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Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Peace is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)

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How are your relationships doing?

Are your relationships at peace?

It may be easy to answer, “Yes, they are!” to this question.

But are they?

How do you know?  Perhaps a few questions.

Is there someone in your work place, school, or church with whom you are ok not interacting and avoiding?

Is there someone with whom you have to interact regularly that irritates you, but you put on a happy facade and pretend everything is ok?

When someone asks you, “How are you doing?” you say, “OK” but really you want to lay into them and “let them have it”?

Because very few of us enjoy or willing to engage in conflict, we often settle for a superficial peace with others.  On the outside, it “seems” like everything is good…we may even say that it is, but inside there is a rift and resentment that is growing.

So how does the gift of Jesus in Bethlehem affect peace in our relationships with others?

While I’m not a huge fan of the “What would Jesus do?” phrase, I do appreciate the thought, “What has Jesus done?”  When I look at what Jesus has done for me, it inspires and motivates me to interact with others the same way.  It is not easy, but there is blessing when Jesus’ interaction with me can inspire and empower me to engage with others in a similar way.

• Jesus came for me because he loved me.  Jesus helps me to see people and love them.

We love because he first loved us.  I was not the perfect, huggable, lovable person we seek to have in other people.  I was a natural enemy of God, yet Jesus came because he loved me.  While I was still sinful, Jesus loved me.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• Jesus came for me to forgive me.  Jesus helps me to interact with people and forgive them.

Jesus came to this world to restore my relationship with his heavenly Father.  In order to do that a perfect life was needed and payment for sin was needed.  He did both…for me.  Only because of the forgiveness of Jesus am I able to now “forgive as I have been forgiven.”

Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

• Jesus came to serve me.  Jesus helps me see people’s needs and serve them.

Jesus had every right to demand others serve him.  He had the right to refuse to serve people who sinned against him.  But he didn’t.  Without any return on his investment of time, he served us to save us.  So, as hard as it is, we serve others because we have been served by Jesus…even when it is hard or “not deserved.”

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Is living at peace, true peace, with people easy?  Nope.  But true peace is much more a blessing than superficial peace.  So receive the gift of Jesus as a gift to your relationships and learn from him to love, forgive and serve as you have been loved, forgiven and served.

Apply:  Think of a relationship in which you are experiencing a more superficial peace.  How might Jesus’ love, forgiveness, or service motivate you to work to restore a true peace with that individual?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for loving, forgiving and serving me.  Help me to build peace with others by loving, forgiving and serving them.  AMEN.

Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Peace is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)

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“I don’t feel like praying.”

“I’ll get to church next week.”

“God just doesn’t seem real to me right now.”

“We should probably find a church for the kids.”

Have you ever found yourself thinking or saying these things or similar? 

Perhaps there is little significance in the words.  However, articulating these thoughts could be symptomatic of a deeper issue:

You are lacking peace with God.

Deflections, excuses, busyness and more can all be reasons we drift from God.  It’s not just that we “got busy,” but subconsciously we really don’t want to be around God.  A person may just say, “I don’t believe in God anymore.” Or they may concede, “They should…but just don’t see the need for it.”

Perhaps the real reason is they have no peace with God…and are concerned what he would communicate to them if they interacted with him.

After the first sin the reaction of Adam and Eve was to hide from God.

Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 

God hadn’t changed, but the behavior of Adam and Eve broke the peace they enjoyed with God.

This reality happens in human relationships.  If you wronged someone, or they wronged you and their is a relational strain, the natural tendency is to avoid that person…or hide from them. (Why do fugitives run from the law?  They know their behavior has broken the peace between them and their community!)

So an avoidance of God, in whatever fashion for whatever amount of time is a sign of a lack of peace with God.

The solution?

Perhaps we think we can do more good to balance the scale, try harder or do better than most others…but the reality,  our performance, since it lacks in perfection, will always leave a question of whether we have peace with God.

So what we cannot establish on our own, God does for us.  He takes the initiative and does the work to establish peace with us.  How?  The Apostle Paul describes:

Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

What reestablishes peace with God is the perfect life, innocent death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Feel a lack of peace with God?  The place to look is the cross and hear God say to you, “You are forgiven.  Jesus died for you.  We are at peace.”

And then you don’t have to hide from God ever again!

Apply: Evaluate your relationship with God. Are you close to him or avoiding him?  What unresolved sin can you take to Jesus at the cross and hear his words and see his work of forgiveness?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for establishing peace with my soul through the blood of Jesus. AMEN.

Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Peace is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)

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“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)

These words of the angels are familiar at Christmas time.  Perhaps the phrase that is taken from this context is “Peace on earth.”  This phrase appears all over decorations, store decor, home wall-hangings, and words of radio DJ’s.  

Peace on earth resonates so well because we all want it.  Perhaps for a brief season of the year we can bring to an end, or at least a pause, all the things that disrupt our peace.

And they are many.

A short listen to the news and the word of inflation and economic woes coupled with crime and wars and rumors of war, scandals, and political corruption.  Can’t that all just go away?

It doesn’t take much to disrupt the peace in our hearts.  An email that carries bad news.  A text message that expresses frustration.  A smash and grab of your purse from your car. An illness that is worse than expected.  A loved one lost to disease and death.  A financial emergency that you don’t have money to cover.  

Again the list is long.

Sometimes it may feel that the words of the angels are like the false prophets in Jeremiah 6:13-14 whom God condemned as they proclaimed a false peace.

Jeremiah 6:13-14 “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain;

prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.

‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.

That’s just how it feels sometimes.  Peace on earth?   Ba humbug!

Yet the pithy phrase that seems superficial has a depth that God wants us all to receive as his gift and enjoy…amidst all the things that go on in our life and around us that give reason for our peace to be disrupted.

At the heart of the gift of peace is the Son of God wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

But how?

Perhaps a nuance of the word “Shalom” helps.  At the heart of this Hebrew word is a “perfection” or “balance.”  Shalom, often translated “peace,” is a rich picture of what our hearts desire and what God gives.

Like a scale, our hearts desire a balance, a perfect equilibrium.  When things are out of balance, it disrupts our peace.  Shalom is also a wholeness, a state of being where there is no imperfection.

Are you beginning to see the heart of God to bring “shalom” (peace) at Christmas?

Peace comes to those “on whom God’s favor rests.”

The world offers temporary solutions to a lack of peace (peace treaties, financial stimuli, relationship quick fixes, etc.), but the result is simply a temporary fix.  However the eternal God sends an eternal peace to the world and specifically to our hearts.  It’s this peace that truly puts our hearts at balance and a state of wholeness…even when the circumstances around us are a bit in chaos.

More to come this week.

Apply: List the things that are disrupting your peace today.  How might God’s gift of peace through Jesus begin to restore peace in your heart?

Prayer: Lord, you give a peace the world cannot give.  Help us discover or rediscover the wonderful gift you give us at Christmas in the reality of Shalom!  AMEN.

Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Hope is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)

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Life can feel hopeless all too often.

People let you down.

Hard situations are not fun.

News is depressing.

Self-worth is challenged.

Relationships strained.

Knowing hope is found in Jesus is objective truth.

Feeling hope that Jesus gives is subjective…this is what is hard to match one’s head with one’s heart when the above list is going on.

The greatest threat to life is hopelessness.  At times one “dies” while still alive because they  have lost hope.

Hope is a powerful emotional force.  With it we move forward through the hardest of circumstances.  Without it, we find ourselves discouraged, depressed…perhaps even suicidal.

What I have found when we put our hope in things that are temporal, (people, finances, career, family, opportunities, etc.) each one of these enables the possibility for hope to be shattered.  As Tim Keller said in his book Counterfeit Gods, (paraphrasing) “The reality of any counterfeit god is at some point, it will let you down.”

So, this is what makes finding hope in the heart of Christmas so important.  

Jesus brings to you a hope that is certain, real, and solid.

Here’s reasons for hope – even when life seems and feels hopeless:

 

When people let you down, have hope because God will never let you down.

Matthew 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

 

When you are going through hard situations, have hope because God works good out of hard situations.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

 

When the news seems depressing and discouraging, have hope God is still in control.

Ephesians 1:22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 

When you feel worthless and struggle for purpose, have hope because you are a redeemed, gifted, child of God.

1 Peter 1:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 

When your relationships are challenged, have hope that the grace and forgiveness of God has restored your relationship with him and has power to restore human relationships.

Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

 

This hope, and more, is what is God’s gift to you this Christmas.

 

Apply: Which promise of hope are you hanging on to today?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for always giving me hope, even when I feel hopeless. AMEN.

Devotions this week based on Sunday’s Message: Hope is the Heart of Christmas! (LISTEN HERE)

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Who’s in charge?

Elections have consequences.

We just went through mid-term elections to choose our next Senators and Representatives in the US House and Senate as well as local leaders and officials.  Perhaps some of these individuals were people you voted for and based on their campaign speeches and debates, you felt like they brought a policy to the government office that gives you a stronger hope for the future.

Who is in charge affects our feeling of hope (or hopelessness).

Elections are one thing.  How that person actually governs is another thing.  A candidate can bring great “hope” for the future, but do little to actually bring that hope to fruition.

What if we could have someone in charge that would always give us a reason for hope?

On this earth, not possible.  But look at what the prophet Isaiah spoke of in chapter 9:7

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

We will always have human, secular government officials.  While some mistook Isaiah’s prophecy as a promise of a physical government led by God himself (similar to the theocracy of Israel during the time of Moses).  However, Jesus himself said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

So what is the hope this verse of prophecy gives us?

With Jesus in charge, we can always have hope and always have peace…because he is in control. The Apostle Paul spoke of this:

Ephesians 1:19-23 That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Every governing official, whether they realize it or not, is operating under the auspices of God himself.  God is allowing and using secular governments to carry out his plans (just think of Caesar Augustus issuing a decree to tax that brought Jesus’ birth to Bethlehem).

The hope we can have – no matter what politician is in charge – is that we are most importantly part of God’s kingdom where there is perfect righteousness and justice forever.  God will always rule on our behalf and will always accomplish what is best for us.

Apply: What hope do you have knowing the Lord is in control over all world affairs?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for assuring us that all things are under your control and you guide all things for the benefit of us, your people, the Church.  AMEN.