Perfect Peace

 Perfect Peace

July 16, 2026

Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) 

You will keep [him] in perfect peace, [Whose] mind [is] stayed [on You,] Because hetrusts in You.

Isaiah 28:16 (NKJV) 

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A triedstone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.

The prophet Isaiah, in the midst of proclaiming death and destruction to rebellious nations, inserts words of hope. He foresaw a day when the Messiah would come and bring perfect peace. We now live in that day. Jesus is the sure foundation, and when our mind is stayed on Him, we can have perfect peace. That doesn’t mean that we won’t see trouble, but being built on a sure foundation, we will be able to stand through the storm. That is perfect peace. Not lack of conflict, but a confidence to endure through whatever may come. So today, let your mind be stayed in Him, that you may have perfect peace. Shalom.

Peace of Mind

Peace of Mind

June 14, 2026

Philippians 4:4-7 (NKJV) 

4Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord [is] at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:8-9 (NKJV) 

8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things [are] noble, whatever things [are] just, whatever things [are] pure, whatever things [are] lovely, whatever things [are] of good report, if [there is] any virtue and if [there is] anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

The last couple of days we have been talking about the mind of Christ and having a mature mind. The apostle wraps up his letter with advice on how to obtain peace of mind. Practicing the following will help you live a peaceful, unworried life:

• Rejoice always
• Don’t be anxious
• Pray about everything
• Be thankful
• Meditate on pure thoughts

And the result will be a life lived with the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

What else can I say? That’s a good list to start meditating on in order to start you on a road of living with peace of mind. Shalom. Shalom.

Revive us Again

 Revive us Again

 March 29, 2025

Psalms 85:6-13

6 Will You not Yourself revive us again,

That Your people may rejoice in You?

7 Show us Your lovingkindness, O LORD,

And grant us Your salvation.

8 I will hear what God the LORD will say;

For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones;

But let them not turn back to folly.

9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,

That glory may dwell in our land.

10 Lovingkindness and truth have met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth springs from the earth,

And righteousness looks down from heaven.

12 Indeed, the LORD will give what is good,

And our land will yield its produce.

13 Righteousness will go before Him

And will make His footsteps into a way.

Revival and peace. How are they related? The psalmist lays it out in Psalm 85. He calls out the the Lord, “revive us again”, and then lists all the benefits that follow: rejoicing, loving kindness (mercy), salvation, peace, glory, truth, righteousness and fruitfulness. That’s quite a list! So Lord, revive us again. We need you, the church needs you and our nation needs you, and we need to see all the fruits that follow revival.  It first, we need to seek You. When we find You and you revive our spirits, then we can have righteousness, truth and peace. 

The Lord is Peace

 The Lord is Peace

March 5, 2025

Judges 6:24a

24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace ^h7965

h7965. שָׁלוֹם shalom; completeness, soundness, welfare, peace:

Today, let us look at another name of God, The Lord is Peace (Shalom). Peace is something that we all seek, but the Hebrew Shalom is more than just an absence of conflict. Shalom is completeness, soundness, welfare and peace. Yesterday, we talked about not being anxious because the Lord would provide of everything you need. Trusting in that promise brings us peace. Resting in the promises of God brings us to a place of perfect peace where we don’t need to worry about anything.

John 14:26-27

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all thatI said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

In John’s gospel, he records where Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us. Thus the Lord of Peace now resides within us when we receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus says this is not a peace like those in the world would have, but is a perfect peace that drives out all fear and anxiety. The world promises peace when you find a partner that makes you happy, or says you can have peace if you take the right drugs. The world’s peace is a false promise and only numbs the pain of life’s problems. When you accept the Lord’s peace into your heart, you can truly be free from the worry about all these things. It’s not that you will have no further problems, but you will have the peace that the Lord is in control and will work all these things for good in the end. So “do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Shalom, Shalom.  Peace upon peace.

