Christmas peace

The world has come a long way since the days when the influence of Christendom could cause even warring powers to stop and reflect for a moment.

In the post-Christian West, faint echoes of a two-millenium heritage can still be heard, but often without context or understanding.  We still sing the carols, including the line "peace on Earth, goodwill toward men," without the fuller appreciation with Whom that peace was proclaimed.  The angels that day were not heralding an era without conflict.  Indeed, the Prince of Peace cautioned His followers that His message would "set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household."  (Matthew 10:34-39)  

We are also told to expect trouble in this world, but to "fear not, for I have overcome the world."  Our present world will never know true peace, because we handed it over to a power that rejects all the Creator is and intended.  To the extent people choose to follow Christ, common grace is poured out in the land.  But when we align ourselves with natural inclinations and reject God's revelation and instruction, it should not surprise us when that common grace begins to vanish.

Such are the times in which we live.  And yet, for the disciple, there is peace.  There is the knowledge that the Savior broke the chains man placed on himself at the Fall.  Each of us are offered the chance to make peace with our Creator -- a peace that passes all understanding.  Compared to rightness with God, the worst wrongness of this present darkness fades in significance--but only when placed in that context.

My continued prayer is that anyone reading my ramblings here already knows this Peace.  As my site's Christmas decoration says, it IS the greatest gift ever offered.  It includes "strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow" through God's great faithfulness.  

The Enemy may seem to advance, and we may at times become discouraged by our failures and collaboration.  It will not always be thus.  And, as the video link quotes above, "that is an encouraging thought."

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” -- C.S. Lewis

Have a Merry--and Peaceful Christmas!