This Tuesday’s blog finds us in the fourth week of Advent and only five days from Christmas!

Week one gave us the Hope of Christmas, Immanuael, God with us! Week two brought the Love of Christmas, as God sends his angel to speak to the Virgin Mary and tell her that she would bear the Son of God! Week three brought us the Joy of Christmas,
As the wisemen make the wise choice to follow the miraculous star to Christ the Savior! And this week, the final week of advent brings us PEACE!

That PEACE IS NOT spelled P-I-E-C-E! It is not another piece of Christmas candy, or another piece of cranberry apple pie, or another piece of a Christmas cookie that we intend to only eat part of, but inevitably return back to finish…It is peace with a capital P followed by an E-A-C-E!
It is the peace we are looking for as we try to navigate through the traffic on the way to the mall! It is the peace we frantically try to hold onto as we compete with the clock to make it on time to one more program! It is the peace we long for as we try on outfit after outfit to select the perfect one to wear for Christmas! It is the peace we pray about having as we gather together with friends, family, relations, some we get along with with ease and others that take a greater measure of effort! It is the peace we try to maintain as our eyes wander back and forth and up and down our Christmas list of gifts to buy! And, it is the peace we dream about as we check our bank balance after each purchase!
And it is certainly the peace we need when someone mentions, ” It’s Only 5 More Day Until Christmas!”
Peace is not a common state of being for most humans. In fact, I believe that true peace is not found apart from God!
Oh, beauty pageant contestants will ask for it, and we will do our best to find it, as we buy into every cultural lure that promises us peace for the price of a treatment, bottle, or time away! The ironic part to me, is “time away” is the opposite of finding true, real, and everlasting peace this side of heaven.
God intervened into our world, and because He did, we can enter His! When we do, we have PEACE! God’s peace is not the kind of peace as the world understands. In fact, God says that His peace surpasses our understanding! It is a true mystery, just like the mystery of Christmas! God coming down to be with us! Through that mystery of Christmas the majesty of God is revealed! In the same way God promises us PEACE when his favor rests on us!

Luke 2:14,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE two men on whom his favor rests.”

True Peace is only found when we spend time with God! He came to us at Christmas time, to understand the hurried, busy, scattered, broken, crazy hectic life that we live, and he offers us Himself! True peace, genuine rest, and calm amidst the storm, when we abide with Him!

God sent another angel that night to a group of very uncommon people. These people did not rank high in society, they did not hold powerful positions, they did not achieve the highest test scores in school, in fact in their culture they would’ve been considered “nobodies.” They were the shepherds!
They kept to themselves mostly because they spent the majority of their time with smelly sheep out in the open air on a hillside. However, God only saw them as LOVED, His precious people that He came to save and have a relationship with!
God saw them as so significant that He gave them the greatest announcement that the world has ever received,

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

The announcement was personal, and it was delivered to common men…, ” I bring YOU GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY…”, and “…a Savior has been born to you!”

Truth Bomb

God’s favor rests on us when we follow him!

Jesus said to the Shepherd’s over two-Thousand years ago “Follow Me.”
“You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger,” GO , FOLLOW, You will find Him!

He is saying the same thing to you and I today, “in the middle of your craziness, your busyness, your franticness, your sorrow, or your grief…come to me, you will find me, and I will give you PEACE!

As we are only five days from Christmas, and our schedules heat up and our peace is hard to find, may we take a lesson from the shepherds,

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ” Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:15

GO! GO TO GOD, AND HE WILL GIVE YOU PEACE!

May you experience His peace at Christmas like none other this year as you go to the Savior of the world! And don’t forget to tell others!

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” Luke 2:17

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY YOU TRULY FEEL GOD’S LOVE AND PEACE!

Speak Truth Love