Sons of God

 Sons of God

February 13, 2025

Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

We have been looking at the doctrines of the faith as laid out in Romans. But we are not careful, we can get caught up in the intellectual understanding of these things; propitiation, justification, sanctification, glorification, etc. We need to remember that we aren’t saved by understanding these things in our mind, but we are saved saved because God the Father loves us, and has adopted us as sons. All that Jesus did on the cross was for our benefit because He loves us. I am particularly subject to this problem, having been trained over many years to think about everything and to try to understand and analyze everything . Some things don’t need to be analyzed, they need to be accepted by faith, and appropriated into our soul and spirit. Knowing that God the Father loves us is not something that we can understand intellectually. I know, I have tried. It is only when the Spirit of God reveals it to your spirit that you really comprehend it, and can cry out, like Paul says, “Abba! Father!”. It is then that we realize that we are heirs to the promise, and that forgiveness, holiness and the ability to please God are gifts. They are part of our inheritance as sons. We just need to accept them. Perhaps that is one meaning of the verse that we often use as a call to worship:

Habakkuk 2:20

20“But the LORD is in His holy temple.

Letall the earth be silent before Him.”

Our voices clamor and our minds inquire, but to truly understand the Father’s Love, sometimes we just need to be silent before Him.

On the Lord’s Side

 On the Lord’s Side

December 11, 2024

Joshua 5:13-15 (NASB95) 

13 Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” 14 He said, “No; rather I indeedcome now as captain of the host of the LORD.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” 15 The captain of the LORD’S host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

When you turn on the news, it seems like there is a new war somewhere every day. And from time immemorial, nations have gone to war and always asking their gods to be on their side. Even Joshua initially asked “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” But the Lord’s messenger quickly straightened him out, saying “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.” Joshua’s response was correct in that he bowed down, removed his shoes and worshiped the Lord.

Abraham Lincoln said something similar at the height of the Civil War. I may not remember the details exactly correctly, but it seems that someone asked him if the Lord was on our side. Lincoln answered the the effect, that we need to pray that we are on the Lord’s side. Oh that all the national and military leaders today would ask the same question and listen to the Lord of peace.

In our own personal lives, do we ask the same? Do we ask the Lord to be on our side, or do we seek His will and strive to be on His side? A lot of personal strife could be avoided if people would ask to be on the Lord’s side. The Lord is on the side of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. When there are irreconcilable differences, it is because one side is not willing to forgive and make peace.

But back to Joshua. What was the result of Joshua deciding to be on the Lord’s side. Well the very next battle was the battle of Jericho and you all remember what a great victory that was. The walls came down, not with siege ramps and battering ramps, but with a blast of the trumpet and a great shout from all the people. The Lord had a better battle plan than anything that Joshua could have imagined himself. So in your own life, when things seem impossible, seek to be on the Lord’s side and worship HIm. His battle plan is better than our own and will win the victory in ways that we can not even imagine.

Rejoice

 Rejoice

November 15, 2024

Philippians 4:4-9

4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

In recent posts we have been talking about recent events and what it will take to bring revival to the land. Today, I would like to look at one key to reviving your own hope. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice.” Looking at the world situation can get us down, but we need to look up. Remember that the Lord sits on his throne in the heavenlies. Remember Psalm 2 and how the Lord reacts to the plots of world leaders.

Psalms 2:4

4He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

If the Lord can laugh at them, then we should not be anxious for anything. We can rejoice in the goodness of God and trust Him in all things. The Apostle Paul goes on to say that we can pray with thanksgiving and we will have peace which passes understanding. I for one, like to understand everything, but have learned that it is better to trust the Lord and just rejoice when you see all the silliness that world leaders try to do. In the end, it is the Lord that is on His throne and every knee will bow.

The second part of this key to peaceful living is found in verses 8 and 9. In addition to rejoicing, we should think on things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise. We can control our attitude. It’s not easy in this world where competing thoughts fill the airwaves, but it is possible. Part of not being anxious is to just take a break and meditate on the goodness of God. It is a choice whether to obsess on the evils of the world or to rejoice in the goodness of God.

So this then is one key to revival. In order to bring the gospel of peace to the world, we need to be at peace in our own soul. The Apostle Paul tells on in this letter to the Philippians how to do that. He ends this discourse with the famous and often quoted out of context verse: Philippians 4:13

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

The “all things” follows the rejoicing and right thinking and practicing these things. When we get out act together, then the Lord will provide the peace and strength in all things.