PeaceMAKER

Joe Stowell, author and President of Cornerstone University, spoke recently at a chapel service. While musing over the statement by the angels to the shepherds, he paused over "peace on earth." 

We don't see peace on earth. Did the angels lie or where is the peace they promised?

Is this the peace the shepherds would have imagined? Is this the peace you would have imagined?

The answer over what peace the angels shouted for joy (the adult) Jesus explains privately to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~John 14:27

Why should their hearts be threatened with fear when they have His peace? Because He does not give the peace for which the world looks. No treaties will be signed, because of this "peace on earth." Wars won't cease (as you have seen). Persecution and famine may touch your family. What good then is this peace?

So much of what we think of as good has to do with outward comfort, universal peace, physical health, financial wealth... If we've grown up with this, we assume it is our right. If we have been deprived, we make it our aim. But God turns our purpose on its head.

The Apostle Paul in Romans uses Abraham as an example for us. He assumes our familiarity with the patriarch's life and the promise (covenant) God gave to him that He would bless the world through his unborn offspring. As Abraham and his wife Sarah passed childbearing age, he still believed God's promise of a son...

being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. ~Romans 4:21b-25

THIS is the Source of peace. When the angels sang, they knew without doubt that this Baby would fulfill the mission for which He came to earth. They too believed their Master would keep His word.

I wonder if they knew then that the peace they proclaimed would cost His life. This is the hope of Christmas!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. ~Romans 5:1-5

This Baby born—God with us—lived for thirty years in obscurity, rose in momentary fame, died a criminal's death, buried in a stranger's tomb, rose to complete our peace with God. 

Because of this peace, we now can live beyond our physical comforts. In fact, we can suffer and be glad! We can have sorrow and feel joy! Why? Because peace with God is greater than our understanding of peace, greater than our hope for comfort, greater than our longing for belonging.

Now what?

 

Peacemakers! We are called to be peacemakers. 

A colleague of mine is filming a documentary on the early church in the days of the Roman Empire. Interestingly, although some emperors accused the Christians of bad conduct, the citizens of Rome knew this was false. 

It was the Christians who adopted the babies the Romans piled in heaps to let die. It is the Christians who stayed behind during a plague to nurse the sick and dying (many of them dying as a result). Sound like today? No, it doesn't really, does it?

Today, we protest homosexuality at military funerals! Today, we mimic the Muslims and burn their "sacred" book. Today, we think that pursuing social justice is compromising the Gospel. Today, our divorce statistics rival the rest of the world.

Doesn't it move you to tears to see the name of Jesus run through the mud by our actions, our compromising? I'm sure it moves Him to tears. What a blaspheme of His name!

Matthew 5:9 may be more accurately applied to some Christians (as Dr. Stowell pointed out) as—"Blessed are the troublemakers." Other Christians may live it as—"Blessed are the compromisers."

But Jesus said—

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

If you have accepted the gift of rebirth offered because of Jesus' sacrifice for you, you know the peace of God—the peace with God. If you know it, share it. 

Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. ~James 3:18

This doesn't mean you don't speak up for what is right. Quite the contrary! Yet, in pursuing justice, remember to be motivated by mercy (compassion with love) and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1867

Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all! (2 Thessalonians 3:16)

Merry Christmas! His peace to you!

Hallelu Yah!

I recently received a link to this video of a "Random Act of Culture," as they called it, that happened at Macy's in Pennsylvania. 

Besides the many voices joining spontaneously in song (a small glimpse of heaven), I love the frame where the people stood as the Hallelujah chorus began. 

History states that at the first performance of Handel's Messiah in London (1743), King George II rose to his feet when the Hallelujah chorus was sung and, of course, the whole audience joined him. Since then, it is tradition for an audience to stand during this chorus. 

Scholars speculate as to why the King stood. Regardless of his motivation, his act is a illustration of Truth—Yeshua (Jesus) is King of kings and Lord of lords. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Yeshua  as Lord. Those who choose to do so now are filled with joy. Those unwilling to submit now will one day do so trembling with fear at the wonder of His presence and the judgment they have earned.

Hallelujah literally means "Praise Yah" or "Praise Yahweh." The song is a quote from Revelation 11:15, 19:6 and 19:16. 

Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Hallelujah!

This Christmas remember—although His birth was humble, He is great and His return will be fearful for those who reject Him. 

Religion is useless. Only a relationship with God our Creator, through Yeshua our Saviour, will mean anything when this world passes away.

Praise Yeshua with your words, with your life, in your relationships, and in the small details of the mundane day or the busy holiday. Share Him with your family and friends. He is the only gift worth giving.

JOY to the World

Tis the season of "Joy to the world the Lord has come."

The Bible repeatedly mentions joy. When the angel appeared to the shepherds, he announced the Messiah's birth to be "good news of great joy."

Joy, in Scripture, is frequently tied to one contradictory sounding circumstance—suffering—and one unique source—the Holy Spirit.

I've seen two extremes in Christians' lives. Both deflect the joy that should be their inheritance from the King.

One, is a seemingly fake joy (or at least one I could never relate to) where the person fails to express any suffering. Since God is good, their life is fine...nothing of which to complain...no heart aches, no doubts, no worry, no fear. 

