I received a card this holiday season from a close relative. It stated in this persons own writing May peace be on our lips & in our hearts this Season Immediately within me quickened the urgency I felt as a young Christian to not only share the Gospel but to impart the seriousness of our eternal destination.
I reflected on how I would literally beg and plead my closest family members and friends to come to church or read tracts about Jesus. They would try to settle me down assuring me that this was just a phase. As time passed, some thirty years now, I concede they were right.
There are many ways I can be Jesus to the people. Serving and loving. Smiling and helping no matter what sins they are in or have committed. But I don t address eternity very often. I admit not at all anymore. My family and friends know I am a Christian and we live peaceably. I don t attack them with tracts or leave them scriptures in places. I don t speak to them of any immorality in their lives or wince at their swearing. And they understand when I don t attend a family function for a church function. They may not truly understand but we have come to this sort of truce over the years. We keep peace.
This is not peace at all. I am untrue to them and my God. I sin against them and my Savior. My job as a Christian is not to be peaceful, but to bring peace. Not peace with me, but with God.

Romans 5:1 a Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, b we [1] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

This is peace. The pursuit of this peace will be my pastime. It will not seem to many that I am being peaceful which to me translates to complacency. In this quest I am reminded how this was for Jesus as He stated:

Matthew 10:34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. s I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 I have come t to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. 36 u And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

The zeal is back. Peace will be on my lips and in my heart. It just may not be peaceful.

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