Peace, perfect Peace

There was a king who wanted a painting that depicted peace and tranquility.After he had examined many paintings, he finally settled for one that had a rushing, noisy waterfall in it. His friends asked why he chose this painting when there were others that seemed more peaceful. His reply was that he had noticed that the artist had painted a little bird sitting on her nest in a cleft of the rock just behind the waterfall and she was apparently not disturbed at all by the rushing noisy water pounding the rocks below, but was at peace despite her surroundings, and that was a lesson he wanted to learn.

We all long for peace of mind, and some way that we can relax and forget our anxieties; all our days can be go, go, go, full on from the minute we wake in the morning until we turn in at night; and even if we have a husband, wife or partner who is selfish or unloving and, or, possibly, children that are demanding, or a job that is taxing, we will not necessarily have a peaceful sleep.

When (not if) we find ourselves in such positions (or similar) we have two options offered to us. One option is to examine the proposition put forward by Jesus when He said "Come unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Of course, unless we have been brought up in a Christian environment, this is probably the last option that we would consider; a bit like the man who was walking in a fog and accidentally fell over a cliff; as he was falling he grabbed the branch of a tree that was growing out of the cliff face. Looking down he could see nothing but swirling fog, so he looked up and saw the same thing, so he yelled out "Is anyone up there?" and the reply came "yes, my son". So he yelled out "can you help me?" and the reply came "yes, if you will have faith". So he said "what do I have to do to have faith?" and the reply came "let go of the branch". There was silence for a while, and then the man yelled out "Is there anyone else up there?" First options don't always impress us, do they?

The second option is the one adopted by many people, and that is to spend a lot of time going to parties, night clubs, raves, music festivals etc... where the secular music can be degrading, as is the dancing and dressing. At such functions they often drown their sorrows in alcohol or other drugs that seem to give them a sense of elation for a while. This, of course, can then lead them to make choices that they wouldn't normally make but, because they are partly intoxicated, their judgement is blurred and they can easily find that they get involved in immoral behaviour, which they regret in the light of day (assuming the can stand the 'light of day' with the headache from the 'hangover'.) Then there is always the possibility of fights, or car accidents following such parties.

At best, this second option is fairly expensive and a very temporary relief from the real world that is still there the next day, and after some time all this can lose its glamour, and leave us depressed, lonely and feeling degraded.

Coming back to that first option then; Jesus said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." You see, we have an entirely different approach here as God "didn't send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved" and Jesus himself confirmed this when He said "that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but inherit eternal life." Why, for goodness sake, would He adopt this attitude?

Well, you see, God never wanted things to be as they are now, it was His plan to be the loving Father to His very large family, so he made us a planet with every imaginable thing that we could want. Just think of the variety of fruits and other foods and spices, with their remarkable flavours. Think of the variety of trees and the beautiful timber, and the flowers on the jacarandas for example (and all the others). "Loving our neighbours as we loves ourselves"; but, we sinned and went our own way. All is not lost. He loves you, as an individual, and wants to reinstate you as his loving child, and even make you a joint heir with Jesus (His son) who died for our sins so you can go free again, if we will only believe in Him and repent.
Think of the variety of flowers and their wonderful colours and perfumes. The glorious scenery and the wonderful animals and rich soils that can grow anything. Stacks of minerals, suitable for everything we could imagine. Think of the way he has been recycling one lot of water for thousands of years. God wanted us all to just enjoy and share these wonders by "Loving our neighbours as we love ourselves" but we sinned and went our own way. All is not lost. He loves you, as an individual, and wants to reinstate you as his loving child and even make you a joint heir with Jesus (His Son) who died for our sins so you can go free again if we will only Believe in Him and Repent. Regards, Tom

She hurt my Feelings

I received a letter from my sister who was attending Teacher’s College in Sydney, and boarding with some people in the suburb of Ashfield. My sister and I had always been good friends, but in this letter she had pushed the boundary of friendship too far. She said she had been attending Ashfield Baptist Church and had become a Christian and I was a sinner and must become a Christian too, or I would go to Hell. I was dumbfounded by this. (and found her “bedside manner” most offensive), because I was brought up in a Christian country, went to church occasionally and lived a reasonably decent life, so I considered that I was already a Christian, certainly not a Sinner.  So why on earth did my sister, write and tell me that I was a sinner, and needed to become a Christian”?  I put this question to my Dad and he replied that “she has probably got mixed up with some Religious Fanatics.” So I threw her letter in the Garbage Bin and shook my head in disbelief.

 

 However, she had also sent me a little booklet, and out of curiosity I read it. A quote from the New Testament struck me, where it said: “All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” and “The wages of sin is death” (meaning eternal separation from God), “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord.” Well then if that was the case, I figured that I had better look into this more closely as there just might be something in what Anita had said, and in John’s Gospel I found that Jesus Himself had said: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have Everlasting Life.” His implication being that those who don’t “Believe” in Him Do Perish! “So the Good News was that the Son of God, (Jesus Christ), paid for our sin by dying on the cross and rising again, Therefore, He can offer forgiveness to anyone who truly repents and asks to be forgiven. And I can assure you I was delighted to know that, as it was more like the assurance that I wanted to hear.

Just as these sheep had come under the shelter of the tree for protection from the sun’s heat. I had also come under God’s protection from ultimate heat.

 

It was then that I realized why most people, who have accepted this forgiveness, want to go to church and pray and read the bible and so on. It is not in an effort to gain salvation, (as I had previously thought), because if they believe in Jesus they already have that Salvation, but they do these things in order to get to know Jesus, and God, more intimately and find out how they should behave as God’s children now that they are under His protection.

Possibly there are more people around the world who do not understand Christianity than there are who do understand it. This is because some churches perform too much ritual which causes many people to look on Christianity as a religion, when it is really not a religion at all, but is an intimate relationship with a person.  That person being the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In the mind of many people there seems to be the idea that in order to please God, or should I say, to “not fall out” with Him, or to gain His forgiveness, they must religiously perform certain rituals, (Nothing could be further from the truth, and is absolutely untrue). Nevertheless, some religions, require their followers to face in the direction of a particular shrine, and pray a certain number of times per day.  Others have to burn incense or turn prayer wheels, or repeat certain phrases, or make certain sacrifices and ritualistic prayers. The idea being that if they do these things consistently they will somehow earn themselves a good place in the next life. Well, I am sorry to say that they are wasting their time because the Bible points out that “it is by Grace that you are saved through faith, and that not of your selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8) The Apostle Paul, commenting on this, said that in the light of all Jesus did it was reasonable for us to accept His forgiveness and change our ways. Thus we are given help right away, and a “Complimentary free ticket” to Heaven when the need arises, with no strings attached, Wow! How about that for a great outcome?

However, Jesus knew that Sin had to be “Erased” from our “resume” though, and He, being the sinless Son of God, was the only one who had the qualifications to achieve that, and, praise God, He did it. How dreadfully He must have suffered to achieve that for us though, and how loving of Him it was to make it so easy for us? Unfortunately, some of us are still too proud to accept that forgiveness. I know this, because I even hesitated for a while myself.  

Christians are believers in Christ, the one who paid our entire debt and has done all that could be done for us.

As He knocks at our heart’s door then, it is now up to us to accept Him by opening our heart to Him.

Of course, we can also reject the one who died at terrific cost to purchase our Salvation, if we choose to.

The decision is ours, not God’s. So think it through, because the Almighty God who designed these flowers and looks after them, wants to reinstate you as His child and look after you too, and thankfully He actually said that we are much more valuable to Him than they are. Best wishes, Tom.