Peace

I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning the 18th of June 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to John 14:27 Jesus says:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

How are you feeling this morning? Are you troubled in your heart, stressed out today? Well, listen to this beautiful story I read, written by Henry Drummond many years ago: Two painters were asked to paint a picture illustrating their own idea of rest. The first choose for his scene a quiet, lonely lake, nestled among mountains far away. The second, using swift, broad strokes on his canvas, painted and thundering waterfall. Beneath the falls grew a fragile birch tree, bending over the foam. On its branches, nearly wet with the spray from the falls, sat a little Robin on its nest.

The first painting was simply a picture of stagnation and inactivity. The second, however, depicted rest. Outwardly, Christ endured one of the most troubled lives ever lived. Turmoil and storms, wave after wave, broke over him until his worn body was laid in the tomb. Yet his inner life was as smooth as a sea of glass, a great calm was always there. Anyone could have gone to him at any time and found rest. Even as the human Bloodhounds were dogging him in the streets of Jerusalem, he turned to his disciples, offering them a final legacy - My peace...

Rest is not some holy feeling that comes upon us in church, no. It is a state of calm rising from a heart, deeply and firmly established in God. I want to say to you that in my own life, sometimes in the midst of my biggest testing, I have experienced the peace of the Holy Spirit that kept me going. They say that right in the middle of a tornado is absolute peace - can you believe that, right in the middle of that tornado that is destroying homes and ripping up roads. You see, peace is found within your heart. It is not found in your circumstances - Where you live or what you do.

I want to suggest to you, today, that you need to seek the peace of the lord Jesus Christ. God bless and goodbye.