Tag: Peace

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A Quick Thought for 2021

1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”

Teddy Roosevelt, April 23, 1910, Sorbonne in Paris  

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

May 2021 be filled with visions of greatness followed by the efforts of zealots. Do not resolve to do better or be better, just get up every morning and do it. Dreams are for those who sleep, vision are for those who achieve. Organization don’t publish dream statements, they publish their vision statement. Visions are filled with plans, and tasks, and goals. Remember that true greatness is not about today, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year; it is about a life worth living. Do not measure yourself by others, but measure yourself by the potential God gave you.

May you look back on 2021 to see that you accomplished the impossible, or at least the unbelievable.

Proverbs 14:23-24 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.

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When…If…Then

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:13-14

2020 has been a very tough year. I hear competing ideas and philosophies about why this has happened. It covers everything from we live in a fallen world to God’s judgment for evil people.  I know I am not smart enough to answer that question. But I am smart enough to question what it means to me and what God wants me to do about it. 2 Chronicles guides me. It does not explain why, but it does explain what. Executing “the what” opens my eyes to the love God has put all around me.

WHEN

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people.”

We have had to deal with a worldwide pandemic, social unrest, economic upheaval, and an extremely vitriol election. If this isn’t modern-day locust, drought, and plague, it is as close as I have seen during my time on this earth. I don’t know the why of this, but scripture tells me what. We are in the situation we are in for reasons only God may fully understand, and God will use it. If….

IF

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.”

The first and most important clue is “my people, who are called by my name.” Our worldly problems are not about a political ideology, political parties, government legalism, social movement, or any other earthly pursuit; it is not a third-party issue. It falls in the lap of believers. God says the solution is not in the hands of others; it in the hands of people who call themselves Christians. The first step after the when is to recognize that the solution starts and ends with believers acting like believers. But there are conditions.

1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

HUMBLE THEMSELVES

Step back for worldly issues. Set aside temporal bias and wants. Get on your knees and let God know that you are pushing those issues behind you and only seeking His will. Acknowledge that you have let the world creep in between you and Him. Let Him know you were wrong, the only real guide is the Messiah. You allowed the worries of the world to distract you from your mission.

Titus 2:12, “Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

PRAY

Now speak to Him. Acknowledge your weaknesses and your desire to be back in harmony with Him. Ask that He will do His will in your life and this country and this world. The Bible says we have not because we do not ask. It also states that He will answer all prayers that are in accordance with His will. Prayer is the beginning of all healing.

Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

SEEK MY FACE

We need to prioritize the information that enters our brain. God made an incredibly complex computer between our ears. But like all computers, it is garbage in garbage out. If you continue to fill your brain with worthless or even harmful information, you will find it increasingly difficult to communion with God.

In all things, seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. Perform every interaction as if it was being performed in front of God. Consume every conversation, every video, every book or article as if you were on God’s knee. Do not think you can hide your distractions in the closet to be brought out when God is not looking.

Deuteronomy 4:29, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS

Change is the indication of repentance. It is easy to say you are sorry; it is easy to be remorseful of your actions or fearful of the repercussions. It is challenging to modify your behavior to minimize the chance of falling back into old ways. You have to break the habits that created the problem. God knows we will never be perfect this side of Heaven, but He expects us to try. He will continue to forgive our earnest failures.

Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

THEN

“then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Here is the excellent part. Our God is a God of love and redemption. He is a God who wants us to bask in the radiant splendor and warmth of His compassion. God does not want us to fall or fail. If we accept that it is us, the body of His Church, that have failed this nation and this world, then He will heal the land.

1 Corinthians 2:9, “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

The non-believers are lost in a world they do not understand. They are part of the problem, but only because they do not understand. How can they learn, but that we would teach them? If we commit to doing our part, He will do these three things:

HEAR FROM HEAVEN

He will hear our prayers. Without repentance and change, we build a wall between God and us that hampers our prayers. The roar of our pain becomes a whisper. Once we repent and turn, all the white noise goes away, and our voice becomes loud and clear.

John 9:31, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.”

