These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace

For a Troubled World

Just watch the news and you will readily agree with Monica Butts that there’s a lot of “tough stuff” going on in our world today.  It’s easy to get discouraged, depressed, and even despondent.

Recently, Monica had a conversation with her 11-year-old son Philip that gave her a different perspective and some peace:

“I had a very deep conversation with Philip on our way home yesterday about this world and the tough stuff going on, and he gave me a new hope and perspective on it.  Who knew talking to my 11-year-old would give me hope and joy in a dim time in our world?  I love and cherish these moments!  In Philip’s words, ‘Mom, we love God and He loves us!  He has our backs in this world, and we do not have to fear because He told us not to.  He told us He is for us!  We have to remember that and know that we have heaven waiting for us after this.’”

Thinking about Philip’s wise words, you know what?  No matter how difficult it gets in this world, I think I’m going to be okay.  How about you?

Here’s where Philip gets his information and insight:

Jesus said to His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).

“Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage!  It is I. Do not be afraid’” (Matthew 14:27).

Jesus comforted His troubled followers with these words: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Take note: Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation,” but “in Me you will have peace” (John 16:33).

Through Jesus, we can have peace with God (Romans 5:1), for Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins (Ephesians 1:7).

Through Jesus, we can have peace with others, if we’ll only learn to treat others the way He treats us and forgive them like He has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).

Through Jesus, we can have peace within ourselves: “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding [that] will guard [our] hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

God will give peace, salvation, and eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin and provide peace for those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7; Philippians 4:6-7).

In the midst of a troubled world, we can have peace – peace that comes, as Philip has reminded us, from knowing that God loves us, “has our backs,” and has promised eternal life to those who trust and obey Him.

Won’t YOU trust and obey Him today?

-- David A. Sargent

* Reminder: Philip is also the grandson of Ricky & Freda Butts and Tim & Barbara Howell

David A. Sargent

Sharing our faith

The our young adults group in our church have asked each of the elders and their wives to come and share the story of their Journey to faith. So we have been taking turns and doing that every few weeks.

Last night was my wife and my night to do this….I didn’t feel that I had much to share, but they asked a lot of questions and drew out more information that I had thought about sharing.

It was a good time to be together and they said they felt that they got to know us on a more personal level now. Hopefully it will help them in their walk of faith.

Often when we talk about “sharing our faith” we seem to classify it as mainly “Witnessing to someone about what God has done to make you follow him”. It doesn’t seem like very often we just share what changed our lives does it?


If I asked you, “Tell me how you met your wife or husband.” Most wouldn’t have a problem doing that. “If I asked you to share what drew you to them to become their spouse you could probably do that too.

What if we approached sharing the Gospel like that? What if, rather than trying to memorize a lot of scripture to try and teach someone we just told them why Jesus was so important to us and how he changed our lives?

Could you do that? Remember the woman at the well in John 4:29- 30, She simply said: “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could He possibly be the Messiah?’  So the people came streaming from the village to see Him.”

This woman didn’t quote scripture, she hadn’t been to a class on evangelism… she just told folk what Jesus had done for her. Could you do the same?

What is your message? What is proclaimed through your life? Do people see that in some way you have been changed and are curious enough to want to find out about that change? You see, before trying to change anyone else, we need to change ourselves and if it is a true change for the good, people will notice and follow.


--Russ Lawson

Distressed, But Still Blessed!

A very comforting passage of Scripture is found in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. The word “comfort” or “consolation” (English Standard Version) appears nine times in these five verses. Read it and see. It is surprising, then, at least to some, to observe that the second most common word in the same passage is “tribulation” or “trouble” or “suffering” which appear at least seven times! Many in modern America and some in the modern church see incongruity in the words “comforted in all our tribulations” (vs 4a). Modern culture and Christians are much more apt to believe we can be comforted only when we come “out” of our trouble and tribulations, not while “in” them! Yet the apostle Paul proclaims that is exactly what God does for His children. A church marquee sign said, “I’m too blessed to be distressed.”

Catchy and cute, but not true. That “sentence sermon” not so subtly suggests that to be blessed means God allows no distress in my life – and no message could be more unbiblical! No Bible character of note, from Job to Jesus, escaped all distress. Some experienced it in great degree and long duration. Does it seem suffering has singled you out and stuck to you like chewing gum on the bottom of a shoe? Are you so distressed you can't possibly think of yourself as blessed? Does it feel like God must be too busy with other people’s problems to pay attention to you and your pain? If so, call up and fix on the description of Jesus in Isaiah 53:3 that declares He was “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (NIV  “familiar with suffering”). Religious writer Philip Yancey wrote a book about dealing with adversity entitled, Disappointment With  God. In it he wrote, “Is life fair? Read the story of Jesus and ask yourself, ‘Was life fair to Him?’ The cross demolished for all time the basic assumption that life will be fair.”  Jesus was distressed, but blessed.

We are blessed and always have reason to rejoice in the Lord (Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 4:4, etc.). But the notion being blessed means a total lack of distress cannot be found in the Bible. Quite the contrary (Job 14:1; Romans 8:18; James 1:2-4; John 16:33, etc.). The certainty of troubles in life and the difficulty they can cause reminds me of these words from Demetri Martin – “I was riding the escalator, and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for an hour and a half.” In 2 Corinthians 1:8 we observe that the apostle Paul knew the feeling that comes when problems and pressure knock you down. There Paul wrote of  “our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.” We don’t know Paul’s exact circumstances, but the suffering he faced seemed to him as though it was about to kill him! He felt it unlikely he would live through it. Can you identify? He was greatly distressed. But he went on to write of being blessed in verses 9-10 – “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us."

Theodore E. Steinway once noted, “In one of our grand pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.” The cross of Christ is proof that even in great distress we are still blessed, if we belong to Christ.

Think about it.

--Dan Gulley

Luke 19:2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. Luke 19:1-10 is the sole biblical record of Zacchaeus’ encounter with

Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector. He was short in stature. He heard about Jesus. He heard that Jesus was passing through Jericho. Many too heard about Jesus coming into their city. They too wanted to see Jesus. But Zacchaeus couldn’t get a glimpse of Jesus because he was short. No one was going to let him in.

Have you ever been to a parade where you couldn’t see over the person in front of you? It wasn’t much fun, right? You couldn’t see the marching bands, the floats, or the fire trucks with their flashing lights, and the dancing performances. What did you do? You tried to squeeze to the front or stand on a wall or a chair if there was one.

Zacchaeus couldn’t find a wall. But he saw a tree. And he sure knew how to climb a tree. He found a tree where he knew Jesus would pass under. He climbed up and waited. Sure enough, Jesus passed by and He saw Zacchaeus. Jesus called him. Jesus knew his name. He asked him to make haste and come down because he was going to his house. What a surprise! Zacchaeus couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Immediately, he made haste and came down and received Jesus joyfully.

Being a chief publican (tax collector), Zacchaeus did not have many friends except his own kind. The Jews hated the publicans and group them together with the harlots (prostitutes) (Matt 21:32). The Jews would not eat with the publicans (Luke 19:7). The people in the crowd were shocked! You see, Zacchaeus was one of the most hated men in all of Jericho. Why did the people hate him? Because Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and he had become very rich because he cheated people by collecting more taxes than they owed and keeping it for himself. The people could not believe that Jesus would go to the home of this man. Yet, He did, and it would be a turning point for Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus was short but he wasn’t short of a good attitude. He wanted to see Jesus. He couldn’t get through the crowd. He didn’t give up. He climbed up a tree and waited for Jesus to pass that way. He didn’t care what men might say of this action; he needed to see Jesus.

What is stopping you from coming to Jesus? Many say they are too busy. But they are not too busy for something else. Everything boils down to the attitude. It’s the attitude that determines the result.  A simple mathematical calculation will prove this to be so.

If we assign a number from 1 to 26 to the alphabet from A to Z. Then, we will see that:

H+A+R+D+W+O+R+K = 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E = 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

L+U+C+K = 12+21+3+11 = 47%

A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

Every problem has a solution; only if we perhaps change our "ATTITUDE". It is OUR ATTITUDE towards life and work that makes our life 100% successful.

Nothing could stop Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus because he had a good attitude. Being short was not an excuse. The crowd was not an excuse. His determined attitude conquered all those obstacles. And, that meeting with Jesus changed his whole life.

Are you too busy to attend Sunday worship and Thursday bible class? Are you too busy to read your bible daily? Check your attitude. Your attitude determines your choice and your choice determines your action and the end result.

Zacchaeus made haste, and came down, and received Christ joyfully (Luke 19:6). Let us do likewise.

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.