Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/85

Contributor - Darby Anderson

Title - Part 1 - Peace in the Family

Topic - Peace

God's peace is both a vision and a task. The vision assures God's people that the future belongs to God. He will accomplish the peace we hope for because it has been made possible in Jesus Christ. It is stated in Eph. 2:14 - 16, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility". But peace is more than a vision for tomorrow. It is a task for today. It is not only the goal at the end of the journey, but the way we walk For the followers of Christ it is peace that should characterize the style of our living - both in our personal relationships and our public witness. In fact, it is the vision of the coming peace that should reflect like mirrors the very character of the peace we hope for.

Often a peacemaker's greatest challenge is to practice love and peace with the people we live with everyday.

The hardest testing ground for Christianity is right in our own homes - with our brothers and sisters, our husbands and wives, our parents and children. If we can't prove our Christianity there, we can't prove it anywhere. if we can't go that extra mile for those we literally share our lives with, who are we trying to kid when we knock ourselves out by being "super spiritual" at the Bible study or church

Real Christian peace should start at home with those closest to you - and spread out to others from there. Our homes are a microcosm of the larger world. in both we must learn to live with others in a limited space with limited resources. in both we experience conflict, in tastes, needs, temperaments and abilities.

If someone hid a camera in your home for a day, and then showed the film the following Sunday at church, would you be ashamed for them to see the way you really treated each other when no one else was around? Do you go out of your way to serve or to be served? Do you do the things you know will please, whether you are asked to or not? Do you quickly say you're sorry - and really mean it when you're wrong?

I think everyone has a tendency to rationalize their ungodly behaviour at home because - they know, or they understand the pressures and frustrations of everyday life. it's hard to understand how we can be so insensitive to the very people who have loved us and sacrificed the most for us.

Of course, when you live with others, their faults are more readily exposed but then, so are yours. This just makes it all the more necessary to continually walk in the Spirit - with plenty of grace, forebearance and mercy towards one another. The home is a real testing ground but, it is also a place of potential spiritual growth.

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each person regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3, 4)

When we learn how to live together in peace and justice at home, children and parents alike develop the spiritual resources and practical skills for peacemaking in the community and eventually the world.

The Weight of Nothing

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake, " a coal-mouse asked a wild dove.

"Nothing more than nothing," was the answer

"In that case I must tell you a marvelous story, " the coal mouse said "I sat on the branch ofafir tree, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a raging blizzard no, just like a dream - without any violence. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952.. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch - nothing more than nothing, as you say - the branch broke off "

Having said that the coal-mouse went away.

The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for awhile and finally said to herself "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come about in the world."

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

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