Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

- Romans 3:31

In Romans 4, we get a fantastic look at what it means to be justified by faith. Paul takes it all the way back to Abraham and, step by step, shows how it was Abraham’s faith, not his national identity or his merits, that justified him and made him righteous. This is key, because as we recall, Paul was talking to a mixed audience, one comprised of Jews and Gentiles - two groups who were at odds with each other. Nothing has changed. In the church today, we have split ourselves into factions that aren’t necessarily cultural. When one group compares itself to another and tries to outdo it, the easiest way to show dominance is to rely on merit. After all, adding up points on a scoreboard is a whole lot easier than getting to know the heart of another person.

“The sinner must come in faith to Christ, take hold of His merits, lay his sins upon the Sin Bearer, and receive His pardon. It was for this cause that Christ came into the world. Thus the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the repenting, believing sinner. He becomes a member of the royal family.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 215.

In Romans 4:9, Paul explains “that salvation by faith was not only for the Jews but for the Gentiles, as well (Rom. 4:9–12). In fact, if you want to get technical about it, Abraham wasn’t Jewish; he came from a pagan ancestry (Josh. 24:2). The Gentile-Jewish distinction didn’t exist in his time. When Abraham was justified (Gen. 15:6), he was not even circumcised. Thus, Abraham became the father of both the uncircumcised and the circumcised, as well as a great example for Paul to use in order to make his point about the universality of salvation. Christ’s death was for everyone, regardless of race or nationality (Heb. 2:9).” *

A few hundred years ago, Irish writer Jonathan Swift wrote: “But will any man say that if the words drinking, cheating, lying, stealing were by Act of Parliament ejected out of the English tongue and dictionaries, we should all awake next morning temperate, honest and just, and lovers of truth? Is this a fair consequence?”—Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal and Other Satires, (New York: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 205. *

In the same way, if God’s law has been abolished, then why are lying, murder, and stealing still sinful or wrong? If God’s law has been changed, then the definition of sin must be changed, too. Or if God’s law was done away with, then sin must be, as well, and who believes that? (See also 1 John 1:7–10; James 1:14, 15.) *

“In that age of caste, when the rights of men were often unrecognized, Paul set forth the great truth of human brotherhood, declaring that God ‘hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.’ In the sight of God all are on an equality.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 238. *

“If Satan can succeed in leading man to place value upon his own works as works of merit and righteousness, he knows that he can overcome him by his temptations, and make him his victim and prey. . . . Strike the door-posts with the blood of Calvary’s Lamb, and you are safe.”—Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Sept. 3, 1889. *

Here are a few questions * to consider in light of justification by faith:

1. Considering the universality of the Cross, considering what the Cross tells us about the worth of every human being, why is racial or ethnic or national prejudice such a horrible thing? Why is it that so often Christians, who have the Cross before them, seem to forget this important truth and can be guilty of racial or ethnic or even national prejudice? How can we learn to recognize the existence of prejudice in ourselves and through God’s grace purge it from our minds?

2. Why is it so important to understand salvation by faith alone without the deeds of law? What kind of errors can that knowledge protect us from? What dangers await those who lose sight of this crucial biblical teaching?

3. What other reasons can you give for the continued validity of God’s law, even when we understand that the law and obedience to it are not what saves us?

* Passages, quotes, texts, and questions are excerpts from the Adult Sabbath School Quarterly for this week.

Lunch time found me traipsing down shady downtown streets with my co-worker in pursuit of a somewhat healthy lunch. The heat rose from the sidewalk and seemed to hover at waist height. We took our time, chatting about projects and upcoming vacations. In the near distance, I saw two young women in matching blue t-shirts. My first impulse was to cross the street to the other side to avoid confrontation. But I was with my colleague and she didn’t seem to be holding back a “fight of flight” impulse. So, I continued on. As soon as we came into the girls’ focus, the one in front stepped out of the shade and waved at us.

“Hey! How are you? Come talk to me - I’m awesome!”

No, this wasn’t a typical scraggly hipster-type asking me if I’d registered to vote while weakly holding out a tattered clipboard. This girl looked like she was on her way to track practice - around the perfume counters at Saks Fifth Avenue. Her hair was in a cute ponytail on top of her head and mascara perfectly accentuated each and every eyelash. Her friend’s stylish fedora framed her large smile and cast a shadow on the giant diamond studs sparkling on her earlobes. As we came closer, they sensed that we were slowing down and they moved in for the kill. How does one turn down the invitation to talk to the “popular girl” when she says, “I’m awesome…and I want to talk to you!”??

