When one fisher came home without any fish, he was asked, "I thought you were going fishing? Why don't you have any fish?" To which the fisher responded, "I said I was going fishing, not catching." A. K. Best said, "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad." A large part of fishing is casting the line and waiting, casting the line and waiting, and casting it yet again. You get as many chances as you have time for. And if you are good - or lucky - you might even catch a fish. Not everything in life offers so many chances at success. Final exams, the "court of last resort," and the third strike are all definitive. Once you've reached these, you've had all the chances you are going to get. Jonah may have thought he was out of chances when he found himself in the belly of a great fish. But even though he had disobeyed and run from God, God gave him a second chance. Our God is a God of second, third, fourth, fifth and even sixth chances. In fact, God is a God of unlimited chances. Think you've tested and tried God to his limits? Think again. God is just waiting to give you another chance. Worship Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yChYt-FOf2w

Sometimes it's quite obvious when we look at someone who they are and what they do. The person in a white coat in a medical building is obviously the doctor. The man or woman in the blue uniform at the scene of a car accident is obviously a law enforcement officer. The person wearing the apron behind the counter at your favorite coffee shop is obviously the barista. Sometimes it's less easy to identify the people around us. When we're lost it's hard to know who is the friendly, helpful person in view that we can go to and ask for directions. When servers in the restaurant all wear the same uniform, it can be hard to identify which one has already been at your table. In a crowd of people, it's nearly impossible to know who is the accountant, the cashier, the writer, the teacher, or the lawyer. And how do people know who you are? And especially who you are as a follower of Jesus? You don't likely where a sign on your chest or a logo on your hat identifying you as "Christian." Jesus said people would know his followers by the way they are with others; that people would know his followers by the way they love and the way they shine. Like a light on a stand and a city on a hill, the world knows we belong to Jesus by what is reflected in our words and actions. With the JJ Weeks Band in "Let Them See You," we pray, "God, let them see you in me." Worship Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcOy9NvsY4w Downloadable Lenten Devotional