1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian PEACE | Page 3

MONDAY
Luke 10 v 1 – 9
The passage above is an intriguing one. Jesus had spent some time with His disciples,
teaching them the way of the Kingdom and then, in this chapter, He sent them out two-bytwo with the instruction to take no purse or shoes and to enter the towns in the
surrounding areaand to seek out the person of peace. I find it intriguing that there are
people who are characterized by this thing called “peace”. Jesus, in Matthew 5, speaks of
People of Peace and describes themas peace makers and, in Luke 1 v 79; Jesus speaks of
people who walk in the path of peace. Isn’t it incredible that there are such people?! In
today’s age it might even seem more unlikely that we would find a person of peace
because of the nature of the lifestyle that we live. The world we live runs at a furious pace
where only the strong survive in a dog-eat-dog kind of world. How amazing to think that
even in this kind of world there could be people who seem to show the characteristics of
being people of peace.
I have met a few such people, there have been some who have served this Church with
great dignity and commitment who have now gone to be with the Lord, but when I think
of them, I realise that a great definition of these people could be found in the words, they
were people of peace. They carried with them an air of dignity and calmness that, despite
the challenges of life (of which there were always plenty), these men and women
epitomised for me the example of people of peace.
In our study of Joseph these last few weeks, we see Joseph as being one such person. How
that, despite the ups and downs of his life and the often challenging circumstances in
which he lived, he maintained an attitude of peacefulness. He was clearly at peace with
himself in that his personal conscious was clear. He was clearly at peace with people in
that we never hear of him bad mouthing anyone. He was clearly at peace with God as he
understood full well the theology of the Sovereignty of God. I don’t know about you, but
that kind of person has a certain appeal to me and I would love to find out more about
what makes that person tick and ask myself the question, what is it that he or she had that
made them the defining people that they obviously were?
The most radical example of a person of peace would have to be Jesus (the Prince of
Peace), how He came into this world in lowly circumstances. Never having a privileged
upbringing, or lavish lifestyle, He would have had to face the challenges of being a
carpenter’s son and then later on, would have had to livewith the misunderstanding of the
people leading Him further to the place where ultimately He would die a criminal’s death,
but like Joseph, we see Jesus epitomising the person of peace and leaving for us an
incredible example to follow.