Within five seconds, it was clear that they were on a mission to get us signed up as card-carrying Greenpeace members. Of course, I’d heard of the organization, so I really didn’t need the speech. But Girl #1 kept right on going. Upon learning that my co-worker  was already a member, she gave her a high five and proceeded to tell us what Greenpeace was doing about the massive oil spill in the Gulf. There was nowhere to go and we didn’t want to seem rude. So, we listened. And, you know what? They were actually interesting to listen to. Personable, upbeat, engaging, humorous…they reeled us in. Before I knew it, I was agreeing to send Greenpeace $15 a month and signing on a dotted line. Afterwards, Girl #2 gave me a hug, saying that all new members got one (Girl #1 gave my co-worker a hug too since, apparently, old members get them as well). We walked away and waved at them like they were old friends. As we continued on to lunch, I could feel the conflict beginning to boil inside. How had I allowed myself to sign up for something like that - on the spot? How had they done it?

Then, naturally, my thoughts changed to how the work that the girls were doing was vastly different, yet the same, as the work that we, as witnesses of the gospel, should be doing. Was it possible, I thought, for a couple of church-going youth to stand on a street corner and engage passers-by in the same way that these two young ladies had? Seemingly, four key factors made their pitch successful:

Approachability: Even before we were within ear shot, we were able to read the body language of the Greenpeace Girls. They appeared to be having a light-hearted conversation and their postures were relaxed and fluid. They didn’t seem rigid, frightened, or prepared to dart into the bushes at a moment’s notice. They had the air of two friends chatting in the commons after class. Unassuming and “normal”, they didn’t attract unnecessary attention (besides the giant “Greenpeace” emblazoned on their shirts).

Confidence: I’ll repeat Girl #1’s line, as it keeps ringing in my head. “Come talk to me - I’m awesome!” Now, I don’t know if, exasperated after a long morning of rejection, she had just thrown caution to the wind and was now blurting anything that came to mind. Whatever the case, she exuded confidence. Her invitation told us that she was comfortable being out in the Texas heat and she was comfortable about her message. She had something to share and if we wanted to listen to it, great. If not, she was secure enough to know that someone else would walk up who would want to hear it. The line was so unusual that it caught me off guard…and made me want to hear how she would proceed. As they talked to us about Greenpeace’s mission and work, they looked us straight in the eye and smiled. It was as if we were having a conversation…and I didn’t even know them. I found myself listening intently, and instead of looking for an escape, I just wanted to hear them out.

Friendliness: The high-fives, the hugs, the little jokes and banter between the girls…all that made the entire exchange a friendly and upbeat one. There was no guilt-tripping, passive aggressiveness, or index finger wagging in admonition. As soon as Girl #1 found out that my colleague was Canadian, she grasped a hold of this detail and didn’t let go. She made an immediate connection with her, listing friends that she had in Vancouver (my co-worker’s hometown) and extolling the virtues of our Northern Neighbors. We were completely at ease now. I could have walked away, saying “No thanks,” but instead, I thought, “Why not?”

Conviction: Girl #1 gave us her best “sincere look”, complete with one arched eyebrow. “Listen,” she confided in us, “Greenpeace doesn’t pay me enough to stand out here in this heat. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t really believe in the organization and the work they’re doing!” Now, I’m sure all the volunteers or staff are trained in their pitches, so I took this in stride. However, she seemed so sincere as she spoke - we could feel her genuine passion radiating through her words. As she continued, I could tell that she knew her stuff. I was impressed as she rattled off numbers and statistics and told of her experience protesting in front of the capitol building. The tempo of her words increased and the pitch in her voice elevated as she explained, from the heart, about how “the people” can fight corporations that do things to hurt the environment. When she was finished, I almost believed that my one little signature and 15 bucks a month could actually do something. Her conviction was contagious.

All things considered, I could just be the biggest sucker on the planet. That’s not the point. The point here is that this experience made me think about our work as Christians. When we witness - on a street corner, in a dorm room, or in the hallways at work - are we as effective as the Greenpeace Girls? In the way that we deliver the gospel, are we approachable, disarming, and open or do we repel people? Are we confident of our purpose and our calling or are we “still trying to figure that one out”? Do we open up our hearts and our arms in genuine friendship, or are we lurking about with a thinly veiled agenda? Do our actions stem from a deep-rooted conviction in our beliefs (intelligently reasoned, I might add), or do we just do things “because we’ve been told”?

