Temporal hopes, or Eternal Peace??

Peace! Peace! Lord, please bring me peace...!!! Much like Jennifer who did not want to loose the hope of peace, even a false peace, Israel has often strayed  away from its first Love, God, in order to find peace! Yes, in order to keep what appeared to be something that would bring comfort and peace, Israel ran after other things. During the time of Jonah, there had been established a sense of peace in the land! For all of you biblical scholars out there, Jonah served during 800–750 b.c.! Imagine a battle that threatened you in every way! Imagine a financial battle, a health battle, a battle for land, or a battle that brought violence to your door!! Frantically, you are searching for some way that the pain will end!! Suddenly, the promise for a cease fire is upon you! Daring to believe, you begin to imagine the hope of pain in your life coming to an end!! Tempted?? If you say no, than you are lying!! Allow me to clarify something: we are not wrong to wish for peace, but we are wrong to wish for it from any source other than God! Moreover, we are mistaken to wish for peace that is temporary and isolated to our immediate circumstances. God alone is eternal and understands His bigger plans!! Wish for Him to be your peace above all other things. Let us consider the words of a fully surrendered individual who laid it all down in exchange for his true King, Jesus,

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose" (Jim Elliot).


Now, consider the prophet, Jonah! Jonah, son of Amittai has been the golden boy prophet of Israel!! Jonah is God's mighty dove and golden mouthpiece! Even more, the chance for peace has just come through the golden boy's words!! To explain, the only main threats Israel has at this time is the influence of Damascus in the northern kingdom's affairs and the Assyrian empire's attacks on Israel...!! In fact, from Israel's perspective, Assyria's defeat would mean Israel could rest in comfort and serenity! Remember 2 Kings, and the way the kings of Israel would have pawned just about anything to get in good with Assyria!! Not too different from us and how willing we are to compromise to make the pain stop! Yet, when God, Jehovah Rafa does heal our pain, we forget to leave Him in charge of everything else. When things seem to go really well, normally we forget our need for God don't we?? Sadly, we ache for peace and run after that  peace, leaving the God that brings true peace knocking on the door! Tragically, we want what God can give, but we don't always want God. God is not our Genie!! Rather, He is the greatest Peace of our lives and of the eternal life to come!

Jonah prophesied about Peace coming to Israel,

²³ In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. ²⁴ He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. ²⁵ He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea,^[e] in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.
 ²⁶ The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering;^[f] there was no one to help them. ²⁷And since the LORD had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

Ok...Jonah had prophesied God's great tidings that the boundaries of Israel would be restored...and they were restored!! Many places had been a thorn or threat to the Rose of Sharon, but Damascus had really been a downer to Israel's business and therefore a thorn in Israel's rose garden! Naturally, when Assyria had dismantled Damascus, the northern kingdom of Israel was no longer going to be infiltrated with pokes and painful pricks from Damascus! Yippee, cries the people of Jonah's day. What's more, the Assyrian empire had been plagued with internal divisions! All these circumstances left Israel with a secure breath of fresh air; peace be yours rose of sharon and Hail, Hail, to_____!! Now, we hope that the answer would have been Lion of Judah..how wonderful you are!!! Not quite!..Remember??? When we have peace we tend to forget who calmed the storm!! Yikes!! Not good!! Principle: when we praise Him in the storm, we will praise Him in the calm! From the same master's hand comes the storm and the peace...!! Abide in the master and arrive safely upon the shore...Behold, your God is the light house and the ship must follow it's light to arrive safely home!! After reading 1 and 2 Kings all night..I've come to realize one thing about all of us! We sell everyone down the river in order to keep something we cannot keep!!  Therefore, we never gain the thing we cannot lose!! Israel..and all of us have a tendency to seek peace outside of God, to exchange God's eternal for man's temporal!!  Perhaps there is some peace you are experiencing today??? Perhaps you are enjoying some feast of great flavor???  Careful not to credit the feast to your self, lest you prize your self over Christ...!!! Careful not to credit the feast to some person, lest you prize a  person over Christ...!!!  Careful not to credit the feast to some possession, lest you prize that possession over Christ!! Friends, did you know that the reference to the rose of Sharon comes from the greatest book about love in the Old Testament? Which one???
 “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.” (Song of Songs 2:1) 

