Shalom
One of the great untapped benefits of living into the Gospel of the Kingdom as lived and pronounced by Jesus is the overflowing abundance of peace. Deep personal abiding peace!
Remember the old camp song I’ve got peace like a river? We used to sing it in Campus life back in the 70’s and 80’s. It sang of having “peace like a river, joy like a fountain and love like an ocean” as a result of becoming a Christian. It is a very wet experience being a Christian it seems!
We sang it quite happily and somewhat glibly too, I think. I’m quite sure, even when I led the song, that I did not fully know exactly what that song meant when I sang about peace like a river in my soul. The song hearkens back to the words of Jesus:
Well, I believe in Jesus. I have lived my life for Him for 52 years. Do you see a stream of living water flowing out of me? Has a spirit of peace fallen on me so firmly that others can see me as unflappable, soaked in peace? I can tell you that I don’t always see myself that way. This, it seems to me, is what it would look like to be at peace:
I am certain that I do not feel that level of peace most of the time.So, I want to talk about this Kingdom Peace for a couple of weeks. Today I want to reflect on what it means to have peace in the dark and bleak times. In our next Backyard Conversation we will talk about how we can live into the title of not just “Peace Keeper” but to actually become “Peace Bringers.”
So, let me ask you all a question: When is peace hard to lay claim to? Think about that for a moment . . .
Finding peace is hard for lots of reasons. The bottom line seems to be Peace is especially hard to find when the darkness falls, and the circumstances are bleak.
It’s when it is dark enough that we cannot see a way out. We feel trapped and life has dealt us a hand that we do not want to play. Have I said before that life is relentless? I meant to say that if I didn’t. What I mean by that is that life just keeps coming at you. It is unpredictable and often we make assumptions and plans, and those plans are rearranged by the relentlessness of life. The fact is that change and loss and tragedy and turbulence should be seen as a given though we usually do not plan for it. Life, for better and worse, is relentless.
So, I have two truths for us that will help us find peace in troubling times. The first is by filling our minds-“fixing our minds” -on a true truth that is transforming.
Here is axiom one: 1. We need to remember that having yielded our lives to Christ, received His forgiveness and the indwelling of Jesus’ Holy Spirit – our status before God has changed once and for all time eternal. Everything has changed for us.
The Scripture proof text for the last two thousand years on this fact has been found in Romans 5: Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . .
Turn your “WaybackMachine” (which is of course a way back reference to the Mr. Peabody cartoons – you might have to look that up) back to the night of Jesus’ betrayal, the evening before his death on a cross, soon to be ‘forsaken’ by His Father in heaven. He shares with his disciples these amazing words:
There is a second axiom of finding peace like a river when it is hard starts with being honest with ourselves. You see another huge reason we do not have peace is when our assumptions and our sense of entitlement are disappointed.
There is a famous poem found in the Old Testament – Psalm 23. I learned it in the old King James version when I was a kid:
I want to show you a picture – There is a real “Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
When we think of a valley, we usually imagine a pleasant lowland bounded by gentle sloping hillsides. But the word for “valley” that David uses is not describing a nice place but rather refers to a dreadful place – a deep and dark canyon – a home for vultures by day, a place for wolves and hyenas at night. The phrase “shadow of death” is more literally “deep darkness.”
This real-life deadly valley is south of the Jericho Road leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and is a narrow pass through the mountain range. Climate and grazing conditions made it necessary for the sheep to be moved through this valley for seasonal feeding.
The valley is four and a half miles long. Its sidewalls are over 1500 feet high in places and it is only 10 or 12 feet wide at the bottom. Traveling through the valley is dangerous, because its floor, badly eroded by rain and flash floods through the years, has deep gullies. Actual footing on solid rock is so narrow in places that sheep cannot turn around, and it is an unwritten law of shepherds that flocks must go up the valley in the morning hours and down the valley towards the evening, in the event that flocks might meet in the middle. Mules have not been able to make the trip for centuries, but sheep and goat herders from earliest Old Testament days maintained a passage for their stock.
If the sheep slips and lands in the gully, the shepherd’s staff is brought into play. The old-style crook is encircled around a large sheep’s neck or a small sheep’s chest, and it is lifted to safety.
In those times, wild dogs lived in the shadows of the valley looking for prey. If the lead sheep are troubled, (and I’m told there is a bleating sound that the shepherd will know if sheep are at risk that is different from their happier baaaa)the shepherd jumps to their aid and uses his rod to protect the sheep. The sheep learn to fear no evil, even in the valley of the shadow of death, for their shepherd is there to aid them and protect them from harm.
The promise of Scripture is not a life without valleys. The promise of Jesus is that he will never leave us or forsake us!
That is our second truth.
2. We must learn to expect life to make hard turns. More than that we must challenge our assumptions and ask why it is that we expect that we will somehow not experience the loss and turbulence of life. It should not surprise us. It should not throw us off our path. It should not cause us to take our eyes off Christ, whom we are hidden in so safely. We must have faith that:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”
Remember this little story?
“Why do you have so little faith?” or it may be better for us to read this in this manner, “You should know me better by now.”
Thanks for connecting here at Backyard Conversations and please check out our homepage interactive site, “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”It is a collection of modern parables, poems, and word pictures that may be helpful in understanding the Gospel of the Kingdom in a refreshing, spiritual manner! Until next time, thanks for joining us here at 100foldministries.org.
