Praise the Lord for this wonderful
time of the year. The Lord blessed with a soul full weekend. The service of
remembrance and thanksgiving for Dave Ring, a faithful servant of Jesus, was a
blessing. So many people attended. Many testified how Dave had touched their
lives, how he had shared the love of Christ with them. There was a big dinner
reception following the service, where there was sweet fellowship. In the
evening on Saturday the St. Petersburg Men's ensemble presented an anointed
concert of Russian Classical and Sacred music. It is always treat for us have
them with us. They also shared at the first worship service yesterday. It was
a Christmas blessing and treat. The Lord blessed us in His house yesterday. I
preached at Union Center. Alice preached at Wesley. During the lighting of the
second Advent candle the family shared about the peace that we have in Christ.
Praise the Lord; Peace that came
down to the world on the first Christmas. "Peace on earth and good will to all
men". The Divine peace promised by God cannot be acquired through any of the
countless consumer items of our materialistic society. Peace is the certain knowledge that everything we
have been told about God is true and certain. I have peace in times of crisis
because I know "the Lord will make a way somehow." I have peace in the time of
death because I know "when the earthly house we live in shall be destroyed, we
have another building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens."
Yesterday, December 7, was Pearl
Harbor Day. Peace is our deeply held conviction that wars will stop not when
one army defeats another but rather when all armies "beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and study war no more." In other
words, peace comes as I rely less and less on the things of this world and rely
more and more on the promises of God. That is why Isaiah
26:3(NKJV) could declare,
"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
you."
Peace is not limited or reserved for
those times in life when everything is in perfect order. Peace is not the
absence of tension or hardship; peace is the presence of tranquility within you
in the midst of whatever storms may be raging around you. Peace is not a
guarantor that every day will be easy and smooth. Instead, peace is the fruit of
the spirit that blossoms in our souls and reminds us that even though we walk
through the valley of the shadow of death we can fear no evil because God is
with us.
Living with a spirit of peace in the
midst of the storms of life is what Herman Melville was describing in the
character of the harpooner in his novel Moby Dick. Melville
portrayrd all of the characters on the whaling vessel busy at work as they seek
out the great whale that has become the obsession of Captain Ahab. Everybody on
board is furiously at work except one, the harpooner. The harpooner is sitting
still and undisturbed. The harpooner is not caught up in the frenzy that
involves a ship sailing through a storm to catch up to and then kill a giant
whale. Instead, wrote Melville, "The harpooner sits in tranquility and rises
with a sense of calm to do his work." The storm and the fury are going on all
around him, but the harpooner is able to maintain a sense of tranquility and
calm that allows him to do his job.
That is what peace looks like:
tranquility and calm in the midst of the storms of life that allow you to get on
with your life and do what needs to be done. That kind of peace does not come
from anything this world can provide. That kind of peace comes only from God
and, more precisely, from our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Prince of
Peace.
In Jesus the Prince of
Peace.
Brown
http://youtu.be/-s_n_ycNvP8
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