Peace

Back in August, when I was writing a short series on superstitions, I included Peace amongst the superstitions within the Christian Church today.  After-all, we are told we are to have Peace, we are told that we are given Peace, therefore, if we are living and walking our Christian faith, we will have Peace.  Right?

Well, and that statement is part of the problem.  You take a handful of verses out of context and you can teach quite a nice series on Peace and how if you really were a Christian you would have it. Well, hey, I'm a Christian, so I want it - in fact I know that I am owed it!  right?  American Theology 101.....

A Christian teacher, I know of, just did such a series just like this!  And I think the prompting for him to do it was my taking him on in private last summer - at how he was creating a superstition mentality - not building the Christian faith of his followers.  Oh yeah, he fully believes himself Christian, his followers Christian and his teaching Christian (I am not addressing any of that here!).  And I am happy for him, because he gets to defend his teaching to God in the not so distant future, and since I only told him what God told me (hence he is apparently not listening) and he obviously does not agree - given his public response to our private conversation (which caused some problems, but not for me).....  Well?

My attitude anymore: "so what?"  I can only say what God tells me to say, if he has a problem, he should have taken it up with Him - not what he did do (attempt to turn others against me, nice betrayal dude).  I did my part, then it was up to him - not me!  I have no doubt, like so many under the American Church, he was of the "you have an ego problem" deal since I dared to speak for God to his face (which translates to your ego not mine!) - and he does not understand - I do not care.  I do as I am told.  Whether you are Billy Graham, Corrie Ten Boom, Hal Lindsey etc  - it makes no difference; if God tells me something to tell you, I will.  The fact He tells me, to tell anyone anything, worries me greatly.  (And yes, each of those three I just named got to have a talk with me at least once!  BG did make the change, CTB I have covered my talk with her before, and as for HL - well he went on as usual.)

Which brings me to the subject of real Peace ..... not what is taught today in the American Church .....

First off, yes, there is a thing called Peace.  It is something you can have in your life, it is possible, but like many things - it has a time and a place in the Christian walk.  Now in John 14:27, Jesus said, "I have come to give you Peace....".  In fact, Jesus came to give us Love, Joy and Peace.  And just as how we do not always have Love or Joy in our lives, we also can be without Peace for the very same reasons.

What Peace is not, is what the world offers and man sees: a plastic temporary form of peace in which we live without adversarial situations - where the world revolves around you and your desires.  But because this is a peace based upon things, wants and desires - it is only temporary.  Peace is not material nor mental happiness.  Peace is not something, friends, fund, finances, etc.   But, this is what many Christian leaders teach today, in one form or another!

Peace is possible, but first you have to reject what the world's definition is, as outlined above.

Peace is to be found in Someone, hint: that would be God, (Jesus as my American readers would prefer the reference).  God is the only one whom can bring you Peace.  We live our lives in a world which is alien to us - its storms rage around us, distracting us from our assignments, destroying those whom it can.  God is greater than that storm and can mitigate it.  Conversely, God is equally capable of allowing the storm to rage in all its fury around us and give us Peace in spite of it.

John 14:25-31 - the apostles panicked at the death of Jesus, not understanding that He was in control.
John 16:33 - Jesus is greater than the world and its problems.
God is greater than the storms we face.

God, built into you the desire for Peace, only He can give it to you.  It can only be found in a spiritual fulfillment. If Peace is not found within you, then you never will experience true Peace.

Ultimately, you as the believer, must walk in victory - when all around you only see defeat and failure.  Then you will know real Peace.

HOWEVER:
Ah!  A retraction is coming!   What does this mean?

Well, this is where the rubber meets the road in the Christian walk.  You will never have Peace in your life if you are living sin, walking in sin, rolling around like a pig in the mud of sin!  You will never know Peace if you are not a Christian, locked in Sexual Sin, if you take human life, if you are in Rebellion, if you taking Communion without respect to Jesus, if you already know what you must do - but have not done as told by the Spirit (walking in the flesh).  Make no mistake, during these times, Satan and the World will offer you a great deal of temporary peace in order to separate you even further from God.  Satan's goal remains to neutralize your testimony!

Equally, you can be the finest amongst Christians and experience no Peace, because as I have discovered this year:
You are dealing in Spiritual Warfare, if you have peace in this then you are in for a major surprise!
You have slammed into the concept of Tradition versus real Christianity.
You see all of your support failing within the Church, yet are not in sin.
You are the subject of scandal as Satan attempts to discredit you in the eyes of the Church.
Your friends and family abandon you because you have become a liability, rather than neutral to know.

Whoa!  How did we get to talking about my life again!  This was not what I was heading towards, but is all true.  You can be completely in the right and scandal ridden, yet at Peace and with complete faith in God, because you did as told.  No this does not really help you in short run, but at least you can have Peace about where you stand with God.....

Most importantly, dear reader, you will never know God's Peace until you repent. That lone sticking point true of many Christians as well as non-Christians.