Middle East

The Battle is Not Done

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Yesterday, being Father’s Day, I chose to sing “This is My Father’s World,” at Discovery Villages. This is not only one of my favorite hymns, but with war raging, both in the Middle East and Ukraine, it is easy for our hearts to become anxious. We close our eyes and imagine the bombs bringing down buildings. What was once only a distant possibility, has become a daily nightmare both in Israel as well as Iran. Along with military targets, innocent men, women and children are buried under rubble, others are fleeing for their lives, wounded and terrified. “Where is God in the midst of all of the chaos?” the world asks. That is when the assurance of the final stanza rings loudest, “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” This hymn rings true to our hearts, not only because of the poetic mastery of the hymn writer, but because it is a reflection of a deep truth of scripture.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10

Now we may not all be in the middle of a warzone, but every believer has their own battles and battle scars to prove it. When we are in the middle of the worst, we need to remind ourselves that God has not fallen asleep at the wheel. No matter our situation, God remains firmly in control of both our lives as well as the affairs of earth. But we like children riding in the backseat, want to know, “When are we going to get there?” In my experience, God rarely tells us the answer. Instead, He helps us to learn how to trust Him, even when we don’t get filled in on all the details. Whatever you need to trust Him with today, why not take a moment to be still, and then pray, “God teach me to be still. In the middle of this battle and help me to trust you with every detail of my heart!”

Peace is Possible

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I have spent a lifetime reading the news and seeing images of Arabs and Israelis fighting. From the Munich kidnapping and killing of Israeli athletes to the 50 innocent men women and children killed in a Mosque by a Jewish radical there has been bloodshed everywhere. We have grown immune to hope almost as if this is something we must expect…but we do not!

Where in the Bible is it written that this is God’s plan? Peace is possible. Even if everyone else in the world laughs at the hope of an accord we as Christians are required by God to pray for the impossible. We may forget that at Camp David in August of 1978 Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty. Why not today between Israeli and Palestinian leaders? To really pray as God commands us for the peace of Jerusalem someone must begin to believe it is possible. Who knows what God can do? The giant of hatred and death who has terrorized generations of children can be defeated by a single stone of hope.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 NIV

God’s mightiest weapon

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One of the most successful evangelists in Bible times was a man who needed to learn more about the most powerful weapon he could have used on the enemies of God. The man’s name was Jonah and the weapon was mercy. Our brother Jonah was indeed one conflicted guy! Forget for a moment the entire episode of Jonah, the storm, the fish and the being vomited up on the beach (Yuck!), let’s examine Jonah’s evangelism.

Jonah came to the first day of his evangelistic crusade kicking and screaming. He disept-oct-2013-068dn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to go not because he was afraid of being attacked or because he thought he would be a failure. No, on the contrary, Jonah’s greatest fear was that the city would repent and that God would forgive them! Try with me to imagine the thoughts going through Jonah’s mind as he preached. Maybe they sounded a bit like this:

“Okay God so I know I have to obey and preach your message. Here goes: ‘Repent! God is sending destruction on this city!’ ” Then Jonah closed his eyes and prayed that no one would come to the altar! Wow, that might sound like the strangest thing but it was exactly what the Bible tells us. In fact when God chose to forgive the city because everyone was touched by Jonah’s message, he became angry. Let’s listen in on his conversation with the almighty as he is hastily exiting the city. You find this in Jonah 4:2

p1020130 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Before we laugh too hard at this surly prophet, maybe we need to look in the mirror to see  if we are really a lot like him.Like Jonah, we may be missing the entire point of God’s mercy. Today in New York and New Jersey the news is filled with the stories of the most recent acts of terror on American soil. Some of us are so angry and frustrated that any act of destruction by us on parts of the Middle East would suit us just fine. But instead of  bitterness, we who are Christians have the greatest opportunity to pull from God’s arsenal his most powerful weapon of all – the mercy and forgiveness of Christ. That weapon of mercy is the most powerful because it was also the most costly. Mercy cost God His only Son! As Jesus hung on the cross and became the object of shame and ridicule he could have  asked the Father for justice. But Jesus knew that there was nothing more potent that he had available to use on his enemies than grace.

Our brother Jonah’s dream was not to see Nineveh saved. Oh no! Jonah was hoping for God to do to Nineveh something like what had happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus instead looked past the jeering crowds. Jesus saw beyond his few frightened disciples huddling behind locked doors. Jesus looked all the way to heaven and saw a joy that no earthly power could take away and then He released on the world God’s mightiest weapon:

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments Luke 23:34