I often sign my letters or email, "Grace and Peace." For me, they are essential to who I am and who I want to become. Without the grace of God, I am lost and without the hope for peace, what is there?
In the middle east, we often greet one another, in whatever language is being spoken, "Peace be unto you." In parting, the same words may be spoken in combination with other words of friendship or simply 'peace'.
We don't have much knowledge of that in our culture. For us, peace is a often merely a cessation of anger or violence, we think or feel that we are at peace when we are not fighting with each other or other nations -- in other words, we treat peace like a truce that may or may not last.
That is not peace. Peace is where God is, it is embodied in the "presence" of the ONE. That's why Jesus is called the "Prince of Peace" as he is the Word incarnate, the Word spoken by the creator that formed and shaped the world -- and that is what real peace does for it is the word that shapes and forms our world. ("Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit," saith God.)
Peace forms and shapes the world. In a peaceful world, there is a place for each of us and all of us. There is a place in a peaceful world for the stranger and the lost child, the outcast and the least one among us. It is that mystical place where the lamb lies down with the wolf and the calf eats grass alongside the lion. Yes, that peace exists only in the kingdom of God that Jesus came to reveal; yet speaking or writing the word reminds me to long for that kingdom. Speaking peace reminds me that I must do my part to see it come to pass. "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." GRACE AND PEACE TO ALL OF YOU.
sam
In the middle east, we often greet one another, in whatever language is being spoken, "Peace be unto you." In parting, the same words may be spoken in combination with other words of friendship or simply 'peace'.
We don't have much knowledge of that in our culture. For us, peace is a often merely a cessation of anger or violence, we think or feel that we are at peace when we are not fighting with each other or other nations -- in other words, we treat peace like a truce that may or may not last.
That is not peace. Peace is where God is, it is embodied in the "presence" of the ONE. That's why Jesus is called the "Prince of Peace" as he is the Word incarnate, the Word spoken by the creator that formed and shaped the world -- and that is what real peace does for it is the word that shapes and forms our world. ("Not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit," saith God.)
Peace forms and shapes the world. In a peaceful world, there is a place for each of us and all of us. There is a place in a peaceful world for the stranger and the lost child, the outcast and the least one among us. It is that mystical place where the lamb lies down with the wolf and the calf eats grass alongside the lion. Yes, that peace exists only in the kingdom of God that Jesus came to reveal; yet speaking or writing the word reminds me to long for that kingdom. Speaking peace reminds me that I must do my part to see it come to pass. "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." GRACE AND PEACE TO ALL OF YOU.
sam
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