This world is not my home!!!

The Harbor Jaffa is one of the oldest functioning harbors in the world. Today it harbors only small fishing boats. This was the port to which Jonah came when fleeing from the Lord to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). For the construction of Solomon's Temple, cedars were floated from Phoenicia to Joppa and then transported to Jerusalem (2 Chr 2:16). Jaffa was the main port of entry during the Turkish period and pilgrims and visitors would enter the Holy Land here.

Down, Down, Down we go before we go up up up into the arms of Jesus!!!
down, Down, down we go to Joppa to flee from the Sovereignty of the Good God we hope to serve with undivided hearts.  Let's go down to Joppa together shall we??? You know what? I love coffee and studying all about Joppa reminded me of Java!! Ha..!! Well, pour yourself a cup of coffee and turn your Bible to Jonah!!
I love to study the Bible!! Guess what?? When we take the time to really break open the light of God's Word, we find more of His light, more of His truth and more of His unending love!! Therefore, I thought we could dig a little bit together and uncover more about why Jonah ran to flee from the Lord! We've been discussing the truth about Surrender! Yes, most of our rebellion comes from a lack of trust in the Lord God! Or, perhaps it is not that we lack trust that He is the Lord, but rather we lack trust that the Lord is Good??? How many of us have known the Lord to allow a 5 yr. old to be gunned down in war??? How many of us have watched an amazing saint of God die too young of cancer, or some other disease??? How many of us have watched helplessly as God's people have suffered famine and died by the thousands??? How many of us watched as Haiti suffered through that wretched earth quake, paralyzed by how that could have happened???  Yes, tragic things happen to God's kids all the time, and your Lord counts every single tear and wipes away each one as we invite His peace and love to come near. The truth is that God knew we would experience pain, as he reminds us in the Scripture that we should take heart, "even though in this world, we will have trouble, He has overcome the world."  Moreover, He knows that His love is greater and His grace is greater and His will is eternal!! Yes, His love endures forever, and the world cannot separate us from His infinite Love,“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:35,37 NIV


Yet, God in His infinite wisdom still set for us an allowance for all the pain and emotions of this world He foreknew we would experience.

Ecclesiastes 3

New International Version (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Yet, there is something so key here to our understanding of pain! Perhaps we avoid it because we have just momentarily forgotten that it exists "in" time?? Your God is Eternal!! I love the way the Haitian people praise the Lord...Do you know what they say in French?? L'Eternal!! The Eternal one!! Yes, the nation of Haiti has suffered and they get it!! This world is not my Home...Oh praise the eternal one that the pain is temporal and that His love is eternal!!

Perhaps we need to come to terms with the fact that this world is not our home and that God's ending is still beautiful??? Perhaps we need to face the fact that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways??? Perhaps we need to get on our knees and allow the Holy Spirit of God to search our inmost being to find out whether or not we are o.k. with God's plans??? Perhaps the truth is we still need to face the cross, where God allowed Himself, His son to be nailed to a cross to bridge the gap between Himself and all of us??? Don't ever forget that you are not the only one that is suffering unjustly!! Your God marked that trail long ago, right?? The real burning question is not if we know that God loves us at this point in Jonah's whale of a tale!! WE know God loves us, but are we ready to Love Him??? Are we ready to accept the sacrifice that it takes to cross over from death to life?? Perhaps we need to admit that we know God is calling us all to give it all, but that we also know that the sacrifice involved will make anyone run to Joppa if one does not know He is Good beyond the pain and confusion.  Do you know He is good even when it hurts?? Do you know that He is good even beyond the wind and the waves??  If we do not first understand that all things work together for Good, then God's call will result in battle, pain and confusion until surrender is found and the end is beautiful!

Let's examine the text,

Jonah 1

Jonah Flees From the LORD

 ¹ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Now, as we can see from the picture and brief description, Joppa is a real port that is actually still in use today! I find the fact that Joppa's port is still in use exhilarating to say the least! Both literally and figuratively, there are still ports operating that will take us away from the presence of the Lord. Now, literally, the presence of the Lord was thought to be in Israel by Jonah and God's chosen people! Therefore, in order to really get away from God's call, Jonah had to go to the famous port to go outside of where the presence of the Lord resided.  Why? Why did Jonah say "no" to God? The better question remains, what did Jonah know about God that made the call unacceptable to Jonah. In fact, what made the request to go to Nineveh so unacceptable that he immediately fled to Joppa with the intent of going all the way to Tarshish. Perhaps we must consult the text to find our answer,

Jonah 4

Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion

 ¹ But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. ²He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³ Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Clearly, Jonah is less righteous than all of us, right?? Come on Jonah!! How could you seriously be that unloving...!! Well, I'm certainly glad that I'm not like you!! Feeling like a Pharisee still?? Feeling good about "you" still?? After you stop swishing the kool-aid around, perhaps some truth flavored mouthwash is in order?? Now, I admit to you that when I first read chapter 4, I thought, "seriously"?? However, we must understand that the book of Jonah grants us great inside into why we run from God's perfect plan! Sometimes, we understand all too well that following God does not mean a painless life, or even a comfortable one at all, right?? What are you afraid God might allow that is keeping you from saying, "yes"??  Heah Christian, God's plan is perfect beyond the pain!! Principle, when we cannot feel the light of the Son, we run!! When we cannot see that the Lord's plans are good, we don't do what we know we should!!

Please take a few minutes to worship along with this video that contains my favorite song!! Yes, I play this on repeat all night long while I sleep!!

What does the Lord want??? The Lord wants your "yes", to His Yes!! The Lord wants you on your knees, truly crying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty!! We are no different than Jonah on the point of pride!! Jonah had pride about being God's prophet and about being God's prophet to the chosen nation of Israel! Friends, can we just be honest for a moment??? Is there any culture, or Christian that has not found identity and pride in something other than God alone?? Yes, even in service to God, pride creeps in and causes us all to be idolaters, doesn't it?? Jonah was serving more for the glory of Israel, than the Glory of God!! So, how do we prevent ourselves from serving the service and not the King alone?? We are now back to the question from a few blogs past, "who and what is good"?? How do we prevent ourselves from serving our selves in this world, and not the King of the eternal?? Live for Him outside of time and outside of your circumstances..treasure nothing in this world...!!!  Live for God as the only Good in your life!! No, this world is not your home!!  Jonah, Israel was not your home....!!!  Moms, your kids and picket fences are not your home!! Dads, your jobs and life's work are not your home. As Christians, our identity is in Christ, and our place is in God's eternal arms of love: your home!!  So sinner, Go home..Run home and find His peace there waiting!!
In the next blog we will be going to college with Jennifer, right before she decided to head to Joppa!!! Blessings...!! So good to be Home Lord..safe in your arms of Love...!! Lord? All that matters to me now is that you are holy!! Love, Me..