The Bond of Peace part 2
Peace means joining. So its almost redundant to say "bond of peace." But I think I understand where they're coming from. Because its easy to be nice when there's no one to be mean to. Easy to be peaceful when you're by yourself. Although, in another way, sometimes being by yourself is very un-peaceful. Being alone with your thoughts can be dangerous. And that's the point. It takes two to tango, right? True peace doesn't comes from the absence of war. It comes from the presence of love. Remember Psalm 23:5 (NLT)? "You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings." The table that we eat the love feast on--the six course meal also known as the Six Steps to the Throne where Jesus was Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, and Seated--was prepared in the presence of our enemies. So that we could eat WITH our enemies. And destroy our enemies by making them our friends. Its a love feast. And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" Not, "come, or else," but, "come and get it!" Jesus prepared it. We can partake of it. Jesus won the war to end all wars. We can rest in His perfect peace. And we can SHARE that peace. We can share that meal. Because there's more than enough to go around. It is an all you can eat buffet. We are connected to the unlimited source of love. The God who IS love. He lives in us. And like I always says about my kid, "He is me." We are one with Him. Jesus said it in John 10:30 (NLT), "The Father and I are one." And we know that as He is, so are we in this world. He is the light of the world, and we are the light of the world. Its the same light. His light of love. In us, coming out of us. That's where the peace comes from. And we're going to get into that later on too. Today I want to stay with this idea of us all being in it together. True peace IS that bond that we share. Because we are all different parts of the same body. Connected by love. And the body needs all of its parts. I'm not going to quote those verses for the sake of time, but we know them. We need ears, and noses, and elbows. We need you, and me, and all of us. But if I'm against you then you and I both are missing something. Each other. There are things I can't do. And there are things you can't do. But the things I can't do might just be the things you do really well. Things work out better when we work together, as the old saying goes. Jesus is altogether lovely. And we, His body, are lovely all together. We don't always have to draw lines and make up our member's only clubs. We don't always have to be exclusive. We can be inclusive. We can include people. Embrace people. We can put in the effort to walk a mile in their shoes and understand them. That's the "endeavouring" part of our key verse, but we'll get to that later on too. Maybe tomorrow. I just want to end by saying... its a bond. A connection. True peace comes when we accept each other instead of trying to change each other. When we let people (ourselves included) be who they are and love them no matter what!