There’s somethin’ to be said for just restin’, for just sittin’ an’ watchin’ the world go by.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Shadows Riders)

    “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.”
              –John 14:27 (HCSB)
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   “Peace like a river, so gently is flowing…”  People are crying “We want peace!”.  They live in constant fear.  Fear of this, fear of that, fear of hats.  Oh my mercy…fear, fear, fear.  They look for someone who will pacify their lives, calm their souls.  What they are looking for is an outward solution to an inward problem.  They are looking for peace with external controls.  Hmmm, there will come forward a man that promises peace; peace to the world; however, he is really the man of lawlessness and quite the opposite will occur.
   Real peace is internal.  It is provided despite the outward circumstances.  This inner peace, provided by a real relationship with Jesus Christ, guards us while we live in a difficult and chaotic world.  Look at the difference:

         “The world gives to the body; Christ to the soul.  The world gives to the outward and transient in man; Christ to the inward and eternal.  The world only supplies music for the physical ear, and sceneries for the physical eye; Christ supplies music for the soul, and spiritual sceneries of unspeakable beauty to the eye of faith.  The world supplies the lowest part of man–his passions and animal propensities; but Christ furnishes the highest part of him–his reason, faith, conscience–and satisfies his immortal aspirations and wants.” (B. Thomas)

    Honestly, people in the world clamor for peace, yet they have no real idea what it is.  If one group is satisfied, that satisfaction offends another group.  In fact, the real trend of the world right now is to be offended by something.  Then they will all cry, “Why can’t we all get together,” maybe they’ll smoke some pot and drink a Coca-Cola to the brotherhood of mankind, womankind, mixed gender kind, all kind, no kind — now I’m ocnfuesd…
    People will never come from having possessions for they will bring with them a lack of peace.  Peace will not come from a new job position, for that will bring heartburn and gas.  Peace will not come from politicians and the bureaucrats; there will not be “peace in our lifetime.”  If a person truly seeks peace they will find it only in Jesus Christ.  They can search and search and at times think they have peace in their souls; they may have a mantra and sit in a silly position and hum it over and over and think they are at peace, but just as soon as they come out of their trance–wham, bam, turmoil–the peace is gone.  “There is no peace in the world; there is no tribulation in Christ.” (B. Thomas)
    Ponder and meditate on the following if you are struggling with peace.  Paul had faced dire circumstances in his life.  He said, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9,16, NKJV).  Notice, the “inward man.”  He writes to the Colossians, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts (3:15, NKJV).  Need peace? — turn to Jesus.  

A man is born beside the road to death.  To die is not so much, it is inevitable.  The journey is what matters, and what one does along the way.  And it’s not that he succeeds or fails, only that he has lived proudly, with honor and respect, then he can die proudly.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Ferguson Rifle)

    “I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness.”
              –Ecclesiastes 3:16(HCSB)
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    Many years ago President Franklin D. Roosevelt made this statement.

         “The old ship of state is still on the same course, because the nation has based its life on moral principles.”

Look at our country now.  Can that statement be made today?  Hardly, for now people are calling good evil and evil good.  To keep the media away from you a person must be a perverted, left-wing, moronic fool.  How dare a person be righteous and godly in today’s society, why it is almost blasphemous to the leaders on the liberal side.  However, Psalm 15 describes a godly person.  Before looking at the Psalm, notice right off that the Psalmist alludes to the “holy mountain.”  
    In the Old Testament there would be a group of priests standing guard at the gate of the sanctuary.  They would allow only those who qualified to enter.  Shocking, and you say that is Old Testament and it doesn’t pertain to us.  Take another look.  Jesus, our High Priest, will one day preside and determine who gets to enter the Sanctuary–Heaven, the throne of God.  Do you fit the bill?

         1 Lord, who can dwell in Your tent?  Who can live on Your holy mountain?
         2 The one who lives honestly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart—
         3 who does not slander with his tongue, who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor,
         4 who despises the one rejected by the Lord but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his word whatever the cost,
         5 who does not lend his money at interest or take a bribe against the innocent—the one who does these things will never be moved.

    These verses depict worship.  Hmmm, interesting, nothing about singing in these verses.  The reason is that true worship is a lifestyle.  It who were able to enter was based on lifestyle.  We should live as residents of His holy hill.  We are to live on earth with no less than heavenly behavior.
    One verse caught my attention and it surely would not be popular in today’s society or church.  Look at one of the requirements in verse 4.  Those who God has rejected, we are to reject as well.  Yet today we molly-coddle those who blatantly sin and then say, “I’m only human.”  We say, “oh the poor dear,” when we ought to be praying them to repentance.  
    Putting all of these verses together I do not see anything about happiness, or your opinion, or doing things for self.  We are in an age where people are placing duty aside for personal happiness and satisfaction.  No–duty; being a person of integrity, then you can enter the sanctuary; you can dwell in the Lord’s tent upon His holy mountain.

