Peace-God’s gift of a radically settled heart

 shalom (Hebrew)

 eirene  i-rah’-nay  (Greek)

To set at one again, the mending or rejoining of what has been torn apart.  This is not a goal; this is God’s gift-the starting point of our relationship with Him and each other.

 Peace of the body.  1Co 12:27 (BBE) Now you are the body of Christ, and every one of you the separate parts of it.  The gift of God is that we are invited to be in Jesus. 

• In Him as He is crucified. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
• In Him as He is raised in glory. 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
• In Him as He rules. Rev 2:27 And he that overcomes, and he that keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron… (Literally, “He will shepherd them with an iron staff.”)

Peace is what Jesus leaves within His eternal body to allow it (us) to rule with a single voice. 

Peace of the soul.  The soul is that part of us that relates to other souls-to humans in general and in particular to those humans who have been raised with Jesus-new creatures.

Peace is what Jesus leaves within His eternal body to promote health, strength, and unity.  Rom 14:19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.  Rom 12:18  If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.

 Peace of the spirit.  The spirit is that part of us that relates to other spirits.

Jesus, through His death and resurrection, made, and continually makes, peace between us and the Father.

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Eph 2:14-22  For through him (Jesus) we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. So then you are no more strangers and sojourners, but you are  fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Tags: peace

Joy- extraordinary enthusiasm for being alive.

 Joy is not happiness. Happiness rises and falls with circumstances.  CF: Love and fondness vs. joy and happiness.

Joy is khar-ah’ ; cheerfulness, that is, calm delight, gladness.

 The Holy Spirit is the source of joy.  The Spirit (par-ak’-lay-tos; One called alongside. An intercessor, consoler: - advocate, comforter) is not bound by time-He is here with us now, called alongside to show us the triumph of the Kingdom.

• We have Joy because the Father has allowed us to be in Jesus-to die with Him to our sin nature, and be raised with him a new creature, a member of a new race. 2Co 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
•  We have Joy because, while still in our fleshly bodies we are covered within and without, like the Ark, with the gold of God’s nature. We are filled with the provision of God, the law of God, and God’s delegated authority. Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
• We have Joy because the Spirit already sees the victorious end, and some of that rapture oozes through to us.  Luk 6:22-23 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.  Jud 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

Joy brings health to the Kingdom.  Even the human body responds to it by strengthening its immune system.  Like your mother told you, saying “thank you” can go a long way! A research project on the Psychology of Gratitude found that experiencing gratitude and other positive emotions can have benefits ranging from personal and social development, to individual health and well-being, and community strength and harmony.[1]

Did you have a good day? Write it down! New findings suggest a link between writing about positive experiences and living a longer life. Other studies have shown that keeping a “gratitude journal” where you write down 1-5 things for which you’re grateful, will also make you happier, more joyful, and less stressed.[2]

In addition to French fries and smoking, being stressed can also lead to hypertension and coronary heart disease.[3]

1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

[2] “Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study.” Deborah D. Danner, David A. Snowdon, and Wallace V. Friesen. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

[3] “The Dangers of Chronic Stress.” By Michael Craig Miller, MD. Newsweek, October 2005.

Tags: Joy

Ohio State University professor emeritus of entomology, Dr. William F. Lyon writes the following about houseflies:

“Adults are about 1/6 to 1/4 inch long with reddish-brown eyes. Females are usually larger than males and have wider spacing between the eyes. They have two membranous wings; sponging or non-biting mouthparts; a dull gray body; and four narrow, black-lengthwise stripes on the thorax. Each female, during her three to four weeks of life, lays five to six batches of 75 to 100 small, white, oval eggs, largely in scattered garbage, that hatch in 12 to 24 hours into creamy white larvae. Larvae grow and pupate in four to seven days, and the last larval skin, which is hard and dark brown, is called a puparium. This stage lasts seven days, and can be the overwintering stage. The life cycle from egg to adult may be from 8 to 12 days in warm weather. A pair of flies beginning operation in April, if all were to live, would result in 191,010,000,000,000,000,000 (191 quintillion 10 quadrillion) flies by August. Allowing 1/8 cubic inch to a fly, this number would cover the earth 47 feet deep. Luckily, predators, parasites and other factors reduce fly populations. When feeding, house flies regurgitate some of their stomach contents on the food, which dissolves it. Then they suck it back into their stomach. They leave fecal deposits where they have walked. While walking and feeding on garbage, fecal material and food, flies may transfer disease organisms from both inside and outside their bodies.”

