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Ep 3.52 Jesus Is the Only Way to Peace:Tony Peters :Daily Devotion
Jesus Is The Only Way To Peace
I was watching Raya and the Last Dragon with my family. This movie is steeped heavily in Asian mysticism and belief. The meaning behind the movie is a message of peace through trust. This got me to thinking why is it that peace and prosperity is the meaning behind so many Asian stories, yet so often they come in war. Then I gave my head a shake and thought, isn’t that what all cultures do? They tell stories of peace and dreams of living together in harmony, yet they shake their fists and react in anger. Driving wedges of hate, disunity, war, and death. Hypocrisy, that is what we as a human race are full of. We teach and preach one thing, all the while stabbing others in the back with forked tongues, lies, anger, theft and literally death. We seem to think that as humans, we can somehow bring about peace between us. It is a lie we tell ourselves. How can someone full of sin hope to be peaceful with the rest of society? We can’t. Look at the world around you. We see riots over splinters in belief systems, anger, rage, looting, death, beatings, territorial claims. With the threat of world-wide war always looming, now again more than we have seen in decades. Look at what is going on in our countries and the world. We see Black Lives Matter riots, claiming that white lives don’t matter, a racial hypocrisy. Antifa taking control of areas within the US, claiming the territory as their own, and politicians who simply ignore and allow these groups to have their way, resulting in police and military officials stepping down. In Canada natives are rising up and taking over areas of towns and cities, burning down churches, sadly these natives are from the area my native relatives grew up in. Also look at past residential schools abducting children, resulting in death and destruction of cultures, native as well as other cultures. Slavery still runs rampant across the world, as it has for centuries. How did we get to this point? Through pride, greed, hatred and deceit. As a people we have been guilty of believing the lies fed to us, further splintering and dividing humanity. Who is responsible for this? The devil. The Bible shows us this in many places, showing exactly what the end result of all of this will be, but it also provides us with a message of hope. Let’s look at this further, from a Biblical perspective.
Where did this sin nature begin? If you answer with the sin of Adam and Eve, you are very wrong, it began before that. Ezekiel 28: 12-19 explains it’s origins. Satan or Lucifer was in a high position among the angels of heaven, before pride overtook him, wickedness then was found in him and he was filled with violence. God then cast Satan and the angels that followed him, from heaven. The beginnings of evil. Satan would then use his army of demons to bring down mankind in Genesis 3, tempting Eve with deceitful lies, which Adam willingly fell to as well. The very next chapter we see violence and murder enter the world through Cain and Abel. This shows pride, anger, violence and sin are all one in the same. The problems we see in the world today, that are leading us towards war, and have already led to violent clashes between peoples groups, are a combination of these sins. Look at what is going on with China and Russia, countries challenging them out of pride and fear, and the pride of China and Russia running so deep, that their power is going to their heads, leading to entitlement in land claims, for countries they used to own, but have since been recognized as separate countries. I would say that pride is the main root of these problems. As long as pride remains at the center of what humanity does and is a justification for our actions, violence will overtake mankind, and peace will never be accomplished. Peace will always just be stories we tell, and we can’t even call them fairy tales, for fairy tales are full of violent actions. We tell ourselves that the only way to get peace is through violence. Another lie woven into our minds by the devil, the ultimate weaver of deceit and hate.
How then does humanity overcome this? How do we truly accomplish peace on earth? The answer is, WE CAN’T, only Jesus Christ can bring about the peace we desire deep down. We see Jesus being the blood sacrifice to erase our sins and provide forgiveness that we need to get to the point of peace. Without this blood sacrifice we could not be made clean, and thus could not come before God, as is noted in Hebrews 9:22, “The law says that almost everything must be made clean by blood. Sins cannot be forgiven without a blood sacrifice.” Jesus was our blood sacrifice, now we are made clean, allowing us to be able to live out eternity in heaven, in true peace and harmony, worshipping God and being in awe of His Glory forever. What must happen before this peace can be achieved? Satan must be purged from the Earth. He must be removed and locked away for a time as noted in Revelation 20, when mankind will have 1000 years of peace, before Satan is released one final time, where mankind will have a final choice to make, serve God and have peace, or serve Satan and be sent to the lake of fire for eternal condemnation.
Before this end result of peace, the devil will have 7 years to bring the Earth and mankind through trials and devastation, the Tribulation period. This entire time of deadly havok is laid out in great detail throughout the entire book of Revelation, but Isaiah, Daniel, and other people through visions also refer to this period that John lays out. We are given very figurative language to see how terrible this period will be. The world shall see how violent and damaging the devil can be. Sadly many will still be fooled and choose to follow Satan, instead of God. Many will be given the chance to be a part of the ultimate peace, we claim to long for, the “world peace” falsely stated by many. World peace is not really the aim of most world organizations, or rich people. Control and manipulation is their aim, tools of the devil. We as Christians must be guarded against the wiles of the world around us, the tools used by the devil to strike us. Put on the full armor of God referred to in Ephesians 6:11-13. Be mindful of what we allow into our lives and pray for God’s protection from the devil, as He is the only one who can protect us. Only the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can bring about peace and harmony. Trust Him and be ready, for He is coming. His Second Coming is imminent, but will still take humanity by surprise, as noted in 1 Thesselonians 5:2, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Be ready, and make sure you give those around you no excuse for not knowing God, so that they too may experience true peace and harmony.