Too radical

[SkyWriting]

I'm too radical for some forums.   Accusations of "Non-Christian" are common, and I'm sorry that my views offend.
Really I am.  I'm not stirring up trouble just to be a jerk.

[geronimo]

Welcome SkyWriting,
Yes, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit were/are radical. Being a jerk is a personal choice.
Hope your stay here is fruitful for all.
Blessings,
geronimo

[SkyWriting]

Welcome SkyWriting,
Yes, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit were/are radical. Being a jerk is a personal choice.
Hope your stay here is fruitful for all.
Blessings,
geronimo

Some of us are born this way.  Others of us are too brash for polite society.
And some of us offend just because our view is not the same as others.

[geronimo]

From a friend who writes his "reflections". I've posted his thoughts here before.

James 3:17-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.



Pasted from <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+3%3A17-18&version=NKJV>



What do you think of when you think of peace?  In our common usage, the word peace implies the absence of conflict.  The word in the Greek that is in this passage translated peace has a richer meaning than simply the absence of conflict or quietude.  Another site I use defines the word as follows:

1515 eirḗnē (from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness).  https://biblehub.com/greek/1515.htm



All the entries as definitions of peace in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary are situational, or in other words, our circumstance determines our level of peace.  To say it another way, the peace the world offers is not determined by what is within us, but by that which is external, placing us and our peace at the mercy of outside influence.  The peace James is talking about in today's text is different because rather than being a product of what is going on around us, or our circumstance, the peace of the Lord is a product of Him as our source.



27 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.  John 14:27 [NKJV]

Same Greek word as in James.  This peace is a gift from Jesus to you and me.  It is a product of our Provider's efforts on our behalf.  It comes from the spiritual wholeness afforded to you and me by our relationship with the Lord and by our being in Him.



Today, if conflict is a factor in your existence, I encourage you to invite Jesus to cause His peace to manifest in Your heart.  In John 14:27 Jesus says that He gives peace.  I do not believe that He limited His peace to those who were under the sound of His voice when He spoke these words.  These words are spoken in the dialog that Jesus held with His disciples in the Upper Room, beginning in John 13 and continuing through Chapter 17.  The culmination of Chapter 17 is Jesus' prayer for the church down through the ages.  That means that you and I were on His mind and in His heart when He went to the cross to secure our peace.  I believe that fully means that you and I can appropriate the promise of Jesus found John 14:27 because we are included in the Bride of Christ, the Church, which Jesus went to the cross to redeem to Himself.  Truly may we pray, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin [in] me."



Father today I come repenting of allowing the strife around me to penetrate my heart.  Fill me so full of Your love that my thoughts are Yours and there is no room for the strife and conflict of the world around me to dominate my heart.  Grant to me today such measure of Your Spirit in me that I may know Your peace.  Gideon, judge of Israel declared after the Angel of the Lord appeared to him that You are Adonai Shalom, Lord of peace. [Judges 6] Be Lord of peace, Adonai Shalom in my heart today.  In the name of Jesus, may these things be true in me.

Continued blessings to you.

[4WD]

A cursory view of the world today will provide the solid indication that the absence of war or conflict is not peace.