An Artist’s Picture of Peace

There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror of peaceful towering mountains which were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, and in which lightning flashed. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the king looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. in the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest in perfect peace.

Which do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why? “Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.” True peace is found not in the absence of crisis, but in the presence of Christ. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

How do we receive this peace? When Christ calls obey. When storms distract you pray. When Christ comes let Him stay. Let Jesus change your life. It's simple, but be genuine and honest about what you are doing. You simply have to believe that Jesus lives,  admit that you have done wrong things and thought wrong thoughts in the sight of a holy God, ask Jesus for His forgiveness through His sacrifice for you on the cross, and then ask Him to come and change your life. 

And He will - "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom 10.9)

What happens next? You will start a relationship with the one true God - you can claim that special peace in your life that only Jesus gives.

Now stand on the promises of the risen Christ:-

"I am with you always, even to the end of the age"

"My peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives ... Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid."

Written by a Guest blogger 

An Artist's Picture of Peace

There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror of peaceful towering mountains which were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

Justice - Why do we care so much about it?

 

Photos Courtesy of Unsplash

Why do we have a keen sense of justice?

We now live in a society where the general opinion about whether things are right or wrong can at times be vague.  

In the Bible, God has given us clear information about what is right and what is wrong. But there is also a reality about things being just or unjust. 

Here are some things to consider:

1. Why do children cry “that’s not fair” or “it’s not right”?
2. Why is there an inbuilt awareness of fairness in a child? 
3. Why is it common for people to have a really well-developed sense of justice? 

The Bible gives us the explanation. It teaches that God ‘has written His law in our hearts’. God gave us this inbuilt awareness of right and wrong. Holy scripture (the Bible) teaches that we have a conscience. It teaches that we have an inbuilt knowledge within ourselves and a knowledge about ourselves. We automatically can clarify the reality of the rightness or wrongness of the things that we say, feel and do. 

For example, most of us feel impulsively that telling blatant lies is wrong. We instinctively know that to remove property that belongs to someone else is wrong. The Bible teaches these principles, but somehow we know them to be true! Is that significant or coincidental?

The ‘ten commandments’ teach that you shouldn’t steal, you shouldn’t lie, you shouldn’t take somebody else’s wife and so on. The list defines prohibitions as well as teaching positive things that we should do. Things like loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind. Jesus summarized the rest by saying, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ Matt. 22. 39. 

You may say to yourself, ‘I’m not really sure why we all know those things?’ Let me come back to what the Bible says - God has planted within us an awareness of right and wrong. Just look across society for a moment. People are very interested in equal rights and equal opportunities. We are very concerned that disabled people are cared for, that ethnic minorities aren’t disadvantaged, and that there is religious freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of belief. We campaign for the rights of the unborn child, plus we debate people’s rights to free speech. Public behaviour is monitored, ensuring that people do not overreach themselves and inflict damage on other people or their property. In all of this, we try to balance the rights of a society to be free and yet remain free of criminal activities. 

These things are right. I believe we are like this in society because God has implanted in us an awareness of things that are very important to Him - a consciousness of right and wrong and of the realities of living in a way that is fair and equitable. God describes Himself as a just, as well as righteous, doing right. He is a God of light; God is love, a God who is eternal and a God who is all-knowing! 

We wouldn’t know these things if God hadn’t revealed them to us in the Bible. This is why the Bible is such a key book for us to read. In fact, it is God’s message to humanity, and it’s an amazing thing that we have it so freely available despite some countries that still restrict access to the Word of God. 

Let me leave you with a statement from the Bible, the Bible says, ‘For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,’ 1 Peter 3:18. This verse is saying that if God was being just, if God was being fair, He would punish us for our sin, He would penalize us, He would judge us for breaking His law because we are guilty. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world and suffered for sins to bring us to God. He personally suffered the penalty for sin by dying for us. Three days later, He was brought up back to life. His resurrection is sufficient evidence that the price for sin was fully paid. His resurrection establishes that you can take advantage of salvation. You do this by confessing your sin (to God, not a religious representative) and asking God to forgive you. You are effectively asking for God’s blessing upon your life. 

I wonder if you would take advantage of God’s offer of salvation today. Will you come to Him for forgiveness and rest upon Him for salvation? You can know what it is to be forgiven and saved. 

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved – the Bible, Acts 16:31

 

For more information please visit our webpage www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Does God set us up to do wrong and then punish us when we do?

Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I amtempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone

James 1. 13

One of the common problems we all have is our weakness to resist temptation. It is the same for every one of us. We often explain it away by saying ‘we are only human’ or ‘it’s my weakness’ or similar phrases. The simple fact is that we are flawed by nature and there are things in life that we find very hard to resist. Having said all that when a person gets saved they become a new creation, 2 Cor. 5. 17. We will still feel the struggle which is caused by temptation but we now have new life and the Spirit of God to strengthen us and keep us from falling.