peace

Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.

Wow! What a power scripture. This scripture has 2 parts. First it says, depart from evil and do good. It doesn't say hang around and see if you can change evil. It simply says depart. dark things are very powerful. Pastor Chris said it wonderfully today. being a Christian is hard. It's the hardest, most challenging thing you will ever do. evil, well it can be fun, it can look like the easier road. Chances are, if you stick around trying to change it, it will change you instead. This scripture says, depart from it. That doesn't mean you can't try and be a positive influence. some may argue that we can't be the light of Jesus if we are never around people who don't live right. That's true, but i submit that this scripture is telling us to keep our distance.

2nd part of this says SEEK PEACE then follows up with PURSUE IT. That is an action. now i don't think these 2 things are in the same verse accidentally. You flee from evil, keep yourself in check, make sure you are doing right and actively pursue peace.

The scriptures say whatever is pure, holy, just, honest, true think on these things. Peaceful thoughts lead to peaceful actions.

Let's face it, we are all going to be in difficult situations. We may be face with evil, we may be faced with something that tries our patience, we may be faced with hard decisions but if we are in the habit of ACTIVELY, day by day by day by day thinking on peaceful things, it will be natural for us to call upon those reserves when we need them.

Peaceful thoughts lead to peaceful actions.

Pursue peace...don't sit around and hope for it. don't be a dormat and lie around waiting for it, PURSUE it. don't be around people in constant turmoil looking for a fight. come away from that person or situation. Jesus had times when he came away from it all. He went into the wilderness, the garden of Gethsemane before they led him away. He came away from people and situations so that he could pray. He needed to pray and think on peaceful things. He needed to reconnect with His Father so he had reserves to tap into when He needed them. Let's remember Jesus was the son of God but he was in HUMAN form. Let's learn from that. He went away to pray. If you spend time in the Word each day, if you have a regular alone time with God, you will be building up your "reserves" so you have them to call on when you need them. AND you will need them.

What are you going to do this week to actively pursue peace? Share your comments with me.

strangers?

Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

Did you ever see the movie Bruce Almighty? A funny little movie about how God is trying to teach Bruce a lesson. Anyway, Bruce is really fed up with God and how he feels God is ignoring all of his hopes and dreams. So God pages Bruce on his beeper and tells him to come down for a job interview. When Bruce enters the building he sees this old gentleman in janitor's garb mopping the floor. Bruce was rather rude and condescending to him and it turns out this old gentleman is God.

Did I take long enough to get to my point? LOL The point here is BE NICE! You never know who you are being nice to or who you are helping, or giving money to or helping cross the street or letting out in traffic. You never know how your actions will affect them and who they might come across. You may be helping the next Bill Gates or you may be helping the next Joe Nobody. But God sees it all! God is love. Period, that's all. He didn't say love the lovely, He said love the unloveable. He didn't say be nice to people who are nice to you. He said love your enemy.

Allow God's love to overflow from you that there can be no denying that it is only God in us. Because you know who's watching, but you never know who you're loving.