Opening Thoughts
Where is all this coming from? Well I give an introduction this mini-series here. As well as that, it’s important to point out the book I was reading that inspired it. Howard Snyder’s Kingdom Lifestyle mentioned this and it is not the first time I’ve come across the role of the ministry of reconciliation and the powerful role peace plays in the life of the believer.
My time at North Staffs YMCA was hugely influential in that as well. The work of engaging with young people, whilst also being healed through critical relationships with people like my CEO and some other very dear colleagues, helped to begin addressing things that I’d left dormant.
Shalom – Where We’re Coming From
The narrative of Holy Scripture begins with God creating heaven and earth. Reading those chapters in Genesis paints a picture of what God had in mind and what God will bring about in the consummation of creation – namely Shalom. Wholeness. At times I think that man is the centrepiece and masterpiece of God’s creation. In a way we are, and in a way we are not.
This piece will assume we are, but briefly on how we are not. The eternal plan of God to bring all things under Christ makes every aspect of creation important to God. Acknowledging that should make us mindful of creation as a whole and I believe has certain stewardship implications for how we deal with what God has created. More of that, however, in a later blog entry on this series.
God, however, created man in His own image and likeness. Man would not be completely whole, unless he acknowledged and connected constantly to this reality. That concept I like to think of as worship. I know some see worship as the slow songs that make us cry in church services, but worship is much broader than that and incorporates all of life.
Or it should.
Where It All Went Wrong
For at a critical juncture in the early narrative we have a crossroads in man’s relationship with God. Following Adam’s decision to disobey God’s order not to eat, his act of rebellion set in motion both the plan of salvation and the fractured nature of man to God. In the New Testament Paul would write of how we have all fallen short of the glory because of the innate nature to rebel against God, also known as sin.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ culminated a story of God’s efforts to depict what right relationship should be like between His created and Himself. The Old Testament portrayed example after example of God’s relations both with Israel and key figures in their history. The ups and downs of those relationships with the underlying current that however much God loved the people, there would be a tendency to err and they were prone to wander.
This mirrors the breach and separation that existed between God and man. To the extent that we were in so many ways the enemy of God. Our rebellion and rebellious nature, our refusal to rightly acknowledge Him for who He is and how we are implicitly reliant on Him for everything resides in even the smallest selfish acts we commit. The breach is enormous between God and oruselves.
Jesus To The Rescue – The Original Peacemaker
Jesus coming repairs the breach – and this is a big deal. The impact of the breach explains so much about the world we live in. The very desire for man to search for peace and hardly realise it echoes the breach that is in place between man and God.
No rituals and ceremonies could bridge the gap. No formal systems and strategies could make us turn from the enemies tot he friends of God. That God Himself should bring this about in His son gives us reason to look forward to the consummation of creation as well as consider again the peace God had with us at the very beginning. It gives us reason to live now in the peace we have with god and fully experience the blessing that flow from that, even as they flow through flawed and frail beings like ourselves.
What Jesus does to bring peace with God cannot be underestimated. It really does change everything. Our perspective on ourselves, our perspective on others, our perspective on the world in which we live, they are now being moulded into a desire to see the shalom of God expressed. It is not a pipe dream and it’s not a quest for utopia – it is a hope and desire sourced in the very Creator Himself.
I Am At Peace With God: The Impact
The impact that peace with God had and has on me continues to be huge. Incorporated in the concept of peace with God is the forgiveness of sin and that for me is huge. I am constantly reminded of my sin and thanks to the peace Christ has given me with God those reminders are overshadowed by the reality that in Christ all sin has been forgiven.
God now has made it possible for me to relate with Him free from guilt and free from shame. God now has made it possible for me to hear Him and see Him at work in all areas of my life and embrace the things He chooses to give me. I can talk about how I don’t deserve them, but the peace He has brought about makes that issue piffling and trifling to Him. The peace I have with God turns me from a rebel to His servant. The peace I have with Him turns me from a renegade to His son.
That ability to relate to the Creator of the universe, the Father Himself through His Son by His Spirit continues to be a mind-blowing experience. Now everything else means nothing unless it’s from His perspective and in the light of what He has to say some of the things that trouble me I realise are stepping stones in the journey to being just like Him. What is even more amazing, is that this is the truth whatever my feelings say.
This is true when I am depressed and feel lonely. This is true when I feel neglected. This is true when I feel I’ve messed it up. This is true when I feel under considerable pressure and unable to cope. The peace with God thus balances things out to stop me dwelling in myself and recognise that God Himself still chooses to live in me to make me whole and chooses to do so as I see more of Him and embrace the peace I have with Him.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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