During a recent sermon series, Pastor Mike has been preaching from the book of Jonah, showing us how the example of Jonah’s experience can lead us into a deeper relationship with God. We’ve seen that God calls us for a special purpose and how we’re missing out if we run from our calling. Like Jonah, God rescues those who are in a “pit”, regardless of how they got there. Nobody is hopeless and beyond God’s grace. Unlike Jonah, don’t give up on redemption- God can seek and find anyone. God constantly offers us “Grace”- gifts we can’t earn and forgiveness we don’t deserve.
In this cover article for the May 2026 issue of PUMC’s church newsletter (“Steeple Notes”), Pastor Mike considers how we reject God’s grace when we don’t “seek first the Kingdom of God” (as Jesus said in Matthew 6:33).
As we go through the book of Jonah in our Sunday morning series, I cannot stop thinking about Jonah 2:8. This verse has stopped me in my tracks for weeks and I cannot get it out of my head.
We have been blessed as a nation and blessed as a country, and my fear is that sometimes in that blessing we have chosen good for what is best and even wrong for what is right. God’s mercy and grace is waiting for us all day, but how many have abandoned God? As scripture says, have turned their backs on God, therefore, turned their backs on grace. 
On this day, do not choose worthless idols to fill your hearts that should be filled by the Holy Spirit. I need grace every day and I cannot turn grace away, therefore I cannot turn Jesus away.
Jesus said that the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” (see Matthew 9:35-38). Let us give to the Lord and encourage others that there is only one Lord and his name is Jesus! You may say, “there are no more idols,” but it’s my belief that there are certainly idols. Money and power are certainly idols that many people seek and worship. The question that I ask myself every day is, “what am I seeking above all else today?”
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus says, “seek first the kingdom of God.” My heart is saddened that many have turned their backs on grace, but there is still time for people to be awakened by grace, the path is before us, and his name is Jesus.
Pastor Mike Chapman
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