Heard Recently...

I realized here lately that I could watch Hota and Kathie Lee while I work out, or I could find something a little more substantial that might actually encourage my walk with God. :) So I've started listening to some sermons on-line from Josh Patrick at the 4th Avenue Church of Christ in Franklin. This is where several of us went for 'Stream Franklin' back in January. They are going thru something of a 'revival' there in the church, and it's been interesting to hear what they are talking about.

Anyways, in this one sermon, he was going thru several atributes of God, and this caught my attention:

“God is peaceful… Wayne Grudham defines God’s peace this way, “God’s peace means that in God’s being and in His actions He is separate from all confusion and disorder, yet He is continually active in innumerable, well-ordered, fully controlled, simultaneous actions.” I Cor 14 says, “for God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.”

“Those who follow hard after God can expect a transcendent peace to come upon them. It is a peace that is not determined by circumstances. It is not dependant upon other people. It comes from within. It is an other-worldly, supernatural peace that you can’t get in a bottle, or a drink, in a person, in a possession or in a paycheck. It comes from God. Galatians 5 says that when we run hard after God, then the fruit or by-product or the evidence of the Holy Spirit in us is peace.

So what? What’s the big deal? As a dear friend once told me… ‘If you find yourself in a panic, you can be assured that God didn’t lead you there.’ That pretty much says it all.

If you want to listen to more of this sermon, or some of their other ones, you can follow this link:

http://fourthavenuechurch.org/flash/audio_player.php?f=/sermons/01 This Is The Gospel_ _From Him, Th.mp3&t=This Is The Gospel: From Him, Through Him, To Him&s=Josh Patrick&d=February 21, 2010

There's a lot of confusion and disorder in the world today. Sometimes that causes a certain amount of panic in me... but honestly, I'm more apt to find myself in a panic over the confusion and disorder that comes from within me, more than what comes from without. That's just the way I tend to work. But it was good to be reminded that God is not at all put off by confusion and disorder. He can rise above all of that and see exactly what is important and what needs to be done. And if I'm in a panic, it's really only because I've stopped trusting that. Hmmm... Trust and Peace... yeah -- that pretty much says it all...