While I have memorized the verses telling us to "cast your cares on the Lord," "trust the Lord with all your heart," not "worry about your life," etc, these are all lessons of growth. They only come naturally to a perfect person. For everyone else, it is something we must battle against—put up the Sword of Truth to parry the Sword of Doubt. 

If someone does not struggle, I question if they are really alive. The battle strengthens the warrior and makes him or her realize our dependence on God for righteousness and growth. 

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit that is produced in the midst of trouble and is most illuminated by the dark background of life. To struggle with the realities every human faces—the sorrows, the losses—yet to still have an abiding joy is the sign of the residence of the Holy Spirit.

The second extreme example I have seen in Christians is someone who lives continually on the "poor me" side of the street. Rarely is there a reason to rejoice, because there is too much suffering to bear. You know the person. It's the one you hate to be cornered by and of whom you thank the Lord you're not married.

Both—those without human struggles and those with more than their fair share—steal the glory from God and refuse the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

Since ancient times, acidia—sorrowfulness of the heart, "resignation"—has been one of the deadly sins. "Serve the Lord with gladness" (Ps. 100:2) summons us to the Scriptures. This is what our life has been given to us for, what it has been preserved for up till now. Joy belongs, not only to those who have been called home, but also to the living, and no one shall take it from us.

Joy is not reflective of surroundings or even of a positive mental state. Instead, it flows from the Spirit that lives within a Christian.

Persecution can't kill it, sorrow can't crush it, and happiness cannot replace it.

As the Spirit is the seal in the heart of a true follower of Yeshua, marking us as His for eternity, so the fruit which He yields also cannot be stolen from us.

Bonhoeffer continues:

It [Joy] does not deny the distress where it is, but finds God in the midst of it, indeed precisely there; it does not contest the most grievous sin, but finds forgiveness in just this way; it looks death in the face, yet finds life in death itself.

Years after he wrote this, Bonhoeffer exemplified this truth in his own imprisonment and death.

Honesty in suffering is important not only for the one going through it, but also for those around who may be in a similar dark valley. God's glory is seen not in a perfect life, but in a life that He is perfecting.

Although happiness may shy away in the shadows, joy will accompany us through the night.

How Much Does God Know?

Does anything surprise God? Are there things that even He doesn't know?

These are some of the questions raised in a book published some years back, which came up in a discussion this week. I have never read the book, but the one telling me about it summarized the thesis as something like this: If God has allowed humans free will, then there must be a time when He does not know what we will do. If you create something that can think for itself, how can you know what it will think or do?

I strongly believe you cannot hold the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and also consider this to be true. Why? Because the Bible consistently contradicts this view.

Over and over, the writers of Scripture declare that God knows their thoughts...

Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Yahweh. ~Psalm 139:4

You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men ~1Kings 8:39c

Yahweh knows the thoughts of man; He knows that they are futile. ~Psalm 94:11

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. ~Psalm 139:2

Then the Spirit of the Yahweh came upon me, and he told me to say: "This is what the Yahweh says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind." ~Ezekiel 11:5

If He did not know all the details of a person's heart, actions, thoughts, and will, He certainly could never determine how long they would live. Yet the Psalmist states that God knew the exact day of his death before he was even born.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. ~Psalm 139:16b

Not only does He know the day of our death, but at creation He already had written in His book of life all who would be saved.

The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. ~Revelation 17:8

Yahweh determined exactly what it would take and how long for Nebuchadnezzar to humble himself before Him.

Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes. ~Daniel 4:25

Similarly, He planned Pharaoh's part in the Israelite's exodus from Egypt, long before he was born.

It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~Romans 9:16-17

He knew which of Jesse's sons would not only serve as king, but be the man of God that He desired.

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Yahweh looks at the heart." ~1 Samuel 16:7c

Even Jesus, God and perfect man, though limited in His human capacity to know the times set by His Father for His return, knew what those around Him were thinking, what the state of their hearts were, and exactly what they would do to Him.

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ~Matthew 9:4

"Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?"  ~John 7:19

I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill Me, because you have no room for My word. ~John 8:37  

The author (of the book mentioned at the start) could argue that many of these are just Yahweh examining people's thoughts and actions as they happened. But there is hardly a book in the Old Testament where Yahweh does not predict how a person or a nation will act. 

As early as Genesis 3, God foretold of the actions of mankind and their need for a Messiah. In chapter 15, He told Abraham about the slavery that his children would be under for four hundred years.  

This does not even scratch the surface of His messages through the prophets. For example, His prediction that a specific ruler, Cyrus, would be the one to free His people from foreign lands and allow them to return home. 

If you believe the older dating of Isaiah, this was written over two hundred years before Cyrus' birth. Even if you date the latter part of Isaiah during the lifetime of Cyrus, He still was describing Cyrus actions to people who would never have looked to him for salvation. 

Yet Yahweh is the One—

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure' ~Isaiah 46:10

The purposes of Yahweh will not be thwarted. He knew before creation all that would take place.

I'm so thankful for a King and Father who cannot be taken by surprise by our lives or by the world.