Hello Advent Family,

What brings you peace?  Maybe there is a person or a place that makes you feel incredibly comfortable.  Perhaps you feel peace when you accomplish goals or tasks.  True peace only comes when we are reconciled in the relationship we were created for through Jesus.  Let’s look at Romans 5 together today as we think about the source of true peace.  

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We have been given an incredible gift – peace with God through Jesus.  What’s more is that it isn’t a gift we earned or deserved.  Verse 8 reminds us that while we were sinners Jesus died for us to give us this peace.  In other words in the very midst of our own selfishness and sin Jesus looked at us with love and decided to offer His life for us.  He gave us the very thing we needed.  He reconciled us to God and gave us peace.  When we were powerless to find peace on our own Jesus simply gave His life so that we might have it.  What an incredible act of love and grace and what an amazing gift!  Today and everyday thank Jesus for this and rest in the peace that He alone can offer.  

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave