Understanding God's Peace

The following post was originally written for the Voices of Faith column published in the Ashland Times-Gazette on 9/1/23. Members of our county ministerial association take turns writing this column for our local paper. I fleshed this out of a sermon that I gave at our church in August about putting on the armor of God.

---

It seems like peace is a rare commodity these days. I'm not merely talking about peace between people, governments, or countries, but peace where it matters most. Personal peace or peace in our souls -- spiritual peace.

When thinking about spiritual peace, there are two facets that need to be understood. There is peace WITH God and the peace OF God.

Peace with God means that we are no longer separated from God. The debt of sin has been paid through Jesus Christ who bridged that gap and restored our relationship with God. Therefore, we are at peace with God, but only if we have believed in and accepted Jesus as Savior. To go a bit further, God's peace "is also an inner tranquility and calmness of the soul," says Priscilla Shirer. "God's peace gives us a firm grip which we need in a world that is not firm. It gives us stability, allows us to keep our footing, and will help to keep us sane." That is the peace of God. And when a person is at peace with God, then they can begin to experience the peace of God.

Perhaps what we need is "peace hygiene." Most people equate hygiene with dental hygiene or a new one that has garnered attention in recent years -- "sleep hygiene." Just as sleep hygiene refers to healthy habits that promote good sleep, so can peace hygiene promote peace of calmness in one's soul.

In order to have true and lasting peace, you need to evaluate your relationship with God. Are you at peace with Him? As stated above, have you believed and accepted His Son, Jesus, as your Lord and Savior? Have you accepted His gift of forgiveness of your sin? If not, I would urge you to consider asking Him into your life. In John 14:27 (NLT), Jesus says, "I am leaving you with a gift -- peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid." And having taken this first step towards peace, you can begin to tap into the peace of God. "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:27 (NLT)

As with sleep hygiene, it is also important to not be focused on the bad things that are bombarding us and to remember that God is in control.

Max Lucado used this acronym for C.A.L.M. in his book, Anxious for Nothing. C - Celebrate God's goodness. A - Ask God for help. L - Leave your concerns with Him. M - Meditate on good things. I would suggest using this every day, perhaps at night before bed. A friend recently told me that she used to feel guilty when falling asleep when praying in bed, but she stated that it now gives her comfort and peace.

Space limitations prevent me from continuing with further steps. But whether you are a new or seasoned follower of Christ, we all need to practice peace hygiene.

P.S. What peace hygiene tips have helped you maintain your peace? Leave your comments below.

P.S.S. I was asked to sing "It is Well with My Soul" for a dear saint's funeral. I chose to use this arrangement by Chris Rice.

---

Background Photo Credit: Photo Lucas Calloch on Unsplash

I Believe...?...

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 3:11 (NLT)

This week I have been focusing on what we believe. As I was looking for a hymn to go with the contemporary selection below, it occurred to me that the crux of our belief is in Jesus Christ. This arrangement of The Church's One Foundation describes the church of Christ - "her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth" and that we, both individually and communally are "his new creation."

Jon Reddick says about his song I Believe It (The Life of Jesus), "Declaring our belief in the Trinitarian God - Father, Son, and Spirit - is an essential part of our faith and practice. But, singing our belief is not the only part of that faith and practice. We also take action based upon what we sing."

(If you're interested in the story behind the song, click the link below - I highly recommend it!)

Both of these songs take parts of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds and set them to music - it's a good way to cement the truths of our faith in our hearts.

“I believe in the life of Jesus I believe that He conquered death I believe in the resurrection I believe He's coming back again I believe that His Spirit's with us I believe that He gives us power”

(This brief blog was taken from the weekly worship email sent to my church. Sorry that I have not been posting regularly.)

---

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

The Bread of Life

The following is an adaptation from a Maundy Thursday service meditation on communion delivered by the blog writer at Ashland Brethren in Christ Church on April 6, 2023.

---

14 When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. 15 Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. 16 For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.” 19 He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 20 After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.”

Luke 22:14-20 New Living Translation

In our passage, Jesus tells his disciples, and us, that we are to take the bread and the cup in remembrance of him.

