Peace of God

Col. 3:15.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Someone has said that if other believers are your enemies, then who are you going to be friends with? In the body of Christ, peace is to rule. We are to have God’s peace in our own hearts; we are to be at peace with other members of the body.

God doesn’t say this would be easy. He never said there wouldn’t be difficulties. He did say to be at peace, though, with other believers.

But, Linda, what if there are irreconcilable differences within the body? Aren’t we supposed to stand for what we believe is right?

Yes, of course. It is the manner in which we disagree that matters. We are human. There will be disagreements, and sometimes they’ll be over more than the color of the new carpet! Sometimes we may feel we cannot stay in a congregation because of a doctrinal issue, or a moral issue that is not being dealt with appropriately. The key here is that if we have to leave, we need to do it peacefully. We are to behave with love toward the believers, and not stir up anger and dissension.

I’ve often thought about the early days of our country, when there was only one church in a new settlement. There weren’t any other places to go, so the people had to figure out how to get along, or make the choice to stay home and “have church” with their own families.

Whatever we do, in regard to the body of Christ, is to be done in peace. When we follow that command, then we can be thankful. That’ a command, too, you know. It’s not a suggestion.

Be ye thankful! Often, a thankful heart is possible when a potentially divisive matter is handled with the peace of God permeating the situation.

Renovation

If you’re a Facebook friend, you may have seen the pictures and videos I’ve been posting as progress continues on the renovation of my old, tired kitchen.  It’s a lot of work.  We’re so thankful for our friend Norm Yeager, who has spent the last few weeks visiting various friends to help out with construction projects.  He has spent at least three full days helping Terry, possibly more.  Memory dims. He’s leaving this morning to go help someone else for a couple of days before he goes back to his longsuffering wife. Thanks for letting him do this, Sherry. Such a blessing to so many.

Anyway.  Others have come to lend a hand. Joe Schmidt has helped us tremendously in supplying cabinets. Our son Dan has spent many long hours, and I’m sure there will be more.  He can be the muscle for things Terry can’t life or carry, and he also helps keep his dad’s ADD brain from shooting all over the place 🙂  Time Delp spent some time yesterday.  Our son Mike was here for a couple of days and helped take down the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  Today our son-in-law Aaron will be here for a while to help set some more cabinets and, I think, put down the last piece of sub-flooring.

I took a picture of Norm and Terry working on tearing up the ugly old brown floor. I captioned it, “When two good men work together, the job gets done.”  It’s amazing how much more four hands can accomplish, especially when the hearts and attitudes are in harmony. It’s been fun to watch these two work together.

So I’ve been thinking about  the scriptural passage that talks about how we are all a part of the body of Christ, all with different abilities, jobs, and gifts that are to be used together for God’s glory.  You can read it in I Cor. 12:12-31.  Some parts of the body aren’t so glamorous.  No one really cares to take a good long look at a liver or at the bowels, yet the body would die without both of these inglamorous parts. We’d rather spend time enjoying faces:  Eyes, lips, noses, hair. We love to look at those who are beautiful, and the older I grow the more I realize that there is beauty in every single human being because we are made in the image and likeness of God.

Some body parts have inglorious jobs. Feet get stood on all day. Baby toes are really cute, but not so much after they start running, getting shoved into sneakers, and smelling a little funky 🙂 And think about noses.  Mine doesn’t work so well any more.  There are many things I can no longer smell.  The inside of a nose isn’t exactly a stunningly beautiful thing, but without our noses, with the hairs that help sift out dust and allergens,  we’d be in a lot of trouble. Noses get the breath to our lungs. We wouldn’t survive without noses.

Part of maturity in Christ is to be content, and even thankful, for whatever part of the body God has created us to be.  We are all necessary to the work. We are all loved and deeply valued by God. We are His workmanship (Eph. 2:10), His poetry, his masterpiece, His work of art.

Some have hands to build, and heads to understand how to do so.  Some have tongues to speak, sing, teach, and minds to help them do so. Some have the beautiful feet that run to spread the gospel of peace. Whatever we are, whatever the part of the body God has ordained us to be, we have something to offer. We can all be an encouragement to others.

Terry and I are thankful for those who have been such an encouragement to us in this huge job of work.  We have a long way to go, but Terry is one of those who has hands and a head to guide his hands in such work. He needs more physical help these days than he used to, and God is providing that help.

It’s a beautiful thing.