Monday, June 12, 2017

Maintaining Peace, Joy and Love in the Midst of Crises - Part 2

This is the second in a series of blog posts examining a key to personally dealing with crises. Included in this series will be selected excerpts taken from my book,
The Power and Promises of THE NAME Jesus
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Maintaining Peace, Joy and Love in the Midst of Crises
Part 2 – Peace in the Midst of Crisis

Last week we introduced this current series of blog posts examining a key to personally dealing with crises. This week and in the coming weeks, as this series continues, we will examine in turn the virtues of peace, joy and love in the context of leaders responses to critical situations. For this week let’s consider the following personal illustration defining the concept of peace:

It was one of those rare moments which could easily have been missed completely.  Yet, fifty nine years later I can still recall and appreciate the memory of it.  I was seven years old.  It was another carefree Midwestern summer day for the children of Bellefontaine Street.  Our sole occupation was to play and have fun; an occupation which we pursued diligently.  On this particular day our make believe adventures had brought us to be sitting on the curb in front of my house.  So full of energy and activity were we, that just stopping to sit down was in itself a bit of an oddity.  As we sat there chattering and laughing, Deena was the first to notice it.  She suddenly stopped talking, raised her head in awareness of something, looked up slightly and sat motionless.

            “What is it?” Toni asked.

            “Quiet” Deena said raising her hand.

            I was still laughing over my last silly joke.  “Shhh!” Deena commanded, whereupon I fell silent as well. 

            “Do you hear that?”  Deena looked at us and then looked back up.

            The awareness then struck us all.  We were experiencing a moment in which the world was completely still.  There were no birds chirping.  There were no insects buzzing.  There was no breeze rustling the leaves of the trees.  Not even the distant sound of a solitary dog barking or the faint vroom-hum of an automobile blocks away could be heard.  No sound whatsoever could be detected.  We sat awestruck at the sound of nothingness.  At that moment I first experienced the definition of peace. 

            Peace in today’s world is primarily defined as the cessation or prevention of war.  It has to do with treaties and agreements designed to avoid quarrels and disturbances.  In that sense, it implies a certain acquired harmony and concord.
            In the Bible the word peace, in addition to connotations of collective unity and personal wholeness (Vine 283-284),[1] often refers to the state of being quiet and at rest.  It not only denotes being in the midst of complete stillness and tranquility—as when Jesus spoke to the storm “Peace!  Be still!” and all was calm (Mark 4:39)—but also carries the idea of being silent or mute (Strong NT4623).[2]  Sometimes, therefore, peace means to be quiet and start listening.  Personal peace is needful not only for our own health and well being, but also to give us the opportunity to hear, know and respond to the voice of our Lord.

            In John 14:27, Jesus tells us that He desires to give us His peace; a peace which is different from what the world sees as peace.  Jesus’ peace, we are told, will allay our fears and calm our troubled hearts.  “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (NKJV Bible, John  14:27).

Again and again Jesus demonstrates His compassion for the individual.  He understands that regardless of the state of nations and communities, there is no peace for the person who carries worry and conflict in his own heart and mind.  He knows that the only real hope for peace in the world is when each man and woman experiences victory over the conflicts within themselves.  All that is needed to appropriate that victory and subsequent peace is the presence of Jesus in our lives.  We, therefore, need to understand that true peace is not merely the absence of conflict; it is the presence of Jesus Christ.  When we practice the presence of Jesus in our lives by relinquishing control of our concerns to Him, then we will not only benefit personally, but His peace may also flow freely out of us to the world and hearten our followers.  For this reason it is vitally important that we each make time frequently to be still before the Lord, allowing His presence to continually and repeatedly bring us peace within. 

“Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge” (NKJV Bible, Psalm 46:8-11).  We would all do well to take our Bibles and underline or circle the words “be still” in this passage.

            When you find yourself in the midst of conflict you may call upon the name of Jesus, the Lord of Peace, to bring resolution and harmony to the situation.  Whether the disturbance or discord is caused by external factors or is within yourself or both, and whether or not you see any external evidence that the difficulties have been overcome, in Jesus’ name you have been promised peace within.  When you allow Jesus’ presence in your life—when you allow Him to be Lord over every situation in you life, your heart need not be troubled nor be afraid.  He is our peace.  Hallelujah!  “For he himself is our peace...” (NIV Bible, Ephesians 2:14).  Jesus encourages us, “...in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (NKJV Bible, John 16:33).  Again, we are admonished in Phillipians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV Bible).

            The apostle Peter was undoubtedly the chief leader of Christ’s emerging Church.  Of Peter’s leadership potential, Don Howell notes, “When Jesus set apart the twelve to be his apostles, that is, commissioned representatives of the kingdom, Peter must have soon been identified as the primus inter pares, the first among equals.  All four of the New Testament lists of the twelve apostles begin with Peter” (207).[3]  In the book of Acts, chapter 12, Peter shows us a remarkable example of a leader at peace in the midst of crisis.  

“Then he (Herod) killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also...” (NKJV Bible, Acts 12:2-3).  Herod was a king consumed with evil, yet not entirely sovereign. He was held in check by the Romans and by the ruling class among the Jews.  In his anger and hatred for Jesus the Christ, whom his father (Herod the Great) had tried to destroy, he lashed out at the new sect of believers in Jesus, and killed one of their foremost leaders - James.  The Jewish leaders were so delighted by this that he decided to kill Peter too.  Acts 12 describes how Peter was miraculously spared.

“The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.  Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell.  He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists” (NIV Bible, Acts 12:6-7).  Did you catch that?  Peter was sleeping.  He was in all likelihood going to be executed just like James, but he was at peace enough to sleep and had to be awakened by the angel of the Lord.  In the midst of crisis, Peter had the presence of the Lord within and was at perfect peace.

The leader who can maintain peace even in the most trying of circumstances will certainly be better equipped to engender the confidence of followers as well as enjoying better emotional, spiritual and physical health. True peace is not just the absence of conflict; the key to real peace is by living in relationship with Jesus—in having the   presence of the Lord within.  

(to be continued)
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NOTE: Please visit this blog site each week (a new blog is posted every Monday). This blog entry is part 2 of a series of blog posts examining the subject of Peace, Joy and Love in the Midst of Crises. Part 1 was posted on 2017-06-05.

Next week: Part 3 - “Joy In the Midst of Adversity.”   








[1] Vine, W.E. An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words.
Nashville:  Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1984

[2] Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Greek Dictionary of the
 New Testament. Nashville:  Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979

[3] Howell, Don N. Jr. Servants of the Servant, A Biblical Theology of Leadership.
Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2003

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