Peace is Only Possible Through Faith In Jesus Christ

Proverbs 16:7

When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes his enemies live at peace with him.

Isn't it funny how so many people claim to want peace in their life, but they totally reject the only One who can give them peace?  The only way a man's ways can be pleasing to God is when he is a child of God.  Only through faith in Jesus can any of our actions please God.  This is called sanctification.  That means that we have been made holy by the Holy Spirit working faith in our hearts to believe in Jesus as our Savior.  It is only through sanctification that we can do anything that pleases God.  This is also why anyone who rejects God can never please Him:  they have chosen to remain dead in their sin (which is the only decision we can make before we receive the gift of faith).  Is it any wonder why so few people have peace in their lives?  When people have set themselves against the God of love, the God of peace; how can they experience either in their lives?  The answer is they can't.  

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.  (Romans 8:6-8)

It's sad that people think they can live in their rebellion against God and still be blessed by Him, as if He owes it to them somehow. In Galatians 5:19-21 St. Paul defines the rebellious life and then he reveals the reward for that rebellion:

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, contrast that to the "Fruit of the Spirit":

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

So this is what peace boils down to:

The only way we can have peace in our lives is when our ways are pleasing to the Lord.  

By nature we are all hostile to God because of sin.

Sin is not pleasing to God, it separates us from God.

It is only through faith worked in us through the Holy Spirit that we can do anything that please God. (sanctification)- 1 Peter 1:2

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through God's Word and Holy Baptism.

Our only true source of peace, for this life and all eternity, is faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

God bless

Jason Fredrick

The Blind Leading the Blind: The Dangers of Worldly "Wisdom"

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

This Proverb is very interesting because atheists and many non-Christians claim that Christians are anti-science.  If you understand the definition of science you understand how stupid that idea is; and how it is actually every non-Christian who doesn't believe in science.

Science literally means:  knowledge.  Where does all knowledge come from?  The Lord.  To deny God, and His existence, is to expose a total lack of knowledge.  If "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge", how can anyone who rejects God and the Bible actually know anything?  They can't.  Everything they think they know is all a pack of lies from Satan.  This is why atheists and humanists constantly contradict themselves and try to deny obvious facts that are staring them in the face.  They deny what is true because the truth condemns them.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew Me, then you would know My Father as well.  From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."

This is why "fools despise wisdom and discipline."  They deny that Jesus is the Son of God, but more than that, they actually try to deny God.  Obviously they can't.  "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities- His eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

Sadly, all will know the truth one day.  Stephen Hawking is very much aware of the Lord God Almighty now, as he spends all of eternity in hell paying the price for his earthly assaults on God and His Word.  Men like Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, and all the rest will follow him.  Their worldly "wisdom" is the leash Satan is able to use to lead them, like a trained circus dog, into the fires of hell for all eternity.  It is sad when men take God's blessings and arrogantly think those blessings are from themselves.  Christians spend a lot time warning against the trappings of money, but they don't spend enough time warning against the dangers of overconfidence and over-reliance on worldly intelligence.  This is how Humanism can so easily infiltrate the church.  Men become prideful of their own intelligence and "genius" ideas.

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 New International Version (NIV)

Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[a]

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called,both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[b]

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[c] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

God bless 

Jason Fredrick