Blessed are the peacemakers (Part 2)
Morning 15 october 23
Order of Service
Welcome
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Psalm Reading
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Teen Talk
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Main Prayer
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Reading
Sermon
Contradiction?
Doing the Work
The poor in spirit grieve over sin, humbly accept God’s providential over-ruling in their lives and hunger and thirst for righteousness. As God graciously fills them they are merciful to others and honest and open in their dealings with them. Now, they do everything they can to bring them into a right relationship with each other, and above all with God.
The Permanent Priority
William Hendriksen says of this aspect of peacemaking, ‘Is not the church the very cork on which the world remains afloat?’
American preacher Paul Billheimer is even more direct: ‘If it were not for the church, Satan would already have turned this world into hell.’
The unquantifiable but unqualified certainty is that prayer is a powerful weapon in the hands of God’s peacemakers.
Evasive Action
A W Pink writes, ‘It is part of Christian duty to see to it that we so conduct ourselves as to give no just cause of complaint against us.’
In Guy Appéré’s assessment, ‘Peace is to the soul what health is to the body, a sign of balance and order.’
In C S Lewis’ words, ‘When passion enters a situation, human reasoning (unassisted by grace) has as much chance of its retaining its hold on truth as a snowflake in the mouth of a blast furnace.’ In striking contrast to those who have a reputation for resentment, peacemakers are those who, as someone has beautifully put it, ‘carry about with them an atmosphere in which quarrels die a natural death’.
J I Packer goes so far as to say, ‘The Bible could be called the book of God’s wrath.’
Charles Colson is right to say, ‘If Christ is Lord of all, Christians must recover their sense of moral outrage.’
Preaching on Ephesians 4:26, C H Spurgeon said, ‘Anger is one of the holy feet of the soul when it goes in the right direction.’
There are moments in our lives when a situation is so delicately balanced that the sound of a human voice can bring down an avalanche of disruption, misunderstanding and pain