Remembrance – the act of remembering, commemorating, or performing a ritual that has great significance. Remembrance can also mean the action of remembering the dead, especially in a ceremony or a memory or recollection.

As I was preparing for this talk, I was trying to find a particular book that I wanted to reference. I looked everywhere in our house – I have books strung out in just about every room. I couldn’t find it, but I did find a book that I bought a couple of years ago – Bread of Life; Savoring the All-Satisfying Goodness of Jesus Through the Art of Bread Making. As I flipped through the pages, it started to bring back a memory of my mother and what I’m pretty sure was her first attempt at making bread from scratch. We lived in the country at the time, and because of that, I think my mom thought she had to try to do what she thought country folk did – bake, and grow and can vegetables, to name a couple of those things. I don’t remember many of the details, except that this particular recipe called for coating the bread dough with corn meal. And my mom burnt it – it smelled up the entire house. I tried to escape to the attic, but the aroma of burnt cornmeal wafted up through the rafters, and the house reeked of her burnt offering for days.

But getting back to the book - I caught this paragraph at the end of one of the devotionals interspersed with the recipes throughout the book.

Author April Dodds says that “Discipleship is often not a straight line. We walk with people, we teach them what we know of God’s word and ways, we bring the presence of the Lord to bear in their everyday moments, and sometimes they receive it and other times they don’t. . . From the sermon to the car ride home, from baptism to washing the car, from the Lord’s Supper to lunch at the ball game—the bread of the presence is Jesus, and there’s never a time when he is not with us.”

The bread of the presence is Jesus. In the intro to the book, she says that it is primarily spiritual yet has recipes in it. She describes, “It is a book about hunger, bread, the word of God, and Jesus.”

I hope you can forgive me for going on the proverbial rabbit trail, but this got me to contemplating Jesus as the bread of life.

In John 6:35 (ESV), Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” And in John 6:51, He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The imagery and symbolism of bread throughout the Bible is very rich, but the paradox of the breaking of bread with Jesus’ body breaking – his death – from which we receive eternal life – the bread of life – is beyond compare.

For people of the Jewish faith, bread serves as a symbol of the way God feeds our souls. When Jewish people eat challah, a special bread made of dough braided into loaves and served on the Sabbath and at many holiday meals, they think about how they are connected to God.

In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), Jesus says that we should pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” which we have interpreted to mean praying for our daily needs – food, etc. But perhaps it can also mean praying for the bread of life – the presence of Jesus, the Word of God.

My latest Bible purchase – the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, talks about the importance of a father or the head of the household giving thanks for the elements of the meal. The first-century practice was that thanks was given first for the wine and then the bread. However, at Passover, thanksgiving (or the prayer of blessing) was given for the bread first. The significance of the unleavened bread would be explained as they remembered the first Passover and the release of bondage from the Egyptians. But in our passage, Jesus gave a new meaning for the bread as he speaks about redemption – his body being given for us. After the meal, Jesus took another cup of wine and talked about the new covenant, in his blood, poured out for us. Again, this is another reminder or remembrance of the blood that was spattered on the door frames so that the angel of Death would “pass over” those who obeyed the instructions that were given to them by God.

Some would suggest that as we give thanks for the provision of food, we should be giving thanks for the sacrifice that Christ made by offering his own body, symbolized by the bread (or meal) that we partake of each day. As food is necessary to maintain our physical health, so is the Bread of Life crucial for our spiritual health.

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t find the book that I was originally looking for, but I was able to find the quote by the author that I wanted to use. I had originally meant to do a study as to the different terms that we use to describe communion and how remembrance is an important part of Jewish life and rituals. So I want to leave us with Ann Voskamp’s wonderful explanation for the term Eucharist. In the original language, “He (meaning Jesus) gave thanks” reads “eucharisteo.” The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning “grace.” Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks.” Ann also says that “Eucharisteo means 'to give thanks,' and give is a verb, something that we do. God calls me to do thanks, to give the thanks away. That thanks-giving might literally become “thanks-living.” That our lives become the very blessings we have received.”

Isn’t it time that we purpose to give thanks every day for the gift of eternal life, the bread of the presence of Jesus, the bread of life, and start “thanks-living?”

---

Opening photo credit: Kate Remmer, Unsplash