Looking For Peace On Earth

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When we think of the Bible and the word ‘peace’ we are likely to picture the scene of shepherds guarding their sheep by night. Suddenly, an angel appears with good news about a baby in a manger, then a multitude of angels join in singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men.” We hear about it every Christmas: peace on earth. We sing about it. We pray for it. Peace on Earth: an end to wars, an end to bitterness and hostility, an end to fear. We even talk about how nice it would be to have Christmas all year long, so we could always focus on Peace and Goodwill to Men (and Women – all of Mankind, in fact).

But the wars go on. Bitter struggles that have lasted for centuries continue. We find new ways to kill, new things to be afraid of. The Christmas ideal of Peace on Earth seems to be nothing more than an oasis in the midst of a violent world – or maybe it’s just a mirage.

When we think about peace, it’s important to remember that Satan and God have been at war since the beginning of time. As Christians we have switched sides in the Great War and joined God’s forces. We are no longer at war with God. He has offered us peace. Unfortunately, peace with God means we are now at war with Satan and all his forces. So our peace is not complete, yet. It won’t be complete until Satan is defeated and removed from the earth or we go home to be in heaven.

Perhaps the angels meant that because of Jesus’ birth we can find peace with God and eventually complete peace will reign when Satan is defeated. But I think there’s something more to the peace God offers than just an end of war and conflict. It involves more than just the lack of commotion and difficulties. It promises something else than the absence of fear. Jesus didn’t come to earth to take our problems away. He came to stand with us in the midst of our problems so we would find that he, himself, is our peace.

The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ or ‘good tidings.’ The angel that came to the shepherds said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2:10) He came to announce the gospel, the good news that Jesus had come into the world. The good news doesn’t end with the Christmas story. Jesus taught us how to know God and how to serve him, he showed us how to love each other, and then he gave his own life as a sacrifice for our sins so we could live with him someday in heaven. But the good news doesn’t end with Easter, either. Jesus is living in heaven right now, watching over us. The Holy Spirit lives within us to help us know God better and to experience his love. God has a plan for your life, and he has a plan for the whole world. In the end, everything will work out according to his plan, and he – and we – will be victorious. That’s good news!

So this Christmas when you think about Peace on Earth, thank God for sending his Son to be our Peace – now and forever.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)

Divine Connection

  Dec 6, 2018      From: Our Daily Journey

Read:

John 15:1-17
Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).

After recently changing cable TV service providers, my family struggled to figure out how to view our favorite content. We tried following the same steps we’d utilized with our previous company, but to no avail. Eventually it became clear that a certain connection had to be made in order to gain access to the new provider’s programming archives. The service wasn’t functional without this connection, but once it was in place we were able to unlock its full potential.

Similarly, believers in Jesus are unable to thrive without a deep connection to Him. When Christ described Himself as a vine and His followers as branches, He was illustrating how absolutely dependent we are on Him. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you,” He said. “For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). We won’t become everything God intended unless we’re connected to Him. In fact, without an abiding connection to Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5). But by remaining in and connected to Him, we’ll be able to produce much fruit and bring honor to our heavenly Father (John 15:8).

According to Jesus, the way to remain in His love is to obey His commands by His power (John 15:10). And Jesus’ most important command is love—to love each other in the same way He has loved us (John 15:12). By loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are fulfilled (Matthew 22:37-40).

As we obey God and walk in His love, we enjoy a deep, abiding connection with Him and His Spirit empowers a life that produces living fruit.

God Has Plans Too

  Dec 5, 2018  From: Our Daily Journey

Read:

Proverbs 16:1-9
We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps (Proverbs 16:9).

Sometimes our plans are interrupted by unexpected delays. Nearly a hundred runners experienced that reality when they were trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2016. As they ran the race, a train crossed the marathon course—moving very slowly—at the seven-mile marker. Prior to race day, race officials had been given complete assurance that no train would get in the runners’ way. Yet the participants’ plans were interrupted.

Like those marathon runners who were trying their best to qualify for the Boston Marathon, believers in Jesus are called to run their best for Him (Hebrews 12:1). And yet, as Solomon reminds us, “We can make our own plans” (Proverbs 16:1). The unmistakable truth is that we have the freedom to plan. People are free to chart their courses and determine where they want to go and how to get there.

In verse 9, however, we read: “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” These words lead us to submit to God’s sovereignty. He has plans too! And He’s the only one who can take goals and make them a reality. He may bless, change, or stop our plans altogether according to His perfect will.

As we strive to run the very best race we can in life, may we fix our eyes on where God is leading. For His ways may interrupt and override our own. And instead of becoming frustrated or discontent, may we leave our aspirations and dreams in His hands (Proverbs 16:3). That’s not fatalism, but submission that leads to true freedom in Him.

Let’s choose to actively bring our lives in line with His direction as we pray, “Guide [our] steps by your word” (Psalm 119:133).

The Law of Opposition

By Oswald Chambers

December 4 

To him who overcomes… —Revelation 2:7

Life without war is impossible in the natural or the supernatural realm. It is a fact that there is a continuing struggle in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual areas of life.

