Red Alert

An Israeli software developer has created an app for both I-phones and the Android system called Red Alert.  When a rocket attack is detected in Israel, the app sounds a warning siren on the phone.  I have that app installed on my phone as reminder to pray for Israel every time I hear that sound.

I've been hearing that sound quite a bit over the last few days.  In fact it interrupted my Bible reading several times this morning, which gives me just a hint of what life must be like in Israel these days.

 

 

This instruction comes from the Psalms.

 

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!  May they be secure who love you!  Peace be within your walls and security within your towers."  (Psalm 122:6-7 ESV)

 

As I was thinking about this passage of Scripture this morning, I was reminded of an anthem I first learned when we lived in Colorado......Peace Will Come.  And since I had already written a post about that, today I am reposting and elaborating on a portion of the previous post. Whether or not you have the Red Alert app on your phone, will you pray for Israel?  Will you pray for the peace of Jerusalem?  Will you pray that peace will come?

 

When I think about those verses from Psalm 122, and when I see this photo that I snapped so hurriedly when we were in Jerusalem in January, my mind takes me back to Colorado and to an anthem I first remember singing when we lived there.  (Thanks, Rg!)  The anthem title was Peace Will Come.

 

It isn't the composer (David Danner) or the music that stirs my memory so much, but the lyrics that I still remember more than twenty years later:  "Peace will come to those who let the Son of God be born to them......born in their hearts, their homes, their lives......Peace will come when we hear the still, small voice of God."

 

Then, and only then, peace will come.

 

And so we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Anne Graham Lotz wrote about this in a recent Facebook post (July 31, 2014):

 

"There will be no permanent peace and safety for Jerusalem until the Prince of Peace Himself comes to establish His reign on earth. So in effect, when I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, what I am really praying for is not for the terms of a ...treaty. I’m not praying for an independent Palestinian state or the recognition of Israel’s right to exist. What I’m really praying for is the return of Jesus. Yeshua. Israel’s Messiah. The Prince of Peace."

She's exactly right.

Because peace is not about politicians.

 

Peace is not about politics at all.

 

Peace is not about negotiated treaties and cease-fires that are immediately violated.

 

Peace is not a process.

 

Peace is a Person.

 

And His name is Jesus Christ.

 

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  (Isaiah 9:6 ESV, emphasis mine)