Let's hear your thoughts about peace

What image comes to mind when you think of peace? Is peace found lying on a beach as the sun sets? Is peace experienced in remote woods away from traffic and airplane noise? Or is peace achieved when the kids are in bed and finally asleep?

Peace can be experienced in these ways. But peace from the Bible's perspective is more than the absence of stress and conflict. It is more than the presence of serenity. Biblical peace is the restoration of harmonious relationships with God, others, and the creation.

Peace is what God had in mind when he set in motion his plan culminating in Jesus death and resurrection. Paul says in Colossians 1:19-20:

For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

People who are reconciled to God through Christ's blood are the recipients of peace. And that peace should progressively characterize our lives.

 

I laid it on the line in last week's message asking everyone who calls South Park Church their home to come to the Peacemaker Seminar on April 25th. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this event. What do you hope we'll gain from this training?

Comments

[Stephen Proctor]

I am looking forward to the Peacemaker seminar. I think it will be a great opportunity for our church to be renewed and restored. I am so encouraged by the attendance and enthusiasm these past few weeks. Both the Good Friday and Easter services were moving and memorable. Although we could not attend, I hear the Easter Egg event the Saturday before Palm Sunday was a great success. I am hopeful that the Peacemakers will be an encouragement - how much we have done and can do together, rather than discouraging - how divided we may have been in the past.

[Randy Kjell]

My goal for the upcoming Peacemaker Seminar is to learn when and how to talk to others about conflict. My personal tendency is to avoid conflict and pretend it does not exist and hope it goes away. I know this can cause issues to go un-resolved for a long time.

I hope the seminar will train me in how to address conflict in a godly manner that will lead to resolution and reconcillation rather than hostility and separation.

Randy