Wise Words: Sowing The Seeds Of Peace

Wise Words: Sowing The Seeds Of Peace

Illustration: Are You A Sunflower or Venus Flytrap 

The Venus Flytrap is found in nitrogen and phosphorus-poor environments, such as bogs and wet savannas. Small in stature and slow growing, the Venus flytrap tolerates fire well, and depends on periodic burning to suppress its competition.The nutritional poverty of the soil is the reason that the plant relies on such elaborate traps: insect prey provide the nitrogen for protein formation that the soil cannot. The Venus Flytrap is not a tropical plant and can tolerate mild winters.

Some Christians Are Like The Flytrap...

-They Are Planted In The Wrong Place

-They Love Burning Their Competition

-They Suck The Life Out Of Everything Around Them

-Because They Are Not Planted In The Right Pace, They Never Make It Through The Winter

Be Like The Sunflower. Sunflowers are planted in rich soil, they grow tall and are rich in color. The flower head will actually track the sun in the sky. Sunflowers can grow in fields together. Sunflowers also produce lots of goods like: oil, sunflower butter, seeds for eating. Sunflowers can be used to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond after the Chernobyl disaster,[14] and a similar campaign was mounted in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. 

We Need To Be Like The Sunflower.

-Planted In Good Soil

-Full of Growth

-Following The Son

-Full of Production

Do You Thrive On Drama, Disunity or Christlike Devotion?

James 3:17-18 (NIV)

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. [18] Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Follow James' Prescription To Peacemaking. Peacemakers Sow PEACE By...

Praying

Illustration: Saved By Prayer And The Purpose Driven Life.

Nichols' murderous rampage began when he took the gun from a 5-foot-tall grandmother who was his sole guard at the Fulton County Courthouse. It ended when an otherwise unremarkable 26-year-old woman appealed to the Christian conscience of this same violent killer holding her hostage. 

At 2 a.m. one Saturday night, Ashley Smith went out for cigarettes while unpacking her new apartment, yet another victory for tobacco pleasure. Returning from the store, Smith was grabbed by a man at her front door, who put a gun in her side and told her not to scream. He asked if she knew who he was. When he removed his baseball cap, she saw it was Nichols, the dangerous fugitive all over TV who had escaped custody during his rape trial and had killed four people in the previous 48 hours. (Although he also looked a lot like of one the guys on "American Idol.") 

In Smith's apartment, Nichols bound Smith's feet and hands and put her in the bathtub. Later, at Smith's request, Nichols allowed her to hop from the bathroom into the bedroom, where she began talking to him. 

In short order, Smith was reading aloud to Nichols from the Christian book "The Purpose Driven Life" — in direct violation of his constitutional right to never hear any reference to God, in public or private, for any purpose, ever, ever, ever! For more on this right, go to the "People for the American Way" Web site. 

After reading the first paragraph of Chapter 33 aloud, about serving God by serving others, Nichols — the man pundits were calling an "animal" — asked her to read it again. 

Nichols listened to the passage again and responded by telling Smith he was already dead, saying, "Look at my eyes." But Smith looked and told him God had a purpose for him, perhaps to minister to other lost souls in prison. Smith read to Nichols some more, both from the "Purpose" book and from another popular book that's been dropped from all news accounts of this incident: the New Testament. (In the Hollywood version, Smith will be reading from the Quran.) 

Smith knew all about Nichols' violent depredations from TV. Yet she saw him not as a monster, but as one of God's creatures. Most Christians — most people — have trouble seeing the humanity of people who take our parking spots. Smith could see God's hand in a multiple murderer holding her hostage. By showing him genuine Christian love, Smith turned Nichols from a beast to a brother in Christ. This phenomenon, utterly unknown to liberals, is what's known as a "miracle." Top that, Paul Krugman! 

Nichols told Smith she was "an angel sent from God," calling her "his sister" and himself her "brother in Christ." Nichols said he had come to Smith's home for a reason, in Smith's words, that "he was lost and God led him right to me to tell him that he had hurt a lot of people." 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)

Be joyful always; [17] pray continually; [18] give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Encouraging 

Illustration: We Can't Encourage If We Have Not Personally Experienced Shalom

Keller illustrates his point with the following picture of biblical shalom: "If I threw a thousand threads onto the table, they wouldn't be a fabric. They'd just be threads lying on top of each other. Threads become a fabric when each one has been woven over, under, around, and through every other one. The more interdependent they are, the more beautiful they are. The more interwoven they are, the stronger and warmer they are. God made the world with billions of entities, but he didn't make them to be an aggregation. Rather, he made them to be in a beautiful, harmonious, knitted, webbed, interdependent relationship with one another."

-Peace Is A Goal (Not the goal but a goal)

Matthew 10:34-38 (NIV)

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. [35] For I have come to turn " `a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--- [36] a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' [37] "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; [38] and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Romans 12:17-18 (NIV)

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. [18] If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

-Never Sacrifice The Message Of Calvery For Man's Confirmation! 

-Peace is a Gift From God

1 Corinthians 14:33 (NIV)

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints,

Actively Serving

-Awareness of Needs

-Humbling Oneself to Fulfill The Needs

-Calling Others To Help

Matthew 20:26-28

26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Controlling Our Tongues

How Can We Control Our Tongues?

Illustration: Gossip Magazines. 

-Get Away From Gossip

-Get A Grip On Griping

Griping is to experience sharp pains in the bowels. 

-Get Up And Go. The More Do The Less Time We Have To Say Things We Will Regret. 

Psalm 34:12-13 (NIV)

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, [13] keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

Effecting Positive Change

Bring About Positive Change By

-Creating A Team Not A Mob

-Calling Attention To Solutions Instead of Problems

-Climb The Molehill First Then The Mountain

Turn This Information Into Action!