FORGIVE THEIR SIN

Forgiveness of sin is so much better than relief from worldly troubles. Sin separates us from God for eternity. Earthly pain lasts just a short time. We live in this world, and we have to deal with what it throws at us. Many of those moments can be extremely painful. But that pain is nothing compared to an eternity separated from God.

1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

HEAL THEIR LAND

Now God heals the world around us. We are right with Him, which is His priority. We will never see the end of world hunger, social injustice, or disease on this side of Heaven, but we can find peace. God will raise Godly leaders; He will dampen our sorrows and lighten our loads.

John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

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Love as the Weapon of Choice

It is the summer of 1832, and Aldous has inveterately questioned the linage of Montague. Montague, in a fit of rage, takes offense and challenges Aldous to a duel. Aldous, being the one challenged, has the right to choose the weapon; he chooses to love. This type of duel will never make a good movie script. It lacks panache and flair. Dueling pistols at ten paces outperforms coffee and a Danish. Choosing to love someone as a means of settling a disagreement isn’t the way we see things done.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?

God created us to enjoy the world in which he planted us. It is His plan that we live a life of peace and joy. He wants us to love every moment we spend here on earth.

I believe that one of the strongest desires of most people is to love and to be loved. Expressing love or receiving love connotates that there are two parties involved; the giver and the receiver. We know from practical experience that love is easy when the two parties are in synch; to love the person who loves you is a comfortable and warm place to be. Let’s move away from the romance novel into real life. Life is full of unlovable people. How do we live a life of peace?

The second greatest Commandment

Matthew 22:39, “The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'”

Aside from the everyday jerk who took your parking place or cut in front of you in line, there are the genuinely unlovable. California passed a new law that it is no longer a crime to possess child pornography. You live in California and just found out your neighbor does. You live in Oregon. Your neighbor has a drug store of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, LSD, psilocybin, methadone, and oxycodone for personal and recreational use; how do you love them? We have differences concerning abortion, gun control, taxes, economics, affirmative action, gay marriage, international relations, and the list goes on and on.

That’s a big mountain to climb. But how can we love our neighbor if we don’t know them? I suggest knowing about them is not good enough. Relying on others opinion of them is not good enough.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

In Larry Crabb’s SoulTalk, he brings up an excellent point. At first, it seemed minor, but the more I applied it, the more critical it became in my thinking. Larry asks us to first look at our sin before jumping into criticizing others. At first, I thought of this as; I don’t have to be right for you to be wrong. I turned a corner on this. I now think about it as not a me-against-you statement but as a grounding statement about all human nature. When I apply critical thinking to my state, I can then apply critical thinking to others. When I start to understand the underlying issues to my sin, I can begin to look for the underlying problems that drive others. How I rationalize what I do helps me understand the dynamics of why other people think the way they do.

We are all sinners separated from God. Just as God cared enough about me to reach down and lift me out of my sin, should I expect Him to do less for others? I’ve always looked at this as the Jonah issue. Jonah spent some time in a whale because he did not want God to forgive his enemies, and he knew God would. The requirement is that they had to repent and turn from their wicked way; much to Jonah’s dismay, they did.

I am not trying to rationalize the behavior of others, as much as their motivation. Destroy the foundation, and the house will fall. When I realize that my lack of self-esteem makes me envious, I can start to deal with my envy issues. A lack of real love often drives lust; substance abuse can indicate a sense of being out of control. God provides all of these things that are missing. God enables us to take an approach of getting something more valuable than we are giving up. Understanding God’s love may not solve the immediate problem or resolve the worldly differences, but it will provide a different platform from which to try at least to love them a little more.

CAUTIONARY TALES

Even if you cannot find common ground, you need to make sure their issues do not create new problems for you. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against your neighbor. It is easy to start to think that you are the standard-bearer for God’s kingdom. Don’t let your sense of righteous indignation trick you into believing you have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner. That is God’s domain. If you cannot find a path toward love, then pray for salvation, not destruction. It is not yours to command. Be careful that your attitude doesn’t cause people to start praying that about you.

Leviticus 19:18, “Do not take revenge on others or continue to hate them, but love your neighbors as you love yourself. I am the Lord.”

