If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live at peace
with all men.
Do you know what is better than always having to have your
own way? Always having peace on the inside! We now live in a day
when people are hell bent on being right and having their own way
in everything. The prevailing attitude is that if I can't have my
way, I'll burn the place to the ground! Our nation has embraced the
scorched earth attitude. The Bible warned that a day like this
would come when men would be "demanding and irreconcilable". The
result of this attitude is the loss of peace in people's lives and
the public square. Is there anybody out there like myself that
would like to return to "Mayberry days" when people were willing to
bend in order to enjoy a life of peace and community? Even
Otis was respected and shown some mercy! Scripture tells us
that this selfishness that would prevail in the latter day would
create "stressful times" to live in. Is not the root of all stress
people valuing "their way" above peace? What does God
call us to do in these trying days of "my way or the highway"?
The answer is in today's verse. We are clearly commanded to
pursue peace with all people as much as is possible with us. Before
you will pursue peace above being right you have to begin to
value peace above being right. Question; which would you rather do,
win an argument or enjoy your day? If you win the argument,
congratulations! You are miserable inside, you just lost a
friend, but by grannies, you won! Personally, in this ripe old age
I've decided that enjoying life, being at peace inside, keeping my
friends and being a living testimony to the grace of God beats
being right any day! As I told a man who was arguing with his
wife once and wanted me to side in with him, "you can be right
or you can be warm tonight, its your choice"! Its certainly
not original with me but, "if mama ain't happy..."! No doubt there
are times when conflict is unavoidable and we need to confront that
which is evil, dangerous or unbiblical, but most of the things that
divide us and make life miserable are not in that category. In
the majority of cases we can choose peace over strive if we
want to. Jesus did not say "blessed are the peacekeepers", He said
"blessed are the peace makers". We are called to "make" peace.
Do whatever is necessary to create peace in the heart, home
and land. I hear it out there somewhere, "but I am right, and they
are wrong"! Even if that is true, follow the example of our Master
who was right when I was wrong (want to argue?), yet He took
the initiative to "create peace between man and God". Do you
want to live the abundant, satisfying, enjoyable life on this
earth that Jesus promises? Start choosing peace over
"right".
Dear Jesus, you were right,
and I was wrong. Thank you for choosing peace over judgement!
Please give me grace to do the same!
I totally agree with everything Pastor Brian has said and
that we should be peacemakers in our families, with our friends,
and at our work, and that needs to be intentional, because it goes
against our flesh and sinful nature to do so.
I want to add my own thoughts to this and that is that
being a peacemaker doesn't mean that we should continue to invest
in everyone's lives and pursue everyone's approval. Jesus
clearly set priorities for who he invested in with his time and
energy with his Disciples, and when he sent out the Disciples to
share the Gospel, he added in Mark 6:11 NKJV "And whoever will
not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there,
shake off the dust under your feet as
a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for
that city!”"
Matt 7:6 NKJV “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor
cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample
them under their feet, and turn and tear you in
pieces."
I don't claim to fully understand Matthew 7:6, and I've
heard it taught and interpreted in different ways. One
interpretation is that we should not continue to invest ourselves
and our time in those who are rejecting what we have to say.
Everyone needs to hear the Gospel, but we should not assume that
we're totally responsible for someone receiving
it.
Paul pointed out in 1 Corinthians 3:6 - NKJV that we
don't know exactly how our actions will play a role in impacting
someone but ultimately it's up to God not us. Paul says "I
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."
After Paul preached a powerful message Acts
17:32-34 says "32 And when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will
hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed
from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and
believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named
Damaris, and others with them."
Paul did what he was called to do, but he could not control
who received the message and who did not, but what did he do?
He left them, he moved on.
How do we apply this in our lives? Well, when it comes
to our work, don't make someone your spiritual project. Be
obedient to what you believe the Holy Spirit is leading you to do
and say, and move on. Love everyone, be at peace at everyone
to the extent we can, but find a core group of believers at work
with whom you will invest most of your time and energy.
These principles ar true of acquaintances at work, it's
true of our friends outside of work, and believe it or not, it's
true of family members as well.
We may feel the need to be close to all our family members,
our parents, our siblings, etc. and for them to agree with us or
rather for us to agree with them, particularly about important
matters of faith.
Proverbs 27:10b NKJV says
"Better is a neighbor nearby than
a brother far away."
In Mark 3:31-35 NKJV "31 Then His brothers and
His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling
Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they
said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers
[h]are
outside seeking You.”
33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My
mother, or My brothers?” 34 And He looked around in a
circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My
mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will
of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
The Bible commands us to honor our father and mother, but
it also says in Genesis 2:24 "Therefore a man
shall leave his father and mother and
be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
I'm not aware of any command in the Bible for us to be
close to our siblings.
E
Harrel at Lowes. Super helpful as we were looking at
replacing our wrotten door going onto our back deck. I don't
know if he's a believer, but I shared with him this podcast, so if
you're listening Harrel, thanks for doing such a great job.
One thing I liked was how he handled interruptions. When
someone came up to him for help, he immediately addressed them,
which was considerate to them for not making them wait, and let
them know that he would help them as soon as he was finished with
my wife and I, which was considerate to us. Even if we don't
work in retail, I think we can all find ways to learn from how
Harrel handled this.
L
He who is slothful in his work Is a brother to him who is a
great destroyer.
Proverbs 18:9 - NKVJ
A
i went to tell you about
something I'm really excited about that you may be interested in as
well, and it's an opportunity to get involved with a company
called Onpassive.
I've been an engineer for the last 13 years, but as some of
you may know who have heard my testimony this is not my first stint
at being an engineer. I worked full-time for 7 years as an
engineer working for General Mills, helped launch products like
Multi-Grain Cheerios and Frosted Cheerios and share a patent for
unique way to make cracked grains in cereal flakes. Well, in
2000 I quite my job as an engineer and spent the next 8 years
flipping houses and buying, renting, and selling investment
property. There were a lot of promise made about getting rich
quick. That combined with me some poor decisions on my part
resulted in that business failing.
I made the right choice to go back to engineering, and I enjoy
it, but I've never lost a bit entrepreneurship in my blood and I do
believe in the power of passive income. This side of my
personality contributed toward me starting up and running this
podcast but I've also kept my eye out for the right
part-time business that could provide some added income for me
and my wife, especially that would leverage the power of the
internet and not demand much of my time.
I believe I've found just that opportunity. A friend of
mine shared it with me, and I was skeptical as I always will be,
both because of my experience going bankrupt as well as my nature
is to be detail oriented and check things out thoroughly.
A man named Ash Mufarah started this up a few years ago.
His vision was to have a portfolio of software applications that
would work together and be an improvement over what's currently
available. He also set this up so that a maximum number of
people can benefit from it without having to spend a lot of time on
it.
Here's what I like about this opportunity:
1. It requires only a small up front investment
2. It has a massive market - pretty much everyone needs these
tools in one way or another
3. It offers an alternative to the Big Tech offerings
currently available, and from what I've observed so far they are
committed to not just created a me-too version but rather to have a
point of difference and be significantly better than the
competition
4. It gives you a chance to be a part of something before it
launches.
They're planning on launching like 50 products and have just
started to release them for beta testing. The first one,
O-Cademy is so powerful. It will allow children and adults to
get the best training online and it will allow content creators and
teachers to share their knowledge teaching others and make an
income doing it. I could go on about this one product, but my
main point is that this one product is so powerful and has huge
potential and it's just one product.
If you think you might be interested, click
here for more
info or email me to discuss further at
support@christianmenatwork.com
H