God has called us to live in PEACE - 1 Cor. 7:15

30 years ago this month, Don and I married in Coral Gables, Florida.  We were in our 30s and not naive or unrealistic about what we were bringing to the union.  I can only speak for myself to say that I had a very "independent" streak that needed to be adjusted to live with my man!  God has been the strength of our marriage - He has shaped and molded and caused us to love and to submit to each other.  How grateful we are that His "grace was sufficient" for even us!  We do not pretend to be perfect parents, but we knew how very important a good and peaceful marriage was to our boys.  And, guess what, those boys are now gone with wives of their own and it is just my man and me!  Too often we spend more time giving attention to our children and then when they move on, guess what you have left in your home?

God's word has taught us every day of those 30 years.  Had we not yielded to it more than we fought it, I'm not sure where we would be today.  Paul, in our verse for today, spoke to a believing wife married to an unbelieving spouse, but the truth still applies:  "God has called us to live in PEACE".

There are many enemies to peaceful homes today.  A few are:  discontentment, selfishness, busyness,  too much ambition, stress, conflict  temptation...and I believe Satan is the author of them all.  He is doing his best to destroy the home today and I believe the home is the most critical influence in our world today...certainly in the lives of our children and many of our neighborhoods.  The opposite of peace is showing up in too many places.

Listen to Steve Stroope and Kurt Bruner in IT STARTS AT HOME:

The foundation of every stable home is a thriving marriage.  Is it

any surprise that our Enemy's chief strategy for undermining

lifelong faith is to undermine the sacred bond of marriage.

Happy homes echo the intimate joys of heaven.  Broken, 

troubled families, by contrast, imitate the loneliness,

isolation and anger of hell.

Jesus said in John 16:33: "...in me you may have peace".  Galatians 5:22 says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...".  Ephesians 2:14 says about Jesus Christ: "...he himself is our peace."  Apart from making the Lord the center of our home, we cannot have a peaceful home.  Yielding all that we are to Him is the beginning of bringing peace to our homes.  What does your home - or mine - feel like today?

For further study: Gen. 1:27, Prov. 17:1, Isaiah 26:3, Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18, Ephesians 4:29, Col. 3:15, Phil. 4:11-12, Hebrews 12:14, 1 Peter 3:1-4.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly

BLESSED - Matt. 5:3-12

The word "blessed" has become a bit of an issue lately - the social media has given it more of a false-humility/self-promotion kind of meaning...people using #blessed to draw attention to their own accomplishments.  It grieves me to have such a treasured word or state of being be given such a tainted image.

Blessed is a word used many times in the Bible.  We see it used most often in Matt. 5:3-12 in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus spoke the message of the Beatitudes to his disciples...describing the kind of people they should be (the "be attitudes"):

Blessed are...
--the poor in spirit
--those who mourn
--the meek
--those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
--the merciful
--the pure in heart
--the peacemakers
--those who are persecuted

The Greek word for "blessed" is makarios, 'the happy state of those who find their purpose and fulfillment in God".  John Stott (one of my very favorites!) says

Happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus was making

an objective judgment about these people.  He is declaring

not what they may feel like...but what God thinks of them

and what on that account they are:  they are "blessed".

That surely takes away any idea of this being some worldly definition of great luck or accomplishment.  The very notion that He thinks of me as blessed challenges me to be much more of the descriptions above.  It makes me want to think less of me and more of Him; it makes me sad when I'm not sensitive to the needs of the world; it makes me want to be more holy, to be more merciful, to be a women of greater integrity; it makes me want to be a peacemaker in my home and neighborhood and to pray for those who are dying for the cause of Christ.

One more thought from Dr. Stott:

The Christian cannot be expected to be thanked for 

doing any of these things...but we can have

the approval of God and find self-fulfillment in that happy

state.

I consider myself "blessed" beyond all I could ever have imagined for my life.  Absolutely none of that blessing has anything to do with my accomplishments.  It has to do with what God's great love for the world and what Christ did on the cross for me...and for you.  Hoping you are feeling blessed today.

For further study:  Gen. 1:22, Numbers 6:24, Deu. 28:1-14, Psalm 1:1-2,  Psalm 32:1, Psalm 128:1,

Proverbs 21:18, Ezekiel 34:16, John 12:13,  Acts 20:35, James 1:12

Be blessed (!) in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly