The United Nations Charter was signed this day, June 26, 1945, in San Francisco by the 51 original member nations. Herbert Hoover, America’s thirty-first President, stated in a radio address: “I suggest… the United Nations… be reorganized… [with] those peoples who disavow communism… stand for morals and religion, and who love freedom…. What the world needs today is a… mobilization of the nations who believe in God against this tide of Red agnosticism.” Hoover concluded: “It is a proposal for… spiritual cooperation of God-fearing free nations… rejecting an atheistic other world.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

Before me, even as behind,
God is,
and all is well.
--- John Greenleaf Whittier

Exercise daily.
Walk with the Lord!
--- Author Unknown

... from here, there and everywhere

3 Avoiding quarrels brings a person honor;
for any fool can explode in anger.

4 A lazy person won’t plow in winter;
so at harvest-time, when he looks, there is nothing.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                         Always now

     We … beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. --- 2 Cor. 6:1.

     The grace you had yesterday will not do for to-day. Grace is the overflowing favour of God; you can always reckon it is there to draw upon. “In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses”—that is where the test for patience comes. Are you failing the grace of God there? Are you saying—‘Oh, well, I won’t count this time?’ It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you; it is taking the grace of God now. We make prayer the preparation for work, it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Don’t say—‘I will endure this until I can get away and pray.’ Pray now; draw on the grace of God in the moment of need. Prayer is the most practical thing, it is not the reflex action of devotion. Prayer is the last thing in which we learn to draw on God’s grace.

     “In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours,”—in all these things manifest a drawing upon the grace of God that will make you a marvel to yourself and to others. Draw now, not presently: The one word in the spiritual vocabulary is Now. Let circumstances bring you where they will, keep drawing on the grace of God in every conceivable condition you may be in. One of the greatest proofs that you are drawing on the grace of God is that you can be humiliated without manifesting the slightest trace of anything but His grace.

     “Having nothing …” Never reserve anything. Pour out the best you have, and always be poor. Never be diplomatic and careful about the treasure God gives. This is poverty triumphant.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

But deep inside
are the chipped figures
with their budgerigar faces,
a sort of divine
humour in collusion
with time.Who but
God can improve
by distortion?
There is
a stonre twittering in
the cathedral branches,
the excitement of migrants
newly arrived from a tremendous
presence.
We have no food
for them but our
prayers.Kneeling we drop our
crumbs, apologising
for their dryness, afraid
to look up in the ensuing
silence in case they have flown.

R.S. Thomas.

     What causes people to do wrong—their heart/emotions or their mind/intellect? “The wicked are controlled by their hearts … but the righteous control their hearts.” But what is the heart? We assume that it means the emotions. However, it is clear that the Bible saw the heart as the seat of thought:

     Many thoughts are in a man’s mind, lit. “heart”],
But it is the Lord’s plan that is accomplished.
--- (Proverbs 19:21, author’s translation)

     Thus, the Bible has one understanding of the heart, while we have another. Where did the Rabbis stand? What does our Midrash tell us about the question of what part of a human being controls behavior—the heart or the mind, the emotions or the intellect?

     Perhaps they meant a bit of both—lev/heart in the biblical sense of “thought” and lev/heart in the modern sense of “emotion.” What is clear is that the Rabbis understood the issue less as heart versus mind and more as control versus chaos. The righteous person controls; the wicked is controlled.

     • One woman speaks whatever is in her heart. Her
       emotions control her. Another woman thinks before she
       speaks, judging the implications of her feelings on
       others, thus causing less harm along the way. She
       controls her emotions.

     • A man does whatever comes to mind, acting in ways that
       often make friends and family uncomfortable. His mind
       runs out of control and controls him. Another man has a
       clearer thought process. He is able to think through the
       possible results of his actions, and thus he doesn’t act
       on the first thought that comes to mind. In the end, he
       controls his thoughts and his actions.

     • One teenager is rash and impetuous, often seeming
       controlled by the hormones that are raging in the
       teenage body. Another is calmer and more calculated,
       allowing the hormonal rush to dissipate before making
       decisions.

     The Rabbis were not proposing that we become controlling personalities. They did not expect us to repress our feelings or thoughts. Rather, their goal was that we not allow the processes of thought and emotion to dictate the way we act. We should be in control of our minds and our hearts so that we can be the most pensive, sensitive human beings possible.

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas… who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) --- John 6:70–71

     We are confronted with the archtraitor himself, whose name is [for] all generations branded with infamy. Sermons Preached in St. Paul's Cathedral For he betrayed the friend who was the very personification of love; he betrayed the cause in which the eternal interests of humanity are bound up; he betrayed the country, the kingdom of heaven, where we all aspire to dwell.

     When [Judas] was chosen, he was worthy of the choice; there was in him perhaps the making of a Saint Peter or a Saint John. Can we suppose that he alone made no sacrifices, suffered no privations, met with no reproaches during those three years in which he followed the Master? All this while, Judas was on his trial, as we are on our trial. He was not compelled by an irresistible fate to act worthily of his calling; he was free to make his election between good and evil; he rejected the good, and he chose the evil.

     [Christ’s] little company was not intended to be perfect. Otherwise it would have conveyed no lessons to us. It had its coward in Peter, its skeptic in Thomas, and it had also its traitor in Judas.

