01/08/2009 Psalms 34:13

01/08/2009

Psalms 34:13 - 14 (HCSB) ¹³Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from deceitful speech.
¹⁴Turn away from evil and do what is good;
seek peace and pursue it.
===

Bill Mahar has become the atheists’ champion with his spoof on American religion “Religulous” (a play on the word religion and ridiculous). He pokes fun at all the Christian and other fanatics and concludes that the world would just be a better place if there were no religion at all. Even today, I heard on the news that Israel retaliated against Palestinians’ bombing in northern Israel. It does not take a huge leap to conclude that if there were no religion there would be no problems. It would be easy to fall into Bill Maher’s plan were it not for one single truth: there IS a truth. There is one path that is true and right.

But here is what occurred to me. How better to confound God’s plan than to make dozens, if not hundreds, of counterfeits, set them against each other, so they all fight and all seem to be “evil.” The end result is: people reject them all. Satan doesn’t care if people subscribe to a fake religion or if they reject them all. His objective is for people to fail at finding the TRUE religion.

But since we know there is a truth, then what can we do? The verses above, and many like them remind us that our business as Christians is peaceful. We need to make sure that the things we talk about are not antagonistic. We could easily set two people at odds by careless words. We need to pursue peace.

What, then, does it mean to “pursue peace”? What does it mean to “pursue” anything?

When police come upon a crime and the suspect runs, the police “pursue” him. That means they run and chase as aggressively as they can. It is not a brisk walk, it is a full on sprint consuming all their attention and energy. To pursue peace means that we take an active, aggressive (as it were) role in achieving it. You cannot “pursue” something passively. To pursue it, you must put your energies into it. Now, what can you do to “pursue peace?”

One of the worst things we can do as Christians is to cause the world to think we are not concerned with peace. The world already thinks all religions hate each other. We need to prove that we do not hate. We need to demonstrate that we are children of the Prince of Peace. We need to prove that our God is a God of Love. People should to be drawn to us because of our devotion to our God of love and our commitment to peace. We need people to see something unique and refreshingly different in us.

Do they see that in you?

Terms of Usage: This devotional may be copied or forwarded for personal use without permission, but must include the author, publisher, web link, and copyright notice. Use in another published work must obtain permission first.

[ Previous ] [ Up ] [ Next ]