Clear, Clean, and Peaceful

What is clear, clean, and peaceful?

My wife, Faylene, and I have been on a break from a relocation process that has gone on for some time. Vacations are seemingly a way to get some peace,  but we took it with us in our hearts because we have a living relationship with God. So when we see different things (as on a vacation), we look to be taught something new about creation or have some time to think about where we are or where we are headed.

This break has been all of that because of the peace of God that Jesus says passes all understanding is within us. This is the essence of the Good News or the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Bible says we can know and walk with Him. One cannot earn it, work to get it, or in any way justify receiving it. We started the same way any other Christian started by turning from our own way to His.

I spend a lot of time in four books of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). They are clear. When Jesus speaks, there is clarity. They are clean. Everything about Jesus Christ is righteous and without error. And when He is received in the human heart, His peace accompanies that rebirth. For me, a break from the routine is an invitation to review some of the Gospel basics. I have never been disappointed.

But the world around us remains in turmoil. Things are so mixed up in the US that Biblical good (in terms of marriage and relationships) is called bad. Sexual immorality, which is basically relationships outside the covenant designed by God for a man and a woman, is being denigrated. The magnificent systems of life, created by God from the beginning, as written in Genesis and referenced hundreds of time, is institutionally denied. Mankind would rather come up with an unsupportable structure for how things happened all on their own. The gross assumptions that underlay this belief system are authored by humankind — the same humankind that only has its next breath because of His mercy and patience. Media serves to make the turmoil shout even louder. It is in children’s faces all the time, so from a young age they rarely know anything different. They are usually given answers that avoid mention of the God of the Bible. The path to knowing Him is frequently obscured. Many young people grow older, as a consequence, with no inner peace, little clarity, and no purpose for existence.

The man-defined ideas of evolution have no purpose for existence and no eternal life. History, even current events, show the degree of turmoil that is not hard to trace to the idea that we came from some sort of slime on our own. Vacations, ways to get high, solid work, the pursuit of wealth, and various avenues of pursuing pleasure don’t provide answers to the big questions about why we are here or where we are going.

Therein lies the uniqueness of God’s Word and the record of what He did. The effects of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are plainly written. Christ has most assuredly made a way for lost people to find clarity, cleanness of heart, and peace. While this path may be held in low esteem or even hated, it remains true. The testimony of believers over time who have walked with Him serve to confirm what the Bible says from creation in Genesis through the last book.

Have doubts? Need peace and clarity? He remains the solution and waits for people to turn from their own ways (or repent), call on Him, know Him, and walk with Him. Do you need a personal testimony of this and have not heard one? We have stories from our decades that might be encouraging. Contact us if you have no one to ask.

Roland