp3

This episode of the One Verse Podcast provides a short summary of Genesis 4. This helps you get up to speed in this Podcast if you have missed most of the studies of Genesis 4. There are similar summary episodes for Genesis 1, 2, and 3 as well.

Genesis 4 summary

Of course, in today’s episode, we don’t look only at Genesis 4, but also look at the flood account in Genesis 6–8, and a verse or two out of Genesis 50. Doing so shows us what Genesis is all about. This is important, since Genesis is the introduction to the Bible.

If you want to understand Genesis and the Bible as a whole, make sure you listen to today’s One Verse Podcast.

In this discussion of Genesis 4 we look at:

  • A summary of how sin and scapegoating leads to civilization
  • A look ahead to Genesis 6–11 and the rest of Scripture
  • How the book of Genesis ends the way it begins, showing us the overall message of the book of Genesis
  • The alternative to violence which God reveals in Genesis, Scripture, and ultimately, in Jesus Christ

Resources:

  • Become a Member of RedeemingGod.com
  • Atonement of God, by J. D. Myers
  • Genesis 1 Summary
  • Genesis 2 Summary
  • Genesis 3 Summary
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Membership-become-a-member

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Membership-become-a-member


Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: Cain and Abel, forgiveness, Genesis 4, One Verse Podcast, sacrifice, scapegoating, sin, violence

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[#56] Genesis 4:8 – The Founding Murder

By Jeremy Myers
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[#56] Genesis 4:8 – The Founding Murder
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/291074811-redeeminggod-56-genesis-48-the-founding-murder.mp3

Genesis 4:8 contains the account of Cain murdering his brother Abel. This is the first death in Scripture and reveals something significant about death and violence.

Genesis 4:8 Cain and Abel

If you have been listening to my podcast for the past year, you may recall that as we were working our way through Genesis 3, I kept mentioning the six foundational and revolutionary truths from Genesis 2, 3, and 4. We looked at the first 5 of these, and then I haven’t really mentioned too much more about them. So maybe you were thinking, “Hey! What about the sixth?”

Well, that is what we are finally getting to today. Genesis 4:8 contains the sixth and final revolutionary and foundational truth. Understanding this will help you understand the Bible, God, yourself, your relationships, politics, economics, history, and pretty much everything else that goes on in the world.

The Text of Genesis 4:8

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

In this discussion of Genesis 4:8 we look at:

  • The murder of Abel by Cain
  • Why the first death in Scripture is a fratricide
  • The sixth foundational and revolutionary truth from Genesis 2–4
  • What Genesis 4:8 teaches us about God, ourselves, Scripture, history, politics, economics, and pretty much everything else in life.

Resources:

  • Become a Member of RedeemingGod.com
  • Myers, The Atonement of God
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Membership-become-a-member

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Membership-become-a-member


Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: abel, cain, death, Genesis 4:8, murder, One Verse Podcast, sin, violence

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[#55] Genesis 4:6-7 – The First Sin in the Bible

By Jeremy Myers
15 Comments

[#55] Genesis 4:6-7 – The First Sin in the Bible
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/290176426-redeeminggod-55-genesis-46-7-the-first-sin-in-the-bible.mp3

Genesis 4:6-7 anger of cainIf I were to ask you when the first sin in the Bible occurs, you might point to Genesis 2 when Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet did you know that their actions in Genesis 2 are not referred to as “sin”?

Sin is not actually mentioned until Genesis 4:7, which is one of the verses we look at in this study.

The Text of Genesis 4:6-7

So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

In this discussion of Genesis 4:6-7 we look at:

  • Why Cain becomes Angry
  • The nature and source of sin
  • The causes and consequences of sin
  • The truth about sin

Resources:

  • Become a Member of RedeemingGod.com
  • Walton, Lost World Adam and Eve
  • Biddle, Missing the Mark
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Membership-become-a-member

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Membership-become-a-member


Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: abel, cain, Genesis 4:6-7, murder, One Verse Podcast, sin

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