Peace at any price …

We as Christians say the only peace is found in God yet we too are searching for peace while sitting in the church surrounded by God. We are filled with worry, anxiety, anger, sleepless nights, mistrust, and fears of everything and to all of those things, the peace of God is there for us yet we don’t reach out and take it.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

What they call the red letter words of the Bible … the actual words spoken by Jesus. The promise He left for all of us who believe in Him. And the words that nearly everyone on earth has heard …

 

Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

God’s peace, the hope we have of a good night’s sleep and getting through each day no matter what happens is there for us all the time and for free. The free love of God Who paid the price for all the peace we could ever want by sending His only begotten Son to the cross to die for us, Who rose from the dead and sits with His Father ever interceding for us, for that peace we all crave so badly but can’t seem to find.

 

Today the dearest man in my life, my beloved husband said three words to me after he sat patiently letting me go on about something that had taken my peace. He asked me about it and I gave him answers and then he said; honey, let it go, just let it go. And as so many of his “God words do” I just calmed and felt a release and I let it go. God uses him in that way to settle my mind when I’m stirring over things.

 

And that is what God does for us, He lets us rant on and pray and cry out to Him and when we finally cry out all our tears (us ladies) and lose all our anger and calm and give up our own striving to right the wrong done to us … then God pours out His peace like a warm blanket on a cold night and things don’t seem so bad. Now granted sometimes we go through our struggle and fighting for a long time … it isn’t easy to just let go of circumstances.

 

It is a fine line we walk as we don’t just give up and not try to fix things especially if we are to blame but we have to learn when to let God take the control and fix the things we can’t. It depends on how well we know God too. If we don’t know God intimately, it’s very hard to trust that He is working all things together for good. But if we do know Him, if we have spent time in His Word and meditating on His works and His nature, we will have faith in His plan and purposes, His love for us, His sovereign control over all circumstances in life, and we can relax and rest in the “peace that passes all understanding”. But if we don’t know Him, we will always struggle against life’s hard circumstances and never be able to just let it go and find that peace.

 

On the other hand, there is a positive reason for struggling—it is good for us and is God’s plan to grow and mature us into the people He wants us to be. Struggles are just one of the ways He strengthens us for the hard things life throws at us. Each one enables us to be stronger and better able to handle the next one. Trials are designed to show us and others that our faith is real. In Christ, we can face the trials of life with grace and good humor and complete faith that whatever God has for us is okay. This comes from years of walking with Him, trial upon trial, and struggle upon struggle.

 

We have to learn when it is best to let it go for God to resolve and take His peace and when it’s our part to keep struggling to make it right, which always makes me think of that famous Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler …

 

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run

 

Sometimes we just need to let it go and run to God for His love and Peace and wait for another time. He will never forsake us or let us go and He is always waiting for us to run to Him. He will always bless His people with PEACE!

 

God is calling us to Outrageous Faith

In this new season God is calling us to Outrageous Faith like we have never risked before! In turn He is giving us back Outrageous Miracles, Promises, Breakthroughs, Design Ideas, Book Ideas, Businesses and Witty Inventions! Now is the time to trust God with all your heart, step out in outrageous faith even if you can’t see the next step … just open your spiritual eyes, look up to God and step out. He will not disappoint you!

Instead of Worry- Pray!

How can we be anything but optimistic when we’re destined to conquer EVERYTHING?

By FireBreathingChristian -August 30, 2016

What with all o’ the “Trump this” and “Clinton that” flyin’ ’round these days – including tons of our own posts both here and over at the satire site – is sure seems like a good time to remind ourselves of a few key things, most important among them that Christ is King, He holds all authority on earth, and by His grace we are destined to conquer every bit of temporarily enemy occupied territory anywhere in His creation.

Which includes America.

And politics.

And economics.

And art and agriculture and science and comic books and film and technology and philosophy and film and gaming and fashion and absolutely, positively everything else.

The Devil gets nothing.

He gets to keep nothing.

He gets to hold on to and retain nothing.

Not a single created thing.

Not an artistic expression.

Not an economic expression.

Not an architectural, philosophical, logical, or mathematic construct.

Not a tree, road, cloud, continent, ocean, solar system or galaxy.

The Devil doesn’t get to keep a single solitary square millimeter of land. He doesn’t get to hold onto a single literary device or scientific thought. He doesn’t get to keep a single punctuation mark or condiment.

He and the enemies of Christ get nothing.

No thing.

Not a one.

They ultimately inherit precisely none of God’s perfected and purified creation.

They don’t get America.

They don’t get liberty.

They don’t get freedom.

They don’t get humor, law, science, exploration, adventure, sci-fi, music…

That’s for His people.

We inherit everything, all by His grace, all for His glory, and all to our eternal joy and benefit.

We as His people with His Spirit within us, His Word before us, and the banner of His Gospel-fueled Great Commission as our mission will inevitably conquer everything.

Everything in His creation is destined to be reconciled, restored and enjoyed forever by His people all by the power of His work on the cross:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

~ Colossians 1:15-20

So don’t sweat Trump.

Don’t worry about Clinton.

Don’t fear any of the gajillion things those obsessed with supporting Trump or Clinton tell you that you ought to fear.

Fear the Lord.

Trust in Him.

Love Him.

Obey Him. (Which is the telltale sign of true love for Him, after all.)

Stand upon His Word and let the chips fall where they may…knowing that they will fall exactly where He intends them to fall, all for His glory and all for the ultimate benefit of His people.

I hope that this is as encouraging to you as it is to me.

I hope that it excites you.

I hope that it comforts you.

I hope that it inspires joy even as the world around us spirals into ever-deeper anxiety.

I hope that it inspires peace within you as so many around us clamor desperately, reaching out to all manner of counterfeit leaders, religions and idols to bring them the peace and security that can never be delivered by anyone but Christ our King.

I hope that it inspires confidence to stand and live in obedience to the Word of that King in detail, no matter how impossible and impractical we are told such a Christ-centered approach to life is here in “the real world”.

I hope that you are encouraged by these things. I know that I am and I just wanted to share.

I also want to thank those who have been such an encouragement to Holly and I as we’ve been tackling the Fire Breathing Christian mission, especially in recent months as we’ve been dealing with some fairly wacky schedule/housing/work challenges and other things that have come up over the last little while. Your prayers and support of the FBC mission have been particularly appreciated over the last several months and are especially needed as we confidently and happily chart our way over several hurdles in the coming months.

Your patience with my sometimes loooooong delay in responding to emails or getting around to “Part 2” of several Part 1’s that I’ve written over the past year or so is also appreciated.

I just wanted to take a moment in the middle of all of this to say two things: Fear not, Christ is King, and thank you for helping us to better understand and proclaim that beautiful truth as we go about the business of continual Reformation together, all by His grace and all for His glory.

It’s such a supercool joy, privilege, and honor to encourage and be encouraged by Brothers and Sisters through this little mission at this most interesting and critical time.

Thank you!

Soli Deo gloria…and let’s roll!

Thanks and God Bless Fire Breathing Christian http://www.firebreathingchristian.com/