On Peace and Genuine Meaning Found in Christ

"There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22).

In sin, one continually is at war with himself and God; there is no lasting peace in wrong doing. The wanderer flees unceasingly. As I said yesterday, of a widely known thought, each man, woman, and child can look heavenward and call out to the Creator and have lasting peace. In my life I ought to take more thought of the advantages which this peace prepares inside of me.

The Christian no longer needs to hunger or thirst for meaning here in this world because he has been fed and watered with the contentment found in Christ. As He said, "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John 6:33). Christians needn't any other particular to attain fulfillment inside, as there is no void to fill. When there is no hole there is no need to continue piling on substitutes for the peace he already has. If Christians pine for more, they do so in vain. Nothing else can stop the hunger or quench the thirst as Jesus does. He gives life, but the earth only gives death.

I have been trying to keep active lately, waiting for the test results from Monday to reach Milgard and in turn reach me. A lesson rings out over and over again Johnny Cash's song: "Don't take your guns to town." That's not quite it. The actual lesson for myself is that I must not restrict my ears and eyes to one goal, such as looking to the potentiality an upcoming job, but on all things in life--having broad vision and ambitions. Although, Johnny Cash has a few good points in his Western ballads (like the senselessness of killing, as one music critic pointed out), keeping our focus on the Lord is the best advice we ought to adhere to. Look at Philippians 3:20-21. The apostle Paul wrote to the church:

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."

As the latest peace talks unfold between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the new Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, who have had a few meetings in the "process," we will see how long the potential peace lasts. Each treaty seems to be made to cover the last treaty, and the last treaty for the last. This generational game of flip-flop between each nation is one more accessory which comes with time I suppose; it is never eradicated, for there is always a new conflict that will come along. John Lennon was a dreamer, I will give him that, and he wasn't the only one of the kind he supposed himself to be. But could you imagine peace between nations as the world currently now exists and works? The most effective way to have peace is to have control, something which many dictators and idealist have given a nod to; utopian despotism is the only way a world could attempt to make peace. The idea is you won't have any conflicts if everyone is on the same level. But any government of man is destined to falter.

To Pilate Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36).