Peace...

One of my favorite scenes from my favorite movies is the gas station fight from Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo+Juliet.

In it members of the Capulet and Montague families get into a heated debate. As it escalates, Tybalt - Juliet's short-tempered cousin - makes this ominous statement:

"Peace? Peace. I hate the word."

Most of us probably wouldn't say we hate peace; but we might say we have none.

Oh. We may pretend to have peace. Or we are striving to have peace. Maybe we have a ten-step plan to how we are going to get peace into our life. But we haven't attained it yet.

So when we read things in the Bible like Ephesians 1:2:

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

we struggle.

We struggle because we feel like somehow we've missed out on something everyone else has. But our real problem is that we have mistook PEACE as something we can obtain.

Peace isn't something you obtain; it's something God has already given.

So why don't we have peace?

One of two things. Maybe we don't have peace because we are still allowing our sin to define us. We are a believer. We've trusted Christ as our Savior. We even love Him. But we can't shake that feeling that we aren't good enough.

Because of that one thing. That one night. That one thought. That one mistake.

So we continue to identify ourself as a sinner. But Paul in the verse right before what we just read tells us a different picture:

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the SAINTS who are in Ephesus, and are faithful IN CHRIST JESUS" (Ephesians 1:1 ESV)

See, if we are a believer of Christ, if our hope is IN CHRIST, then our identity is that of a SAINT in God's eyes. He already paid our debt, appeased His wrath and washed us clean. So we need to stop rejecting God's peace and accept His grace.

The other possibility on our peace-lessness, is maybe we don't have peace. If you aren't a believer in Christ. If you haven't asked Him to be your Savior. If you are still trusting in your own ability to be a good person, then you won't have peace because you are still an object of God's wrath. The ONLY remedy is for you to humble yourself, admit your sins and accept Christ's sacrifice on the cross as a substitution for your debt. It is only then that you will find peace.

If you have any questions about any of this, please post in the comments or send an email to ministryonpurpose@hotmail.com.

Also if you are local to us in Buffalo, MO, join us on Sunday as we look at a man who tried everything before he found peace.