While I still might have a hard time thinking of myself standing on a sidewalk and engaging people with the story of Christ the way these young ladies gushed about Greenpeace, I certainly think that we have a lot to learn from others in this department. May the day come quickly when we can draw people in with a starting line like, “Hey! Glad to meet you! Come talk to me - Jesus is awesome!”

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:8

When I think of basic tenets of the Adventist faith, several things come to mind. The Investigative Judgment. The mark of the beast. The state of the dead. The Sabbath. Creationism and the age of the earth. These are all topics that make Seventh-Day Adventists unique and doctrinally distinct from our Protestant kin. However, maybe you’ve noticed this, too: it is so easy to get wrapped up in these details that our debates and well-meaning conversations may completely obliterate a basic fact. What is that fact? Salvation by grace alone? Adherence to the law?

Simply, it is this: God is love.

I am really struck by how little we talk about God’s love today. You know what I mean - sermonizing God’s love is seen as too “touchy feely”, “contemporary Christian”, and “void of theological substance”. “Sure, God loves us,” we seem to shrug sometimes. “Let’s move on to the more interesting topics like identifying the anti-christ.” When we do talk about the love of God, it is in the simplest of terms. How can we correctly describe something we can’t even wrap our minds around? What does this dying world, ignorant of its cancerous state, need right now? What is the only salve for its suffering? What is the only thing that can give people hope? It is the unquestionable, undeniable, ravenously passionate, jealous, stunning, all-consuming, unconditional love of God. When’s the last time you thought about God’s love for you in those terms?

Recently, I was on the gorgeous island of Kauai for a wedding. Sabbath morning, I sat in a little island church in Lawai and listened, rapt, as the Sabbath School teacher illuminated God’s love throughout scripture. I checked the lesson in my lap - lesson 13 was about relationships between people. How had she spun it so that the entire lesson was about God’s love? But yet, it made sense. I found myself stunned, as one who was reading an old unopened love letter from a relationship gone sour. Hearing the teacher speak ignited a spark in my heart as I realized, again, and for the first time, that God’s love:

• Compelled Him to create beings with whom He could share a relationship. (Gen. 1:27; Psalm 8:5; Psalm 139:14-16)
• Obligated Him to engineer a world suitable for our survival and sustenance. (Gen. 1:28-31)
• Bound Him to His covenants and promises to those that love and follow Him (and even those who don’t on some occasions!). (Heb. 10:16, 17)
• Drove Him to sacrifice His son for our freedom and salvation. (Isaiah 53:5 ; Heb. 9:28)
• Inspired Him to design a place for our eternal happiness and joy. (John 14:1-3)

Going back and reading the Bible through the perspective of a loving God, we should be able to see a Being who desires us so fully that He will do anything to have us. That love is the root, the foundation, of everything that we find in the Bible - from the creation of the world to the laws and statutes to the eventual death and resurrection of Christ. God’s love must be foundational in our dealings and teachings because otherwise, they are just senseless noise (1 Cor. 13: 1-3).

Where does that leave us? What does the knowledge of such a love mean to you and me? What should it compel us to do on our end?

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Psalm 98:4

Today, it’s sort of ironic that people, social beings by nature, strive to be so singular, so autonomous, from everyone else. At least in Western culture, we are taught from an early age to strive to be better than our peers, or anyone else for that matter. When emotional hardships strike, the impulsive desire for sympathy and understanding is seen as a sign of weakness. Years back, the U.S. Army ran a campaign entitled “Army of One”. The slogan was quickly changed (to the current “Army Strong”) because it was perceived to be contrary to the idea of “teamwork”. No matter how hard we try to rebel against nature, it is clear that humans are social creatures. I love that God acknowledged that at the beginning by noting, “It is not good for the man to be alone,” (Genesis 2:18)

John Donne, a medieval metaphysical poet, put it well:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind…

To whom it may concern, you might not remember me - I passed through your quaint town a few months ago and visited your synagogue but only stayed long enough to chat with the elders and grab a bite from the potluck line - but I’m writing to give you some very important advice on how you should run your church. While I’m at it, I’ll also give you some tips for living and working together as I’m sure that you’ve got some issues to work out and would appreciate the help. I don’t know what your particular situation is, but I’ve just come off from a stint in the church in Philippi and I’m just going to tell you what I told them…

As humans, then, we originally were made to love and care unselfishly for those who were around us. That is certainly part of what it means to have been made in the image of God. We are made, therefore, to love and to be loved, and this we cannot do in a vacuum. We need people to love, just as people need to be loved. This is what community and family are all about.

