NASHVILLE NEWSMAN

Earlier this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with a well-known, highly-respected songwriter in Nashville – Hal Newman. Hal co-wrote a song – “Baby Your Baby” - that was recorded and featured in George Strait’s movie “Pure Country”.

Although he has had success in writing Country music, Hal and his wife, Rachael, came to Nashville in the early 1980s to write Gospel music. They had some really good success early in their songwriting careers, getting songs recorded by several Gospel artists/groups, including the Happy Goodman Family. However, it soon became apparent to the Newmans that the money generated by writing Gospel music – while rewarding in the spiritual realm – did not pay utility bills. So, Hal found a way to stay.

Daniel & Teresa Johnson are also known as THE PEARLY GATES, and are blessing people around the nation and the world with their vocal and songwriting talents. Daniel was one of the founders of USAGEM and served as president of that extraordinary organization for several years. You don't want to miss hearing this anointed duo whenever you have a chance to "experience" their amazing music and ministry.

Like me, he became a long-time college professor, teaching songwriting and helping establish Middle Tennessee State University’s music business program. So, I admit, when I met Hal at the Nashville Songwriters Association International writing room, I was a little nervous about our first co-write.

However, when I entered the room, I was prepared. I had a verse and chorus of lyrics. I gave them to Hal and then excused myself to go to the restroom. When I returned a short time later, Hal had already banged out a melody and musical arrangement for the song on the keyboard that was in the room.

So, all we had to do was write a second verse and make a rough demo of the song – which we did in about one hour. At times, this is the way it happens in Nashville. You can hear that rough demo we made by clicking on the button below.

HEAR DEMO

The idea for this song came to me while preparing a sermon – which I preached the following Sunday at a church in Middle Tennessee. I have taken that sermon and “converted” it into an article which you will find below. I hope it will bless you and make you think about your life and service for the Lord.

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A “FISHY” TALE ABOUT TWO SERVANTS

There are many “fishy” stories in the Bible. But, there is one particular account found in the Old Testament that is a fantastic, bigger-than-life, fish story. It is found in the Book of Jonah. This article will focus on the passage found in Chapter 1, verse 17 – and then continue on into Chapter 2, verses 1 – 8.

Jonah 1:17 -- Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice.

3. For thou had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

7. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

8. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

In my life’s work as an Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Columbia State Community College, I spend the first few weeks of each new semester, getting to know my new students. One of the ways I do this is by devoting one class to giving them what I call ‘the wonderful opportunity’ to stand before the class for two minutes and answer three simple questions: 1. Who are you? 2. Why are you here? 3. Now that you are here, what are you going to do?

When you finish reading this article, I want you to examine and think about these three questions in light of this famous “fishy” story found in the Book of Jonah.

I sure you are familiar with this story. The passage begins at the point where Jonah had just been thrown overboard a ship he was on which was headed to Tarshish. I’m sure you all know the reason he was thrown overboard. Jonah was on this ship which was carrying a lot of cargo, because he trying to escape from the presence of God because of his disobedience to God.

Read Jonah 1: verse 2 – 3. God said to Jonah:

2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah was trying to escape from the presence of the Lord, because he was a mean-spirited, prejudice man who hated the people of Nineveh. He knew that if he went to Nineveh and proclaimed the Word of the Lord to them, they might listen and might turn from their wickedness and God would save them. And, this was exactly what happened.

Read Jonah 4: 1 – 2.

2. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Jonah did not want the people of Nineveh to be saved. He wanted them to be destroyed. He wanted them to die. He didn’t want to give them another chance. He wanted them to receive God’s full wrath. After all, Jonah had his relationship with God. He knew God loved him. He knew God even trusted him. God thought enough of him to give him an assignment to share the Good News with the wicked folks in Nineveh.

