Dearest e-votees-
Blessed Easter to you.
He is risen, indeed!!!
Peace,
Karl
-------------
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin ), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." 28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus’ response to fear and cowering is one of “Peace be with you.”
Jesus’ response to doubting and demanding proof of the resurrection is one of “Peace be with you.”
We have things that trouble and beset us. Some of those are of a spiritual nature. Some are much more animal. Some are the results of our faith and our testimony. Some are much more self-inflicted. We have sins that trouble us. We lose sight of the goal. We take our eyes off of our Lord and pay attention to the waves lapping at our feet. We look at the paltry fish and loaves and the enormity of the crowd. We see the one who didn’t live up to his or her promises in the mirror again. We look at our life plan and where we are so far. We are facing our mortality or that of those we love. Relationships and careers and dreams careen off-course. We have all sorts of thing that trouble and beset us.
Jesus looks into our life and says “Peace be with you.”
Sometimes it seems that Jesus is being a bit simplistic speaking peace into our chaos.
We forget who Jesus is and what he has done and what he can do. If we want to believe more strongly we can spend time in “this book” which was written so that we might come to believe in Jesus and through believing have life (and peace) in his name.
I invite you to consider joining us as we work our way through the Bible in 90 Days as part of our “Season of Growing”. We will be working through this at church and the readings are posted at http://www.christthegoodshep.org/biblein90days.html. You will be blessed and your faith will be deepened. And peace will be with you.
God, draw us into your peace. We give our chaos to you. We give our hearts to you. Draw us into deeper belief. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment