"Peace Be Made"

"For my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee." (Psalms 122:8)

 There are certain things that come easily, and there are some that need to be learned, sometimes the hard way. This, by far, is the one of those things that take real effort and prayer to get it right. What do we think this might be speaking of? Well, there are a couple different things that come to mind, the first being the church as a whole; the second being us individually. We can easily see that played out in the church, as the whole Psalm is about Jerusalem, that being the church and the power of God to complete what He has started. As for us as individuals, the point of dying to ourselves is put into practice by being a peacemaker, which is one that does not do anything to disrupt the body, and who does not tolerate anything that disrupts the body. There are countless examples of this throughout the Scriptures; it is so, because in God's eyes, this is something that is high on His naughty list. My mom always use to say, Don't say anything about anyone else behind their back, that you cannot say to their face. That might be a pretty good rule to follow, but in the light of what we have seen being played out, it falls short of being what God requires of us. This is something that is measured in the heart; what does your heart say? Is there something in there that holds anything against a brother or sister? If so, then you need to deal with it and get it out. This is dealt with individually the same way that it is dealt with in the church, by finding it, exposing it, and dealing with it! It might hurt a little, but there is a name for that taken from an Old Testament example, "Achan." What do you think that his name means? "One who troubles." We can see his deeds, exposure, and being dealt with in Joshua chapter seven. Things might have worked out differently had he came forward as soon as he realized how much his selfish act had caused so much hurt; but instead, he stayed silent and tried to hide what he had done. We understand that peace has been given to us, we know that peace needs to be what we must be about, and now we see the heart of the matter: Peace lives in and through us...

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and in you all." (Ephesians 4:1-6)