Seek Peace

It has been such a blessing to be able to take this week as a time of reflection on Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Too often I find myself caught up in the daily grind, in cooking and laundry and cleaning and teaching and managing and shepherding and discipling and grading and ... Often, I just don't take the time to remember how dark a place I was in when God saved me, the true despair I felt when he opened my heart to respond to the gospel and the great joy and freedom that I experienced when I entered into a relationship with Him.

I wonder if I am alone. I wonder if just the busyness of life in this world keeps us from evaluating our hearts before God. Perhaps social distancing measures afford us a great opportunity with the removal of so much that could occupy our time. Now is our chance to evaluate the state of our own hearts before God and to seek answers to the meaningful questions of life.

The most important question we can ask is what will happen when I die. What will happen when I die? One of my favorite illustrations of the significance of this question comes from Francis Chan. He takes a reaaaaalllly long rope and then has one inch of it colored a different color. That inch of rope represents our life on this earth. The rest represents the time spent in eternity. What we do during that inch determines how we spend the remainder of the rope. If we confess our sins and trust in Jesus during this inch of time, then we also will spend the rest of the rope with Him in glory.

In order to answer the question what will happen when I die, we have to come to an understanding of who we are and who God is. I think we all know in our hearts that God is and that He is holy and righteous and good. I also think, after being quarantined with our families for nearly a month, we also know that we are sinners as is every other human being. But, here's the thing, because God is holy and we are sinful, we can't be together. We can't have a relationship. We are enemies. Since we are created to worship, we end up worshiping other things trying to satisfy that inner longing. Beauty. Sports. Friends. Movies. Success. Education. Money. Music. Religion. The list goes on and on. Ultimately, though, pursuing one of these things fills but does not satisfy the true need of our heart. So, then the question is how CAN this inner longing be satisfied? Not just filled, but satisfied.

And that, my friends, is what this Easter season is all about. Our true need is peace. Peace with God. We long for that relationship with God, for true peace and rest. God sent His only Son Jesus as a sacrifice for us. We sinned. He paid the price for our sins, by being beaten, tortured and crucified. And why? Because of the Father's great love for us. This still blows my mind. Why does God save me? God does not need me for his happiness or completeness. So why bother to save anyone? His salvation is a true gift borne out of His love.

My desire is for you to take the time to consider whether you have this peace in your heart. I am here to help you and pray with you and study and seek the Lord and His peace with you.

I'm just going to end this post with the words of one of my favorite praise songs, an oldie for sure but a goodie forever. This song always reminds me of how God just changed the course of my life in an instant with His love, joy, and peace.

He gave me beauty for ashes
The oil of joy for mourning
The garment of praise
For the spirit of heaviness
That we might be trees of righteousness
The planting of the Lord
That He might be glorified.