PEACE ON PLANET EARTH

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. —Luke 12:51-53

So people many cry out for peace. “Has the world ever been at peace? Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.” http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/0713-1st-hedges.html Yet, this is only defining war as conflicts where there are over 1000 people who have died. The only peace that this world has ever known was before Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. There was perfect peace then, but after they sinned conflict immediately erupted in their own relationship and murder was committed with one of their sons, Cain, killing the other, Abel. There will be no universal, on-going peace until the Prince of Peace puts all enemies under His feet, including death.

In the above verses we see that conflict because of Jesus will always be happening until Jesus finally reigns. It is sad, but among one owns family there will be a lack of peace because of Jesus. When an individual makes the choice to follow Jesus, you can be sure that as that person lives for Him and shares with their family, there will be conflict.

I remember when I first trusted Jesus and sought to share Him with my family. My dad would almost immediately get angry and leave the room— even though he had “a religious Christian” up-bringing. My mom would listen to some degree and then she did not want to hear about Jesus anymore. So it was with other members of my family. I am grateful that my parents and older sister, all who have died, each made professions of faith before they died. I truly hope they were sincere and I will find out one day.

There will not be any lasting peace on this planet among the nations of the world and there will not be any total peace even among the individual families of the world. There are those who just do not want to follow Jesus and that is their choice—- sad as it is. But then there are those who act against Jesus and act against those who follow Him. It is not enough that they do not want to follow Jesus. No, they seek to destroy those who follow Jesus because they have lost their senses, are trapped by the devil “who has taken them captive to do his will” (II Timothy 2:22-26). May many of them come to repentance.

Dear Father, please give me wisdom as I seek to share the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. May it be so.

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