-”The Original Image”, Adult Sabbath School Lesson

Here I am, in the place I repeatedly told myself I’d never be again. The same nagging feeling, though a little less sharp, gnaws at my heart. I look down at my hands and see them dripping from a bath of sticky, perpetual sin. I’ve tried and tried, prayed and prayed, but here I am, wearing the path deeper yet as I repeat the circuit of habit.

God has provided a way for you to escape. No temptation is to large – no circumstance obligatory. He will not give you more than you can bear. Stand up. Call on Him. Choose right and live.

The scary fact, though, is this: I know all of this and yet, I sin! I choose to transgress, to do the things that are contrary to God’s law all the while knowing that I am sinning! This is no idle ignorance. No, this is fickle frailty at its absolute finest. Even as the pleading of the Holy Spirit becomes fainter and fainter, I stand on the shore, as a sailor without a vessel, and look helplessly out to the horizon.

But I will never leave you or forsake you.

I don’t know – I kind of feel that I deserve to be forsaken. If I were me, I’d shut me down real fast. But, I guess that’s what “grace” is all about, right? I’m so thankful to have it, don’t get me wrong. I just can’t believe I’ve failed again. Turning my eyes inward, I try to determine the absolute depth of my heart, my being, and my soul. What are my motives? What do I want? Why doesn’t Christ seem to satisfy me and why do I continue to stray from His side? Breaths come faster, but the tears have long since dried up. I repent out of rote but on a different level of consciousness, I know that I should drop to my knees. Hands curl up into claws and I shriek out with Paul,

O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Romans 7:24

Indeed. Who shall deliver me? Do I even want to be delivered? Silence rushes in and all I hear is my heartbeat, pounding out into the darkness. “Yes. Absolutely. Please. Help me.”

The struggle is age-old and familiar to all who have passed through the vivifying waters of the baptistery. One day, bright with promise of a fresh new life, the next, lost in a forest of temptation and indecision. Have I lost my way? Have I abandoned my Savior? This gap in the mindspace is a huge hurdle to cross. Specifically, I must come to a place where I acknowledge that I am helpless and poor, wretched and blind. Sin is running rampant through my body like a virus.

For I know that in me (that is, my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, well, that’s another story. For the good that I desperately want to do, I don’t do. Instead, it’s the evil that I don’t want to do that I am doing all the time. Now, I realize that if I do the things that I don’t want to do, it is not really me that does these things but sin that dwells in me.

I’ve found that the law is the standard that clearly shows me that even when I’m attempting to do good, evil is present within me. Make no mistake, I delight in the law of God, and hold it in my heart. But, I see another law in my body, waging war against the law of my mind. It brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my body.

Romans 7:18-23, my paraphrase

What a shock it is to realize that I’m not as “good” as I imagined myself to be. Humbled, sobered, quieted, I exhale and acknowledge, once again, for the millionth time, that I can’t do this alone.

I. Need. Jesus.

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 9:28

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5,6

Where else I can I turn but to the one I continually take advantage of? The truth is that I have no other option. I must turn and live. I yearn to be on better terms with Him, though, to run into His arms without feeling so much shame. But, for now, I know that He is there and He is with me and I must pick myself up and keep on going. I can’t stay down – I can’t accept defeat. I will probably be here again, but I must continue to strive.

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Proverbs 24:16

“I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
Nelson Mandela

Woah, wait a minute, God. Let’s talk about something right now. Yes, I do want to be numbered among your ‘elect’. I like the idea of you considering me holy and beloved! I’ve been trying hard to be merciful and you know that I’ve been working on my kindness and humility. Meekness…now that’s another story. But longsuffering? I just looked that word up and it’s defined as an extreme form of patience. I don’t know about you, Lord, but I’m just not that strong in the patience category. There are so many annoying things (and people!) going on my life right now. Can’t I just ignore them and move on?

“For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise…”²

I’m assuming that by “endurance” you mean “patience”. You know, now that you mention it, doing your work certainly requires a lot of patience. I mean, look at all the church drama I’m constantly juggling! Speaking of which, any suggestions on how I’m supposed to deal with everyone in my youth group? Sometimes they can be so stubborn (or lazy)!

