On Earth, GLORY as it is in Heaven!
On Earth, PEACE as it is in Heaven!
Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
Luke 19:38
saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Peace
To join or bind together that which has been separated or divided and thus setting at one again, a meaning conveyed by the common expression of one “having it all together.”
The arrival of the Prince of Peace brought and is still bringing peace that passes all understanding.
Opposite of Peace - Separation and Division
- Malunion - When broken bones don't line up correctly while they heal.
- Nonunion - When bones do not grow back together fully or at all.
Colossians 1:21
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.
Ephesians 4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Estranged, Alienated = To be shut out from one's fellowship and intimacy.
Colossians 1:21-22
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Communion with the living God is the meaning of salvation.
The Prince of Peace reconciled us through his bodily flesh. Christ put back together what man had torn asunder.
Malunion
- When broken bones don't line up correctly while they heal.
Normal Humerus Photo
Malunion Humerus Photo
2 Samuel 14:14
But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence.
2 Samuel 14:21
Very well, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.
2 Samuel 14:23-24, 28
So Joab set off, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
The king said, “Let him go to his own house; he is not to come into my presence.”
So Absalom went to his own house, and did not come into the king's presence….
So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, without coming into the king's presence.
2 Samuel 14:32-33
‘Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.’
Now let me go into the king's presence; if there is guilt in me, let him kill me!”
Then Joab went to the king and told him; and he summoned Absalom.
So he came to the king and prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king; and the king kissed Absalom.
I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God.
By God Himself, it is not!
How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.
Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us.
It is written that we shall “stand before” Him, shall appear, shall be inspected.
The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ,
that some of us, that any of us who really chooses,
shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.
To please God… to be a real ingredient in the Divine happiness…
to be loved by God, not merely pitied,
but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—
it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.
But so it is.
— C.S. Lewis
Spiritual Malunion
When God’s thoughts about you and your thoughts about you are not lining up correctly.
Nonunion
When bones do not grow back together fully or at all.
Nonunion Humerus Photo
If you stay alienated from God, you will live your life with a persistent and nagging awareness that you are not whole, not complete, but torn asunder.
And all the glue you use to try to fix the fractures—
all the stitches sewn trying to convince yourself and others that you’re on your way to getting it together—
none of it’s working.
Acts 7:55-60
But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him;
and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
When he had said this, he died.
A Prayer
Lord, Jesus Christ, I am aware that in different ways you have been seeking me.
I have heard you knocking at my door.
I believe—
That your claims are true.
That you died on the cross for my sins.
And that you have risen in triumph over death.
Thank you for your loving offer of forgiveness, freedom, and fulfillment.
Now—
I turn from my sinful self-centeredness.
I come to you as my Savior, I submit to you as my Lord.
Give me strength to follow you for the rest of my life, Amen.
