Being at Peace

 

Edward F. Lundwall, Jr.

Webster’s dictionary defines peace as a state of tranquility. However, to be at peace with evil never brings tranquility, only chaos. Peace with Satan means war with God.

Imagine the emotional experience the soldiers had in World War I when peace was declared. They were about to rush out of the trenches to face the machine guns. The battles had taken the lives of many thousands of their fellow soldiers. They were facing imminent destruction and then the message of the Armistice came! Peace, peace, not bullets!

But the peace lasted for a short 2 decades before the greater suffering of World War II. 

A heart doctor wrote about how he was trying to save a man’s life by strongly pumping on his chest. Instead of asking relief from the painful pushing, as many others had, the patient cried out for the doctor to keep it up.

He said: “It's so terrible, over there!” 

After several repetitions, the doctor repeated several Bible verses to him. When the man revived, he related a great peace he felt during his loss of consciousness. He had trusted God’s promises!

I too have experienced that kind of inner peace. Once, it was like sitting in a rowboat in a lake without a ripple or slight movement of air. Another time, after I was immersed in baptismal waters, I experienced pure joy coming down on my head as honey poured from a bucket. My experience of God’s peace was glorious!

This is the peace that passes human understanding. It is more than tranquility. It is a foretaste of life eternal in the peaceable kingdom.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13).

Related reading: How Do You React to Adverse Circumstances?; Our Hope of Perfect Peace

Dallas Willard on Worship

 

Professor Dallas Willard championed the cause of evangelicalism.

(Courtesy of USC University archives)

The core of the person is what he or she loves, and that is bound up with what they worship - that insight recalibrates the radar for cultural analysis. The rituals and practices that form our loves spill out well beyond the sanctuary. Many secular liturgies are trying to get us to love some other kingdom and some other gods.  Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard was an American philosopher known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. Much of his work in philosophy was related to phenomenology, particularly the work of Edmund Husserl, many of whose writings he translated into English for the first time. He is considered a "champion of Evangelicalism".

He was longtime Professor of Philosophy at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, teaching at the school from 1965 until his death in 2013 and serving as the department chair from 1982 to 1985.

Related reading: C.S. Lewis on Worship; Life Changing Worship; Worship in Spirit and Truth

Risky Worship

 

By Hope Ellen Rapson

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the Jesus had raised from the dead. So, they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive Nard, anointed Jesus’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair. So, the House was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…" John 12:1-8


Shortly after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus, Lazarus, and Lazarus' two sisters were invited to a dinner with family friends. This event was in direct defiance to the orders of the Sanhedrin edict that anyone who knew where Jesus was, should report it so that they could arrest him (John 11:57).

Mary chose to worship and honor Jesus by helping to serve the meal, no doubt with a heart of joy. After all, her sole legal protection and financial provision in society had been restored when Lazarus was restored to life. Mary chose to worship and honor Jesus another way. Washing someone’s feet was considered degrading, but Mary washed the Lord’s feet with twelve ounces of undiluted perfume (nard) worth a year’s wages. Furthermore, she dried the Lord’s feet with her hair, which was expected to be completely covered as a sign of purity and piety. All the guests, and especially Mary, recklessly abandoned and disregarded their culture’s expectations and concerns; they purposed in their hearts to follow Jesus as “God in their midst.”

Are you ready to take risks to align yourself with Jesus? Are you willing to “worship Christ in spirit and in truth?”

Related reading: Worship in Spirit and Truth; C.S. Lewis on Worship; Life-Changing Worship