     Had he not heard [Jesus] as he denounced the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth? Amidst all distractions, through every discouragement, Judas had remained, had persevered, had listened—and yet he was a traitor.

     And hadn’t he also witnessed those works that were the very credentials of [Jesus’] messianic claims? Hadn’t he been present when those five thousand were fed on the few loaves in Galilee? Hadn’t he seen the lame walk and the dumb speak and the lepers cleansed? and yet he was a traitor.

     [Judas] had allowed one vile passion to grow unchecked in his heart. His office as treasurer of the little company had given him opportunities of indulging this passion. He had yielded and so fell.

     When people placed in positions favorable to the development of the higher self do nevertheless give rein to some vicious tendency within, the vice seems to gain strength by this very fact. It can only be indulged by resistance to the good influences about them, and resistance always gives compactness and force, always braces the capacity, whether for good or for evil.
--- J.B. Lightfoot
Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     From a human perspective, this entire enterprise appears ridiculous. How could one man, claiming to be God’s prophet, confront thousands of people with this strange message, especially a message of judgment? How could a Jew, who worshiped the true God, ever get these idolatrous Gentiles to believe what he had to say? For all he knew, Jonah might end up impaled on a pole or skinned alive! But, in obedience to the Lord, Jonah went to Nineveh.

     Jonah’s message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:3–4). “Three days’ journey” means either that it would take three days to get through the city and its suburbs or three days to go around them. The NIV translation of verse 3 suggests that it would take three days to visit all of the area. According to Genesis 10:11–12, four cities were involved in the “Nineveh metroplex”: Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen (NIV). However you interpret the “three days,” one thing is clear: Nineveh was no insignificant place.

     When Jonah was one day into the city, he began to declare his message: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Throughout Scripture, the number forty seems to be identified with testing or judgment. During the time of Noah, it rained forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17). The Jewish spies explored Canaan forty days (Num. 14:34), and the nation of Israel was tested in the wilderness forty years (Deut. 2:7). The giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel forty days (1 Sam. 17:16), and the Lord gave the people of Nineveh forty days to repent and turn from their wickedness.

     At this point, we must confess that we wish we knew more about Jonah’s ministry to Nineveh. Was this the only message he proclaimed? Surely he spent time telling the people about the true and living God, for we’re told, “The people of Nineveh believed God” (Jonah 3:5). They would have to know something about this God of Israel in order to exercise sincere faith (see Acts 17:22ff). Did Jonah expose the folly of their idolatry? Did he recount his own personal history to show them that his God was powerful and sovereign? We simply don’t know. The important thing is that Jonah obeyed God, went to Nineveh, and declared the message God gave him. God did the rest.

     Nineveh’s message to God (Jonah 3:5–9). In the Hebrew text, there are only five words in Jonah’s message; yet God used those five words to stir the entire population, from the king on the throne to the lowest peasant in the field. God gave the people forty days of grace, but they didn’t need that long. We get the impression that from the very first time they saw Jonah and heard his warning, they paid attention to his message. Word spread quickly throughout the entire district and the people humbled themselves by fasting and wearing sackcloth.

     When the message got to the king, he too put on sackcloth and sat in the dust. He also made the fast official by issuing an edict and ordering the people to humble themselves, cry out to God, and turn from their evil ways. Even the animals were included in the activities by wearing sackcloth and abstaining from food and drink. The people were to cry “mightily” (“urgently,” NIV) to God, for this was a matter of life and death.

     When Jonah was in dire straits, he recalled the promise concerning Solomon’s temple (Jonah 2:4, 7; 1 Kings 8:38–39; 2 Chron. 6:36–39), looking toward the temple, and called out for help. Included in Solomon’s temple prayer was a promise for people outside the nation of Israel, and that would include the Ninevites. “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel … when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You” (2 Chron. 6:32–33). Jonah certainly knew this promise, and perhaps it was the basis for the whole awakening.

     Like the sailors in the storm, the Ninevites didn’t want to perish (Jonah 3:9; 1:6, 14). That’s what witnessing is all about, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16, NKJV). Their fasting and praying, and their humbling of themselves before God, sent a message to heaven, but the people of Nineveh had no assurance that they would be saved. They hoped that God’s great compassion would move Him to change His plan and spare the city. Once again, how did they know that the God of the Hebrews was a merciful and compassionate God? No doubt Jonah told them, for this was a doctrine he himself believed (Jonah 4:2).

     God’s message (Jonah 3:10). At some point, God spoke to Jonah and told Him that He had accepted the people’s repentance and would not destroy the city. The phrase “God repented” might better be translated “God relented,” that is, changed His course. From the human point of view, it looked like repentance, but from the divine perspective, it was simply God’s response to man’s change of heart. God is utterly consistent with Himself; it only appears that he is changing His mind. The Bible uses human analogies to reveal the divine character of God (Jer. 18:1–10).

     How deep was the spiritual experience of the people of Nineveh? If repentance and faith are the basic conditions of salvation (Acts 20:21), then we have reason to believe that they were accepted by God; for the people of Nineveh repented and had faith in God (Jonah 3:5). The fact that Jesus used the Ninevites to shame the unbelieving Jews of His day is further evidence that their response to Jonah’s ministry was sincere (Matt. 12:38–41).

W. W. Wiersbe, (1996) Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship (The BE Series Commentary)