peace

Wisdom Brings Peace – VOTD.11.28.17

The wisdom from above is always pure, filled with peace… Let your heart be always guided by the peace of Christ, who called you to peace as part of his one body, by always being thankful. James 1:17, Colossians 3:15

There are so many verses in the Bible that combine wisdom, peace and thankfulness. But the bottom line is Peaceless people don’t give thanks. Thankless people don’t have peace.

The expression and mindset of thankfulness has an amazing cleansing or healing nature within us that results in inner peace and when we’re at peace on the inside, external circumstances are changed. “The peace of God which passes understanding” permeates our lives in such a way that it is contagious. Gratitude brings the Spirit of peace to the giver and the receiver alike.

To really experience God’s peace, we must come to Him with thankful hearts. To really express thankfulness within us (and outwardly), we must “let the peace of Christ guide (our) hearts, since as members of one body (we) were called to peace and thankfulness” (Col 3:15)

Peace isn’t the absence of difficult circumstances. And we know that we can pray about these difficulties. But praying is not all that we can do. Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything”—good start, but how? He continues, “but in everything by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God. And THEN the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7 emphasis added). (more…)

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In Search of a Forgiving Heart Pt 2 – VOTD.09.05.17

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

We’ve been looking at how to forgive and keep forgiving. Last time we looked at:

1. Forgive whether the offender receive the forgiveness or not.
2. Acknowledge that the offender is a sinful human being who Jesus loves
3. Stop “re-living” the offense.
4. Forgiveness starts by receiving God’s forgiveness.
5. Forgiveness is foundational to our own peace and quiet.

Today we’ll look at a few more forgiveness strategies:

6. Remember that vengeance belongs to God (He repays—Rom 12:19). Even in the natural realm what goes around comes around. If someone hurt us intentionally, we can be pretty sure they’ve been hurt, themselves. And we can be pretty sure they won’t get away with it. Crazy as it may seem, life has a way of making people who spread misery miserable.

7. Still struggling with forgiveness? Try this: Every time you think of the offender, bless them (Lk 6:28). Say a quick prayer of blessing. Say “Father, please bless [name of the offender] and give them a good day.” It’s hard to stay unforgiving when you’re praying for someone. Jesus told us to love our enemies (ibid.). Send them love in a prayer. (more…)

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In Search of a Forgiving Heart Pt 1 – VOTD.09.04.17

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  Colossians 3:13

Most Christians know we are supposed to love our enemies, do good to those who act hatefully towards us, bless those who wish bad things would happen to us, and pray for those who mistreat us (Lk 6:27). Included in all of this is forgiving those who have hurt or offended us in some way.

Of course, it’s not so difficult to say we love people in the general sense, or forgive people universally. It’s when we come down to the individual level that it gets tough. And to forgive and keep forgiving is stressful. To stay forgiving can be tough if we don’t know how or why we keep finding ourselves unforgiving.

Here’s some thoughts on that:

1. We need to forgive whether the offender receives the forgiveness or not. We’re doing it for God and our own peace whether the offender responds or not.
We may need to re-forgive them repeatedly and often until forgiving becomes a habit. By that I mean that the offender may be a repeat offender. Or perhaps we have a wavering forgiveness that we need re-apply often—every time we begin to feel unforgiving thoughts. (more…)

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The Heart – VOTD.06.26.17

Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness, offensive deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. These are what make you unclean. Matthew 15:20

Out of the heart… One of the reasons that Christians have so much difficulty being content is that we focus on behavior management instead of heart surrender. And since we fail to get our behavior where we want it to be, we feel defeated, rather than contented.

We think if we can just get our behavior in line with the Bible, we’ll be holy. But holiness is a matter of the heart and if we want our behavior to exemplify Christ, our hearts must exemplify Christ first and foremost. How often we focus on terms like “integrity” (acting out certain behaviors) and good deeds, instead of purity of heart.

Yet the Holy Spirit has placed the desire in each believer to live a holy life… one that glorifies God and displays His love. Our desire to be content will never be really fulfilled without becoming more like the men and women God wants for us to be. (more…)

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Contentment – VOTD.06.19.17

“I have learned, in whatever situation I am in, to be content.” Philippians 4:11

“…and be content with such things as you have: for he (Jesus) has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6

God’s plan for each of us is to be content. The Bible is clear in the verses above (and many others) about that. Now that truth has been mis-represented and twisted to justify all kinds of selfish and sinful attitudes and behaviors—that’s mis-using the Scripture. But it is still true: God wants His Children to be content.

The kind of contentment we’re talking about is rest or quietness of the mind *IN* the present condition…a trust in His power that overcomes complaint. An assurance of His faithfulness that smothers unrestrained desire.

Notice that contentment goes along with Godliness (1Tim 6:1). We cannot be Godly and continue to be swayed by the negative circumstance that come our way. He is enough. His Grace is sufficient.

One of the major works of the Holy Spirit within us is to enable us to be satisfied in our heart and mind that God has every situation under control… even the ones where Satan seems to be winning. (more…)

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Unity vs Peace – VOTD 03.07.17

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

Last time we saw that rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then love will be the key to unity. The same thing is similar for peace. When unity becomes the goal, we may end up with some kind of ceasefire, but we will never find true unity (or even real peace).

Often we confuse peace and unity. Peace does not lead to unity; unity leads to peace. When we get this backwards we end up like a church I was a part of for many years. It thought it had unity because it carefully suppressed any problems rather than dealing with them. It ended up disintegrating over time because despite the appearance of peace and unity, the people had little binding them together.

Or another way we confuse peace and unity is when there is no freedom to disagree or have personal convictions. Many cult leaders see ‘no-disagreement’ as unity, so they invoke a no “boat-rocking” policy. You even see this in churches sometimes. They mistake no-visible-dissent for “unity”. To make sure there are no dissenters usually requires that they resort to hardline control-freak tactics. This is often the backdrop for all sorts of scandals and cover-ups, not real unity.

It is so tempting to pursue peace as a means of achieving unity because we mistakenly think unity and conformity are pretty much the same thing. If you and I are Christians and our understanding of unity is askew, then we will soon be pursuing conformity and at that point control/unquestioning submission become the tools of this kind of false unity. (more…)

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Resulting Glory – VOTD.08.08.16

Understand what the Lord’s will is: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:17-21

The result of the continual presence of God in our lives (what we’ve been calling Remaining Glory) is that it makes us different people. It is not the other way around. I want to look at a few areas in which the growing presence of God in our lives changes us as believers: Here are 3 areas we will look at; as the presence of God fills us day by day:
1) God is worshipped
2) The Word of God is revered
3) The characteristics of God are manifested in our lives (more…)

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The Peace Measure: Maturity – VOTD.06.21.16

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

Mature Christians are at peace with situations beyond their control. This may be one of the more underrated measures of spiritual maturity. Just Google CNN, BBC or some other news outlet. You probably watched or read stories about terrorists, wars, famine and the downward spiral of political leaders and everything in between.

Are we living in hard times? Undoubtedly. Are the acts reported on the news awful? Often they are beyond awful, they are heinous. But mature Christians’ lives and peace are not derailed by latest buzz on the news. They don’t waste time worrying and coming unglued over situations beyond their control. (more…)

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