Do not give false witness against your neighbor. Gossip is not just telling a lie; it is about spreading harmful information, even when it is true. We may have differences with people, but that does not give us the right to talk poorly about them to others. Even when it is true, unless it is germane to a critical situation, we need to watch our tongue. When someone is making a decision and needs your consultation, you must be truthful; I would suggest you distinguish between fact and opinion. Most of the time, we spread information through idle chatter or within confidential friends. Be careful not to let someone else’s sin create sin in you. Don’t escalate the situation by talking too much about it to others.

Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

James 1:26, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”

Do not let your difference simmer into a quarrel or outright war. Don’t let these differences keep you up at night with unclean thoughts. Often, what we want is not material; it is emotional; we want to be right. Their opinion or their actions makes us angry, and we cannot let it go. I like the saying that anger is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.

James 4:1-2, “Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.”

God commands us to build up our neighbors. Rather than despise or discourage others who think differently, why not spend our time reinforcing the excellent qualities. Don’t spend so much time thinking about what is wrong, but find common ground to have a friendly conversation. This common ground is what will give you the right to share the gospel. Contention has never been the best breeding ground for change. Change comes from a shared desire to live a peaceful life. That has always been God’s plan while we are still here on earth.

Romans 5:2, “He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory!”

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Christmas – The Story of a Promise and Patience

Psalms 9:10, “Those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who trust in you.”

Waiting for the Good News

Daniel prophesied the coming of the Messiah over 400 years before Jesus was born. Daniel thought it was 70 weeks after the temple’s destruction, but Gabriel used a turn on words to say it was 70 sevens. By the way, Biblical writers say that Jesus arrived a full 1,500 years after God gave Moses The Law.  Remember, I am a layman and in no way pretend to know the scriptures well; so, let’s say Christmas came later than expected and leave it at that.

For children waiting for Christmas day, excitement crescendos from Thanksgiving day until December 25th; as each day passes, the wait becomes almost unbearable. The anticipation of getting just the right gift, but not knowing if you will, is overwhelming. Christmas day comes, and the bubble burst into excitement.

Israel thought the Messiah’s coming was right around the corner, but then there was another corner. Corner after corner came and went with no Messiah.  Did their anticipation crescendo or faded away? From what we know from the scriptures, I would have to say anticipation faded away for most. When He came, not only did they not recognize Him, some actively denied it was Him.

Matthew 12:14, “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”

Receiving the Good News

Jesus was the answer to a great promise God made before creation, but many missed its blessing because it was not in their timeframe. One of the messages we should take from Christmas is patience. Remember Simeon, the man that God promised he would not die until he saw the Messiah. Simeon was late in years but had not lost faith that God would keep His promise. God rewarded his faith, for he recognized the Savior when he saw Him. Had he lost faith that God would keep His promise; he might have seen Jesus and not recognized Him.

As we celebrate Christmas, let us not lose sight that God’s timing is not our timing. When God makes a promise, He keeps it. God didn’t create the universe and say, “Let’s see how this plays out.” He wrote the complete story, end-to-end, before it even began. He loved us then, and He loves us now.

Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new  every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Acknowledging the Good News

Patience is one of the great virtues. Patience not only serves us well when dealing with each other, but it is essential to seeing God in action. Many times we ask God for things that we think are right and good, and for the most part, they are. But we are finite, and God is infinite. God sees solutions we could never dream of seeing. He wrote our story and knows our path.

Be patient in looking for your blessings. God will keep His promises to you. You need to stay obedient to His will and be patient. We wait 364 days every year for Christmas to arrive; Israel waited over 400 years. Those that lost faith missed the blessing. Don’t miss your blessings.

Gabriel heralded the significance of Jesus to Mary; it was the start of God’s promise to redeem His people. Jesus came for all of us. His patience with us and His love for us endures forever.

Luke 1:31-33, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

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Christmas 2020 – A Year of God’s Favor

Luke 4: 18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

In one of the most dysfunctional years that I can remember I find that this year is the year that God challenges us to proclaim His favor in all things and proclaim His glory to those in which He has put us in contact.

I have a big request for this season of celebration; reach out to those who are hurting and offer them a lifeline. Don’t try to cheer them up; love them. Quiet desperation is the most suffocating emotion one will ever face. We are not the solution, only God is, but He can work through us. 

