Friday, March 23, 2012

ULTIMATE PEACE


God was pleased to…[make] peace through [Jesus’] blood, shed on the cross.
– Colossians 1:19

“Why can’t people just get along with each other?” We’ve heard this sad lament, and many of us have uttered it.

The brokenness strewn everywhere around is so weighty. Marriages unravel. Homes disintegrate. Children run away. Negotiations break down. Churches split.  Employees walk out or get booted out. Courts clog. Mediation specialists try to untie the tangled knots we tie. Wars and terrorism are painful reminders that conflict seems never to cease.

But God has determined that wars of every kind will cease – “to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 46:9). And God has been “pleased” to do that, says Paul. Operation Reconciliation is under way, every, even today. And someday perfect friendship will reign every where. The sound and rumors of war will cease forever.

How? By bringing one antagonist after another to the foot of the cross. It’s hard to hate, looking up at such love. It’s hard to hold a grudge, surrounded by such forgiveness. It’s hard to demand that others be punished, watching Jesus’ blood flow for our own punishment. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

In our Lord’s love for all of us lies the hope that surely love, not hate, and peace, not war will have the last word…..forever.

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