Health is the balance between the physical parts of my body and all the things and forces surrounding me. To maintain good health I must have sufficient internal strength to fight off the things that are external. Everything outside my physical life is designed to cause my death. The very elements that sustain me while I am alive work to decay and disintegrate my body once it is dead. If I have enough inner strength to fight, I help to produce the balance needed for health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a strong and active mental life, I have to fight. This struggle produces the mental balance called thought.

Morally it is the same. Anything that does not strengthen me morally is the enemy of virtue within me. Whether I overcome, thereby producing virtue, depends on the level of moral excellence in my life. But we must fight to be moral. Morality does not happen by accident; moral virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is also the same. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33). This means that anything which is not spiritual leads to my downfall. Jesus went on to say, “…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I must learn to fight against and overcome the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness. Then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my nature and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.

Springs of Life

  Dec 3, 2018  

Read:

Revelation 21:1-7
To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life (Revelation 21:6).

I once visited an urban farm organized by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC relocates refugees from ravaged countries and helps them establish a new life. Since many refugees grew up in an agrarian lifestyle, farming can be a natural way for them to rebuild their lives. Portions of the farmland simply grow wild each year, allowing the soil to rest. Then, in the year to follow, they till the grass back into the dirt, using it to enrich the soil that will help nourish the crops they’ll eventually harvest.

This image helps us better understand Revelation 21, where John gives us God’s vision of the future and describes how “the old heaven and the old earth [will disappear]” (Revelation 21:1). We might be tempted to think this means that the world we know will be obliterated, but I believe John is describing how our world will be transformed and made new. Like the grass tilled into the earth for a richer harvest, the old world is to be remade into “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).

This is why John says that in God’s new world, “the sea [will also be] gone” (Revelation 21:1). In Scripture, the sea often represents chaos and disorder, the violent and terrifying forces that threaten to overwhelm and destroy. God, John promises, will remove the terror and the madness (Revelation 21:4). Even more, John describes how Jesus stands, alive and powerful, inviting all people to come to Him and drink the water that nourishes and revives. “To all who are thirsty,” Jesus says, “I will give freely from the springs of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6).

In Jesus, the whole world will be made new. In Jesus, raging seas will be transformed into springs of life. In Jesus, our deepest sorrows and fears will be healed.

Pursuing Holiness

  Dec 2, 2018  

Read:

From: Our Daily Bread

Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry (Matthew 4:1-2).

I can resist anything except temptation.” We might smile at this quip by Oscar Wilde, but it also may invite us to challenge ourselves: Has our pursuit of holiness—reflecting God and conforming to His will—been weakened through the corrosive influence of modern culture’s love of pleasure? How can we, as we seek to honor God, resist temptation?

Some believers continue the process of conforming to God’s will by observing the season of Lent. Traditionally, the forty days leading up to Easter Sunday and modeled after the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, Lent has been a time for believers to examine their hearts, minds, and souls prayerfully. Some people abstain from certain foods or drinks, while others add positive behaviors, such as an act of daily kindness.

This season can be a time to seek the purifying work of the Holy Spirit as we prepare to celebrate the gift of our risen Savior. During Lent, we can remember Jesus’ testing in the wilderness, which came at the start of His ministry following His baptism (Matthew 3:13–4:1). He didn’t thunder into Jerusalem to seize authority, but—led by the Spirit—withdrew to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). With the help of the Holy Spirit, He resisted the devil’s three temptations (to turn stones to bread, to jump off the temple, and to worship Satan), because He sought to follow the will of His Father (Matthew 4:3-10).

As we seek the help of the Holy Spirit, we too can follow Jesus’ example by standing firm against the devil, our fallen nature, and the world’s temptations. As we follow God’s will through His Spirit, we can begin to reflect His ways, not only in Lent but throughout our lives. May we pursue holiness in God’s strength.

God Hears

From: Our Daily Bread

  December 1, 2018  

Read: Romans 12:9–21 | Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 40–41; 2 Peter 3

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12

Diane listened as the others in the group asked for prayers for their family members and friends facing challenges or illness. She had a family member who had been struggling with an addiction for years. But Diane kept her request silent. She couldn’t bear to see the looks on people’s faces or hear the questions or advice that often followed whenever she spoke the words aloud. She felt that this request was usually better left unspoken. Others simply didn’t understand how her loved one could be a believer in Jesus and still struggle daily.

Although Diane didn’t share her request with that group, she did have a few trusted friends she asked to pray with her. Together they asked God to set her loved one free from the very real bondage of addiction that he might experience freedom in Christ—and that God would give Diane the peace and patience she needed. As she prayed, she found comfort and strength from her relationship with Him.

Many of us have earnest, persistent prayers that seem to go unanswered. But we can be assured that God does care and He does hear all our requests. He urges us to continue to walk closely with Him, being “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). We can lean on Him.

Lord, Your Word urges us to pray continually. Help us to be persistent in prayer, and enable us to be faithful partners in prayer with others.

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings. Hebrews 10:22