The Old Testament Book of Jonah is not the story of a great fish.

It is the story of a great God.

In a world on the verge of judgment and desperate for a spiritual awakening,

it holds a message we all need. Salvation is of the Lord.

Join us in the book of Jonah today as we study God's Word with Scott Pauli. When we last left

Jonah, he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, not running to the Lord.

He was literally running away from the presence of the Lord.

It sounds like the condition of every disobedient person. Every sinner, in a sense,

is running away from the holiness of God, away from the purpose of God. And I'm going to tell you by

personal experience, there is nothing on earth more wonderful, more joyful than being in the

conscious presence of the Lord. And there is nothing more joyful than being in the conscious presence of the Lord.

And there is nothing more miserable than being outside of his presence.

Let me read on a little further today, if I may, in Jonah chapter number one,

immediately after it says that he rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord,

it says in verse four, but the Lord sent out a great wind

into the sea. There was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken.

Look, if you are a believer, if you belong to the Lord and he belongs to you and you're running from

God, do not think for a moment it's going to be easy. In fact, the Bible says that the way of the transgressor is hard.

It may be easy to sin.

Indeed, it is easy to sin because we're all sinners by nature.

It's so easy to do what we want to do.

But you'll find that that which was so easy becomes hard very quickly because you're fighting against God.

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