One doesn't have to look far to find pain, sorrow, suffering, and strife (sin). Whether your reading the news paper, flipping through the channels, looking at the person who pulls up next to you at a traffic light, or even looking in the mirror at oneself ... we see that "the rain" falls on all people. As fallen people living in a fallen world, we embrace the weight of each undertaking one day from the next. We all live life driven by our pursuit to find "shelter from the storm". Yet, so often I remember that not only am I apart of the storm, but sometimes "I am the storm"; We live "in" the storm.
What is this shelter we seek? What does it look like?
So often we think its a vacation to some tropical climate, a bank statement that has several digits, or even a companion who will sweep us away to a place somewhere over the rainbow ...
But the fact still remains that vacations come to an end, money cannot buy happiness (peace and love), and eventually the people we love are here today, gone tomorrow; the temporary shelter the world promises does not protect us from the inevitable perishing of each shelter we seek to provide comforting peace and essential love that we so desperately need in this fallen world.
The shelter we all seek, in truth, is 'peace and love', but what is peace? What is love for that matter?
The world promises you "peace" that it cannot give. The peace and love it offers is not peace or love at all ... it's not gold ... it's fools gold. When you go to cash it in, it's worth nothing except the temporary feeling of relief it provided when you believed it to be "genuine peace" and "genuine love" (pure gold). It's sad to see so many people living misleading lies of peace and love. The direction in which we travel through life is driven by our understanding of what peace and love is, as well as where we can find it. Therefore, it's important that we clearly understand what love and peace truly is and what it is not. Most importantly, we need to understand with whom are we seeking to "make peace". With ourselves? With the World? Neither! The peace and love we so desperately seek is resolved in reconciling "peace with God".
The bible speaks of "peace" primarily in two ways.
One speaks of "peace with God", a personal, relational peace attainable only through the Grace of God when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior. In this reference of peace, the Cross of Christ is the focal point of God's Grace (love) and source of our peace. Jesus Christ is for us our "eternal peace with God".
The second connection to peace within Scripture is "the peace of God". This is the day to day peace available through ones fellowship with God ( a growing relationship walked by faith, reliant on trust, and sown in love). This peace is given by God as he works in you and through you to know him better and to be used in shining the love of Christ to others.
"The Peace" we need and seek is far different than what the world offers (moments of tranquility and ease).
There is only two recorded instances in which Jesus wept. He wept for all the souls that would never find the "peace" they searched and longed for their entire lives... This instance in Luke 19 is appropriate for "understanding" how it grieves God for all those who never receive the Grace, the Love, and the Peace he so greatly desires to give all he made ...
Luke 19:37-44
On a donkey, riding into the Holy City of Jerusalem, the Prince of Peace ... God himself (Jesus Christ) made his triumphal entry, allowing all to see and hear that the LORD has heard the cries of humanity, and He himself has come to be there salvation (he has come to save sinners from death caused by sin). Proclaiming peace ...
"When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,
"If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace -- but now it is hidden from your eyes. The day will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
Today, through the Word of God and a sinful vessel as myself ... God approaches you with "peace". Although taken out of context, one day we will all breath our last breath and have to stand before God in judgement. Either we will be covered in the blood of Christ or we will be forced to defend ourselves ... our own way. On that day the enemy of the world (the Great Evil the spins the world in chaos each day) will encircle sinners on every side ... dashing them into pieces. In that day of judgement, all it will take is one sin ... and God will hand us over to the enemy, to whom belongs all those guilty of trespass against God. In that day, those who have been saved by Jesus Christ will spend eternity with God, while those guilty of sin (those who did not recognize the time of God's coming) will be eternally separated from God.
"The Peace" our soul searches for throughout life approaches you..
If "peace" approached your heart and your soul today ... would you be able to recognize it?
Eternal peace is found entirely through faith in Jesus Christ! So I ask you, will you place your faith in Christ and receive the Grace of God (eternal peace and love)?? The peace of Christ is not what the world gives ... for his peace and his love never perishes and never fails.
"Peace I leave you ... My peace I give you; I do not give to you as the world gives...do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid ... surely I will be with you always, even until the end of age" (Jesus ... John 14:27; Matt. 28:20)
No comments:
Post a Comment