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Sunday, June 27, 2010

The peace of the Bible

For a few moments today I'd like to talk to you about something that I really, really love. Something that I, and I believe all of us, long for. Something that we've never totally seen in our lives, but someday hope to attain. Perhaps I should say strive to attain. What I'm talking about is "peace."

Oh, we've had peaceful moments in our lives, but we've never really ever had "total peace," have we. There's just always been something come along or happen that disrupts what short period of peace we were enjoying. And because we've never really had "total peace" in our lives, I believe that it's like infinity or eternity, it's beyond our human comprehension. At least it is for me.

In just a moment I'm going to direct your thoughts to a place and a time where "total peace" will reign eternally. Of course, I'm talking about heaven and we're going to look at the passages that describe heaven to us. We'll look at the allegories and the metaphors used to try and convey to us what a wonderful place heaven is and I say "try" because that's about all they can do when we're dealing with the finite minds of humans. But, beyond the unimaginable beauty described to us, lies this "something" we're looking at for our lesson today - "peace."

I think that I've mentioned to you before that one of our "earthly, temporal" things that I like is old movies. Now you're probably saying to yourself right now, "What's old movies got to do with "peace?" so I'll just try and connect it for you.

If you go back to a time when movies were made that didn't have all the filth and gore, all of the profanity and glorified violence, you'll see (and possibly remember) when movies entertained us without all of those aforementioned items. They had good plots and stories to them. You could even tell the "good guys" from the "bad guys" and even the bad ones didn't use the language so prevalent in today's movies.

One of the things that I appreciate about the old movies is that, much of the time, they portray "peaceful times." Maybe we can even say "innocent times." You know, when the teenagers met at the "malt shop" or the local "drug store." We don't have "drug stores" where I live now, we have "pharmacies." They're not the same thing. In many small towns across America you'll still find "drug stores" with some still having soda fountains and charging 5 cents for a cup of coffee. I miss not having "drug stores." Do you?

But what I'm getting at here is, that we were seeing "peaceful times" being portrayed in the movies. I'm hard-pressed to think of a movie of recent vintage that portrayed anything like "peace." And, I'm not even going to get into where today's teens hangout or what they do. I think all of us have a pretty good idea of those things without me enlarging on them.

When I look at those "peaceful times" I think about how NOT peaceful we are today. That we'll never have total or utter peace while living on this earth. While living in the "plain," this "dimension" of time. So let's look at some passages that tell us why we can never know true "peace" here on earth.

Allow me to refer you to my aforementioned "allegories and metaphors" that describe heaven to us. The 21st chapter of Revelation is where we find the descriptors of heaven given by the Apostle John. I'm not going to mention all of them, but just some that tell us why we'll live eternally in "total peace" there.

If you read verse 4 you'll see that there will be no more "tears." There won't be any reason for crying. There won't be anything there to cause "sorrow." There won't be any "pain." And especially, there won't be anymore "death" of loved ones. Wouldn't you agree with me that those three things have a dramatic effect upon any "peace" in our mortal lives?

And, here's another reason there will be "total peace" in heaven: if you look at verse 8 you'll see that all of the other sources of turmoil in our lives will also be eliminated. Read with me those things that are opposed to "peace." All of the "fearful (cowardly) and the faithless, the abominable (detestable), the murderers and whoremongers (sexually immoral), the sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars" absolutely won't be there. Why? Because they have their own eternal place made exclusively for them. The "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone..."

Now think about what we just read together. Wouldn't we have "peace" here if all of those entities were not present? Absotively, posilutely! But alas, we know that this world has had those kinds of people, those whose activities are opposed to "peace," almost from its very creation. And we also know that they will occupy space in our earthly lives as long as we live in this temporal plain.

Only when this world passes away will God's people know "total peace." And, as we saw in our study, that will be because all of the things that are opposite to "peace" will no longer be among us. What a glorious existence to look forward to.

In closing our thoughts here about "peace" and heaven, let me try and draw you what I envision as a beautiful picture. When we think about arriving in this place of "peace," and we think about our loved ones already there, let me draw your attention to a couple more descriptors of heaven. In Rev. 21:21 we see where the "street of the city is pure gold" and then in 22:1 we read where there's a "crystal river," the "water of life" coming from the throne of God. Wouldn't you like to meet those loved ones at the intersection of "the crystal river" and the "golden street?"

Ron Covey

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