Peace 1
Peace. My soul craves it. Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace of conscience. Peace with God. Peace with man. Peace at home. Peace with my neighbors. Peace with my enemies. Peace and quiet.
When I made the decision to come to
Dubuque a year and a half ago, I set out to build a peaceful life. My sixteen
years in Chicago were many things but peaceful was not one of them. So I
created peaceful working spaces in the office. I bought a home in a peaceful
neighborhood, and named it Saints Rest, of all things. I have sought to build a
peaceful relationship with my deacons, and with my leaders and teachers and
workers. I have tried to promote a peaceful relationship between our church and
the community. I want to be a man of peace living a life of peace. That way
lies contentment. That way lies purposeful production. That way lies quiet
contemplation. That way lies soul health and spiritual growth. That way lies
knowing God.
I am quite sure I am not alone in this
desire. All over the world, people are desperately searching for peace. The
United Nations and the American Secretary of State pursue it ardently. The
Brexit negotiators have tried to obtain it. Arbiters and life coaches,
television personalities and New Age gurus of all sorts promise to bring it.
Pharmaceutical companies sell it. Television commercials for cars sell it. Real
estate agents sell it. False prophets sell it. Or perhaps I should say a
version of it.
I am most interested in peace, but I
am not interested in the world’s version of it. I want to know what God says it
is. Oprah, Dr. Phil, Ellen, Sigmund Freud, Maya Angelou, Henry David Thoreau,
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all clamor to offer us their perspective. It
interests me not at all. For my people have committed two evils; they have
forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken
cisterns, that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2.13).
Let us, instead, begin with God. What does
God say peace is? In today’s post, I will give you four answers to that
question, and chase that with another four answers next week.
First, peace is organization and order. God
is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints (I Corinthians 14.33). The
context here is directly related to the church service. God’s house is to be a
peaceful place, organized, smoothly functioning. Personality conflicts ought be
kept to a bare minimum. Throwing your weight around should be unheard of. Chaos
is an exemplar of the devil’s realm, not our Father’s. Schedules should be
known and kept. Kindness and forgiveness should rule. As our forefathers would
say, a place for everything and everything in its place. Peace and anarchy
cannot cohabit.
Second, peace is the absence of armed
conflict. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none
shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither
shall the sword go through your land (Leviticus 26.6).
Augustus Closing the Temple of Janus Louis de Silvestre, 1757 |
I have never lived through war. I have
pastored men who have endured it in Afghanistan and Iraq. It haunts them, and probably
will for the rest of their lives. War brings famine, disease, misery, and death
on a wide scale. Let us thank God it has not come to our lives.
Third, peace is the absence of noise. It
is the active presence of stillness and quiet. Peace is calm. And he arose,
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm (Mark 4.39).
This kind of peace can often be found in
God’s creation. Over the years, He has shown Himself to me in some beautiful
places. The Blue Ridge Parkway. The Outer Banks. A desolate spot on the sand
dunes of the Lake Michigan shoreline. The bluegrass horse farms of Kentucky.
The rolling hills of upper New York. The long, green bayous of Louisiana. The
Smokies. The aching blue of the Pacific off Malibu. The high desert of
California. The pine-scented air of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Where the
Rockies meet the ocean in Vancouver. The jungle waterfalls in Puerto Rico’s
interior. The vast sweep of the Mississippi mere blocks from my home.
Again and again, in Scripture, we find the Lord pointing people toward His creation. Yes, He intends it to be a source of praise, but also a source of peace. When God created the world He put man in a garden. When man created the world he put man in a city. Make no mistake, there is a difference, and that difference is not just a reflection but also a driver of the presence or absence of peace.
Fourth, peace is the absence of worry. And
he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath
given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out
unto them (Genesis 43.23).
How much time and mental energy do we
waste worrying about money? Will we make it to the next paycheck? The end of
the month? Will we have what we need for the next phase of life? Can we afford
children? Will we ever be able to buy a house? What about retirement? We forget
so easy God’s manifold promises of bodily provision.
I will both lay me down in peace, and
sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety (Psalm 4.8). How much time and
mental energy do we waste worrying about our physical safety? We have locks and
chains and bolts and bats and knives and guns and security systems and panic
rooms and disaster plans. What we do not have is peace. I am not advocating
being imprudent, foolish, or unprepared, but I am advocating trusting the Lord
for your physical safety.
Peace. It is such a wonderful word. Let it
roll around in your mind today. Let it marinate in your heart today. God’s
peace. ‘Tis a glorious, priceless thing, and it is available to you. For the
next four months on this blog we are going to explore it. We will define it, as
we have done today and will do further next week. We will discuss its
relationship to God’s sovereignty. We will see what will ensure we can never
have it. We will look at eight specific scriptural ways to obtain it. We will
find there is peace with God, great peace.
Join me each Monday, won’t you? And may
the Lord give us a richer appreciation for and apprehension of His peace along
the way.
Great! I enjoyed the read and will be involved as much as possible each week. I would like to know or have clarification on this statement in paragraph 3 "The absence of noise" - ". When God created the world He put man in a garden. When man created the world he put man in a city."
ReplyDeleteThank you sir!
God placed man in the Garden of Eden. When man begins things, he does not generally launch gardens but rather cities. He heaps up buildings and people. It is a pattern you see in Genesis, and then a pattern you see in all of human history. Cities become places of great sin and sorrow. This is why God has to constantly send His prophets and apostles to cities, b/c that is where the sin is.
DeleteThere will be one city, however, which will be as beautiful as the Garden of Eden and yet entirely without sin. We look forward to that day, don't we?
AMEN!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I reread your blog on Peace and realized that was exactly your point, but I had already sent my comment (I have snail mail on the brain (hahaha)). I look forward to the next blog! God bless you brother!