HIS PEACE

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.

John 14:27

There are so many wonderful promises in God's Word. I guess there are those scholars who have attempted to count them, but if we knew every one of them, we would find there are those that speak the loudest to us in certain situations of life.

For a long time, I have dearly loved John 14-17. Jesus was trying to prepare some very nervous and concerned disciples of upcoming events in His life. These bits of news were more than concerning to these men (11 at this time) who had been such a part of Jesus' ministry. Having Him gone from their lives just couldn't be imagined.

Jesus promised to leave with them a gift, the gift of peace. Peace isn't the absence of problems and conflict. Peace is much more than that. We expect peace to come to us from outward sources, such as there being no more war, riots, family battles, and all the other negatives life can throw at us. Some of those things may be resolved, but will never bring with them a true, genuine peace. Because of our heritage handed down from Adam and those genes that reside in us, true peace cannot be conjured up or paid for in any way.

I have found it interesting in reading the epistles of Paul that almost to a book, Paul greets his readers with “Grace and peace be unto you.” He doesn't say “peace and grace” and there's a reason for that. You see, without grace there can be no peace. I often say regarding deep thinking theologians who argue who authored Hebrews, that Paul's opening phraseology is not found in Hebrews so mark him off your list.

The only peace we can know is the peace God gives us at our initial moment of accepting His grace into our lives through His Son's sacrifice on our behalf. Peace, that calm in any storm, comes through the Holy Spirit indwelling us with the assurance that all is well with our Father in control of our lives. Peace is a constant when we are in Christ. Peace is ours in the good days as well as the really bad ones.

However, notice Jesus inserts words that throw some responsibility into our laps...”Let not....” Those two words hold us accountable in choosing peace over trouble and fear. God's peace is more than a gift. We must do our part to accept that gift, not allowing all the negatives in our lives to rule and reign. A gift isn't totally a gift until the receiver accepts it from the giver. God's gift of salvation won't be forced on us, but without that gift there will be no grace or peace to get us through life in our crazy, evil world. May we LET God be all He wants us to be for His glory.

Thank You Father for so many precious promises in Your Word. May we not let our hearts be troubled or fearful but rest in Your promises of peace we can have from You in abundance. Thank You, Jesus for Your gift of salvation and thus, Your peace....Amen

BE PREPARED

Eye has not seen, nor ear

heard, nor have entered

into the heart of man the

things which God has prepared

for those who love Him.

I Corinthians 2:9

Happy are the memories of my days as a Brownie Scout. I loved my tacky brown uniform that I wore on those school days when our troop met after school. I loved all the learning that prepared us for the day when we would “fly up” to the Girl Scout level. That day I remember as well as any of my three graduations.

In Girl Scouts, one of our main motto's was that we should always BE PREPARED. I wasn't quite sure for what at the time, but came to know it was an overall goal, for among others was to be a person who stayed well prepared no matter the task.

We all have lived lives of being prepared. From those earlier education days, I remember preparing for tests, as well as other educational endeavors that required some work ahead of time. For instance, most of us prepared for a career, wedding, coming baby, church responsibilities, retirement and for most, even the developing a will for after our demise.

I live where I can look out a window and see mountains...God's creation like no place I've ever seen or driven through. God in all His power, needed no time to prepare for all creation that came to be. There were no tools or materials to be gathered. He wonderfully made everything out of nothing. All of that everything was in preparation for mankind and a resulting family with whom He could fellowship. I like to think of God having fun in this whole process. In it all, He stood back and declared how good it all was.

There is one secret God withholds from us as seen in the above verse. We see that there is no way for us to know all God is and has prepared for our futures. Our eyes can't see it nor our ears comprehend it all by hearing. Even our heart can't grasp all God has in store for you and me. God has and continues to prepare a life for us we won't fully know until we are with Him. Such anticipation should be ours.

Father, we know You can't show is all You have prepared for our future days here and soon in Your presence. We are grateful that You love us so much to make such preparations for our Homecoming. In Jesus name...Amen 

 

ALWAYS WINNERS

For whatever is born of God

overcomes the world. And this

is the victory that has

overcome the world...our faith.