“[I ask] that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all lowliness, meekness, with longsuffering, forebearing one another in love…”³

There it is again - longsuffering! I know that by the time Sabbath afternoon rolls around, I feel as if I’ve suffered a great deal. But, really, Lord, there’s something else that’s been on my mind. I guess I’m not really keen on being patient with people or situations that I don’t feel are worth my time. I mean, if someone doesn’t want to get with the program, that’s their problem! However, I have a strong feeling that you wouldn’t want me to harbor those feelings. I know, I know, as a Christian - one who bears your Son’s name - I should be emulating your every move. How would you describe your threshold for patience? A few hours? A couple days? Until you just have to move on to the next step, with or without us?

“[I am] The Lord, The Lord, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”⁴

Right. I should have known. Ok, but here’s where I’m stuck - you’re God. GOD. Of course you’re longsuffering and all that! You’re perfect! Surely you don’t expect me to be able to live up to your track record!

“[I], the God of patience and consolation, grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify [Me]…”⁵

I keep forgetting that point - that I’m supposed to be keeping my eyes on Jesus and that He’s the only one that can help me achieve these things. It’s just so hard, Lord, to keep an even keel and show the kind of patience to others that you show me. The easy option is to just blow up or give up. Sometimes I think that I expect too much of others, but not enough of myself. Every time I try to do something that I think is right, I’m just swallowed up by the noise and the…well, there’s no better way to say it - the trials. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but you know how it is.

“…Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”⁶

Once again, I had a feeling that all this was to show me something - to somehow mold my character. I just can’t remember that when I’m in the midst of a fire-fight! You’ve told me time and time again, that if there aren’t trials in my life, then there’s something wrong. Well, I’m going to work on this patience thing, but you’re going to have to help me out big time. My fuse is kind of short… Well, I guess you know that already…

“Be confident of this very thing, that [I] who have begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”⁷

Awesome. Let’s get started then, shall we?

¹Colossians 3:12
²Hebrews 10:36
³Ephesians 4:1,2
⁴Exodus 34:6
⁵Romans 15:5,6
⁶James 1:2-4
⁷Philippians 1:6

Now, I’m not going to chide anyone about their “lay activities”. Rather, I want to briefly revisit the “heart of the matter”. Loving anyone entails communication and a certain degree of “gushing” - Facebook updates chronicling “I’m so excited my baby is coming to visit me this weekend!!!! I can make it through today!”, for example. Through the Book of Psalms, we get a glimpse of a man completely in love with God. And boy, did he gush.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
(Ps. 103:1 NKJV)

We know that love is essential in our relationship with God (otherwise, why are we doing all that we do?). However, “love”, as we use it today, can’t stand the test if it’s not bolstered by action. Look at Matthew 22:37. Then, look at yourself. Can you say that you love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul? What does that even mean? Digging even deeper, Colossians 3:1 tells us to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” We are not merely to love in a fleeting, emotional way. No, the love that transforms is an active, involved love. As we contemplate the mysteries of loving our enemies, doing good to those that hate us, and praying for those that despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44), we realize that true, Godly love can sometimes be a bitter pill to swallow.

And that’s where the genuine, living church comes in. As we know, the church is made up of people. Logic would have us understand that if a church is made up of individuals, then a genuine, living church would need to be composed of genuine, living people. When the heart of the individuals is bursting with praise, then, the church should be as well. And what a difference a church like that can make!

“The church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God’s plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to ‘the principalities and powers in heavenly places,’ the final and full display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10″

- E.G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 9

That’s quite a tall order. Can we live up to it?

The problem? People that we were witnessing to knew a lot. In fact, they knew so much about the Bible, Jesus, His presence here on earth, the disciples, the miracles… About the plagues, the talking donkeys, the sick made whole, the missionary journeys… About the inconsistencies, the head-scratchers, the mind-bogglers, and the outright nonsense. But, as it had become clear, when it came to accepting all of this, they shrugged it off.

Why? What was the disconnect between the head and the heart? The mind and the spirit? The intellect and the innate sense? Why was the chasm between here (disbelief) and there (acceptance) so vast? We had both witnessed similar shoulder shrugs, hands tossed up in resignation, apathetic sighs and were puzzled that our friends could be privy to so much, yet apparently ignore what seemed obvious to us.

We stopped, stared at the ground in silence, then dared to whisper…”They do not feel the need for a savior. They don’t think they need to be saved from anything.” Could that be all?