For those of you that have forgotten, or perhaps have never been told, the song of songs is a book about intense love between Christ, who is God, and His Church!! Today, the reference, "rose of Sharon" refers to Jesus Christ! To elaborate, your Savior is the Rose and Sharon is a place, a beautiful field in Palestine..! As we approach Valentines day, let us suppose that many men will be buying roses, considered to be the most perfect flowers, for the women they love!! Perhaps we need to be reminded of the Sacred Romance of Jesus, your Savior, who is God Almighty??? Jesus is not a genie to buy you roses!! Jesus is the rose, a perfect flower given to you, if you will but plant His love in your heart and let Him love you and then through you, love the world! Friends get yourselves out of the temporal and reach for the Eternal one, His name is Jesus!  Christ is the only true being that we cannot lose, and that will never disappoint..!!  Christ is the only source that we have for peace...!! Christ is the only promise that we can keep...!! He is no fool that gives up what he cannot keep to gain what He cannot lose!! Hallelujah! That's the whole problem with trust isn't it?? When ever we do not trust, we have seen Christ as a part of the plan and not as the plan itself..We've seen Christ as a part of the solution, and not as the solution itself!!  As the truth was with Jonah...Peace had been prophesied and Peace came!! Hail Hail prophet of God..Jonah, Jonah...you are favored for your glad tidings! Perhaps Jonah was resting peacefully within secure borders when God woke him up to go to Nineveh.  Are you picturing it? Close your eyes and imagine the circumstance, person, and thing you think you want!! Now, ask yourself if that image is Christ alone!  if we do not see Christ as the only thing we need, but only a part of what we need, we will be face to face with Shamoo in no time!! Jonah sleeps, awakened suddenly by a request from God himself that would not bring peace, hope and joy! As Jonah understands peace, and as Jonah understands good things, God seems to be asking to shake it all up!  Tossing and turning, Jennifer hears the call of God in the dead of the night! Jennifer's plans for peace meant her plans, not God's! Jonah's plans for peace meant his plans, secure borders and beautiful roses in the field of Sharon!! Jonah...Jonah..Jonah..Christ is the rose...Jennifer...Jennfer, Christ is the plan! Jennifer, and Jonah, you have enjoyed Christ as a part of your life..a piece to the puzzle where God helps you get the happiness you've been promised!! Yes, say it!! We do think that sometimes...God has promised me good things right?? Define good!! Go on!! Define Good...!! Perhaps we are safer to ask for the Lord's words on this matter,


¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
   ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’^[d]”

 ²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

 ²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

 ²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 ²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” Mark 10:17-23, NIV)!

Simply put, God wants us to understand that He is it!!!! Jesus, God incarnate, wanted to expose this young ruler's understanding of what really is "good"...!! Only God is Good...!! The rich, young ruler did not understand that Jesus was God when he called Him, "Good"! Jonah did not understand that peace and glad tidings came to his land as part of a greater plan and a greater end...!! The short term and temporal moments of what seems like an answer, a promise of long awaited peace are not the end of your suffering!! So, stop hanging onto them as though that's your gift and someone might try to take it from you!! God is your gift...not your circumstance!! God is your peace, not the lack of physical war in your land.  Our version of peace is much too often the version of peace that the world brings and not the true peace that Christ offers you and me.  Jonah! Jonah! Jonah! Maybe you did everything God asked of you!! Maybe you prophesied and maybe peace did come for the moment to Israel! Sure, because God was in charge and setting up His eternal plan for the whole world, not just for you and not just for Israel!  God does not see borders..God has no barriers, and God only knocks down the barriers that come between He and His children! Secure borders?? How about the world restored to its rightful King and eternal life with Him?? How often we settle for momentary peace from temporal promises of the world, when we need to shoot for the eternal promises of God that include far more than the borders and barriers that we can see!! 


Faith is the conviction of realities that I cannot see or feel!! 


Praise the Lord for His plan that far out does any of my own!! My question?? Do you have your hopes set on something that you have called good??? Do you have peace that is temporal..??? Whatever you have called "good" is not good at all if it is not God Himself!! Principle: Peace comes from knowing and trusting fully that God is good, no matter the outcome! The peace that you might have in a circumstance, or in a person, or in a financial outcome is not the peace of Christ; peace will always fade when it is not set upon His glorious face and master plan! Hope only in Him!! Sow in His Peace and Reap His eternal peace and everlasting light..!! Sow your hope in anything else and reap the whirlwind!! Jonah is about to be asked to go into the Assyrian empire, into Nineveh!! Why?? Jonah is asked to go give them a promising message and a chance for peace with God!! Perhaps had Jonah known God's true, lasting peace himself, then he would have had no problem giving it over to Nineveh..but I'm getting ahead of myself...We'll deal with the ins and outs of the Assyrian empire and why exactly Jonah said, "No" in the next few posts! Jennifer was going to say "no" too!! Jennifer was going to run too!! But, that's another story for another blog!! For now, I leave you with promises of a perfect rose this Valentine's Day..His name is Jesus and He is perfectly beautiful and comes with a complete package of perfect peace!! 
John reminds us,


³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV).  Take heart...when you have Christ, the temporal hopes are put to rest and the eternal peace is yours! If you struggle with feeling the peace of Christ, keep reading! Quite possibly, you, like me do not, or have not at times, grasped the gift He really is..but take heart..! Jesus really is all the gift you'll ever need; I don't have to run after any other thing when King Jesus sits on the throne of my life.