{"id":16415,"date":"2018-02-06T09:26:56","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T14:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16415"},"modified":"2018-02-06T09:42:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T14:42:19","slug":"blessed-are-the-peacemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16415","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Are the Peacemakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/blessed-are-the-peacemakers-2018-02-06\/\"><strong>Blessed Are the Peacemakers<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, February 6, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognized as children of God. <\/em>\u2014Matthew 5:9<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SMD8d7oUjxw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn Jesus\u2019 teaching and in his life, we see modeled nonviolent, peaceful action. He encourages us to likewise \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d and not return vengeance with vengeance. There is no way to peace other than through peacemaking itself. But many think we can achieve peace through violence. We say, \u201cWe will stop killing by killing.\u201d Sadly, that is the way we think, and it is in opposition to all great religious teachers. Our need for immediate control leads us to disconnect the clear unity between means and ends.<\/p>\n<p>American Christians supported the killing of two hundred thousand people in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War and still dare to call themselves pro-life. Many Christians support the violent, unjust Israeli occupation of Palestine. We name a missile that is clearly meant for destruction of human lives a \u201cpeacekeeper.\u201d I could list many other examples. The peace we are keeping is a false peace. Jeremiah the prophet would say to our \u201cpeacekeeping\u201d wars what he said to the leaders of Israel:<\/p>\n<p>. . . Peace! Peace!<br \/>\nWhereas there is no peace.<br \/>\nThey should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds.<br \/>\nNot they! They feel no shame,<br \/>\nThey do not even know how to blush. (Jeremiah 8:11-12)<\/p>\n<p>Do we have any idea of all the slavery and oppression, all the killing, the torture, all the millions of people who have existed around the edges of every empire so those at the center of the empire could say they had peace? Every time we build a pyramid, certain people at the top will have their peace. Yet there will be bloody bodies upon which their security is built. Those at the top are usually blind to the price of their false peace.<\/p>\n<p>War is a means of seeking <em>control<\/em>, not a means of seeking peace. <em>Pax Romana <\/em>is the world\u2019s way of seeking control and calling it peace. In ancient times, the citizens who lived in the city of Rome thought they had peace. Violence, you see, will always create more violence. It is not real peace. As Pope Paul VI reflected, \u201cIf you want peace, work for justice.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n<p>John Dear, an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence, says that as Christians, \u201cWe cannot support war, participate in war, pay for war, promote war, or wage war.\u201d It is our responsibility to work to \u201cend war and create peace . . . to be a peacemaker.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n<p>How can we be peacemakers? It begins by being peace ourselves, by connecting with the source of peace within. It means standing up in nonviolent resistance to systems of injustice. It involves learning the skills of nonviolent communication and conflict resolution.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (2)<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>I am already being poured out as a drink offering\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=2+Timothy+4%3A6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2 Timothy 4:6<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. <em>Tell<\/em> God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don\u2019t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Psalm+118:27\">Psalm 118:27<\/a>). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents\u2014 burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose\u2014 the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But <em>you<\/em> don\u2019t eliminate it, God does. You \u201cbind the sacrifice\u2026to the horns of the altar\u201d and see to it that you don\u2019t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?<\/p>\n<p>Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blessed Are the Peacemakers Tuesday, February 6, 2018 Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognized as children of God. \u2014Matthew 5:9 In Jesus\u2019 teaching and in his life, we see modeled nonviolent, peaceful action. He encourages us to likewise \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d and not return vengeance with vengeance. There is no way to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16415"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16419,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16415\/revisions\/16419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}