Advent Series: Proclaim Peace

Advent Series Week Four:  Proclaim Peace

Do you want more from Christmas than a chaotic schedule, financial stress, and more stuff? Join us for our Advent series. Each week of Advent (November 27 – December 24), we will fix our eyes on a beautiful truth about God and provide some verses you can read each night of the coming week.

• Week One: Announce Hope
• Week Two: Exercise Faith
• Week Three: Express Joy
• Week Four: Proclaim Peace

Why not start a family tradition to get more from Christmas than ever before? Grow your faith, quiet your heart, and enjoy Jesus!

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Proclaim Peace

In the Jewish culture, people greet one another with the word Shalom. The greeting conveys a desire for another to enjoy peace and wholeness in their lives. It expresses a hope of restoration for any losses that have been experienced. As followers of the Prince of Peace, we have received the privileged responsibility of proclaiming Peace to the world.

Like the concept of shalom, Christ’s peace encompasses much more than an absence of conflict or the presence of positive emotion. The peace of God transcends and infuses everything, creating an atmosphere that sustains life. Walking in peace changes the environment around you. Our world spins at such a frantic pace, very few experience peace – or have any idea how to bring peace to others. You are the vessel God can use to change that!

Let’s pause for a moment to feel peace. Think about the most peaceful spot you know. Picture it in your mind and then imagine being there. Breathe in the feelings of that place when you visit. Did you feel your heart slow and your tension ease? That’s the atmosphere you are designed to live in – and it is possible to live in that state every day of the year. In fact, you must learn to do so. Our earthly bodies get sick when we live in constant stress. Relationships shatter. Lives crumble. Your design is to be filled with the life of Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Living in Peace

The angels proclaimed peace along with joy when they announced the birth of Christ. But it’s conditional peace…do you see it?

Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased (Luke 2:14)

Peace rests on those with whom God is pleased. That sounds kind of harsh, doesn’t it? But it makes such perfect, sweet sense. We are created in His image – designed for union with Him. There is no wholeness when we’re disconnected from the Lord.

When Paul spoke to the seekers in Rome, he explained it this way: In Him we live and move and have our being. Many years ago there was a (non-Christian) film about a person who saw visions and uttered a line that proclaimed a harsh truth. He said, “I see dead people.” Friend, everyone who lives outside of Jesus is spiritually dead – without Him, people are the walking dead. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The only way to live in peace is to be alive in Christ … and when you are alive, you can bring life to others.

Proclaiming Peace

Once you experience peace, you become a vessel of peace – a proclamation of peace – and you inspire the world to rejoice. The prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time when the Good News would be proclaimed on the mountains (Isaiah 52:7). Later he said that all of creation would join in the proclamation!

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12 ESV).

Life in Christ is the fullness of all the things we have focused on during Advent. It is the abundant life Jesus promised (John 10:10). The presence of God is the greatest present of all. Jesus is the embodiment of hope, faith, joy, and peace. My prayer for you this Christmas season is for the Presence of God within you to grow stronger, to influence the world around you, and to excite you about the future God has for you.

God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God (Colossians 1:27 GNT).

Scriptures for the Coming Week

Monday, December 19                       Isaiah 26:3
Family Chat:                                       What (can)do you do to fix your mind on God?

Tuesday, December 20                       Psalm 4:8
Family Chat:                                       Do you sleep peacefully, trusting in His care?

Wednesday, December 21                  James 3:18
Family Chat:                                       Is there anyone you need to make peace with today?

Thursday, December 22                      1 Peter 5:6-7
Family Chat:                                       How do you give God the things that worry you?

Friday, December 23                         Isaiah 54:10
Family Chat:                                       What mountain do you need God to remove in your life?

Saturday, December 24                      Romans 16:20
Family Chat:                                       Who can you encourage with these words