3B24.   Jonah 3:1-5, 10.   God preached his call of repentance to the pagan people of Nineveh through Jonah.  In their repentance they rejected their former pagan ways and accepted the God of the Hebrews as their God.  God welcomed their acceptance of him and refused to punish them for their pagan ways.  They turned their lives from going in the ways that would lead to their destruction and instead took the path that would lead to eternal happiness.

Mark 1:14-20.   Jesus begins his ministry after the death of John the Baptist by “proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  In selecting the twelve apostles to replace the twelve tribes of Israel, Jesus was bringing to completion and full realization what was begun with Abraham and Moses.  Jesus was calling upon his followers to leave behind what was done before and fill the world and ourselves wholly with the kingdom of God.  The gospel is the good news that now we live in full communion with the person of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 7:29-33.   Paul is calling upon us to live with a profound sense of how temporary our life in this world is.  He wants us to live our present life here as a way of living eternally.  What is now is a part of our forever.  In effect, Paul is saying we are lost and just wandering around in this world without any meaningful result if we are not living with an ongoing, present, active, wholesome sense of destiny.