Where Is Jesus in This War With Israel

“It’s great to finally be HOME again” I thought to myself as I sat in the stillness, waiting for my first Aussie sunrise in over a month to emerge.

I live in paradise when compared to so many other lands around our globe! The beauty I see unfolding before my eyes every morning, some will never see, maybe that’s why God asked me to capture the sunrise every morning.

Admiring the changing scene before me I was reminded again about the month we’d spent, trudging through Bible lands in 40+degree temperatures as we followed the paths the Israelites would have walked in their quest to reach the Promised Land so long ago.
I never saw beautiful sunrise scenes like this while we were in this Holy Land, valued by Jews, Arabs and Christians alike.

I used to judge them, the children of Israel, wondering why they complained so much when God was clearly guiding them. Why they were so ungrateful when God did such miracles around them each day?

But aren’t we sometimes like that? I know I am. In my life I’ve seen God do many miracles around me, but I still sometimes get side-tracked when I focus by the disappointments of life.

With barely anything green emerging from the dust or a shady tree to shelter under for protection from the severe heat, and with scarcely any water to wash in, I would not have been happy!

These barren conditions help make it clearer for me to understand why God had to send them manner each day to keep them fed, as they wandered up steep slopes of crumbling dry rocks and then down again, getting nowhere in scorching temperatures on dust that wouldn’t produce food for harvest.

In such conditions it wouldn’t have taken me long to begin to complain and to look back at what I’d left behind in Egypt if I had been one of them.

I’m so grateful to again be enjoying the blessings I see all around me. And how blessed Col and I were, when God whispered gently to me one morning, that it was time for us to move north, away from our 50+ year home on the NSW Central Coast as He opened the way for us to live in our brand new apartment that had been vacant and waiting for us for 8 years to arrive with a greatly reduced asking price, here on Australia’s Gold Coast – the destination where so many tourists flock from all around the globe each year!

Drinking in the beauty of the changing scene before me as the sun neared the horizon my thoughts turned back to the pilgrimage we’ve just experienced through the lands of the Bible, our second visit and again I wondered…

WHY, God?
Why did you choose such a harsh, barren land as the ideal place for you to begin your redemption plan? There couldn’t be more of a contrast between the landscapes of the Middle East and the tranquillity and peace of my homeland. Why did you not come to a more beautiful place like the one you sent us to, to draw all mankind to yourself, I wondered.

Why did He choose such a seemingly ‘God forsaken’ land to send Jesus to save us? As soon as I heard myself say ‘seemingly God forsaken’, I realised how wrong I was. God forsaken? This statement couldn’t be further from the truth! God was all over this plan, knowing the end from the beginning as He sought to bring forgiveness to the world.

For the next couple of days I meditated on this and sought God for understanding. Then we learned that Israel was now at war, something that was being planned whilst we were roaming in these parts just a few days earlier.

Now I see clearer. The reason Jesus chose such a harsh land to dwell in and to birth His ministry was because He needed us to know that He understands what it means to struggle and to know that we aren’t alone in all the barrenness and strife we will face in our lifetime.

In doing life tough Himself, He knows from experience what it’s like to live without. He knows what it means to be wrongly accused,
To be mistreated, misunderstood and to be criticized for things He didn’t do,
He knows what its like to be cautioned and overlooked, when He did such amazing miracles as changing water into wine, healing the sick, raising the dead back to life,
He knows what it’s like to be publicly scorned by religious leaders for doing such an amazing thing as performing miracles on the Sabbath…
To be despised and rejected in his homeland, to be nailed to a cross unit death, to be buried and the best part,
To come back to life, to be seen by hundreds of
people who watched Him ascend into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father!!

IT’S NO COINCIDENCE THAT WAR CONTINUALLY RAGES IN THE HOMELAND OF JESUS – because of His obedience, Jesus and the Holy Land are indelibly linked! It’s where Jesus was born, where He taught us how to live, where He died (temporarily) on the cross to buy our freedom, paying the price for our sins. This gift He offers is for everyone but only surrendering our lives to Jesus will set us free!

And Jesus promises that our world is only temporary. That there is a world war coming to bring an end to what we understand now but He is preparing a new heaven and a new earth for those who seek Him.

And He promises to one day return again to this hot dry land, the land where He was rejected, tortured and hung on a cross to buy our forgiveness, to bring us peace and a fresh start. He will also come to set the record straight.
And in this war that’s raging right now there is a parallel between those who trust God and who reject Him.

Just like terrorists began this war because of their passion that Jerusalem should belong to them, this war has been brought about by people who believe a different path will make them free. Choosing war as the means to exercise control means that many innocent lives have been impacted by their actions and sadly, life for many will never be the same again.

And the easy way is also the path of choice for many in other parts of the world as people reject all that Jesus taught and all He sacrificed for us.

Believing in one’s own path to salvation without God, is the seemingly easy way, but God says Jesus is the only Way.

Jesus reminds us that He is the Only way to salvation.
He is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
There is no peace or freedom without Him!
Although rejected while He lived in His homeland, Jesus still chose the path for our redemption because it was the only way He could offer forgiveness for our mistakes, such was His love for humanity.

Our choice is to accept or reject the love that paid for forgiveness.

Jesus will never push His love onto us, but, just like He told us to move to a new location that has brought us nothing but blessing, when we say yes to Him, no matter what ‘war or uncertainty’ lies ahead for us, we’ll be safe!
Jesus is the only living Saviour and the only one with an empty tomb. Statues made by hand, no matter what offerings placed before them, they will never satisfy.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for You are with me. Psalm 23:4

Christmas decorations are beginning to show in the stores already as department stores hope for bumper profits.
When Christmas is over hot cross buns will begin to go on sale, but that has nothing to do with Christmas, Easter or the sacrifice of Jesus, or the gift of eternal life without end – the true meanings of Christmas and Easter.

Merry Christmas everyone! With such uncertainty about the outcome of this war raging in Israel right now, may you understand that no matter what the outcome of this devastation, Jesus is the only safe haven and with outstretched arms He’s waiting for you to say YES to Him!

#OnlyJesus
#prayforthepeaceofJerusalem