For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the
time being.
In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first
posting in the series – John 14 (One).
We continue from
the previous message and in
order to complete it, here is a lovely story.
An art school once presented a
competition to promote peace in the world. Artists from all over were asked to
create a picture or a painting illustrating peace. All kinds of pictures and
paintings were entered. There were pictures of people at peace, peaceful nature
scenes, but the one that perplexed the judges the most was a painting of a
severe storm. It was an excellent piece of art, which actually came alive as
you looked at it. One could see the wind howling, the trees and brushes bending
and the waves of the sea rolling high. At first look they wondered what it had
to do with peace, until they noticed it very clearly on a ledge in the cliff
above the raging sea.
A bird sat on a nest completely at rest and relaxed. In
the midst of this raging storm she was at peace since her nest was built on the
rock, out of the reach of the storm.
Jesus said that He leaves us peace. He said he does not
give like the world does. How does the world give? It gives to receive back,
but Jesus gives unconditionally. We need not be anxious or afraid because even
though the storms of life attack in all its severity, with Jesus we have peace.
That is why a father and mother can stand in a ditch with all their small
children singing songs of praise to God while they are being buried alive
because they refused to deny Jesus. That is why the church under persecution
grows so fast. That is why Stephen could say “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing” while
he was being stoned to death.
Doesn’t matter what happen to our bodies and to our
external circumstances – in Jesus we have peace. That is why it is so important
not to live for this present world, but to always have our eyes fixed on our
eternal destination (Hebrews 12).
Lord, give us grace to live
only for you and your peace.
Thank you Lord that
your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not
return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the
purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you
think others may benefit by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment