THINKING PEACE

Until people willingly “think”

             (1) outside the box” of normal thought, and security, and such issues

                        AND

                                    (2) convert their patriotic one-upsmanship; 

                                                AND

                                                           (3) transform their Nationalistic hubris of Patriotism;

NOT UNTIL THEN

            can we hope to discover a win-win formula that will allow everyone to come to our common table of global humanity. UNTIL THEN, we will ignore the pleas of working families for a living wage; we will scoff at those who call us to wage peace; we will continue ignoring the eternal truth that hostile relationships are a useless waste of time and words

AND

That historical phenomenon we know as the Pax Romana will remain a dusty reference in Father History’s Book of Time. Meanwhile, the age-old story of “Peace on earth among men of good will” will remain a mere figment of legendary history.

Peace requires

alternatives to war, other than violence, hatred, hostility and refusal to forgive.

            Peace requires high levels of optimism and faith; all-be-it, at the risk of trust.

            Peace provides choices -  war or peace, violence or non-violence, trust or distrust.
            War demands spoils --but the spoils of war most often plant the seeds of the next                                conflict.

ON THE OTHER HAND,

Peace steps back-and-away peaceably in an attempt to avoid confrontation by intent.

Peace offers cooperation, complementation, and conflict resolution as an achievable solution. Peace asks, “How can we mutually benefit by intentionally cooperating?

Peace attempts to avoid conflicts of interest:

Peace puts Common Good above politics and Party interests.

Peaceful Politicians could work together and inch OUR COUNTRY forward, IF they had the character and integrity; rather than quarrel singularly and suffer the agony and ecstacy of political hubris found on either side of the aisle.

The Pharisee of Pharisees, Saul of Tarsus, encountered the peaceful Jesus on the Damascus Road. Saul began his journey full of bigotry and filled with the pride in the purity of his Phariseeism, READY TO TAKE CAPTIVES, He angrily determined to exterminate these heretic followers of This Jesus who put a blemish on unity of God (monotheism).

Saul left on his journey a catapillar vigorously intent on fulfilling his mission. Somewhere en route, he had  a vision of God; call it what you will. His experience so transformed his Jewish Monotheism that the lowly catapillar metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly we know as the Christian Apostle to the Gentiles--Paul. 

In his metamorphosis, he discovered the power of a personal conversion. He discovered a broken relationship could recover peace and renewal by introducing reconciling processes that allowed people to gain mutually from their relationships. Paul consequently challenged his every audience to accept God’s higher authority of

LOVE…………………………JOY……………………… AND PEACE.

Paul gave value to a world that favored neither Jew nor Gentile, while strongly affirming that every individual was a person of value for whom Jesus died. 

Becoming Christ’s personal Ambassador, Paul met a global community of citizens, soldiers, and slaves that were badly in need of a model for building intentional peace and friendship. As an Ambassador for Christ, Paul put his life on the line, like a simple slave, just to bring healing to multitudes of broken people oftentimes scorned as unproductive political drones and social parasites (Eph. 4:1, 7, 26; John 3:16).

Real Peace can only come by beginning with being reconciled to God in one’s self.

Peace with God internally, leads to external peace with one’s neighbor, whoever that be. 
God calls us to follow him, and through God's Spirit in Christ he commissions each of us, not only to follow him but to share him by introducing peaceful negotiations into our hostile world environment of interpersonal relationships (2 Cor. 5:16-21).

As individuals; we become God’s Ambassadors. It becomes our stated purpose to give “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14, NIV). Only as we learn to relate individually, can we learn to relate globally as nations. Paul summarized his Mission Statement quite well when he announced, “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18, NIV). 

This ancient message of Peace launched in Bethlehem and went far beyond Jerusalem —Calvary. Pentecost gave God’s Rocket of Peace the thrust it needed to enter into the orbit of history’s  time and space. Christmas to Easter nicely frames in our basic Christian year, but further research reveals Paul never strayed far from the teachings of Jesus. It is a truth: if we walk any distance with Jesus, we will discover we are “called” to love [even] our enemies, and to think peace, not war.

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

thinking we should take more seriously than we do, Paul’s advice to the Romans to make the second mile a thinking man’s choice, to share one coat when we have two, and to give a cup of cold water when we have nothing else

. . .Be blessed.