Midweek: NKJV Peace of God Bible

Do you know someone who struggles with feelings of anxiousness? Are you looking for a resource to help you focus firmly on the Prince of Peace? This might be the Bible you can share or keep for your own this Christmas. The NKJV Peace of God Bible from Thomas Nelson and editor, Jeremiah Johnston, PhD, is a great way to bear in mind the peace that surpasses all understanding in all circumstances as you study and employ God's Word. Devotions --some using Johnston's own life experiences as object lessons --examine the theme of God's shalom throughout Scripture and encourage the reader to walk in that assured peace. (A convenient topical index of devotions is provided in the back matter.) 

The three articles in the front of the book discuss "The Peace of God: Find It and Keep It," how "Believers Can Recover the Peace of God," and how to "Find God and His Peace: The Plan of Salvation" (essentially, how mankind can have peace with God). My criticism here has more to do with the placement of the articles than the content. I would have placed the plan of salvation (peace with God) as the first article for a couple of reasons; one being, peace with God is required for all, and secondly, the peace of God inhabits our spirits as we study His Word and do life with Him. 

Just behind the Topical Index of Devotions is a Features Index which catalogues all of the devotions and "Peace Notes," pithy remarks and reminders about God's peace. For example, "The peace of God, which includes happiness and joy, is a discipline we learn, not an automatic skill or natural Christian ability." (Point made). After this are the concordance and full-color maps.

From Thomas Nelson's Website:

Key features include:

• 365 devotionals that explore how to receive and live out God’s peace, each tied to a key verse or passage
• 365 Peace Notes offering brief reflections on how peace is worked out in everyday life
• Book introductions that highlight the role of peace in each section of Scripture
• Topical indexes to help you explore how God’s peace shapes relationships and decisions
• In-depth articles exploring what the peace of God is, how to reclaim it, and how salvation anchors it
• Concise concordance and full index of devotionals and features for easier study
• End-of-page translators’ notes and cross-references for enhanced understanding
• Line-matched, double-column typesetting for a cleaner reading experience
• Clear and readable 9.5-point NKJV Comfort Print® for long reading sessions without fatigue

As for aesthetics, the complimentary copy I received was burgundy bonded leather with the spine stamped in gold, gilt-edged pages, a presentation page, and two satin bookmarks, each a different color. The words of Jesus are printed in red. 

It's a very nice Bible. I love the simplicity of it. The devotions are definitely helpful, and the prayer notes are very "portable;" they provide something to consider throughout the day. It currently retails for $79.99, though Amazon offers the same copy I received for $53.98, and christianbook.com is offering it for $51.99.

The Little Things

In his best seller, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson says,

In the end, Schweiger's attack on the Lusitania succeeded because of a chance confluence of forces. Even the tiniest alteration in a single vector could have saved the ship.

When I read the over-a-page-long list of If onlys proposed by Larson --had the ship not been delayed by being commissioned to pick up passengers from another vessel, had the fog remained minutes longer, had the U-boat captain not miscalculated the Lusitania's speed, and others --I was reminded of some of the more awful moments of my past. If I had only... Had I not... Regret. Holy regret. Is there such a thing? I think so. Those moments when we realize just how unmanageable our lives had become as the result of decisions we believed to be infinitesimal, inconsequential; occasions upon which we were given the choice to obey, but sensed no penalty if we did not.

Conversely, I was reminded of my tenure with a large corporation. So many of the big problems were caused by little ones, mere oversights, miniscule transgressions. One of my mentors would remind us often: Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves. 

Is it not so with our spiritual lives? Hebrews 12:14, 15 warn:

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

Notice where it all starts: pursuing peace with others and holiness (the pursuit of Christlikeness) before God. Then, the explanation in the form of progression; from falling short of what God intends, to bitterness rooted and causing discord, to the poisoning of many. A small thing, a disagreement, a hurt can lead to infection in the body; it can cause us to fall into conflict, not peace, with others and corrupt us.

Matthew 5:23, 24 commands:

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Immediately, in the midst of what you are doing. Why? Because the condition of our hearts, the pain and strife residing there impact not only our relationship with our brother, but our worship. There is a chain reaction that can throw us off course; that can affect those worshipping around us. Just a small thing, right? A tiny offense.

James 3:5, 6 reminds us of the damage a small, unchecked member of the body can inflict:

Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 

The spark of a careless remark, the flicker of a covetous thought permitted to be expressed --and the body of Christ is brought to corruption, its reputation called into question. All because one small thing was permitted off leash, permitted to take hold, permitted to fester, thus allowing a member of the body to fall ill with unholiness, and the entire body to be poisoned.

Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. If only I hadn't listened to gossip. If only I hadn't repeated it. If only I had been honest with him about the way his behavior impacts others. If only I hadn't led them to believe I was in agreement but gently expressed what has been on my heart. If only I had taken more time to pray about it. If only I'd removed the plank from my own eye before I confronted her about that speck in hers. 

If we do what Scripture teaches us to do, all day, every day, all of life will remain on track (or, afloat, as the case may be). Not perfect, mind you, but in accordance with God's Word. If we surrender our hearts to the examination of the Holy Spirit and make the necessary changes, who we are and who Christ is, can never be called into question. We can know that whatever life sends hurtling toward us will not condemn us or destroy us, but will only bring us closer to becoming who we are meant to be.

