WHEN THERE is trouble it is hard to find peace, let alone seek it and pursue it. Through the years I have noticed that trouble is always lurking around every corner. But I have never tried to look for trouble! Trouble just seems to come and go just like every other life event. However, peace is something we all want! God says we are to seek peace and to pursue it! What does that mean in a world like ours.
MANY HAVE written about peace in the world and about the peace that God gives. I too have written about this before. However, we live in a world of constant turmoil and so we ponder, how can we live in peace.
PAUL writes to Timothy about the coming of apostasy. This is about those turning away from their own faith in God, and seeking their own pleasures. Paul never minces with words, he just says it like it is. "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, dissolute living, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people! For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of truth." 2 Timothy 3:1-7
DOES this sound like what is going on today? Can we find peace amongst these things? God says we can! Paul says to avoid such people. These are not the kind of people I hang out with, but I read about them in the papers and hear about them on the news. It use to be other countries and we called them 3rd world countries. But now it is here in America. Are we now considered a 3rd world country also?
BEHEADING has become murder of choice. And our country wants to ban guns! Next on the list will be knives. What about the heart? What about turning their destructive natures into seeking God’s truths! I don’t have to tell you readers of what is going on but I feel it is important that we Christians begin to stand up and speak God’s truth. We cannot turn our heads, shaking them in shame, and just go on!
"DEPART from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it!" Psalms 34:14 There it is! In this chapter, David is praising God’s goodness, and encouraging trust in the Lord; seeking Him with all our hearts. However, David is also warning against sin; how the righteous will be delivered, but the wicked will be condemned. Does that inspire us to have peace? It should! If we continue in the faith and are obedient to God’s word then we know we will be delivered into the bosom of Abraham! That is the peace that God promises to those who are faithful!
IN THE scriptures there were the Gentiles and the Jews. Paul was warning them against refusing God. In Hebrews chapter 12 beginning with verse 12 Paul encourages the people to push ahead with all their strength. "Try to be at peace with all men, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it." Hebrews 12:14 You must make an effort to be at peace with everyone including your enemies.
IN VERSE 15 Paul says that no one should turn back. Don’t be like the sheep that has gone astray. Christians are to work together to keep each other headed in the right direction. We live in a lost world but that doesn’t mean we are going down with it. Esau was a bad example because he sold his birth right. Let’s keep keeping on in the faith, regardless of what is happening in the world. Don’t give your future away out of immorality or from fear. Our God is faithful, lets be faithful also, and we shall find peace! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 10/31/14
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