There are monsters everywhere in plain sight.  We’ll never catch them all.  The best we can hope for is that we hang them when we find them so they don’t hurt anyone else.”
              –C.J. Petit  (South of Denver)

    “But evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
              –2 Timothy 3:13 (AMP)
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    I thought I might get some comments about what I wrote yesterday about being “familiar.”  First of all, length doesn’t permit a full-fledged essay, but the fact remains, I don’t really care about being in the woods for any length of time with a novice–someone not familiar with how to live.
    Sure, we must first learn.  However, at the same time we are not haphazard without learning.  Some people are.  What quickly comes to mind are a couple of people who grabbed an axe and proceeded to cut, or attempted, to cut firewood.  I watched for a minute or so, and then took the axe away.  I was afraid that I was going to see them partially amputate their leg.  They jumped in, which is good, but without the knowledge of how to do it.  So, yes, people must first become familiar.  There is that time of ignorance.
    Attention was brought to me about Samuel.  He ran to Eli asking if he called him.  Eli told him to listen and if he heard the voice it was God.  From that time forward we do not see Samuel not knowing the voice of the Lord.  It became familiar to him.  Yesterday I was speaking of the person that God sends.  God will never send anyone out which has not been prepared.
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    “Monsters!”  You got that right.  There is evil in the streets, but more dangerous is the evil lurking in the hearts of bureaucrats.  There are those who protect their little empires, but want to loosen a horde of evil upon others in the name of humanity.  There is a monster who has just signed a “law” for day-before-birth abortion.  There is another monster who has now stated that infanticide is all right.  There is a person, I hesitate to use the term “lady,” for president who has proclaimed that we are “not a nation of laws, but of feelings.”  
    Listen folks, you are voting for people who are monsters; their hearts are evil.  You vote for them, allow them to make laws, but your children and grandchildren are going to have to live in this nation.  Listen again, the election of 2020 is not that far away, and if the left-wing nuts have their way it will be “Katy-bar-the-door”, for evil will be given a green light.
    It is time to take life seriously!  It is not seeking for self, tip-toeing through the tulips, but you better wake up and realize that there is a real war going on–a war for your soul and for eternity.  A.W. Tozer said, “Men think of the world not as a battleground, but as a playground.”  Look at those who say they are Christians and then look at their actions.  It seems they are more interested in “living life to the fullest,” in the pleasure offered them by the world.  It’s time to face the “monsters” for “True Christianity is a struggle, a fight and a warfare.” (J.C. Ryle)
    Hmmm, check yourself.  Are you becoming one of the “monsters”?  We find Jesus inspiring, not enthroned.  We are fashioning Jesus to be more like ourselves; we conform Jesus to our image.  Mercy, Lord help us!

His strength lay in the silent knowledge of his own abilities and courage.”
              –Dave P. Fisher (Where No Man Rules)

    “Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit.”
              –Deuteronomy 11:8 (HCSB)
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    I recently heard a sermon where the preacher said we need to get away from the familiar.  We should have nothing to do with the familiar.  Now, I tried to keep the cynical-skeptic under control as I listened.  He admitted to have a Millennial perspective so I tried to see what he meant by the “familiar.”
    My mind began to whirl.  Shouldn’t we be familiar with God?  Shouldn’t that be one of our main goals in life–to be His friend and how can we do that if we are not familiar with Him?  The minister used the example of Abram, going to a place with which he was unfamiliar.  Okay, I get that part, but…let me give some examples.
    When I go camping I want to be familiar with my tools.  I want to know how to use an axe properly, and let me tell you I’ve seen folks who didn’t and it was a scary sight to behold.  I want to know how to use a knife, and then sharpen it.  I want to know how to put up a tent, even in the rain.  I want to know how to build a fire, even in the rain, and cook something over it besides hotdogs on a sharpened stick.  I want to be able to identify poison ivy and poison oak.  I want to be able to identify animals in the area.  I want to know where I am, what kind of terrain I’m in, what season it is.  In other words, I want to be as familiar with my equipment and the locations as possible.
    Maybe it’s the military in my life, but I want to be familiar with my weapons.  I want to be as familiar as I can with the enemy’s tactics and strategies.  What will he use against me?  What type of snares are there along the trail?  The same is true of the enemy of our soul–the devil.  In fact, Paul says that we should not be ignorant with his devices, schemes, snares (2 Corinthians 2:11).  We may not have ventured into the region in which we find ourselves, but we can study and know the characteristics of the place, the people, the food, the culture, etc.
    One thing I sensed in the message is that one thing he would mention is that we need to get away from the familiar–the voice of authority and do my thing.  In my mind, I am thinking, he means to get away from putting himself under someone, listening to experience, studying hard and just by going out and doing his thing everything will be hunky-dory.  It made me think of someone I read recently from Dave Roever.  

         “God allows times of suffering to teach us obedience.  Obedience is not achieved by never being satisfied, running in every direction looking for your ship to come in, and thinking that a better deal will leave the failures of your past to remain there.  Those failures will follow you until they discipline you and guide you for a future, albeit, without any promise of success.  But it is a promise of a future!  Success hinges on, and is determined in our darkest hours, not by a light revealing the end of the journey, but by the light which reveals the next step.  If you don’t take the next step, you will get nowhere fast.  Take the next step.  That much you can see.  It’s not what you cannot see that threatens you.  If’s not taking the next step that will derail you.”

    True, the next step may not be familiar, but when you take it you depend upon your experiences, you depend on your training, you depend on your skills and knowledge, and mostly importantly of all–you depend upon God.  In all these things you should be familiar.