Have you ever known any Jonahs in your life – Christian people who are mean-spirited and prejudice against non-believers; Christian people who don’t care whether the lost live or die; Christian people who want to see the heathen burn in hell; Christian people who really only care about themselves and, maybe, their family members – but, beyond that, they are willing to say to the world – “I don’t really care whether you go to hell or not?” Have you ever known any Jonahs?

You know this story. Jonah was a mean-spirited, prejudice, rebellious and foolish servant of the Lord. He was reluctant to follow the will of the Lord for his life – to fulfill the mission God had called him to do.

He decided he had a better plan for his life. He chose to strike out on his own and go his own way. His actions led him to look like a foolish, silly servant. You see, he actually thought that he could flee from the presence of the Lord. How silly and stupid is that – that someone actually could and would think that they can get away from the presence of Almighty God?

Now, in all fairness to old Jonah, he was still living in Old Testament times – and he had not an opportunity to read the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote in Romans 8: 38 – 39:

38. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,

39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You can’t have the love of God unless you have the presence of the Lord Jesus in your life – and once He has indwelled you with that presence, there is nothing that can separate you from it. It brands you forever. It makes you His forever.

Jonah knew the love of God in his life. He was branded by God. That’s why God had given Jonah the mission He had given him – to go to Nineveh and share God’s love with them.

On top of Jonah’s rebellion and disobedience, he was silly and foolish enough to believe that God was going to let him get away with his wickedness. He didn’t believe God would chase him down and hold him accountable for his disobedience.

But, again, Jonah had not had the advantage of reading the scripture that was written by the writer of the Hebrews who wrote in Hebrews 12: 5 – 6:

5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

God was not going to let Jonah get away with his own wickedness. There he was – Jonah - condemning and judging the people of Nineveh for their wickedness and rebellion – wanting God to completely destroy them for their sin – and, yet, he actually thought God was going to let his wickedness “slide by.” Again, I ask you, have you ever known any Jonahs in your life?

But, as interesting and compelling and contradictory as the life of Jonah was and is – this passage tells us the story of another servant that carried out – without question - the task and mission it was assigned to do.

Of course, I am referring to that humble servant: the “great fish.” If we really think about it, the story of this “great fish” can really inspire us to be the kind of servants God wants all Christians to be.

Now, I know you may be thinking that I’m “getting out there” with this analogy and this way of thinking; but, no, I am just pointing out what is written in the Bible to show us how much God loves us and how He is Lord over all His creation and how is willing to use any willing vessel within His creation to see that “none should perish and that all should have eternal life.”

This is not the only story in the Scriptures in which God uses the animals that were created by His Hands to carry out His will. Genesis 22: 12-13 tells us how an angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham just before he plunged a knife into his son, Issac, who he was sacrificing to the Lord and Abraham saw a ram that was caught in a thicket; and he knew that God had provided a substitute sacrifice for him to use.

Luke 15: 11 – 32 tells us the story of a young man who came unto himself or woke up in the middle of a swine pen – so hungry he was eating the slop and garbage the pigs were eating.

Matthew 21: 1 – 5 tells us the story of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the back of a small donkey which He had told the disciples had been prepared to Him. I could go on and on, example after example of how God has used animals to fulfill His will.

But, let’s remain focused on the story of this great fish. I want you to think about this – when the sailors threw Jonah overboard to save themselves, if God had given Jonah the same grace and mercy that Jonah was wishing for the people of Nineveh, He would have simply let Jonah drown.

But, Almighty God is not like us – we who are the Jonahs of the world. He is the definition of Grace and Mercy. He wants to see all men and women saved. He will even go to extreme measures to see that His will is done.

At times, God’s actions seem so extreme that we have a hard time believing them. His actions do not fall into our limited parameters of who we believe He is and what He does.

Come on – don’t sit there and tell me you don’t have questions about how Jonah survived in the belly of a “great fish.” How is it scientifically possible? If Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, how did he breathe? Where did the air come from? Where did he get his oxygen? How did he avoid being digested by the great fish?

