Good Morning.
I am increasingly weary of the divisions that mar our country and our community. Even within the Christian community we find many of the same divisions pushing people away from one another. This cannot be the will of God or the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must understand that the increasing bitterness and rage between people of differing opinions and loyalties is from the enemy. It certainly feels as though that is the case because distrust and hatred have too often taken the place of discourse.
I am not, for this thought of the day, going to join in the shouting and proclaim my opinions as truth. Instead, I would like to have us consider peace. Is there any hope for peace in such a bitter and argumentative world? In a word, yes.
As bitter as our feelings might be for some of those who vocally oppose what we consider to be our righteous and reasonable opinion, the Jews and the gentiles who surrounded them were worse. They hated each other. There was no mutual trust, and there wasn’t much of a desire to improve the situation. Then came Jesus. We read this from Ephesians 2:14-16 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
When there is mutual faith, and a mutual submission to the will of God, and a mutual turning to Jesus as the answer, there is peace. Jesus Himself is our peace, because Jesus Himself has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. In Jesus, we are all reconciled. When that truth is the focal point of our joy, what could be the reason for hatred and division?
If it is our desire to see our world blessed by peace the answer is to give them Jesus.
Vern