I John 5:4

Over the last few hours, I've been interested in watching some interviews of several young college-age students. It was interesting to watch and listen to them as these weren't the usual interviews we have seen over the last longest. Individually, they made no claim to have been a part of a sit in on a highway, nor had they run into a store and then run out with stolen goods in their hands. If they had done any of these things and more, there would have been more interviews by the press than they or we could have handled.

These young ladies are a part of a team that had just won the NCAA college championship softball game. Perhaps it didn't come as a surprise to most as this was this team's third championship in a row. For hundreds and thousands who might have seen any of these interviews, something was drastically different from most of what we see under similar circumstances.

What made them so different from the norm? Well, there were somethings that really weren't different. They were very talented young women in the sport they had chosen to be a part of. To be a successful team, there had to be an adherence to authority. Someone had to be the boss to lead that team whether winning or losing. They spoke of their love of their teammates in the whole thing. They had the support of their university, family, friends and fans. However, any team can have those things going for them.

Having watched some of the games played in various cities, I would say that most teams had what this Oklahoma team had in the way of training, authority and support. They may have had the same individual qualities, but in this moment, one team came out on top. The young women interviewed often made a comment to the effect that when it came to their faith, it wouldn't have mattered if they had won or lost. They had won and gave all credit to Jesus Christ and their faith in Him. With Him, they would always be winners no matter the circumstances life may come their way. There were no apologies for this stand, nothing bragging...only in their Savior.

We too are members of the greatest team ever formed. Sometimes we focus too much on others and things while not giving full credit to our great Coach...God Himself who has provided for us our salvation through His Son as well as His Holy Spirit Who is constantly in each believer to consistently train and coach us through God's rule book...His Holy Word. Although a part of His great team, our Father loves us on a very individual basis. Maintaining that relationship is more vital than can be described. We won't always win, but He will. He will always win in the end.

Thank You Father that win or lose, You are my everything. Help me to stay in training through Your Holy Spirit..praying, in Your Word, being a witness to those around me. Thank You for Your love and forgiveness when I don't deserve either. I love you....In Jesus' name...Amen

UNDER THE HOOD

….that He would grant you, according

to the riches of His glory, to be

strengthened with might through

His spirit in the inner man.

Ephesians 3:16

When I got out of college, I wanted in the worst way to get a car, a nice used car that I could call my own. It didn't look like a big problem in the selection of such because my Dad was about the best in our area when it came to automobile mechanics. He could sit on our front porch, a car pass by and he could tell you what was wrong with that car. The driver just didn't know it yet.

We looked at some cars. I usually liked the color and interior but my Dad went under the hood. He could tell in a moment that not one car we looked at was minus a problem, especially with the engine. Each car looked really good as far as I was concerned but my Dad with his expertise knew no matter how attractive the car, it probably wouldn't go very far for very long.

No matter how good some cars looked, any one of which I would like to have had, my Dad could lift up the hood of the car and point out to me already existing problems I would have to deal with. One car had a total break of the frame probably due to an accident. My Dad saw it immediately and pointed it out to me. The car sales place had spray painted the the entire frame of the car after welding and smoothing out the problem.

There are a lot of things that can be going on inside the hood of a used car. I was happy just looking at the shiny outside, radio and smooth car seats. The outside doesn't always tell the whole story. It's really more important to know what's going on under the hood.

It can be the same with we Christians. The outside can look pretty good. We look all polished spiritually while we know things aren't right under the hood of our lives. Under that hood can be real damage we refuse to deal with. Perhaps our spiritual engines are running low on fuel that comes only through the Holy Spirit filling us with His Word. We need the oil of God's anointing in our lives. Our inner needs may be great while we look polished and in tact on the outside.

Wouldn't hurt us anytime to do a spiritual maintenance check, not to impress anyone but for God's glory that we will operate to our fullest for Him.

Thank You Father for Your close presence in our lives...for Your Holy Spirit's prompting when we might need a little spiritual over-hauling. Thank You Jesus for all You mean to each of us individually. In Your precious name....Amen