Why Won’t They Come For Our Peace?
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” As Christians, we know that to be true and yet, we look around at a lost world and say ‘why won’t they come?’ Why do hen eggs sell better than duck eggs? “Advertising.” When a hen lays an egg, she clucks and cackles and tells the world how good it is. The duck, she just drops her head and walks off. But at least the duck, if she doesn’t have anything good to say, she doesn’t say any bad either. What’s the best form of advertising? Word of mouth. Would you want to go into a restaurant where people are coming out talking about how bad the service is? Or a grocery store where people were saying the food wasn’t good? Or a movie where people were complaining about poor acting? In James Chapter 3, he puts it another way. He says the reason folks aren’t interested in our faith or coming to our churches may be our own big mouths. James says even though we may be perfect in every other way, we can still blow it with our tongue. In verse 5, he says we use our tongue for two things, “To blow ourselves up and to burn others down.” We want to get on our spiritually superior high horses and tell everyone how good we are and how good our families are. When I know the fact is, I’m not that good. I needed Jesus and still need Jesus as much and more than anyone. You will never build yourself up by tearing others down. All it does is make you look smaller.
We used to burn sage grass by pulling a handful and lighting it then walking across the field and touching it to more and more clumps of sage until the whole field was burning. That’s what we do when we speak unkindly of our brothers and sisters in Christ. A word here, a word there, and we’ve started a fire that consumes everyone. James says this is demonic (see verses 13-15). When we chew on our neighbor all week then praise God on Sunday, we are poisoning the spring that we all must drink out of. That neighbor we blasted was made in the same image of God that you and I were (see verses 9-12). Our tongue is a multi-tool. It can be used for good, peace, gentleness, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality and without hypocrisy. He says the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace and it’s sown by a special kind of person — by a person who makes peace (see verses 16-18).
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” The key to taming the tongue is being as James said, “willing to yield.” As Christians, we do not yield to sin and unrighteousness, but before we open our mouths to argue, we need to look at this argument through an eternal perspective and ask ourselves, how important is it for me to be right? And before we chew on our neighbor, how important is it for me to get my way? When we are willing to yield, we just might be surprised at which way they eventually choose to turn. They might just choose to turn and come and see where our peace comes from. “The peace that surpasses all understanding.” As we return to our regular services on May 10, the Mill Creek Baptist Church prays for the peace in your family, community, county and country.
As mentioned, we plan on having church services beginning May 10. Sunday school will start at 10 a.m. and Sunday worship service at 11 a.m. We hope you will be able to join us, but we would ask if you don’t feel well or you are uncomfortable coming due to everything going on right now, please stay home. It’s OK. We don’t want you to feel pressured to come before you are ready. We also ask everyone to give each other some space as some are more outgoing than others, but we want to be respectful to each person around us.