LIVING AS A PEACE MAKER

[Bob B]

Today I was faced head on with a scripture.
Matthew 5: 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

God has called us to be peace makers and do every thing we can to make peace with everyone.
I have been really trying to live as a peace maker especially here on this net.
I am not foolish enough to think that every one is always going to agree with me, but I must, as much as lies within me to live at peace with all men.
The scripture is not about how your feeling, but about your brother or sister that they are upset with you about something concerning you.
It does not say that you did anything wrong, it just says your brother is at ought with you.
I have seen this verse before and some how today God has dealt with me about being a peace maker. God help us all to become peacemakers as Christians.

[Bob B]

I have really been beginning to ask God about this. We need to be a different kind of people than those who are in the world. Some times it is like swimming upstream in a river. I heard some one say that even when your inocent and the one who is offended at you is in the wrong that we still must live as a peace maker and do our best to make peace with them.

[mary jamieson]

yes i have always found this out and when i am way from the lord anhurting it is usually a very smll matter of me thinking i was right. i can,t justify myself with being right when i go back to the cross. and the pain comes again that it is i was justified by my lord sanctified by the holyspirit. nothing of my own. so why do i sometimes get hurt.

[Bob B]

Mary,we all get hurt sometimes, most of the time it happens when our gaurd is down with people we love, and feel we are loved by them, such as family members, and close friends. Living as a peace maker is not easy, we have to do every thing we can do to live in peace with other, even if some times we get our feet stepped on and are even hurt.

[Mandy]

Dear Bob; great forum. For if we cannot show this ability to be peacemakers; which encompasses so many attributes of a true christian. Then we cannot show people the way to God. We cannot be true disciples for the Lord. For if we are not peacemakers, others will find us to be hypocrites and have no reason to turn to Christ, if they see our behaviour as "difficult to get along with" or " unforgiving" what reason do they have to desire the life of a christian.
I pray every day for myself to see others through the eyes of the Lord, for their hidden potential. I pray for myself and other christians that we can direct those to christ in a loving and peacful way; so that others will desire the life of following Christ. For I believe God has given all a potential to be good at heart, we must give them that opportunity to shine. God Bless you Bob for this is a very important forum and we all need to look closely at our heart of this very matter. Me included!

[Bob B]

For 20 years I had to deal with the public in my job and had to conduct myself in a way that represented my company I work for. It is kind of like that in the Christian life we need to conduct ourselves in a way that represents our Lord.
In my company my conduct was more important than my feeling about situations or people. I knew that the reputation of my company depended on my conduct. Maybe we all need to find grace to behave better in our relationships because we are giving christ a bad name.

[ron]

bless those that curse u and pray for those who dispisely use you. it doesm not get any easier to live this way, i found that i can only do it on a daily basis, and if i hold a grudge too long the harder it is for me to see it, one day a time.my daughter had to council murderes and sex efenders in ashworth top security prison, bless her and her love and forgiveness amased me. mum she said is ther such a thing as evil, she moved to australis last yr with her husband and four children she is now39yrs old, i am praying for her to know the lord jesus personnely, ,there is alot the lord needs to do for her, in the way of understanding him more and his word, i love her dearly and keep praying.with all her love, i know that she needs the lords wisdom, as we all do for we are his children and he does not want us hurt.xxx

[ron]

by the way if a dove comes up with ron on its, mary the teddy, cant use internet prop at moment let ron have a go last night and cant take it off

[Jonathan McLatchie]

Amen, Bob.

Jesus clearly attached much priority to this Christian attribute. It is one of the Beatitudes of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:9), and as such, every Christian should strive to be a peacemaker both in the context of every day life, and in the church.

Interestingly Jesus was to go on to say in Matthew 10:34-39 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

In other words, conflict is an inevitable consequence of the Gospel and the work of Christ. Jesus even suggests that our love for Him should be so great that our love for our friends and family should become like hatred by comparison.
But Christ does command us to avoid seeking conflict, or deliberately making oneself responsible for it where possible to avoid it.

I think, however, it is important to distinguish between “peace” and “appeasement”. Peacemaking is an attribute of the divine, but this is not to say peace should be sought at any price.

Acts of peacemaking include the work of evangelism, and/or leading the lost to Christ. Unity within the body of Christ should be sought wherever possible, unless it is at the expense of key Biblical doctrine.

[Bob B]

Johnathan what you wrote;
" it is important to distinguish between “peace” and “appeasement”.
Peace maker
Martin Luther King’s definition of a peacemaker: “A peacemaker is someone who has sought to teach, to transform, to make friends, to heal, to defeat injustice or to choose love instead of hate.”

An appeasing or being appeased
the policy of giving in to the demands of a hostile or aggressive power in an attempt to keep the peace

To me this is saying that we need to be pro-active as peace makers.
I have had oppertunities already to begin to walk this out in my own personal life.

My daughter is 17 and as a normal teenager she tends to borrow my car and return it to me on E. I was in a hurry yesterday and went to get in my car and saw the E. So I snapped at her and went my way.

I felt misserable about doing this, so this morning I told her I was sorry for snapping at her, but I did not say it was ok what she did which would have been an appeasement in this situation.

So in this situation I have to set up a plan to set limits and arrange a way so this situation does not accur again. This way I am being a peace maker,yet not appeasing to keep the peace.

[Mandy]

Bob, it is so amazing how scripture can be applied to our lives of todays times. With myself having "tweens" this is a great application of being a peacemaker. Thanks for the example.

[Bob B]

Mandy another aspect of being a peace maker is what you share before as a nurse, you reach out to the man nobody had hope for, they thought that the world would be more peaceful with out this broken wounded soul around, yet in Christ you reached out and showed love to this man and by doing so, if nothing else you demonstrated that helping others to make peace with God is part of our job as peace makers.

Mother Teresa was a great peace maker, I remember her saying once to a gathering of leaders in America , that there can be no peace in the world until abortion is stopped. It was because peace makers value life, because it is from God.

[Mandy]

Dear Bob, thank you for your kind words. I never looked at that in that manner. But I see how that can be. If we all could look at each other with the Love of Christ, then we would live in a different world. I just pray every day to the Lord to give me the insight to see others through his eyes. That I can see beyond the present circumstances. We really never know what is going on with the other person we are dealing with. For all we know their life to them may seem upside down and hopeless. And if we change our heart we just might impact the other person's heart; I pray that all Christians (myself) included desire for this each new day they wake up.