Jan 15, 2025 – Peace
Pastor Chris Hodges (in today’s photo) gave a message about peace at the beginning of the Church of the Highlands prayer service yesterday. When I was young in my faith, I learned that if we don’t have peace about something, we shouldn’t do it; but, through the years, as life got a little more difficult, I wondered about that and if I’d misunderstood and whether having peace meant I was choosing the easy way. God’s way, His yoke as in Matthew 11:28-30, is “easy”, but I wasn’t so sure back then.
I mean, as one example, I was thrilled to be expecting my first child (31 years ago this month), but I didn’t really have peace about what to expect during the delivery. Looking back, I would tell my-then-self to share those feelings with God and learn more about His peace, which I have done in all the years (with all of the unsettling experiences) since then. Doesn’t mean I always jump right into peace and calm. Sometimes the Holy Spirit has to keep reminding me to Let Go and Let God which is a good book by Albert E. Cliffe that my mother gave me many years ago (that I didn’t read right away).
That was a happy event so leaning into peace was relatively easier than when other tough things came along. But we can all be assured that peace is still possible. Perhaps it involves not being around a person or event or news about the person or event in order to desensitize the psyche (and the stressed body). What are the “principles” Hodges is referring to in the photo? I’ll share some of his thoughts from the message (if I can read my handwriting) and then we’ll see what the “small group” has to offer about this or whatever is on their minds today.
Hodges reminds us that the Peace of God is real because He IS the Prince of Peace. The Hebrew meaning of prince is tsar or ruler and lordship. He spoke about “Shalom” which in Hebrew means tranquility, rest, contentment, and peace; so, we can only have peace when God is the ruler, in control, and Lord of our lives. Doug Hershey, in his article “The True Meaning of Shalom” on the firmisrael.org website writes, “Shalom means ‘peace’ in English…. The common western definition of peace is – the absence of conflict or war – but in Hebrew it means so much more…. The root word of Shalom is ‘shalam’…. [and] The ancient Hebrew meaning of shalam was ‘to make something whole’. Not just regarding practical restoration of things that were lost or stolen. But with an overall sense of fulness and completeness in mind, body, and estate.’”
Hodges points out that when we are running our own lives and haven’t given our plans and concerns to God, we don’t have peace. When we are experiencing anxiety, we need to ask if Jesus is Lord of our lives. These “21 Days of Prayer” are based on Matthew 6:33 which tells us to “Seek first His kingdom.” The principle is that He wants to be first in everything in our lives: spending, emotions, school, work, finances, health, relationships, thoughts, time, hobbies, our day, our week, our year…. If you have no peace, you have to submit to God. If He’s in control, we don’t have to be.
JC – “My Face is shining upon you, beaming out Peace that transcends understanding…. The closer you live to Me, the safer you are. Circumstances around you are undulating, and there are treacherous-looking waves in the distance. Fix your eyes on Me, the One who never changes. By the time the waves reach you, they will have shrunk to proportions of My design. I am always beside you, helping you face today’s waves.”
Max – Philippians 2:4 – “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Max says, “Doing good does the doer good. A 2010 study… reveals that of the people who volunteered an average of more than one hundred hours per year, 68 percent reported feeling physically healthier. Also, 73 percent said that volunteerism ‘lowered my stress levels,’ and 89 percent stated that service ‘has improved my sense of well-being.’ We elevate our joy by giving joy to others.” That takes us back to the other day talking about receiving help when we need it. We now have proof that we are helping others when we let them help us!
Streams – Cowman shares from George Matheson who tells and wonders about the night that “the Lord appeared to [Isaac]. (Genesis 26:24)” He helps us think deeper about the timing, “Do you think this revelation from God was an accident? Do you think the time of it was an accident? Do you believe it could have happened any other night as well as this one? If so, you are grievously mistaken. Why did it come to Isaac the night he reached Beersheba? Because that was the night he reached rest. In his old land he had been tormented. There had been a whole series of petty quarrels over the ownership of insignificant wells. There is nothing like little worries, particularly when there are many of them. Because of these little worries, even after the strife was over, the place held bad memories for Isaac. Therefore he was determined to leave and seek a change of scenery.”
Matheson continues, “God spoke to him when there was no inner storm. He could not speak to Isaac when his mind was troubled. God’s voice demands the silence of the soul…. My soul, have you pondered these words: ‘Be still, and know’ (Psalm 46:10)? In the hour of distress, you cannot hear the answer to your prayers. How often has the answer seemed to come much later? The heart heard no reply during the moment of its crying…. But once the crying stopped, once the stillness came, once your hand refrained from knocking on the iron gate, and once concern for other lives broke through the tragedy of your own life, the long-awaited reply appeared. You must rest, O soul, to receive your heart’s desire…. Place the storm of your individual troubles on God’s altar of everyday trials…. His rainbow will extend across the subsiding flood, and in your stillness you will hear the everlasting music.”
That leads me to share something I wasn’t really even thinking about sharing because it’s such a new thing and it’s still just an idea in its infancy, but I guess I’m going to speak about it “as if it is,” like we are supposed to do, believing that it will happen. Have I ever complained, I mean spoken, about how bothered I sometimes get by the repetitiveness of some of the modern worship music? I get that repetition helps us learn things and that it sometimes helps make a point, but at other times, the monotony of the same words and tune over and over loses me. I can easily tune out whiny children and droning speakers and repetitive lines in songs, for me, fits in that category.
Anyway, the point of this diversion from the small group sharing is that while driving to my physical therapy appointment on Monday, I heard a song that seemed like a good model for a worship song. The opening line of “You are the Woman” by Firefall was indeed repeated but only in the middle before each section, in which he shared the different reasons why he felt the way he did, and then again at the end. There were words between the main line of the song. I text’d Don (using the cool hands-free text option in our new car) and didn’t think about it again figuring he didn’t either.
But then, Wed morning he came in the house beaming. (He plays a gig in Tuscaloosa on Tues nights and comes home late; so, he stays across the street where he keeps all of his instruments…and everything else that doesn’t have a home in this house yet.) He said that after he’d listened to Hodges’ message about peace, with my prompting about writing music (which I assume was a prompting of the Holy Spirit because writing songs was not on my radar), he pulled out his guitar and started strumming chords and then dug around and found the papers he uses to write music. He said it “scratched an itch” he’d ignored for quite some time; so, now we have a new project to add to our list of projects! I had been asking (“knocking on the iron gate”) for direction about what is next for us. He answers when He’s ready (and when He knows we are ready) for us to hear. Gotta keep reminding myself of that when I get impatient.
It’s probably time to call for last thoughts from the group and close for the day.
JA – “THE CHRISTIAN LIFE is all about trusting Me: in good times and in hard times. I am Lord over all your circumstances, so I want to be involved in every aspect of your life…. I will never let go of you! Moreover, My Spirit helps you keep hanging on…. cry out for His assistance: ‘Help me, Holy Spirit!’ (See 1 John 1:7, Psalm 62:8, Psalm 139:10, and John 1:5.)
Power – Isaiah 41:10 – “Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.” Joyce tells about the “power twins” she uses, “When I feel fear, I begin to pray and ask for God’s help, then I say, ‘I will not fear!’”
Utmost – I just realized that I wrote from Jan 15 yesterday. So what does Chambers have from the 14th to end our time today? He speaks about Isaiah 6:8 when he writes, “The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God’s call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition…. God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call and realised that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, – ‘Here am I; send me.’ Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings…. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too will hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God….”
