Orange Moon Cafe "The Prince of Peace"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The Prince of Peace"

      

     The world's fearfulness always provides opportunity for born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to bear witness to His peace.

     "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

   Note the Apostle Paul assures us of peace "which passeth all understanding."  Paul alludes to peace where it seemingly should not be.  Indeed,  in pleasant times,  the sense of tranquility comes naturally.   Peace in problems, however, does not.  Only the Prince of peace can provide and manifest genuine assurance in times of pain, trial, challenge, and threat.  Indeed, in His earthly lifetime, the Lord Jesus faced the greatest tribulations ever known by a human heart, mind, and body as Satan and his minions challenged Him continually.  Recall that even after the monumental severity of the wilderness temptation, Scripture records that Satan left the Lord alone "for a season" (Luke 4:13).  Doubtless the assaults soon renewed as allowed by God, enabling our Savior to perfectly identify with us as the One "in all points tempted like as we are" and "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15).

     Our initial response to such sacrifice involves grateful appreciation for our Lord's willingness to face such lifelong trial and turmoil for our sakes.  Adoration surely accompanies every consideration of the cost He paid for us in both life and death as we join more than one hundred million angels who proclaim His wonder:

   "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5:11-12).

    Such adoration then prepares us to avail ourself of the Prince's peace.  This we do by determining to believe in our hearts that no circumstance, condition, or situation can thwart our Lord's willingness and ability to manifest assurance in our hearts as we believe His promises.  "The Lord will give strength unto His people.  The Lord will bless His people with peace" (Psalm 29:11).  Our Prince, the Prince of peace, trampled fear under His nail-pierced feet as He exited His tomb in the triumph of the ages.  Thus, He can keep our hearts in the tranquility of His presence and power, no matter what.  This we must believe because it is true, and because our experience of such grace flows upon the current of our confidence.  "Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3). 

   Finally, we seek to communicate our confidence to others, first by demeanor and attitude, and then by word as our Lord provides opportunity.  2,000 years of church history bears witness to our Lord's ability to "bless His people with peace" in the severest of times.  Even the Romans of old who put so many believers to the sword and the cross admitted, "They die well."  Those martyrs would instantly declare that the Prince, the Prince of peace, makes such enduring and triumph possible by His "very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).  The world has no access to such aid, and thus, no peace that transcends circumstance.  Believers do, and let us shine as lights in a dark world, bearing witness to a peace that passes all understanding, provided by a Prince who surpasses all trial, trouble, and threat.

"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."

(Psalm 56:3)

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?   Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." (Romans 8:35-37)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

(Isaiah 53:11)

5858