The Devil at his best is still a devil...God at His worst is still God!!!

 Please take time to watch this media love letter to you from God!!! After watching that, I began to sob!! Lord, I'm so sorry I've ever made you wait for me!! I love you too, precious Lord!! God loves us all sooo much! God loves Jonah, and God loves Jennifer and God wants to help us all find our, "Nineveh"!! God's deep, deep love transcends all human thought and reaches down from the heavens above to lift us up into His arms. That's the Lord that called Jonah to do the unthinkable!! Truly, if Jonah had known God as Love and peace itself, as the only one on the throne, then Jonah would not have run!! Friends, neither will you!! 


Assyria??? In many ways Assyria had become synonomous with the devil for Israel! Although the two countries definitely stayed very closely allied, the liaison was made and kept out of fear, not affection. Israel's beliefs were completely in conflict with those of Assyria, Damascus and many other lands. Just to drive home the point, I'd like to bring this to our current time to create a picture for us, alright?  Imagine your whole life bring trained and told to uphold the laws of the Lord!! Imagine being trained your whole life to not drink alcohol, do drugs, or participate in sexual impurities and debaucheries of the like! No way!! You too?? Yes, we all have our ideas of what is a "no" and those ideas have become ingrained within us all! Also, we have all become prideful that we have abstained from certain things, feeling pure in our own right. Therefore, Jonah, son of Amittai, is no different! Jonah was raised from the beginning to band together with the chosen people of God and to protect those people and to defend God's honor, which Assyria had a habit of attacking. You say, "Assyria" and Israel might say, Foul, although I'll do anything to keep safe! You say, "Assyria" and Israel might say, "Let me get my sword to honor the Lord God Almighty!!, as long as I can stay safe!  You say, "Assyria", and most all the watchtowers of Israel go on alert..!!! Truly, everyone might be wondering if the current treaty was still in place. In fact, if there was one thing all of Israel could agree, it was on their enemies; enemies to God's law were enemies to God's people...!! However, getting in good with the enemy might just protect them! Ever heard the term, "don't bite the hand that feeds you?" Well, for Israel's sake and for ours, and for the world's sake, we had all better hope God's hand feeds us, right?  Just so we truly grasp what was going on in Jonah's time, the animosity against Assyria was not just against their philosophical beliefs!! No, the animosity was against actual physical attacks against God's people as well!! Perhaps Jonah's nephew met the Assyrian sword! Perhaps Assyrians captured Jonah's mom and tortured her and burned down her home!! Perhaps Jonah knew many who's lives were taken by Assyria's hands. True to form, humankind associates people and their actions with evil and evil is not to be tolerated, unless we might be kept safe!!  Tragically, the people of Assyria, Damascus, and many other lands were despised, when all the time God, was madly in love with them, just as He was in love with Israel.  Assyria, synonymous with the devil?? No, not just Assyria, but all of us sinners!! But, God loves all people; God is the greatest missionary and lover of all time! If anyone out there is reading this blog, know this: God loves the middle east, and all of the middle east! Truly, God has loved every part of muslim territory from day one and has a plan to give them all great love!!


¹¹ The Lord announces the word,
   and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng:
¹² “Kings and armies flee in haste;
   the women at home divide the plunder.
¹³ Even while you sleep among the sheep pens,^[e]
   the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
   its feathers with shining gold.” 
¹⁴ When the Almighty^[f] scattered the kings in the land,
   it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon.

 ¹⁵ Mount Bashan, majestic mountain,

   Mount Bashan, rugged mountain,

¹⁶ why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain,

   at the mountain where God chooses to reign,

   where the LORD himself will dwell forever?

¹⁷ The chariots of God are tens of thousands
   and thousands of thousands;

   the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.^[g]

^{Jonah was that dove, get it?? Jonah had the silver wings and the golden sheath and he knew what pleased the Lord and always told all the people about it, get it?? Also, Jonah knew all about how obedience to the Lord brought goodness upon the people. Jonah knew all about Elisha and he knew how fast a chariot went under God's flame and fire. So, what happened when Jonah was asked to go into Nineveh??? The Devil at his best is still a devil...and God at His worst is still God!! We must realize that rebellion against God's words comes from the Devil! Yes!! Oh yes it does!! Even if the end means that God's people are protected?? Yes!! We can never expect anything but distruction, when we say no to God. The end never justifies the means, when the means say, "no" to God. Sadly, we must be aware of a common tendency: Humankind is far more comfortable serving the Law that promises a shadow of peace, than the Law Giver that is our peace!! Just because the idea was always to fight against the forces of evil to honor God, did not mean that God needed us to always fight the same way. Furthermore, no one knows how to stop evil but God alone. Yes, God can shake up the temporal ways with some of the eternal ways of His Holy Kingdom building plan! Yes, God is still God..!!! We do not serve the law, but the law giver! Disclaimer: Every bit of the law is still God's law; don't disobey God's law if you claim to love Him.}

Perhaps you tell me that you are not subject to any uncleanness; you do not drink, nor swear, nor lie; but remember, it is unclean not to be reconciled to God; it is unclean to be a stranger to Christ; it is unclean to disobey God who created you; and above all it is unclean not to love the Redeemer, whose most precious blood has delivered his people from their sins. At his best the devil is no better than a devil, and the heart in which he dwells is no better than a den for a traitor to hide in.
For meditation: Sin affects every part of our being; even what we regard as our good points are unclean in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6). We remain unclean until we trust in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7). (Charles Spurgeon)

Question:    Why do we then disobey? If we are so comfortable to the law to which we have grown accustomed, then why not see the law as a measure of grace and the Law giver as the one that will bring even more good things with our complete obedience and surrender??  Friends, we don't really serve only God!! Idolatry!! A lack of trust in God is to fight for the position of God yourself!! Ouch!! The truth is that we follow God's ways and trust Him until He really asks us to trust Him and let Him only be God!! We are all such idolaters!! Ok, now your heart might be resisting!! Excuse me, you might say!! Excuse me, Jennifer!! You might be thinking, "I do not follow other gods"! Really?? Just think about the last time you had a hard time trusting God!! I challenge everyone on this point!! Whenever we do not trust God, we are asking for His job! Whenever we ask for God's job, we are placing ourselves on the throne, just like the devil. Friends, don't miss this point..!! When we do not listen to God, we are really listening to the devil, our influence and dad! Don't believe me, just ask the Scriptures,

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

 ³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

 ³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.^[b]”

 ³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

   “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would^[c]do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.”

   “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

 ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶ Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”


Jonah, Jonah, Jonah!! You do not trust God's request to go to Nineveh, because you are still on the throne!! Idolatry! Incidentally, Israel is guilty of the very thing and point of Assyria's offense in the eyes of Israel. Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer!! Why do you keep your plans and ideas on the throne?? I confess, I, Jennifer am guilty of Idolatry!! 


"Lord, Jesus! I ask you humbly to take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee!! Let me move Father, at the impulse of your love!! Amen!"


Perhaps we need to be more aware of the devil's influence and the temptation to put our selves before God!! Perhaps we can pray that prayer every morning so that Idolatry is not infiltrating our lives!! Let's let God be God and every other plan faulty and every man a liar!!