#153 Jonah, about so much more than a fish and the imperative of follow-up for new Christians

We all know about the fish swallowing Jonah, but there is more in the book including the answers to these questions:

What about people who haven’t heard the gospel if Jesus is the only way to God

What do we do about bad people, or when people treat us badly? What does God expect from us as His followers?

How should we respond to continuing trials?

Answers to these questions and other elated applications are what we will cover in our lesson on Jonah.

In addition, we’ll look at the importance of follow-up after someone becomes a Christian. This is inspired by
Jonah because world history at that time could have been very different if Jonah hadn’t stomped off with a bad attitude and had stayed to teach the people
of Nineveh after their great national repentance.

But we’ll never know because Jonah didn’t stay and do what he should have done. That is the last we hear of Jonah, but not the last of Nineveh. They return to their evil, aggressive ways and less than 40 years later conquer Israel, and the nation is destroyed.

New believers need follow-up—they need to learn about the God they have trusted for salvation. They need to know HisWord and His ways.

The lesson then talks about the importance of follow-up and shares a chart of 5 Assurances of the Disciple of Jesus, a modification of a chart on follow-up that I learned from the Navigator ministry.

With this additional lesson, I’m also introducing a series on Discipleship for Bible805, a series of blogs, videos, podcasts, and other materials in addition to going through the Bible in chronological order.

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