Some who are reading this article may be thinking: Do you really believe this is a true, factually-accurate story or is it just a fish tale that was included in the Old Testament because God’s name was mentioned in it – a fishy allegory – if you will?

Let me say that I believe in a literal interpretation of this particular story. I believe that God prepared a real “great fish” that swallowed Jonah and that mean-spirited, prejudice, reluctant, rebellious, foolish servant spent three days and three nights in its belly – begging and pleading with God to give him another chance to do what God had asked him to do in the first place. I don’t know how He “prepared” the “great fish” or even know what kind of “great fish” He prepared. I just believe He did.

I have no problem believing it. You see, if I can look around this world and see all the beautiful mountains; and the vastness of the oceans on our planet; and I can feel the power of winds; and I can witness the destructive power of volcanoes; and I can see the beauty of little babies and little children; and I believe that God has made all of His creation and still has control over it all – I have no trouble believing that an infinite, Awesome, Almighty God chose and prepared a fish from His creation that would fulfill a simple task of swallowing a man and keeping him protected from the depths of the seas for three days and three nights.

That great fish’s belly became a temple of revelation and repentance for Jonah. Among the seaweed, and the stench of dead fish and nauseating fumes, Jonah came to a profound conclusion – he was the one who needed to repent. He was the one who needed to turn from his wicked ways. He was the one who needed to quit running from the Lord. He was the one who – in spite of his human weaknesses and frailties - he, Jonah, was the one who God had chosen and called to go the people of Nineveh and proclaim the Gospel.

But, housing Jonah in its belly for three days and three nights wasn’t a pleasant task for the great fish – but, it did what it was supposed to do. In fact, it was a mission that sickened the fish.

8. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

The Lord spoke to the fish; and the fish listened to the Lord. It heard the voice of God. It had been faithful in its mission. In spite of its obedience, the mission was still hard for the fish to stomach. But, it kept doing what it was prepared to do until it heard the voice of the Lord who released it from that nauseating mission.

Here’s the fact about serving the Lord Jesus. No one was ever promised that serving Him would be an easy task. The greatest example of being a servant we have is the Lord Jesus Christ himself – and He showed us what the ultimate price of being a servant means. He shed His very life’s blood for us.

Our service for the Lord can lead us down lonely paths. Our service for the Lord can put us in precarious, dangerous situations. Our service for the Lord can require us to travel thousands of miles – or, perhaps, just across the street. But, wherever and whenever we go in His name, He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.

So, in the end, what was the fish’s reward for its service to the Lord? Think about this – how does the writer of the Book of Jonah – under the leadership of the Holy Spirit – define the fish. God – the ultimate author of His word – called the fish “great.”

I don’t know about you – but, one day, I hope to hear the Lord repeat to me the words He spoke in Matthew 25: 23:

“Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

For me, to hear those words, will be the equivalent of the Lord calling that fish “great.” I will know that I will have been the faithful servant that God has wanted me to be.

I told you before I launched into the depths of this article, in the end I was going to ask you to answer three questions:

1. Who are you? Are you a Jonah – a mean-spirited, prejudice, reluctant, rebellious, foolish servant of the Lord? A Jonah – who has salvation in your life – and knows it – but, doesn’t care about the lost and dying world around you.

Or, are you a “great fish” for the Kingdom of God – a willing servant that God has prepared to carry out His will – to save all who are willing to accept His love and forgiveness and His sweet salvation. A great fish – that faithfully and continuously carries on and does the task you are asked to do until you hear the voice of the Lord say: “Okay – it is time for you to swim on into the even greater depths in the oceans of lost and dying world and do what I have planned for you there.

2. Why are you here? What is your purpose? Have you understood that God has given all believers a mission? We call it “The Great Commission.” Jesus gave it to us, when He said:

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This is a question that only you – and you alone – can answer. What kind of servant will you be? Will you be a Jonah – or will we be a great fish for the kingdom of God? The choice is yours.