“All.” Like an atom bomb wrapped in an acorn. “All” is the key, right? All of this “Christianity” stuff is moot if there is actually no need for a savior. Salvation from what? That’s certainly what our friends were grappling with.

I can imagine Paul agreeing. The plan of salvation required the death and resurrection of Jesus. However, if there was no reason to be saved - if we weren’t lost in the first place, His death wouldn’t be necessary. Even worse, if there was a need for a savior, but if Christ didn’t accomplish His goal, our faith would be “in vain” and we would be yet left to wallow in our sins. Perhaps Paul shook his head as he postulated, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19)

If you pull on that thread, the whole tapestry begins to unravel. Little by little, we realize that our faith is nothing if it is purely for show, for pretense, or “just because”. It needs to be grounded in something, and the only thing it should be grounded in is our desperate need for salvation. Because without that, without it “all”, there’s no reason to even walk this walk.

Is there?

We have to fight for peace. Eleanor Roosevelt put it well when she said,

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it; one must work at it.”

To deny the peace of Christ is to fall into a spirit of passiveness that allows bickering, backbiting, angst, and general malaise to enter our lives and relationships. We all seek peace as though it’s an elusive creature. Could it be, however, that it’s something that can only be grown and cultivated through the working of the Holy Spirit?

Christ, as He was preparing His disciples for His impending departure, could sense their stress and discomfort. Through all the symbols and parables, He had tried to make clear what was soon to happen to Him, and subsequently, to them. Their hearts were heavy, He knew, and so He sought to cheer them up with a glimpse into the eventual future.

“Let not your heart be troubled…Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:1, 27

Think about the world we live in today. It’s vastly different from the one in which the disciples were living. They had to face persecution from the Jews and Romans, but we have wars and catastrophe every where we turn. As the world becomes more and more ravaged by sin and its effects, we could easily (and justifiably) panic. Look around you - people are trying to find peace, serenity, or “one-ness” in so many places. Relationships, wilderness retreats, yoga classes, zen spas… Relaxation is one thing, but true peace, peace that won’t shatter when the bombs fall or when all those that are familiar turn their backs on you, comes only from God. This is why we can’t just sit around and wait for peace to cover us in the time of need. There are so many things out there that are vying for our peace of mind. As Christians, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to develop this fruit in our lives so that we won’t allow our circumstances to dictate our peace.  Christ has offered to help us by taking our load, but we must put on His yoke and follow His leading. (Matt. 11:28-29) When we surrender our lives to Him and we are confident of our justification through faith, we are reconciled to God. We are at peace with Him by virtue of Jesus’ sacrifice. (Rom. 5:1)

What does a life that reflects peace look like? I saw it last week on the cover of the New York Times online. As part of its coverage of the disaster in Haiti, it flashed photos of the people and the wreckage in an updating slideshow. I flipped through the photos, increasingly horrified as the sequence advanced. Finally, I landed on a photo of an old man walking past a blue-green wall. He was carrying several long loaves of bread. There was no rubble in the frame and for all intents and purposes, it looked like a normal day in an island nation. The caption simply read that a man walked on the road in Port-au-Prince carrying bread. All of a sudden, it hit me - the man was my great uncle, or someone who looked uncannily like him. His profile, his short white hair, his long fingers… In awe, I realized that I was looking at peace personified. I know my uncle is a man of great faith, and I just imagined that the photographer had captured him as he walked from a market, having bought all the loaves they had left. He probably was on his way to bring much needed food to his family or some grieving church members. Or maybe, I thought, he was just going to break up the bread and hand it out to children, or anyone else, he passed on the street. His features were calm and quiet, fiercely confident yet composed amidst the chaos. He knew that despite the upheaval his city was experiencing, his God was watching out for him and was enabling him to be an angel to others.

The devastation in Haiti hits close to home for me. A good percentage of my family is from there and some relatives remain. We’ve heard scant reports from some distant relatives assuring us that some family is safe, but it will be a while before we know for sure. All I can do is wait, hope, pray, and send resources. As the end of this world draws near, we will see devastation like this occurring with frequency and on a larger scale. There’s hope on the other end, but the work of relieving suffering is ever present. No matter how little we can give, let’s give something.

Ways to help:

ADRA is on the ground: ADRA Haiti Earthquake Response Fund

Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders

“And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for [such things] must needs be; but the end [shall] not [be] yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these [are] the beginnings of sorrows.”  - Mark 13:7,8