“Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth.  I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

Matthew 10:34 KJV

This statement of Jesus is startling.  One of His titles is “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
And He also promised to give His followers His peace (John 14:27).   Bult He also warns His followers that if we follow Him, there will be no peace.  That sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?

The reality is that while the followers of Jesus will truly experience His peace in their personal lives, the very peace we experience through the cross will produce conflict. The cross of Christ and the peace that He provides creates a divide between light and darkness.  That divide will also produce hostility toward those who follow Christ.

Many times that hostility is initially experienced by family members who either do not understand or do not want us to become followers of Christ. But this hostility is also expressed from the culture at large.  As America continues to abandon Biblical Truth that hostility will intensify. 

But the good news of the Gospel is that in the midst  of the conflict we still have His peace!  And it is His peace and His cross that overcomes the darkness!  Although the enemies of Christ may rage against us, Christ has already overcome them (Col.2: 13-15).  And because we are in Christ (Gal,. 2:20), He has made us more than conquerors (Ro.8:37).  All we have to do in the midst of conflict is to simply continue to “stand” in Him and for Him (Eph. 6:13). He provides the power and ability to do that (Phil.4:13).   It is impossible for the darkness to overcome the Light (John 8:12).  Therefore, we can stand and rest in His peace no matter what may come!   For He is with us (Hebrews 13:5)! 

Rev. James W. Black

“Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.” 

Micah 7:7 KJV

The Prophet Micah lived in dark times. The nation of Judah was in great apostasy.  One of the nation’s most wicked kings, King Ahaz, sat on the throne. Ahaz reigned from 735 BC  to 715 BC.  Evil and wickedness were the norm in the culture.  Every strata of society was infected with it.

But in the midst of it all, there was a voice and a remnant of people who still loved, served, and followed the Lord.  Micah was one of those voices. Although he could see the judgment of God coming on the nation and the difficult times that would come as a result, he chose to focus his attention upon the Lord.  He did not ignore the darkness. But his primary focus was upon the Light! 

We live in dark times in America. We can see and feel the darkness enveloping our land.  Like the days of Micah, there are those who seek to silence the voice of righteousness. But the Lord did not place us here during these times to be silent. He placed us here to be His voice and a reflection of His Light in the midst of the darkness. 

The key to maintaining our joy and hope in the midst of the darkness is to “look to the Lord.”  He is our Light and our Hope!   By riveting our focus upon Him we can see beyond the darkness!  We can see the King and His Kingdom!  We can see His Hand at work in the midst of everything else that is happening. One glimpse of Him puts everything else in perspective. Although the majority of the culture embraces the darkness, we can still rejoice as we embrace the Light!  For there is absolutely nothing that the darkness can do to extinguish the Light!  (John 1:5). Therefore, we can live with our eyes fixed on Jesus.  And because of that, we can have absolute hope and confidence in the midst of everything for we know how the story ends! 

Rev. James W. Black

“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” 

Matthew 11:6 KJV

We live in a world of paradox. On the one hand, people say they do not want to be offensive.  They believe in tolerance and acceptance.  Yet at the same time, many of those same people take great pleasure in offending the Followers of Christ.  We saw this recently in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris when the Olympic Committee took great pleasure in mocking and defaming the Name of Christ.  The Followers of Christ are ridiculed, vilified maligned, and marginalized with impunity by many different individuals, groups, and institutions.  Such intolerance has become openly accepted and fully embraced by those who proclaim tolerance as one of their highest virtues.  Their hypocrisy and double standard is blatantly obvious.   But they do not realize that Christ will ultimately have the final word!  (Psalm 37: 1-2).

Although such things offend us,  we must remember that this is nothing new.  The Followers of  Christ have experienced this throughout history.  It continues in our day.  Currently, some 80 countries around the world persecute those who follow Christ.   Jesus was hated in His day!   And He promised that those who followed Him would also be hated as well. (John 15:18, 1 John 3:13).   The reason for this hatred is that those who are enslaved by darkness are offended when the Light of Christ exposes their sin.  No one likes for their sin to be exposed.  It makes one uncomfortable.   It can even make one angry.   

They do not realize that the purpose of the Light of Christ is not to bring condemnation (John 3: 17-20) but instead to bring salvation and deliverance from the darkness that has enslaved them.  His Light illuminates the path they are on.  It helps them to see the path of destruction they are traveling and enables them to find the only way of escape.   If we were driving down a road whose bridge had been washed out by a storm, we would want someone to warn us of the danger that lay ahead.   That is exactly what Jesus does when He exposes our sin!  He is warning us of the danger we are facing and is seeking to save us from certain destruction.

https://www.bible.com/bible/1/jhn.3.16His shining Light gives hope where there was none before.  His Light points the way to a life that is full of meaning, purpose, and destiny!  (John 10:10).  It is a life that one can experience now and all throughout eternity.   (John 3:16).   

James W. Black