1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 8 - Blessed are the peacemakers | Page 4

blood of His enemy, but of His own. God’s desire for peace to be restored between
Himself and us was so vast that He took extreme action by sending Jesus to this
earth to die and take upon Himself the sin burden of the world.
For peace to be declared between God and man, it is merely that man should humble
himself and receive of the gift of God’s peace offering that came in the form of Jesus.

Prayer Thought: My prayer for you is that before we even start talking about the
implications of peace that you will make sure that you have made peace with God by
receiving His gift of peace that is in Christ. If you have, that’s wonderful; take some
time to reflect on the magnitude of what we have just spoken about and give praise
to God for this wonderful gift.

Tuesday
Reading: Exodus 32
Today I would like you to notice that “peace” is not found in a “neutral position”. I
see this misnomer when I look at many gravestones today upon which is written,
“Rest in Peace”. People seem to think that for some strange reason death is a neutral
position. Nothing is further from the truth. Death does not automatically bring
peace. For those who have chosen to follow Christ it most emphatically does! But for
those who have chosen not to follow Christ, there is still no peace to be found.
The peace that I am referring to right now, is a peace that should be evident in every
Christian’s life. You see, peace should be a natural outworking of a peaceful
relationship with God, that as a result of having peace with God, we can begin to
understand to a greater depth the peace of God. I said yesterday that the peace of
God is not nearly as evident in Christians as I believe it should be. If the truth be
known, many who claim to be Christ followers do not evidence any more peace than
those who are in the world. The reasons for this are some of the things that I hope to
explore over the course of the next couple of days.
If God gives us peace, then for some reason we as His followers have lost it. I would
like to point out a few places where peace can be so easily lost:
Firstly, peace can be lost at the Point of Sin. This last week in church we spoke
Sin
in.
about the symptoms of a guilty conscience. All this is, is an inbuilt ability to
recognise that we have messed up. In our reading today, the children of Israel had
lost their peace with God because of the sin of idolatry. After witnessing all of the
wonder of what God had done for them, they decided to create an image of God and
the nett result was the gold