Learning Beauty

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) The worms, the sprickets, the naked mole rats --all manner of critters who are either so ugly they evoke some sort of pity causing us to be tender toward them, or they make our skin crawl. He created trees which, in this season, are more fiery and more impressive than those earlier days of the year when their leaves were plump and variegated with chlorophyll, their very life's blood. He created sky and sea, hill and vale, winter chills and summer heat. He created the smell of jasmine and gardenia and peat and sulfur. He created daylight by which we work and darkness by which we were meant to sleep. He created our unruly hair (which we may think for certain came as a result of The Fall) and our T-Rex arms. He created pitch-perfect voices and those that crackle and screech like a murder of angry crows. He created fingers that obey when we put brush to canvas and those that, in their fierce rebellion are perfectly adept at whizzing over a keyboard as they enter data. And He said it was good. When it came to mankind, God said His creation was very good. 

What I'm repenting of today, however, is why I have done Him such a disservice, such a dishonor by not noticing. Never mind how I've critiqued every square inch of my body. Never mind how I grumbled at my tiny children's inability to do things for themselves --Mom, can you get my ball out of the tree? --just as I'd sat down for the first time that day. Never mind how I've avoided talking to the friendly chatterbox who hangs out by the coffee station. Never mind that I have resented His choices in how He has created or developed the people and things around me --that's a whole different level of offense for a whole different article --but I am guilty of simply not noticing. I am guilty of not even seeing the beauty in the faces of those He has created, of not breathing in deeply the crisp autumn air, of not resting beneath a tree in summer, of not whispering Amazing! as the sun begins to set in a sky that makes Crayola green with envy. Of being so busy, so familiar, so critical, and so wrapped up in myself, I walk past the many gifts He's given again and again without so much as a single nod. A dull grey sky today? Yawn. And yet, we are without excuse. There is goodness in everything He has made. He said so.

Annie Dillard, in her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, strives to understand the song of birds:

Sometimes birdsong seems just like the garbled speech of infants.  There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. There is no way you can tell the child that if language had been a melody, he had mastered it and done well, but that since it was in fact a sense, he had botched it utterly.

Today I watched and heard a wren, a sparrow, and the mockingbird singing. My brain started to trill why why why, what is the meaning meaning meaning? It's not that they know something we don't; we know much more than they do, and surely they don't even know why they sing. No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. ... The real question is: Why is it beautiful? 

It's beautiful because it is a gift, straight from the imagination and nature of an infinite God. It is beautiful because He made this world and all He placed in it for His glory and for our benefit. We have been tasked with the responsibility of tending and keeping this world; of living in it; we are not mere property managers, but witnesses of the very personality of God as revealed in His creation. We must steward the beauty and wonder of it in addition to simply guarding against abuse, for beauty and wonder are in the Creator's nature. Today I am challenged to stop my foolish, self-centered bustling --those things I think are so relevant (like the garbled speech of a child delivered with passion but lacking real meaning) --and learn the beauty of the people and the world around me by looking for our Father's character in it.   

Midweek: Steps Five, Six, and Seven

Our dog sheds. A lot! My husband vacuums. A lot! It really is a symbiotic relationship. He likes to vacuum, and Luci provides the motivation. There's just one additional component. Each time my husband vacuums --or at least most of the time --I am apprised of his plunder (voluntarily or no) as he empties the canister. I just vacuumed yesterday and --did you see (displaying the container for my benefit) --do you see how much hair is in here?! Since yesterday! It's half-full! How is this even possible?! The second time he says "see" it is punctuated that I might actually look up from what I'm doing and see. I acknowledge his offense, and he is then free to dump the spoils of his labor.

Step Five: I admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs. 

Step Six: I was entirely ready to have God remove all the wrongs of my past life.

Step Seven: I humbly asked Him to remove these wrongs.

All those things we explored, the results of our searching and fearless moral inventory; the answers we sought as we identified the wrongs we suffered, the wrongs we committed in our past life --these things we have collected and collated, the things we have admitted and recognized as being detrimental to us, these must be unloaded.

If my husband was to vacuum day after day without purging the repository of its collected debris, the vacuum would clog and would be rendered unable to do its job. Build-up would occur. The vacuum might eventually break altogether. It certainly would be unable to receive anything else.

The garbage we accumulate as we live in a fallen world, even the wrongs we have committed toward others must be addressed. Once addressed, they must be dumped. The anger that builds in response to abuse, the shame that takes root in response to the betrayal of a friend --these are things we must confess. Yes, I allowed this to hold me in bitterness. Yes, I did that in order to score. And admission is liberating, but we must be liberated even further by submitting to the liberation of the cross, Jesus Christ, the Power greater than ourselves. We must submit these wrongs to the standard of a perfect, holy God, a standard we can never hope to meet by our own efforts; but a standard that has been met by our Savior, Jesus Christ. We claim the blood of Jesus over these things, knowing He has purchased our forgiveness by His own body. We speak these wrongs aloud that we might be emptied of them and prepared to receive all God has intended for us. We expose our dirt to the Light of the World, Jesus, asking that we be forgiven and made new; and we ask others to pray for us and hold us accountable in our wrongs and the obsessive behaviors which resulted. We want to remain clean and free to receive the newness of life in Jesus as we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father. 

Collecting Luci's daily flotsam and jetsam is important. We don't want to live in that, suffering from allergies and finding fur in everything from our towels to our tomato soup. But we don't --or, rather, my husband doesn't go around collecting in order to preserve it for posterity. It's acknowledged, contained, and discarded, a byproduct of life. As are the wrongs that occur in this world. But stand back, pay attention, See!, when we are made empty of our grief, our fear, our rage, our resentment --the byproducts of life --and we partner with Jesus and a trusted confidant, we will be filled with fullness of joy and have life in abundance!