Good Morning Friends,
Today we continue to explore the work of the Holy Spirit that began at creation and is available to us right now received by faith and fulfilled in the completed work of Jesus manifesting itself in our lives as peace. It is a gift of peace and rest that people work hard to receive, often failing because of a lack of trust and sincere love that risks a relationship with God that completes us and restores a right relationship. Too many are not resting in Christ’s work, but in their own work of resting. Christ’s transformative rest is rare because people’s love is committed to the wrong things in forwarding the faith of others. We must believe and trust, risk, and love. Are We Willing To Proclaim The Good News Of A Peace With A Worthy Purpose?
Scripture: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
John 14:27-31a (NRSV)
But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.
Acts 14:19-28 (NRSV)
Message: It is hard to grasp an understanding that a current unsettledness might be key to a future salvation. Indeed, Jesus came to set us free and to help us learn how to seek God passionately and persistently in our lives. Jesus’ Spirit helps us to turn from doing our empty acts of pleasure and instead delight in what the Lord is doing to bring the Kingdom to earth as in heaven even with tough love. It follows that we are to share the bread of the Gospel with the hungry, so the light placed in us can break forth like the dawn to heal with the Good News. We are to ride on the heights in the Spirit but also have the courage to walk through the valleys. We are to feed on the heritage of God, in service to God, in harmony and love. But our text from Acts also tells us that: “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” The problem is that there is a fine line between courage in the Spirit and the place of stupid unrestrained actions. And I wonder if we were first century Christians if we would be willing to give up our faith in Christ and worship the Emperor according to Roman law or keep proclaiming the faith and be set on fire as a slow burning torch to light a dinner feast for Nero. Would we give up our faith or go on and suffer and die for Jesus? It seems so foreign to us for we live in a time where we can worship here in the West without much persecution. But ponder for a moment what happened with the pandemic and politics in the world and how things have changed right under our noses. For many it is a story of having faith now in the promise of hope later. Perhaps our time of persecution is coming, and we do not even recognize it. Jesus knew…Paul knew…that people who truly believe needed to prepare for tribulation and even benefitted by the struggle of life. We have forgotten that opposition to believers is normal, that if a cocoon of a butterfly is opened for it and does not have to struggle, it will not live and the transformation is incomplete. Persecution is something that has historically been a fact of life for most believers of almost every age and time. If history is our guide, then we should expect to be persecuted for our faith in Christ. And if we do not have opposition, we really might want to consider if God is really with us. That kind of thinking of the inevitability of discrimination for being Christian is foreign to most of us today because most of us in the West have never suffered in any significant way for our faith. Friends, if we are living a true and consistent Christian life our behavior will provoke the conscience of a lost world and we will face opposition. We need to prepare for it and if we have no opposition then we should reconsider if we are living the Christian life that serves the Kingdom to come. Wholeness means realizing that with the good comes some unintended things that do not seem so good. Friends, peace of mind found in the serenity of life in the Spirit is dependent on a right relationship with God. It is more than domestic peace…it is more than a peace opposed to war and strife. It is more than a greeting. It is a purpose that bears all these distinguishable meanings in the hope that rules over the hope of salvation even at the cost of chastisement.
And So, the thing is that everybody wants peace, and some even carry Peacemakers to assure it, but so few seem to have what Jesus had and explained in the Sermon on the Mount when he said blessed are the peacemakers for, they shall attain peace. Thankfully, Jesus provides us a pathway to an abundant and free peace even in the face of harassment. Peace…everybody wants it but there seems to be so little of it. What gives? Sometimes we might think that the best answer we can hope for is a joke that conveys the irony of this experience of life. Thankfully, Jesus has a better answer for us. Look at the life of Jesus and you will see that perfect peace displayed. When he and the disciples were in the boat and the storm was raging, he was at peace. When the religious leaders were being antagonistic, he was at peace. When he was arrested, he was at peace. When he was being falsely accused, he was at peace. When he was stripped, beaten, and nailed to the cross, he was at peace. How could he do this? And the answer is that he was always connected to the Father with a purpose that gave him a focus and love that cast out all fear. It is this focus that Jesus want us to have, and it is very different from the peace the world wants to give. That is because worldly peace is outward while heavenly peace is inward. Worldly peace is conditional on an external justice when what we need is the justice of Jesus inside of us. Friends, I imagine there have been times when you were alienated from God, and then Jesus gave you a spirit of comfort and strength in the face of problems. There is no sugar coating here. We will have problems. And must face them with a willingness to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Friends, suffering may come as a witness of our faith but always the focus needs to be on the love of God. We are to rejoice in the Lord in all circumstances because God’s love is unconditional and so is the Peace of Christ. It is here we learn that the experience of the Good News needs to come from the inside out and shared one with another.
Pray we choose the peace of Christ. Pray we delight in what the Lord is doing in us even if it means some suffering. Pray the light in us is used for eternal good. Pray we realize that we must battle for what is not just good but great. Pray we realize that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Pray we put persecution in the perspective of the eternal. Pray we are not so wrapped up in this world, and the things of this world that we cannot even begin to relate to what opposition we need to prepare. Pray we are evidence of Christ in our daily walk especially when that walk is through the valley of the shadow of death. Pray we seek and pursue peace. Pray we seek a holy purpose that glorifies God. Pray we realize that when we seek peace, we are seeking God. Pray the peace of Christ rule our hearts. Pray God make us instruments of Christ’s peace. Pray we share the Good News of the Gospel. Pray that where there is hatred, we sow love. Pray we offer pardon in the face of injury. Pray we sow faith where there is doubt and joy in the face of sadness. Pray we pursue, receive, embrace, and live in the perfect peace of Christ. Pray we share the Gospel. Pray we realize that discrimination may come but our emotional response to it can become part of the solution. Pray we are not a problem for people receiving the perfect peace of Christ. Pray we take stock of how true and deep our commitment is to God!
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 