I understood that a fly buzzing around the head can be more than a little bothersome, and that they spread disease, but I never knew that it requires constant predation to prevent them from burying the earth.  I am hugely impressed that the leader of the free world, a man with more irons in the fire than a cowboy in branding season, while on national television, would take the time to do his part to defend the planet from this horde.  Go get’m Barack!

Tags: Fly, Obama

We will try to finish “Love” from the Week 6 notes.

Please refer to the notes for Week 6.

Memorial Day took us all in our own directions.  Class canceled.

Will Rogers was supposed to have quipped, “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you find a rock.”  I say this, not to segue into a discussion of diplomats, but to bring up the subject of weapons.  Merriam-Webster Online defines a weapon as 1: something (as a club, knife, or gun) used to injure, defeat, or destroy 2: a means of contending against another.  Webster’s short list notwithstanding, I’m betting that the first one was a rock, with a big stick running a close second.  We’re not told what Cain used to vent his irritation at God on the body of his brother, Able, but my money is on a handy rock.

I once did a website for an historical society in Wisconsin.  As part of the interview process, the old timers told about taking rifles and shotguns to school because the family depended on the wild game the boys would shoot on the way home.  The school had a specified corner for the firearms during the school day.

When I was in Junior High (no Middle Schools in those days) and High School, no self-respecting male would have been without a good pocketknife.  The “delinquent” types carried bone-handled Italian switchblades, or sharpened “church key” can openers.  Anyone threatening another human with these was in huge trouble.

Then came the school shootings-Columbine probably sticks in the average mind most clearly because it played out on live television.  For a while, it was fashionable to take out your frustrations if you were angry, depressed, or had a grievance by taking a firearm to school and shooting someone-someone specific, someone at random, it didn’t seem to matter.  Without argument, something had to change.  Most school districts adopted a “zero tolerance” policy towards weapons.  Sounds good to me, now define a weapon.

Working firearms are clearly out, and switchblades have been outlawed for years, but rocks are still plentiful on most schoolyards.  The common lead pencil is absolutely lethal in skilled hands, and dangerous even in the hands of an angry amateur.  A book bag works well, a belt with a large buckle (this is western Colorado) can be vicious. Instead of making a short, clearly-defined list of prohibited items, most schools still simply ban “weapons,” usually defined as a “dangerous instrument capable of intimidating, or inflicting harm to another person.”  They then enter into a high-stakes game of “Mother May I” with the student body. 

• A third-grade boy was suspended by the Green Bay, Wisconsin school system for having a keychain with an inch-long, flat plastic replica of a pistol attached. The boy got it from a restaurant vending machine.
• More recently, a 15-year-old member of the basketball team, 9-year Girl Scout, a youth usher, a member of the choir and leadership team who wants to be an anesthesiologist was expelled from Penn Hills Middle School for bringing an eyebrow trimmer to school. Could it be used as a weapon? No doubt-a school board member, apparently unfamiliar with eyebrow trimming, cut a finger on it badly enough to require stitches. The problem for me is that no one told the 15-year-old that trimming her eyebrows at school could endanger the rest of her life.

We teach our children to walk honestly and live by the golden rule, and have no fear of authority.  The dozens of innocent children whose lives have been turned upside-down for reasons beyond their understanding will never understand the concept.  It’s the equivalent of my being sent to jail for a month, and losing my job because I was driving one mile per hour over the speed limit-my speedometer won’t accurately define one mile per hour.  School violence cannot be tolerated, but to quote my mother, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”  Can it be done with even-handed discipline that takes the age and intent of the child into consideration?  In my experience, it can.  Charlotte and I once worked at a charter middle school for children who had failed in every other environment.  The students were prone to bring every type of contraband known to mankind to the door of the school building-where a teacher confiscated it.  If it was a weapon, parents were called and students studied for a day or two in isolation under the stern eye of Mrs. Short.  That school never lost sight of its primary mission-to educate children.

I just saw a clip from a school in the District of Columbia.  On the wall, a banner read, “It’s OK to make mistakes, that’s the way we learn.”  Perhaps it should be rewritten to say, “Some mistakes are OK; others will ruin your life.  It’s up to you to guess which is which.”  After all, pencils and rocks are common, and the school will supply them with a baseball bat under controlled circumstances-key chains and eyebrow trimmers will interrupt their education and leave a mark on their lives that will never completely fade.  Go figure.

Tags: school, weapons