Remember the old camp song I’ve got peace like a river? We used to sing it in Campus life back in the 70’s and 80’s. It sang of having “peace like a river, joy like a fountain and love like an ocean” as a result of becoming a Christian. It is a very wet experience being a Christian it seems!
We sang it quite happily and somewhat glibly too, I think. I’m quite sure, even when I led the song, that I did not fully know exactly what that song meant when I sang about peace like a river in my soul. The song hearkens back to the words of Jesus:
-
John 7:37
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Well, I believe in Jesus. I have lived my life for Him for 52 years. Do you see a stream of living water flowing out of me? Has a spirit of peace fallen on me so firmly that others can see me as unflappable, soaked in peace? I can tell you that I don’t always see myself that way. This, it seems to me, is what it would look like to be at peace:
I am certain that I do not feel that level of peace most of the time.So, I want to talk about this Kingdom Peace for a couple of weeks. Today I want to reflect on what it means to have peace in the dark and bleak times. In our next Backyard Conversation we will talk about how we can live into the title of not just “Peace Keeper” but to actually become “Peace Bringers.”
So, let me ask you all a question: When is peace hard to lay claim to? Think about that for a moment . . .
Finding peace is hard for lots of reasons. The bottom line seems to be Peace is especially hard to find when the darkness falls, and the circumstances are bleak.
It’s when it is dark enough that we cannot see a way out. We feel trapped and life has dealt us a hand that we do not want to play. Have I said before that life is relentless? I meant to say that if I didn’t. What I mean by that is that life just keeps coming at you. It is unpredictable and often we make assumptions and plans, and those plans are rearranged by the relentlessness of life. The fact is that change and loss and tragedy and turbulence should be seen as a given though we usually do not plan for it. Life, for better and worse, is relentless.
So, I have two truths for us that will help us find peace in troubling times. The first is by filling our minds-“fixing our minds” -on a true truth that is transforming.
Here is axiom one: 1. We need to remember that having yielded our lives to Christ, received His forgiveness and the indwelling of Jesus’ Holy Spirit – our status before God has changed once and for all time eternal. Everything has changed for us.
The Scripture proof text for the last two thousand years on this fact has been found in Romans 5: Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . .
-
Romans 5:2a
. . . through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
- Romans 5:2b
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
- Romans 5:3
. . . because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Turn your “WaybackMachine” (which is of course a way back reference to the Mr. Peabody cartoons – you might have to look that up) back to the night of Jesus’ betrayal, the evening before his death on a cross, soon to be ‘forsaken’ by His Father in heaven. He shares with his disciples these amazing words:
- John 14:27
Shalom, I leave with you; my shalom I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
- John 14:28-31
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
There is a second axiom of finding peace like a river when it is hard starts with being honest with ourselves. You see another huge reason we do not have peace is when our assumptions and our sense of entitlement are disappointed.
There is a famous poem found in the Old Testament – Psalm 23. I learned it in the old King James version when I was a kid:
- Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou dost preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
I want to show you a picture – There is a real “Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
When we think of a valley, we usually imagine a pleasant lowland bounded by gentle sloping hillsides. But the word for “valley” that David uses is not describing a nice place but rather refers to a dreadful place – a deep and dark canyon – a home for vultures by day, a place for wolves and hyenas at night. The phrase “shadow of death” is more literally “deep darkness.”
This real-life deadly valley is south of the Jericho Road leading from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and is a narrow pass through the mountain range. Climate and grazing conditions made it necessary for the sheep to be moved through this valley for seasonal feeding.
The valley is four and a half miles long. Its sidewalls are over 1500 feet high in places and it is only 10 or 12 feet wide at the bottom. Traveling through the valley is dangerous, because its floor, badly eroded by rain and flash floods through the years, has deep gullies. Actual footing on solid rock is so narrow in places that sheep cannot turn around, and it is an unwritten law of shepherds that flocks must go up the valley in the morning hours and down the valley towards the evening, in the event that flocks might meet in the middle. Mules have not been able to make the trip for centuries, but sheep and goat herders from earliest Old Testament days maintained a passage for their stock.
If the sheep slips and lands in the gully, the shepherd’s staff is brought into play. The old-style crook is encircled around a large sheep’s neck or a small sheep’s chest, and it is lifted to safety.
In those times, wild dogs lived in the shadows of the valley looking for prey. If the lead sheep are troubled, (and I’m told there is a bleating sound that the shepherd will know if sheep are at risk that is different from their happier baaaa)the shepherd jumps to their aid and uses his rod to protect the sheep. The sheep learn to fear no evil, even in the valley of the shadow of death, for their shepherd is there to aid them and protect them from harm.
The promise of Scripture is not a life without valleys. The promise of Jesus is that he will never leave us or forsake us!
That is our second truth.
2. We must learn to expect life to make hard turns. More than that we must challenge our assumptions and ask why it is that we expect that we will somehow not experience the loss and turbulence of life. It should not surprise us. It should not throw us off our path. It should not cause us to take our eyes off Christ, whom we are hidden in so safely. We must have faith that:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”
Remember this little story?
- Matthew 8:23-27
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
“Why do you have so little faith?” or it may be better for us to read this in this manner, “You should know me better by now.”
Thanks for connecting here at Backyard Conversations and please check out our homepage interactive site, “The Kingdom of God is like . . .”It is a collection of modern parables, poems, and word pictures that may be helpful in understanding the Gospel of the Kingdom in a refreshing, spiritual manner! Until next time, thanks for joining us here at 100foldministries.org.