God works in mysterious ways. Before He would save the world and those who were heading towards their dreamland, He would spare Oh No; he would have to take the message to the ungodly world. The Lord had earlier prepared a big fish for His purpose; Oh No was swallowed live by the big fish. Oh No cried to the Lord three days and three nights from the belly of the fish; the Lord spoke to the fish and it spit Oh No upon dry land. A man of God becoming the vomit of a foul-smelling fish! Pathetic.

//The Lord is a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He gives opportunities for His children to repent and return to Him. Sometimes, He allows them a long rope. It is a sad fact that most of His children take this for granted, forfeit His grace and forsake their own mercy; they follow after lying vanities, pay regard to their useless idols, and cling to worthless wealth, fame, and vainglory. Others are filled with remorse most times, not repentant at heart. They seek God for temporary relief and escape from death. And, God knows the hearts of such people – whether they are coming to Him with genuine repentance or whether it is a short-term reconciliation and an eyewash. In any case, the Lord continues to execute His plan. God’s creation obeys Him; His creatures submit to His command; unfortunately, only man abuses his freewill to dishonour His Creator, disregard His voice and ignore His words.//

God spoke to Oh No again a second time saying, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; I will give you utterance (the words you need to preach)”. This time, Oh No did not think of an alternative. How can he forget the ordeal he went through in his life a short while ago? He went into the world and warned the people of the impending danger. The world was so very big it would take significantly long time even to walk around it. Oh No travelled a short distance and (half-heartedly?) preached the word of the Lord: Repent of your sins now and accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. Else, all of you will die in your sins; when He returns, on the last day, you will be forced to submit to the Lord crying, ‘Jesus is Lord’; too late”.

//God has mandated His disciples to go and be His witnesses first at home, then in the neighbourhood, and further in the localities around us and in the world at large. While some do it out of goodwill with passion and a sense of responsibility and honour, most others do it grudgingly and with envy and strife. Many have made ‘ministry’ a profession and a means of earning a livelihood or making material gain and profit. They are satisfied with what little (or zero) they do as ‘God’s work’ and refuse to rise up and walk. (distributing tracts or Bibles or forwarding spiritual messages to WhatsApp groups is most of the time throwing pearls to the pigs!) Being witness and going in search of souls is not the trend; ‘stay’ is. Laziness and lethargy are the order of the day.

To all those who set out to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and defend their faith in Him, the Lord has promised to supply the words spontaneously. They can’t use their worldly knowledge or skill to do His work. They do not have to prepare a pre-meditated message for an audience. He will supply the arrows; we need to be ready with the bow (1st horseman of Rev).//

Now, here is a shocking observation: Did Oh No believe what he preached? Let us find out what Oh No said: “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my settled life? That is why I made haste to flee to my dreamworld; for I know that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster”.

//Today’s ministers and believers of God do not believe what they ‘believe’. They only profess but do not practise what they preach. They talk about the imminent return of the Lord but keep amassing worldly wealth by stealing from the gullible public; they condemn sin on pulpits but live sinful lives behind the scenes. Many are covetous, sexually immoral and financially dishonest in their money matters. They are deliberate liars with no fear of God in any of their life’s endeavours – spiritual or material.//