The fortunate among us, myself included, see what God has done in our lives and are thankful. We enjoy the relationships God puts in front of us, the opportunities we have been privileged to experience, and hope of a greater future. We may reminisce about good times, maybe even better times, but we are grounded in the moment. That moment, this moment is ours to make what we choose. God gave us that choice. And at this moment, we choose hope.

Psalm 100: 4-5, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good, and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

There are those around us that, for various reasons, see the holiday season differently. They have broken relationships, their opportunities are few, and the future is bleak. Their minds are clouded by what could have been, but never will be. What they have experienced in their life darkens the soul and grieves the heart. Their life is not a glass half empty; it is a glass too small. 

Psalms 34:18, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I have compassion for these; I have been there. I have known the darkness of despair. Evil lurks for a desperate heart. No matter how bad life is, it finds a way to bring it further down. Christmas is not a time of reflection; it is a time to try to forget. The joy of others amplifies their pain. The light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Salvation is a myth. Comfort and joy a fairy tale. 

I have prayed not to wake and for tomorrow to never come. I wanted all the endless pain to go away and leave me in peace. But peace does not await the person without Christ. Their destination is not something to be desired no matter how cruel life has become.

Matthew 25:45, “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

This Christmas, invest in another. Don’t try to “fix” their life, instead give them hope. Let them know there is someone who will travel their journey with them. Be that person. Be the one that God weeps for joy over. 

One last thing; We all have broken connections. We have people that have hurt us, or we have hurt them. Extend a kind word. It will change the world for both of you.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

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Finding Peace

Finding peace in challenging times is extremely hard. It is exhausting to filter out the cultural chaos of the constant and sometimes conflicting media reports to understand the truth. Making it more difficult is that we live in a time when the truth is relative. There is so much information; you can prove almost anything as true. The saying is: “Figures lie, and liars figure.”

Even as Christians, we are on opposing sides. After Abraham Lincoln’s death, the following note was found in his papers: “The will of God prevails – In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war, it is quite possible that God’s purpose is somewhat different from the purpose of either party.”

During the Civil War, Lincoln met with a group of ministers at a prayer breakfast who tried to encourage him. They told the president that they had prayed that “God would be on our side.” Lincoln corrected them, saying, “No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God’s side.”

Remember, God wins.

I rest on one simple fact; God loves me unconditionally and wants the best for me. That is the filter I use to judge all thoughts and actions. We have the Presidential Election, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter protests all climaxing to distract us from our one real focus. Everyone who prays will not get the answer they desire. Peace will not come from the right party winning or the distribution of a vaccine or even resolution of centuries of bigotry and hate. Something else will always rise to take their place. We will never live in a perfect world this side of heaven.

So how do I stop my mind from leap-frogging from issue to issue seeking peace? How do I convince myself that just like the latest car or a better job or a bigger house won’t provide long term peace, neither will solving worldly problems? It is paramount that we continuously strive to eliminate injustice, famine, and disease, but that fight will never end, it will just change venues, and we should change with it. It is part of our Christian charter to fight evil on all fronts.

If you believe that you can not achieve peace and joy until all of the world’s problems are solved, you will remain an unhappy camper until your death. You have to find something above that. You have to find something that is long-lasting and perfect. Folks, it is not here.

No matter how any of this flush out, I rest in the palm of God’s hand. He will not allow harm to touch me. I may suffer, but it will not shake me. For me to put my peace in the hands of non-believers doesn’t make sense. To have the world work out to the benefit of those who do not love Him doesn’t bring me peace. The only peace I will ever have is the peace I receive because I have accepted His way over mine.

The truth remains that had all of us, worldwide, chose to live according to God’s promise, little of this would have ever come to fruition. We would have solved the problems before they became problems; we would have treated each other with love and respect. But we didn’t.

To expect to have peace only after all have been blessed with peace is foolish thinking. My peace comes from my relationship with Christ, and the world’s peace comes from their relationship with Him. When I make my peace conditional to their peace, I lose.

Fight the good fight. Make a positive difference in the world. Never accept inequality or evil. But remember your strength does not come from the fight, but from the God, for whom you fight. Fight for Christ to rule over all, and peace will follow. Both sides can’t win, accept that God’s plan may not be our plan.

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