Peace on Earth

This past Sunday, an interesting lesson was shared.  Our Sunday School (SS), aka Life Group, teacher threw out the idea of Peace on Earth.  What does that mean, he questioned.

You see it on Christmas cards, you hear people talk about it, but have you ever really thought about what Peace on Earth would literally look like, and/or mean?

Interesting. 

We looked at three versus.

1) Luke 2:8-14
2) Isaiah 9:6-7
3) Luke 12:49-51

1) Luke 2:8-14 (New International Version, ©2010)

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
 ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

2) Isaiah 9:6-7 (New International Version, ©2010)

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

3) Luke 12:49-51 (New International Version, ©2010) 
Not Peace but Division - this is Jesus speaking
    ⁴⁹ “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! ⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

If you're like me, and some others in our class, reading the first two versus was kind of like, yada yada yada, yes, Christ was born and there was peace on earth - we've heard it a hundred times.  But the third verse was like a record screeching to a halt.  (Wish I could type that sound).  Also, in no way am I saying the birth of Christ was old news, just that we've heard those versus so many times, we naturally do the 'peace on earth, good will to men' out of habit.


If you look more closely:
Verse 1: Christ was born, the angels said do not fear, there will be peace on earth to whom his favor rests.
Verse 2: Foreshadows Christ's birth; there will be no end to HIS peace
Verse 3: Jesus says "you think I came to GRANT peace on earth? No, rather division."


SO, what in the world was Jesus talking about in the third verse???

When there isn't peace in your life, that typically means you aren't willing to surrender.  It's a struggle and a conflict to surrender things you may be dealing with.  Things you want to handle on your own.  And it will always be a struggle, because we're human.  Also, when we do start having a good, close relationship with God, beware of pride coming in to trip you. 

David, our teacher, said to think about all of the peace treaties in world history.  He asked if we could think of one, where one side did not surrender in some way.  There was only one - the peace treaty between North and South Korea.  No one actually surrendered, thus there being no actual peace between the two today.

If you want peace in your life, you must continually surrender, every day.  And for those uncomfortable with the term 'surrender' - don't look at it as a power struggle.  Look at surrendering things as a relief.  There are very stressful, consuming situations in my life, that I breathe a sigh of relief over, when I surrender them over to God to handle.  It's lightening.  

So, mabye what Jesus was saying in the 3rd verse was that achieving individual peace, would cause division.  It may cause conflict internally for you, and it may cause division with our culture, or a group of people, or other circles and relationships in your life.  

So when you hear Peace on Earth, instead of thinking how nice that sounds, and how wonderful that would be, look inward and see where you can make room to receive the peace Christ can give you.

Disclaimer: I do not claim these thoughts to be my own entirely.  Most borrowed from said SS lesson.  Attributed to David Ummel.  

What a Weekend!

God is good.  I have had the best last four days, and I feel really blessed.  Philip is out of town, and while that does not have anything to do with me having such an outstanding weekend, I have to mention it, because usually when he's out of town things are really crazy, and by that I mean - I'm really crazy.  It's typically me and the kids and eventually them driving me crazy.  Anway, I have had a wonderful last few days and wanted to share.

Thursday, Christi stopped by for a quick visit, which was really nice, because we haven't seen each other in forever, and it was wonderful to visit and get a hug.  That evening Gin, Holly, Candy and I shared coffee (or warm milk for some) and many, many laughs, which always turn into tears from laughing so ridiculously hard.  I treasure our time together.  It's so good and to be able to catch up even if for just a few hours and have a good laugh or two. 

Friday evening my parents graciously obliged to keep the kids while I went to a baby shower for a friend from church.  It was a couples shower and the kids were welcome to come, but it was nice to go and visit, and catch up with everyone from our Life Group class.  After the shower I headed out to Tennisonville for MORE girl time.  We had SO much fun visiting, swapping stories, laughing, laughing, and laughing some more until 4:30 Saturday morning!  I haven't stayed up that late in a very long time, and while I was a wee bit tired the next day, it was so worth it.  My heart and soul had been restored with time spent with some of the females in my life, and I am very grateful to my parents for keeping the precious urchins, and to God for good friends.

Saturday I took the kids to see the new Shrek after running errands, and while there were parts that were certainly more geared towards adults it was pretty cute and they had a good time. We had a pretty good, fairly lazy rest of the day - doing some coloring and painting and watching a few cartoons.

And finally, today.  I went to a new Parenting study for Life Group this morning, which will last 6-weeks, and really enjoyed it.  I'll keep you posted on what I learn.  And, I have to say, this morning's worship service was one of the best I've been to in a long time.  For many reasons.  We've combined our two services into one for the time being, and so they've blended the worship between traditional hymns and contemporary songs, and I loved it.  The church was the fullest I've seen it in a long time, and it felt like such a family.  and when everyone was singing, it was so loud and filled up that big sanctuary like it used to when I was kid.  It was kind of emotional for me for several reasons.  It was just a good, raw, nostalgic, yet new, sort of thing.  The sermon revealed a parabale in Luke in new light and was really thought provoking. 

