This Elusive Peace

When Jesus Christ (Yeshua ha Maschiach, in Aramaic)  was born in Bethlehem, angels appeared to very ordinary shepherd folk looking after their sheep on the hills of Bethlehem and declared.

Glory to God in the highest! Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all men!

The angels proclaimed peace for all of mankind at the birth of the divine child Jesus.  In fact the Holy Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.  This “peace” is not just a mere cessation of hostilities, nor is it just political peace between two warring parties, it is a peace that goes beyond this, it is a peace that brings wholeness to the individual, a community, a nation.  It brings prosperity, it brings rest, and it removes worries.  That is the kind of peace that God was offering mankind through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Hence Jesus Christ is rightly called, the “Saviour of the World” and the “Prince of Peace.”  Because He is the One who can bring that peace that everyone’s talking about – between nations, individuals and within individuals – but no one’s able to bring about.

The Holy Bible also exhorts us,

Do not be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and petition present your requests to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. [Philippians 4:6, 7].

We can look at it like this, if we have peace within ourselves, we can have peace with others.  People everywhere are trying hard to find this peace, they are searching for this for generations, every individual is searching for it, but real peace has been so elusive. 

Even nations are searching for this peace, they form peace treaties and pacts, but they still keep developing weapons of ever higher sophistication, of greater destructive capability.

What does this tell us about human nature?  There’s something that’s gone badly berserk – something that needs an eternal fix, otherwise these conflicts between nations and our internal conflicts will never cease.

The Holy Bible has a special insight into the human nature.  It clearly tells us that:

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. [Romans 3:22,23].

This thing called “sin” is at work in human nature which is robbing every individual of peace.  This “sin” is rebelliousness of man against his/her Creator.  For through disobedience and denial of the Living God, man is separated from His Creator.  But God in His mercy and unfailing compassion for mankind, set about in motion a plan to rescue us, to bring us back to Him, to remove sin and to establish peace.  He came down to earth and became one of us.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. [Ephesians 2:17].

And Christ paid the ultimate price for our sin.  He stood in our place before God and took all the punishment we deserve for our sin. 

For the wages of sin is death. [Romans 6:23].

Christ Jesus died on the cross for us, paid all that is due of us to God because of our sin.  Jesus Christ brought us: peace with God, peace between individuals and peace to have in ourselves.

For He Himself is our peace. [Ephesians 2:14a].

So, despite all our shortcomings, God is continually working to bring about peace within our inner-selves, peace between us and Him, and so to bring lasting peace to all earth.

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

How can anyone now say:  "God hasn't done anything for me!"  We can see from what we read so far that God has done everything for us.  He realised our need for peace with Him, peace within ourselves, peace with our family members and peace with our neighbours.  

If only we would welcome Christ Jesus (Yeshua ha Maschiach, Issy Mahsee, Yeesu Masih) into our hearts, we would begin to experience this true, all elusive peace in our hearts and in our lives.

Simple Message of Truth

You know something, the first time Christ came, He came as a baby, completely vulnerable. He came full of grace and compassion towards the people. He healed people, opened the eyes of the blind, gave legs to the lame and paralysed, made lepers clean, He gave speech to the mute, healed the deaf, He fed the hungry and ultimately He demonstrated the greatest power - He raised the dead back to life!!  This is unprecedented and unmatched.  Christ has the power to give life to the dead because He has power over life and power over death.  This means He is the source of life, the One from whom life comes.  Hence He has the power to make the broken, the sick, the diseased, the hungry and the starved both living and dead whole. 

Over and above and beyond all that, Christ paid for the very reason, the very reason why everything that's born on earth has to die.  He paid for the "sin" (papam) of one and every man and woman once and for all, by offering Himself as the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

This is the Gospel - the Good News - for the whole world, for every people of every tribe, language, nation, no matter where they are. It is the Good News of salvation.

This same Jesus, healed members of our family, of limbs that were twisted were restored of my cousin-in-law, of my father when he was admitted to hospital, Christ healed him!  Jesus Christ did several other miracles in our family lives.  That was what He did two thousand years ago, that is what He's doing even right now.  We know many members in our church who were once worshipping all kinds of "gods", and had sicknesses of different kinds.  The doctors couldn't help, the gods couldn't help but when they called upon Jesus, He healed them.  Hence they recognised Christ as the True and Living One, gave their lives to Him and started to come to our church.  The evidence is there for all to see.

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," says the Living God. Jeremiah 29:13.