PASTOR'S CORNER
Our veterans were peacemakers, they stopped those who didn't want peace. But true peace from a person produces more peace; this is a personal worthwhile peace! Show of hands - Watch the History channel? Been to the history section of bookstores and libraries? Notice what they have in common? War is the major portion in that channel's programming and that book section. Get the point? This part of the planet has had two generations without war. We think peace is a give me; its standard, normal. Go to another part of the world. Go back a mere 5 decades! It can be hard to remember what you were not a part of. There is a saying that goes, "those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it" Will we cease this day of rememberance when that generation is no longer? The day we forget, is the beginning of the path to repeating! Theres also a sick saying, that says "the world is too full, we need another war to control the population" Only someone ignorant and without the experience of what war is like could be stupid enough to say this. Any one who has been there, will not find war something calous! My Grandfather is still reluntant in any details about his time serving in the navy during WW II. There must be a very, very good reason to go and risk your life. Theres got to be for me, to leave my family and friends behind and then lose more in the battle! I know I don't want war for something as ridiculous as population control. I'm pretty sure I don't want war, period! But I do want the character that comes from daily sacrifice, the integrity that comes from facing your mortality, the values of life that comes from being so close to death! War is hell, but peace can be surprisingly similar. Not all that has happened since the last war, is what I think those veterans and victims aimed for, in giving us freedom. Though there has been great things in our time without war, heres the sad part of peace. We haven't done the best with it, we haven't always lived a worthwhile peace! In our 50 years of peace, we have not experienced the physical sacrifices of the men and women who served our country since. But we have seen some sacrifices to our society. Where peace has brought us to a place of being so spoiled, we pout when our computer is not working. Where our prosperity has brought us to a place of comfort that is decadent and completely selfish. Where our supposed freedom has brought us to a place where we are God, and morality, values and ethics are ours to twist! Where the busyness of success, "peace", has brought us to a place where we just don't have time for what matters. Veterans gave years and we have trouble giving minutes in silence! I think this makes many a sacrificed warrior role in his or her grave. If there is an upside to war, it is this: all the grey areas are quickly brought to focus. When death or other sacrifice picks you up and bears its teeth, priorities are soon put in place. Where war brought people together for a greater cause under God. Peace has,at times, torn us apart, for our own agendas, over God. The peace the world needs, does not come with a nuclear stand off, or hand shake in the middle east, it come from the very heart God created in each of us, and that comes only from Jesus Christ! The Son of God who laid in the trenches with those terrified young men. Who suffered with each bullet and stab wound. Jas 4:1 From where come wars and fightings among you? Come they not from, even of your evil desires that war in your own minds? God took the penalty of every war, which begins in the darkness of our hearts. He who was sacrificed on the cross so we could find the worthwhile peace that lasts in the midst of the fearcest battle. The peace of knowing what lies beyond our mortality, the peace of freedom from immorality. The peace of faith that overcomes all fear. He who said in John 15:13 "Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friend" Who not only cared for those people suffering in the war to do this commandment; but He Himself did it first! My friends, this peace we see outside our doors comes from many a persons sacrifice and God's blessing. But history tells us, the Bible tells us, that mans peace is as fickle as his moods. God's peace of knowing Christ personally is not fickle, it is unshakable. Tomorrow is another day not promised to us. Today as we remember the sacrifices of fellow countrymen, remember also the God of peace whose sacrifice will give even greater peace. They recently re-instated the the two minute silence. I say amen! Of course the two minutes silence is your choice to participate in, thanks to our veterans; and so is the prayer of repentance to know God's peace, thanks to Jesus. But I truly don't think God or the men and women in WWII ever intended to give there years of sacrifice, so we could use our freedom to make a prosperity that puts us too busy to give two minutes of quiet reflection and rememberance!! Jas 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. How are you making peace in a personal way? Every war has started with a person - Hitler was one person! You may be living in war right now amidst our "peace time". Slow down, don't take peace for granted, make true peace from God, find priorities, build values and ask God to help us to always remember. Teach your children, don't forget our past hero's sacrifices! Make them proud by how you live in peace time! After all the sacrifice, make it a worthwhile peace! Remember:Mt 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Bless them that went to war to make peace, and now let us continue in a worthwhile peace - Lest we forget.
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