Brown's Daily Word 1/14/15

    Praise the Lord for this new day.  We will get together for our Wednesday Evening gathering this evening at 6 PM with a special meal followed by Bible Study at 6:30 PM and the choir practice at 7:30 PM.  We will be looking at the Book of Joel.  It was very cold yesterday though it was sunny and brilliant.  Spring is not far away.  Praise the Lord for Jesus, who is the Son that was given.  He is the Child that is born.  He is the Prince of Peace.  "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

 

    Some time ago read about a painting that depicted " Peace".  At one county fair there was a contest for the best “peaceful” painting.  There were three finalists, three pictures of peace.  The first picture of peace was of a farm in Wisconsin.  We can on this wintry day imagine that farm in our minds, with its fences along the roadside all painted freshly white.  The barn was a bright red and the farmhouse had been recently painted red as well, with white trim freshly painted on all the windows.  The grass of the pasture was luscious green, with well-fed Holstein cows grazing on that tall grass, and small birds perfectly chirping their delightful songs as they flew above the cows, grazing there in peace.  This picture entered the contest but it didn’t win. 

 

    The second picture of peace was from a scene on Puget Sound at five thirty in the morning, with the sun slowly rising with its rose hues on the water, with no wind, and no airplanes and no boats, with only seagulls lazily gliding on the air, effortless.  This scene was and perfect, serene, and so peaceful.  Yet, it too did not win. 

 

    The third picture was that of a large, tall, magnificent waterfall, a cataract splashing its waters down on the rocks for at least two hundred feet.  Strangely or not so strangely, at the base of that waterfall were yellow arches from McDonald’s with all their trashing wrappers spilling over from the garbage can.  On the other side of the magnificent waterfall was a freeway, with thousands of cars endlessly roaring by.  On top of that high cliff where the waterfall originated, was a campground, and people were having a blast of a party and hundreds of empty soda cans came floating over that waterfall and into the pool below.  Meanwhile, there was jackhammer blasting away concrete at its base and electric power saws were whining away with new construction.  There was a tree which had grown very tall through the years, standing near that waterfall, and at the top of the tree, a branch reached out towards the water, and in that branch was a bird’s nest, and in that bird’s nest were three blue eggs and a mother robin was sitting on those eggs in that nest in the tree limb near the waterfall, with all the chaos around it.  The picture was entitled, “Peace,” and that picture of peace won the prize.  … 

    

    This is our understanding of God’s peace in Jesus, the Prince of peace.  God’s peace is not to run away from the chaos and the conflict all around us and inside of us.  Jesus's  peace within  and in the midst of it..  "When peace like a river attendeth my soul..."

 

     May Jesus the Prince pf Peace overwhelm us with His peace today.

 In Jesus.

   Brown

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