Hey everyone, God has blessed me with some very powerful lessons lately, and I hope that maybe I can bless you with summing them up here.
At the beginning of break I began reading a book called Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, which I borrowed from Autumn. I won’t explain much of the book execept to say that it was written by a Palestinian Christian (yes, they exist), and covers a pretty wide range of ideas. Primary among them is how Christ can heal the differences between people (or peoples) that have become enemies, in this case, Jews (or more specifically Zionists) and Palestinians (and Muslims/Druze). First of all, I need to thank you, Autumn, for recommending and loaning me this book. The political material has been interesting, but more specifically, this book has led me to pray through the Sermon on the Mount, and especially the Beatitudes, in a new and extremely vibrant way.
So what has God been teaching me through my times in prayer and study? Tons. Way more than I care to, or feel able to share with everyone here. The essence of everything; the vein that runs through all that has been impressed on my heart is peace. Specifically, Jesus’ words about peace in the Beatitudes:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9
What is God talking about? Why is being a peacemaker linked to our being adopted into the family of God? Surely this is on God’s heart in some important and exceptional way. This morning at my home church in Sioux Center, God blessed me with the perfect teaching to address my questions. My home pastor gave a sermon entitled: “Character counts: Peace.” It was strange to log onto Planet Rock and see Megan’s blog that dealt with the same issue.
My pastor laid out a framework for what peace is that went roughly like this:
Peace in the Old Testament is “Shalom” which also means well-being (or full life as Megan’s pastor put it), and order according to God’ will. In the new testament, Jesus tells us that in this world there will be trouble in John 16:33:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
However, Christ also tells us in the same breath that this worldly trouble is already taken care of, because one is with us who has overcome the world. So, in essence we have two callings based on this passage: We are called to be “in Christ”, and also “in the world.”
My pastor went on to further look at peace in three different ways:
1) Peace with God
- As children of God who have been forgiven of our sins and made right with God, we are now at peace with God
2) Peace of God
- This is the process where we are giving up our burdens to God in exchange for the promise that He is our shepherd, provider, and friend. We can rest in peace, knowing that He has done all that is necessary for us.
3) Peace on earth
- God has made peace on earth through the death of His Son on the cross. We are then called by this grace to forgive others, and through the peace of Christ, bring healing to a hateful and divided world. We are capable of forgiving because we have been forgiven.
In conclusion, Pastor Carl said this: That peace of the Holy Spirit is not something that we achieve in a one time spiritual experience. Throughout our lives, and moment by moment we must choose to accept Christ’s peace, and cast our burdens upon Him. There are two things that we can do: respond the very real indwelling of the Holy Spirit as it cries out for reconciliation, and obey the commands of God and to actively seek peace with each other and inwardly.
By the end of the sermon today I was in tears. If there was one thing in my life that I needed, it was peace. I’m currently at a transition point in my life where I am drifiting away from Ames and towards international relief work. I’ve started a relationship with an amazing girl who I have prayed over more than anyone else in my life over the past year. On top of everything, my home in Sioux Center is not a place of rest for me anymore due to several unfortunate reasons. Two of the three things I mentioned are amazing, positive things, the third is very discouraging, but in equal measure they all require God’s grace and peace living within me.
Above and beyond even those things, God has finally been able to tear my eyes off of myself, if only for a moment, to give me his vision for my life. I’m not talking about, “God wants me to go to Mongolia and be a herdsmen, so that I might win the herdsmen.” He’s not asking me to become a GCM pastor (I don’t have a desire to be a pastor at all in fact), and he’s definitely not asking me to become a band leader (sorry Matt). I’m talking about a vision of what God is asking me to become internally. God is asking me to become a healer and a peacemaker, and He revealed that it all begins with the deep seated peace of Christ dwelling in my heart. The peace He promises is untouched by the world, yet it is the only thing that allows us to live in the world and maintain our fellowship with Him.
So, what is God teaching me? He is calling me deeper into peace and friendship with Him. For the first time in my life, I am finding a real peace that is untouched by the world, yet calls me to the world in a deep inescapable way.
I highly reccomend Blood Brothers as an eye opener to a spiritually bleak conflict in the middle east, but hopefully also as an eye-opener to help you see a little more of what Christ is asking us to be.
If you really want to talk to me about all of this, please call me over break. I’m at home, and I have little to do besides read and exercise.
Adios familia.
