WHERE CAN I FIND PEACE?

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A story is told of a painting contest. The artists were asked to render their perspective on subject of peace. There was one who painted calm waters of a brook. Another painted a man under a tree resting. But one submitted his artwork that didn’t seem to make sense at first. It was a picture of raging waters coming from the top of a mountain. The weather gloomy and it looked like the wind was strong.

But when you zoom into one part of the painting, you will see a bird with her younglings in a cleft of a rock, nestling. In the midst of the raging waters, gloomy weather and strong winds, they peacefully rest.

The Bible says that Jesus is our Prince of Peace and He is with us every moment.

Peace is not the absence of storms
but the assurance of God’s presence in the midst of it.

 

 

In Luke 2:14, the angels declared, ““Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”  Jesus came to bring peace.

 

1. Peace with God.

We have peace with God through Jesus. We were at war with Him. The Bible says that, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” (Romans 5:10)

Jesus came so that our relationship with God could be restored.

2. Peace of God.

The result of peace with God is the peace of God. Life is now lived before an audience of One. The Apostle Paul says that he lives to please only One – only his Savior Jesus.

We are told in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

3. Peace with others.

Because we have peace with God which brings about the peace of God, it is now possible to be at peace with others. If we have been forgiven of our gravest of offense, we are now empowered by His grace to forgive others.

Romans 12:18 tells us to “do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”

My prayer is that we will trust God for restoration of relationships this Christmas season. Having peace with God and the peace of God should set us free from any inhibitions to attempt mending broken relationships. It no longer matters who’s wrong or right. The goal is to restore.

Remember, Jesus paid a debt He didn’t owe so that there can be forgiveness for those who owed a debt they couldn’t pay.

 

WHEN A MARRIAGE IS FALLING APART…

What do you do when a marriage is about to fall apart?

Go to JESUS.

You see, we may not have all the answers, but we do know WHO IS the answer.

Watch a testimony of how God restored a family.

WHEN YOU’VE MESSED UP REAL BAD …

What do you do when you’ve messed up real bad?

How can you get back on track?

Is God forever mad at what I’ve done to offend Him, His people and my loved ones?

Watch this and understand that His grace is inexhaustible.

He loves us too much to allow us to remain the way we are.

ABLE TO RESTORE

Here’s the restoration story from G.J. I shared last Sunday.

Please take the time to read.  This story is so powerful, it gave me so much hope for families that have been marred by selfishness and broken by sin.

Here it is…

Hi pastor pao! I saw your tweet about any recent testimony and I wanna share something to you and to the rest of the congregation 🙂

I’m the only believer in my family and the past 6mos has been one of the major storm that hit my family. My dad accused my mom for having an affair with his friend, but in fact it was him who has been cheating on my mom since my brother and I were kids. It has been a mess. A lot of people had been involved, so many hearts have been broken into pieces. It came to a point where my dad was physically and emotionally abusing my mom. He was threatening his friend and his family and cops has been involved too. They were in the process of divorced. I hated my dad and I’ve been praying that God will just take him away from my family and disappear forever.

But God had a different plan, instead of changing our situation, He started changing our hearts.

He blessed me with peace and assurance that He is in control and that I just have to trust Him. My mom started reading my Bible, my dad asked me about God and my relationship with Him … I’ve been praying for my parents’ salvation since I got saved in 2006, I had some moments when I was upset with God on why He is not saving my parents and bro, but every sunday I see some people who are getting saved, my patience was really running out, but God knocked in my heart again and told me to wait and just trust Him.

And now, God restored my family. My mom and dad are not pushing through with their divorce, my dad finally apologized and admitted everything that he have done in the past. They’ve been going to church every Sunday and I see them reading the Bible together.

God has been really faithful and whenever I think about it, I can’t stop crying on how God works. He works in a beautiful way. my God is an awesome God. He truly is! 🙂