The Peace That Jesus Brings

December 23, 2011 1 Comment

In my last post I explained that even though Christ’s birth didn’t actually usher in a time of “peace on earth,” prophecy teaches that one day He will bring in such a time, one thousand years worth of it to be exact. Now, with this post, I want to explain that Christ’s birth did usher in a time when the individual who believes in Him as Savior can come to know a personal peace.

First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine too more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you. Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace? If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Christ's birth, Christmas, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Inner Peace, Personal, Personal Holiness, salvation, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Ministering To Difficult People

December 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

New Yorker Stephen Merritt was an interesting man. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he served Christ as both a minister and an undertaker. (He was the undertaker for the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant.) In addition to these two roles, he also worked tirelessly with overseas missions as well as his ministry to New York’s impoverished destitute. His ministry to the destitute was especially notable because he himself was a wealthy man who lived in a fashionable section of the city.

Merritt once extended an open invitation for all the homeless and outcast to attend a supper in his mission. Afterward, when he went to leave the supper, he found that some of the invitees had cruelly filled his hat with bacon rinds and other unsavory items. The act infuriated him, and he climbed atop a chair and passionately scolded the crowd for their ingratitude. He even threatened to call the police.

But before Merritt could finish his rebuke, the Holy Spirit brought the words of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to his mind:

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, K.J.V.)

Convicted by the Spirit in this way, Merritt quickly stopped his tirade and right then and there apologized to the crowd, admitting to them that He had grieved His Lord. Then he invited them all to another dinner the following night. When he was finished, the practical jokers confessed their prank. That next night forty men accepted Christ as Savior.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Ministry, Missions Tagged with , ,

Conflict Within The Church

April 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

W.B. Riley, who served as the pastor of First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minnesota for some fifty years, told the following story:

“In my first pastorate, three of my church officials had refused for three full years to speak to one another. A committee was appointed to investigate the cause of the difficulty and either adjust it or bring in a recommendation for exclusion.

The night of the trial arrived. The three officials were in their places, silent, glum, and determined. Much prayer was had before the committee’s presentation.

The Spirit wrought! Hearts softened! At last one man arose and in penitence confessed his fault. Another followed, and yet a third man. Men who had passed in the streets with a scowl, now locked in mutual embrace.

For six months I had preached my heart out, without a convert. The next Sunday night the house was packed to the point where I was left but standing room in the pulpit. A multitude of converts were made, and for two full years (the rest of my pastorate in that place) the inpour to the church was incessant. A new house was erected; from half-time service the church went to full-time, from no gifts to large gifts; and in a lifetime of ministry I have known no delights to exceed the blessed winters and summers brought about by a reconciliation of brethren.”

And now, in the light of this excellent illustration, I’ve got two questions for you:

#1: Are you currently playing some role in causing any hard feelings or ill-will within your church?

#2: Even if you aren’t playing such a role, if such hard feelings or ill-will exist within your church, what are doing to bring the problems to a godly resolution?

Filed under Christian unity, church, Church Discipline, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Influence Tagged with , , , , , ,

A Different Way To Preach The Gospel

April 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

An army private became a Christian and began to come under some persecution from his fellow soldiers. One rainy night he came in very tired and wet, but before he went to bed he got down on his knees and prayed. That simple act greatly irritated his sergeant, and the sergeant launched two boots, covered in heavy mud, toward the private. One boot hit him on the right side of the head, and the other one hit him on the left side. But the private just went on with his praying. The next morning the sergeant found those boots beautifully polished and placed by the side of his bed. In his own words, “I was saved that day.”

In 1 Peter 3:1, the Bible talks about how a Christian wife can win her unsaved husband to Christ without saying a word:

“Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives.”

It is this same principle that we see on display in the true story about the private and the sergeant. Christians can win people to Christ “without a word” by way of their deeds. There’s an old quote that is attributed to Francis of Assisi, and it conveys the point very well: “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.”

Filed under Change, Character, Doing Good, Evangelism, Extending Forgiveness, Holiness, Humility, Influence, Mercy, Persecution, perseverance, Personal Holiness, prayer, salvation, trials, Witnessing Tagged with , , , , , ,

Be A Good Neighbor

March 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

“He who despises his neighbor sins…” (Proverbs 14:21)

“Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:38-39)

While I understand that Jesus told the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) to explain that my “neighbor” is anyone I meet, I also understand that I live on a specific street and have literal neighbors. Therefore, it is my Christian duty to do all that I can to get along with them and show them love and friendship.

A man bought a farm and went out to look at the line fence, which had been the source of much quarreling between the farm’s previous owner and his neighbor. The neighbor spied the fellow inspecting the fence and, in a huff, went out there and said in an agitated tone, “That fence is a full foot over on my side.”

To the angry neighbor’s astonishment, the new owner answered, “Very well then, we will set the fence over two feet on my side.” That offer rendered the neighbor speechless until he was finally able to stammer out, “Oh, but that is more than I claim.” “Never mind about that,” said the owner pleasantly, “I’d much rather have peace with my neighbor than two feet of earth.” But with the situation now difused completely, the neighbor said, “That’s very good of you, but I couldn’t let you do a thing like that. That fence just won’t be moved at all.”

Are you having a problem with one of your neighbors these days? Is a property line in question? Is a tree limb hanging over onto your place? Is a drainage issue causing you trouble? Is a barking dog keeping you up at night? Then by all means show love in your attempts to resolve the matter. Don’t turn the thing into the Hatfields and the McCoys. Ask God to give you wisdom and guidance in reaching a solution that is pleasing to Him. Remember that you can’t put a price on being at peace with your neighbor.

Filed under Character, Choices, contentment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Influence, Personal Holiness, Problems Tagged with , , , ,

Got Any Trees That Need Cutting?

January 8, 2010 Leave a Comment

Charles Bracelan Flood’s book, Lee: The Last Years, gives us a poignant story from the life of Robert E. Lee. Lee visited the home of a Kentucky woman shortly after the end of the Civil War. The woman took him out to the remains of a grand old tree that stood in front of her home. Lee listened as she cried bitter tears and cursed the Union army for destroying the tree’s limbs and trunk. When she finished, she expected him to condemn the North or at least sympathize with her loss. Lee, instead, paused for a moment and said, “Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it.”

Finish this sentence for me: “If I would be honest, I have never fully forgiven ………..” If no one in particular came to your mind, it’s possible that you aren’t carrying any old grudges or hatreds. On the other hand, if a name instinctively popped in there, even if you didn’t want it to pop in there, you need to address that issue in your life.

Carefully consider the following quotes from Jesus:

1. Matthew 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

2. Mark 11:25-26: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

3. Luke 11:4: “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”

4. Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

It is hard to overemphasize the seriousness of these quotes. If Jesus said something once it was important. How important, then, must a subject be for him to have hammered on it multiple times? You might not see your refusing to forgive someone as a big deal, but I assure you that Jesus does.

Just like that Kentucky woman who carried a hatred for the Union army because of what they had done to her tree, perhaps you are withholding forgiveness from someone who has wronged you. Let me encourage you to take Robert E. Lee’s advice. Cut that tree down and forget it. Stop visiting it every day. Stop thinking about it all the time. Stop shedding tears about it. Stop mourning over it. Stop trying to get others to join you in your mourning. Instead, extend forgiveness to the person, even if the forgiveness is undeserved. You’ll be amazed at what a difference this will make in your life. After all, spending hours on end staring at a ruined, bombed out tree doesn’t make for much of a life.

Filed under Extending Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Seeking Forgiveness Tagged with , , , , ,

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