Advent: Peace

I think that ultimately we all believe that we want to be comfortable. "If I could just have enough money...If I could just get the perfect job...If my family would just...If...then..." It's like our only goal is to find a comfortable spot to curl up in and never come out of. Sometimes our idea of peace comes out of our feelings of wanting to be comfortable and we interchange these two ideas.

Comfortable: providing or experiencing physical well-being or relief.
Peace: harmonious relations; freedom from disputes.

You see comfort is a physical experience that promotes well-being. Not a bad thing. But I'm not sure that is really what we are ultimately looking for in life. Peace on the other hand is talking about relationship. I believe most (maybe it could even be said all) of life comes down to relationship. If relationships were properly dealt with, think of all of the terrible things in this world that would cease to exist: war, divorce, legal matters, genocide, hunger, and I could keep going.

I think that everything with in us longs for peace. But it longs for a peace or a minding of relationship with the One from whom we can draw true peace. Jesus made it very clear that he was going to send peace after he left, "I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid..." (John 14: 27 NLT). He came to correct our relationship with Him. We all have that nagging that there is something wrong in us or that needs to be corrected. We can't fill that void until we're in relationship with Him.

He came to give us peace. He came to be our peace. He came to reconcile us to Him. With out that reconciliation of relationship with Him, we can never truly know peace. Do you have that kind of peace? Do you have that kind of relationship with Him?

Advent: Hope

The term advent is one that not everyone is familiar with today. For me I think of the little calendar that had hidden doors and chocolate or candy for the person who got to open it that day. But the concept of advent is much greater than a candy strewn calendar count down to Christmas.

Advent is a time that celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ our Savior. It is the period of four weeks prior to Christmas Day. For each of those weeks there is a theme to help us focus on the expectancy of our Lord coming as a small baby in a manger. The four weekly themes are: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

This past week we looked at the hope we have in Jesus as only understood through grace. Romans 5:1-2 paints this picture beautifully: "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith in to this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the HOPE of the glory of God."

Without this hope in Christ which allows us or grants us reconciliation with him...all we have left to hope in is this world and the things of this world. I don't know about you but as I look at this world it does not promote much hope. However as I trust my life, my very soul to the one who created it and died for it... there is much hope!

So where does your hope lie? Or better yet in whom? I pray that your hope is based on the rock of our salvation: Jesus Christ!