DAY 194 - The Power of Peace

Ephesians 2:13-22 (NASB)  ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. ¹⁷AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; ¹⁸for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, ²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, ²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Once we were aliens.  We did not know God as sovereign. We rode the waves of success and failure, sometimes being bolstered and sometimes being beaten. But now we are fellow citizens with the saints, citizens of that Kingdom where God is sovereign. We have placed our lives in God’s hands and entrusted the direction of our lives to God, in the spirit of Jesus.

In Jesus Christ we have been brought to the place where our dreams of “someday” are fulfilled. Life is centered around Jesus Christ, following Him and allowing Jesus to set the pace. We do this as a part of God’s people in the Kingdom, as part of God’s family, as part of God’s temple. No Christian is ever an only child. We are born into a fellowship, into a family that puts its trust and takes its direction from the Father of Jesus Christ in order to hold together and survive together and thrive together. And we know we do it together or not at all. We carry our sense of belonging into every group and every situation we are in. We are being drawn together by One who reached out not only to the frail, fallible, frustrated stumbling disciples, but also to an untouchable woman, to a bossy Roman soldier, to a low class woman from Samaria, and to a trouble maker at Genesert. Jesus drew them into a relationship to Himself as Lord and Savior and draws us now into the peace of belonging. Like spokes in a wheel, as we come closer to Jesus we come closer together.

And now, as the family of God, we are called to confront the comfort with the power of peace we receive from each other. We live in a world that is a cauldron of conflict, whether it is ethnic cleansing, the break down of peace talks, the conflict in Congress and the city council. Or whether it is the friction between us and that unreasonable person we have to work with or for, the cauldron of conflict continues to brew. The cauldron boils, often spilling over in destruction.

And the God who has given us the peace of belonging in Jesus Christ calls us to confront that conflict with the peace we have found. Have you heard the call? Have you accepted your responsibility from the God of peace?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles