“God’s lesson is that you can run from me, but you can’t hide,” says Kate, age 10.

“If you are playing hide and go seek or if somebody can’t find you, God can,” says Sara, 10.

We all think we’re experts at hiding from God. Our stories may not be as dramatic as Jonah’s, but they’re just as real. God always wins at hide and seek.

“You cannot run from God even in the belly of a fish!” says Aaron, 11. “It’s like God has see-through glasses. He’s got heat-seeking eyes or life-seeking sensors.”

In this case, God’s life-seeking sensors detected something in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. God told Jonah to deliver his message to the Assyrians, but Jonah bought a one-way ticket for a cruise in the opposite direction. God changed Jonah’s travel plans by making him the world’s first submariner.

“Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights,” says Madison, 10. “He prayed day and night that he could get out of the fish’s slimy, smelly stomach.”

God has ways of stopping us in our tracks when we’re running from him. Jonah’s prayer is desperate: “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord” (Jonah 2:7).

Why wait until you’ve exhausted your resources before turning to God? He will hear you from the depths of despair, but he’ll also hear you before you buy a wrong-way ticket.

“Once when I was 4 years old, I tried to steal some candy from a store,” says Patrick, 10. “I tried to hide it from God, but he let my mom know that I had done it. My mom told me to put it back, and I was grounded for three hours that day.”

Whether it’s three hours in your room or three days in the belly of a fish, the lesson is the same, says Patrick: “You shouldn’t never run away from God.”

Today, we have more sophisticated ways to run. No need to buy a ticket on an ocean liner. Select your escape from several television channels, computer games or websites. Keep the noise level high at all times. A prolonged quiet period is too dangerous. Your conscience might intrude.

“I think God gets really sad when we run from him just like we do when we want to play with our friends, and they leave us out,” says Kelsey, 9.

There’s a tendency to think of God as an impersonal being incapable of being hurt. God is a passionate, jealous lover, and he pursues us when we run from him.

In the end, Jonah did obey God, says Langdon, 11: “Jonah did go to Nineveh, and he told people about God. The people in that city were saved, but then Jonah got angry and went east of the city.”

Jonah wanted to see God zap the Assyrians. They were some of the cruelest, most wicked people in recorded history. We shouldn’t be too hard on Jonah for wanting a ringside seat. Like Jonah, perhaps our view of God’s grace and mercy could use some adjustment. We may condemn sins in others while ignoring, denying or excusing our own.

The people of Nineveh believed God when they heard Jonah’s message. God withheld his judgment after Nineveh’s king issued a nationwide decree to fast and turn away from evil.

In the end, Jonah learned a lesson we all need to learn: “Even if you really don’t want to go or do what God tells you, just trust him to make things right,” says Laura, 11.

Think about this: When you run from God, he will always find you.

Memorize this truth: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7).

Ask this question: Are you running from something you know God wants you to do?
About the Author:

A king who revered and honoured the Lord God in every way in Judah called on the great God Jehovah through Isaiah the prophet of God. Judah needed God’s intervention to escape the coming Assyrian armies’ takeover.

God answered and sent the armies back to their land after his Angel killed 185,000 of their soldiers in one night.That is One Angel, one night, one enemy beaten. Wow!

33By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

35And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

This history is told in the Holy Bible in the second book of Kings, chapters 18 and 19. A huge lesson is to be learned here.

Why did God help Judah and not Israel this time? He found no idol worship in Judah nor any other god being consulted. Judah was clean before Him. Judah was following God alone. Israel had been taken captive because it served other so called gods as well as the true and living God Jehovah.

In Canada, U.S.A., and other christian countries we are as Israel was at that time. We have accepted foreign gods whith anti-Christ ways and called it freedom of religion. Idiots is the only term that comes to mind! Our countries were established on the foundation of Christianity. One God, the Great Jehovah, one teaching, one church of Jesus Christ.

Now we wonder why so many nasty things are allowed to happen to us in our nations by the Lord our God, the True and Living One. HELLO!

Warning signs are all around us. We must get back to the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, Isaac, Abraham and all the wonderful prophets of the Lord. God will not share His glory, His countries, His nation.

Was 9/11 not a wake up call for all of us? Is New Orleans and all the terrible weather not enough to stir us to repentance? We must expel all other teachings and idols and enemy religions before we are taken over by wicked forces and destroyed. Stop the insanity!

The enemy has infiltrated our lands with the guise of new found freedom in Christian societies. Sin abounds and grace abounds much more so far, but our God is a jealous One, a consuming fire and our time is running out to call on Him and have us answered. When He checks us out what does He see? We must act quickly and send out the message throughout our christian based countries. ‘Serve the true and living God or leave our lands.’

Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Do we want the Angel of the Lord on our side or on the enemies’ side. God will use them to cleanse His countries. Fast, pray, repent, expel the enemies of God the Lord, the Great Jehovah.
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