Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Peace! Peace!

In preparation for a recent study I got to thinking about peace. There are a lot of ways to look at peace and I am sure many people define it differently than I do. Being a Christian I generally look at issues from the World point of view and compare it to the Biblical point of view.

I believe the world looks at peace largely as the absence of war or conflict whether that is on individual or global scale. The biblical view of peace has more to do with being secure in whatever circumstances you find yourself. I haven't found a global view of peace in the bible other than the condition that exists in heaven or New Jerusalem. Other than that it is alomst entirely an individual experience.

On September 30 1938 Neville Chamberlain came out of the Munich Agreement and announced "Peace for our time." after he and others arranged to give Germany part of Czecoslovakia so that they could expand. The world, or at least many of the leaders, thought they had accomplished peace for the world. Within a year, Hitler invaded Poland and started his march to rule the world. As long as I have lived I have heard that there is a cease fire in the Mid-East and we are finally on the road to peace and on occasions too many to count the cease fire always ends in war. Clearly I can find no reason to believe that governments and world leaders are ever going to be able to accomplish peace. At best they appease which usually gives time to the aggressor to amass power and arms.

The Christian view of peace is very attainable. Faith in God and humble reliance on Him provides a haven of peace in whatever situation. In Acts 7:55-8:2 Stephen was at peace as he was assailed by the sanhedrin with stones. As he died, "went to sleep" he saw God and Jesus welcoming him into heaven. Sweet! What a way to go. What could they do to hurt him? He was in the presence of God. His peace was the result of reliance upn God, not himself. If he were relying on himself, and he was about to die, he would not have had peace. If he had been relying on the church to save him, his confidence would have diminished with every moment they didn't come for him.
His being in the presence of God brings up another point. We often worry about our own lack of faith. Faith, like a coin has two sides. It does not exist n a vacuum. It must be focused on something. I believe we feel we lack enough faith for a task but what is acutally happening is that we have not spent enough time meditating upon who our faith rests.
Here's what I mean;
If I have faith that my neighbor could fly through the air like Superman, and I really believed it and trusted in him to do it. I might have a lot of faith for him to do that. But it doesn't matter how much faith anyone has in him. He can't fly like Superman.
If on the other hand I believe that God can save every person on an airliner that has both engines out. I may have only a little faith in that because most of the time when an airplane loses both engines everyone dies. But my little faith is in a really big God, He is able to do all things, and make it look easy. His potential is infinite, therefore my faith is only relevant in what I will ask Him to do. The power and potential is His and it's infinite. I have not because I ask not. I ask not because my faith is shriveled and weak and small.
If I meditate on God's attributes and really study Him, my faith will expand as I realize He is waiting for me, one who is made in His image and called by Him, to get involved in the world around me in His name.

How does this all come under the heading of peace? You may have missed it, but peace really winds up being freedom from fear. Stephen had no fear, he saw where he was going, Daniel in the lion's den quickly realized the angel had shut the mouths of the lions, they could not touch him, he was safe and at peace.
If I rely on the infinite holy God of the universe and I am doing His will I have no reason to fear, so I have peace. If I rely on this world's leaders to bring peace to this world, I have reason to fear indeed.
No Jesus, no peace: Know Jesus, know peace.

Andy

1 comment:

  1. Someone says that courage is fear that has said its prayers. Kinda of like peace

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