Jonah Quotes

“Grace sets another place at the table, is always sending out invitations to the party. Where spiritual pride makes the narrow way all the more narrower, and makes bitter the cup of communion, grace cuts the locks off the fountain, and says to everyone, “Come to the living waters, all who thirst, and you will be satisfied”. Grace knows the world is a spiritual desert and that the masses are dying of thirst. Grace cannot wait to have meaningful conversations with “the others”. But spiritual pride prefers self-righteous monologuing, taking down to others instead of sitting across a table from them building bridges, building friendships.”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“God is not the god of America, He is the God of the universe. Like Jonah, if we forget that God is sovereign over all nations, we make God small, we remake Him into our image. He starts to speak like us, starts to look like us, and starts to hate all the same people we hate. In Joshua 5 when an Angel appeared to Joshua before the battle of Jericho, Israel’s newly elected leader asked, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And the Angel answered, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD.” God is NOT on our side. He is on His side. He will fight for us, when it aligns with His will and to keep His covenant. But He will not be an indiscriminate object of blunt force for us to defeat those we call enemies.”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“Scripture shows again and again that it’s a bad idea to assume God’s privilege or special blessing, especially when those assumptions contribute to unjust treatment of others outside of your nation, tribe, or people group. When we assume God wants us to have the best seat at the table, we may end up with the least desirable one.” [24]  This was the exact mentality of Jonah and Israel. They were very jealous for their status as God’s favored nation, and it kept Jonah from wanting Nineveh to experience God’s grace.”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“There is a fundamental difference between patriotism and nationalism. Most simply, patriotism is a love for one’s country while nationalism is primarily love of country at the expense of others. “Historically, religious nationalism is created out of a complicated mix of religious conviction and political expediency.”[23]  This remains true today. Often, and perhaps with pure motives, leaders in the church see the shortest distance to religious gains as a political path. The dangers of this line of thinking should be evident. There is no political party founded by Christ, nor one that diligently upholds the purity and principles of the gospel. When the church embraces a political party for power she places her blanket approval on that party, and everything that party espouses. In our massively polarized political culture this leads to excluding anyone that doesn’t toe the party line. Again, consider how many times we are charged in Scripture not to trust in the power of kings and armies. We do not derive power in the church from the government. We have the power of the Cross in us to do God’s will. That power cannot, will not, be denied. That is the unstoppable force of grace. To”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“If we come thinking we are deserving or that our works of righteousness will afford us special permissions in heaven we are fools. God will have none of it. He will not allow us to add any work of our own righteousness to the complete work of Christ on the cross. The Father is furiously jealous for every drop of blood that fell from His Son for our sins. It is that blood alone that cleanses, that makes us righteous. Our message of grace should be as relentless as God’s. We should lavish people with God’s love. We will never change them any other way. If we try to convert them through moralism we will only whitewash a tomb. The love of God alone compels people to change from the inside out.”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“Jonah and the Older Brother”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God

“When we hold too tightly to the “God-given” rights afforded to us by the constitution, we can place our own security, our own wealth over the call of God to engage the stranger, to work for equity. We can ignore the possibility that God would choose for us a path of hardship or ignominy or worse.  Proverbs 19 reminds us plainly: “Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.” How often do we think in terms of us and them? How often do we find ourselves in heated political discussions that estrange us from our neighbors, and which hinder any heartfelt discussion of the gospel?”
― Mark Langham, Jonah: A Prophet's Pride and the Relentless Grace of God