SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT!

SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT!
From Pastor Carey

Here is the text of 1 Peter 3:10-12—“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

As we grow together in the gospel of peace and develop knowledge and skills required for Christ-exalting, biblical peacemaking, 1 Peter 3:10-12 is a great passage to believe and act on! Shall we expect God’s blessing on us as we seek peace and pursue it? Yes! Why? Because “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.” When we are in Christ by the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we have assurance that the Lord is aware when we go after living out the great peace gospel! Plus, we know that He is listening when we talk with Him about our efforts to make peace with others! Or to put it another way, we have an ally in our peacemaking, a Divine Ally whose name is Jesus Christ!

“We have an ally who is eager (His ears are open and His eyes alert!) to see us make peace with others. And this Ally is not distant or passive. He is near us, and He is ready to place all of His resources at our disposal. As Ephesians 1:18-20 indicates, our Savior wants us to ‘know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead…’(emphasis mine).”

“Our Ally is ready to come to our aid. Seek His counsel; bank on His limitless resources; trust that He will never leave your side as you seek peace with others.” (quote adapted from sermon materials for week #1 of the “Peacemaking Church”)

The people of Rocky are already experiencing blessings on their peacemaking initiatives and it is sweet to celebrate! Rynette and I share in a LIFE group with a man who has experienced “miraculous” blessing in a business conflict and resolution. What a joy to hear his testimony in our LIFE group meeting last Sunday night! And I heard another great peacemaking testimony during a staff meeting on February 25.

So be encouraged! Be on the lookout for conflicts/opportunities in which to live out the gospel, relying on your Ally, the greatest Peacemaker of all—Christ Jesus!

January 30, 2008

“SOLEMN ASSEMBLY: RETURNING AND GOD’S KINDNESS”
Joel 2:12-17
January 27, 2008
Pastor Carey W. Olson


In preparation for preaching from Joel 2 on the day of our Solemn Assembly, I found this beautiful quote from Jonathan Edwards on the nature of sorrow that leads to true repentance. It is prefaced and followed by a quote from John Piper.

“In order to bring people to the sorrow of repentance, you must first bring them to see God as their delight. Here it is in the words of Edwards.” (Piper)

“Though [repentance] be a deep sorrow for sin that God requires as necessary to salvation, yet the very nature of it necessarily implies delight. Repentance of sin is a sorrow arising from the sight of God’s excellency and mercy, but the apprehension of excellency or mercy must necessarily and unavoidably beget pleasure in the mind of the beholder. ‘Tis impossible that anyone should see anything that appears to him excellent and not behold it with pleasure, and it’s impossible to be affected with the mercy and love of God, and his willingness to be merciful to us and love us, and not be affected with pleasure at the thoughts of [it]; but this is the very affection that begets true repentance. How much soever of a paradox it may seem, it is true that repentance is a sweet sorrow (emphasis mine), so that the more of this sorrow, the more pleasure.” (Edwards)

“This is astonishing and true. And if you have lived long with Christ and are aware of your indwelling sin, you will have found it to be so. Yes, there is repentance. Yes, there are tears of remorse and brokenheartedness. But they flow from a new taste of the soul for the pleasures at God’s right hand that up till now have been scorned.” (Piper)

For a biblical example of how delight in God and godly sorrow leading to repentance work together, see Isaiah 6. Isaiah was overwhelmed with the majesty of God and was broken before Him, unto true repentance.