We also had a wonderful Father's Day lunch with my dad.  The kids called P this morning on speaker (as Dylan requested).  They yelled Happy Father's Day! We miss you, and proceeded to give him play by plays of what we were doing - donut shop, so and so's licking me, etc.  I'm sure P enjoyed it.   

So a few things...if you haven't been blessed with some girl time - whether coffee with one friend, or a semi-sleepover with several, or even a good phone conversation - DO IT!  Pick up the phone or make some plans, because you will be blessed!!!!

And if you don't have a church home in Longview - come join us one Sunday.  I really think people will enjoy the blended worship - a little bit of traditional with a litlte bit of contemporary seemed like just the right thing this morning!  www.fbcl.org

Well, this is one of the posts where at the end, I think to myself, "Why does anyone care what I did this weekend?"  But maybe writing about what's important to me, and mundane to others, will at leaset keep me in the habit of posting.  We'll see.  Peace and love.

“Success” and Not Living a Wasted Life.

I can’t believe it’s been roughly 240 days since I last posted.   

Maybe I’ll do better. 

Maybe before today, I would have felt successful for posting.  I would have felt accomplished, breathing a proud sigh at the click of POST IT!  Way to go Ash, you did it!  You did something successful today. 

But in reality – in God’s eyes – there were only a handful of things, I may have done “successfully.”

A reoccurring theme came at me today – a culmination of what success is and what a “worthy” life-lived isn’t.

How do you define success?

Think about it for a minute.  I think success is ______________________________________. 

Success is typically defined by monetary means, social status, good jobs, and outward appearances. 

In order for me to feel successful, I typically need someone else to think I’m successful, and tell me so. Pats on the back, and words of appreciation are fuel to my fire. 

An elatingly satisfactory day for me would normally end with my list looking like Dylan took a pen to it.  To-dos crossed off left and right, with only a few, or no, items circled and left to be done.  Kids happy, fed, and tired.  And, if anyone or anything was clean by close of business?  Well, that would call for a celebration. 

The point brought to my attention (first, through a study by Coach Tony Dungy), was success is usually defined by what others think.  Not God.  And it’s easy to think that way, because we SEE others much more easily.  We hear, feel, notice, others much more often.  But if we held ourselves to God’s definition, or idea, of success – life would be so much more enjoyable.  Less worry, less anxiety, less stress, less greed, less wasted time.  More one-on-one.

Instead of trying to please so many others, or appear successful to all of our co-workers, bosses, friends, and family – you only have to be successful in one person’s eyes.  What a relief.  Really.

It’s tough though.  We’re all programmed to think completely opposite of this.  It’s innate. 

Worldnetweb defines success as an event that accomplishes its intended purpose; an attainment; a state of prosperity or fame, an achiever.

But, what is it that we are achieving?  Just something to think about.  

My second aha moment came from a simple, yet profound message, entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life.”

The story basis (Philippians 3:1-14) was about Paul who was basically saying, I have a really great life.  No one can top what I’ve had going on.  Yet all of it before I knew Christ is a waste.  It all equals zero.

Our youth minister listed “Treasures of a Wasted Life” as:

• Family Heritage,
• Social Status,
• Biblical Knowledge,
• Religious Activity,
• A moral/righteous lifestyle.

These are all good things, right? 

This isn’t your typical list of day-filling, life-consuming things that we usually look back on and think, that was a waste of time.

Yet, they can still keep you from a relationship with Christ.  They can still be put above your relationship with Him.

And thirdly today, as we took a scenic drive to Henderson to look at some RV’s, which turned out to be old FEMA trailers, one of my favorite songs blared words I’m always blessed to hear and be reminded of.  It just seemed to hit home the whole “success” and life worth living message that rang in my ears all day.  It’s Nelly Furtado’s Forca.  The chorus lyrics translate into “Come with a force, come with a force, come with a force that can’t be stopped, come with a force that will never die.

It is the passion flowing right on through your veins
And it's the feeling that you're oh so glad you came
It is the moment you remember you're alive
It is the air you breathe, the element, the fire
It is that flower that you took the time to smell
It is the power that you know you got as well
It is the fear inside that you can overcome
This is the orchestra, the rhythm and the drum
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma força que ninguem pode parar
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma fome que ninguem pode matar
It is the soundtrack of your ever-flowing life
It is the wind beneath your feet that makes you fly
It is the beautiful game that you choose to play
When you step out into the world to start your day
You show your face and take it in and scream and pray
You're gonna win it for yourself and us today
It is the gold, the green, the yellow and the grey
The red and sweat and tears, the love you go. Hey!
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma força que ninguem pode parar
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma fome que ninguem pode matar
força, força, força, força, força
Closer to the sky, closer, way up high, mais perto do ceu, mais perto do ceu
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma força que ninguem pode parar
Com uma força, com uma força
Com uma fome que ninguem pode matar

come on