PEACE on EARTH

Lately I have been burdened by this need to get down to the Truth and get rid of this sugar-coated Christian life I have been leading. Somehow in the 8 years that I have known the Lord, I have allowed the Christian culture to seep into my life.....a culture that is more guided by the things of this world than by the Word......by what is popular and peace-keeping rather than what may bring persecution and conflict.

In my quiet time this morning I was struck, yet again by this same need. I have been going through the book of Matthew and this morning I came across Matthew 10:34-36.....

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

If I were to ask you, before reading this, if Christ came to bring peace on earth, what would your answer have been? Mine would have been a resounding YES. And the thoughts it would have brought about are those of everyone getting along......world peace, if you will.

But this is one of those lies our culture has taught us. We live in a peace-keeping society. We want to make everyone happy all of the time. We believe that because Christ is loving that means we are to be loving (peace-keeping).

When you take a closer look, you see that peace-keeping does not = love in the scriptures. You see that Christ did NOT come to bring peace BETWEEN men but FOR men. Christ came to bring peace to our souls, not to our society. Of course, if all people had Christ residing in their hearts, their would be world peace but scripture tells us that will not happen this side of heaven.

And from this I must take away a resolve to live in the TRUTH, to not always try to make everyone happy, and to not rely on what the Christian culture teaches me but to bathe myself in the Word so that it will reside in my heart.