As the echoes of the Civil War remind us, peace crafted by human hands is often as fleeting as the morning dew. Yet, within the walls of my classroom, I've witnessed the seeds of peace sown in the fertile soil of young minds, where love and kindness bloom amidst the laughter and lessons of daily life. This episode explores the stark contrast between the temporary peace we create and the everlasting peace God provides, drawing from personal stories and the powerful words of John 16:33. Join me as I reflect on the roles educators, students, and parents play in this delicate dance of harmony and how God's peacemaking transcends our best efforts, offering a peace that truly lasts.
You may check out my podcast further on facebook.com/adventuresofjenger, youtube.com/@adventuresofjenger, and also on twitter @jengeradventure
To subscribe to my podcast go to this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/2353490/supporters/new
As the echoes of the Civil War remind us, peace crafted by human hands is often as fleeting as the morning dew. Yet, within the walls of my classroom, I've witnessed the seeds of peace sown in the fertile soil of young minds, where love and kindness bloom amidst the laughter and lessons of daily life. This episode explores the stark contrast between the temporary peace we create and the everlasting peace God provides, drawing from personal stories and the powerful words of John 16:33. Join me as I reflect on the roles educators, students, and parents play in this delicate dance of harmony and how God's peacemaking transcends our best efforts, offering a peace that truly lasts.
You may check out my podcast further on facebook.com/adventuresofjenger, youtube.com/@adventuresofjenger, and also on twitter @jengeradventure
To subscribe to my podcast go to this link https://www.buzzsprout.com/2353490/supporters/new
Questions, comments, and opinions are welcome and may be sent to adventuresofjenger@gmail.com! Happy Adventuring!
Speaker 1:
Good afternoon, ginger Adventurers. This is your host, ginger, with another, our Daily Bread devotional. This devotional is for April 23rd and it is titled Jesus, the True Peacemaker. The verse that they're focusing on is John 16, 33. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace 33. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. So if you would like to see the actual devotional for Our Daily Bread, of course you can go to Our Daily Bread sorry, odborg which stands for Our Daily Bread, and you can see the actual story that the author shares. I'm just going to summarize it. So, basically, the author shares about the Civil War On December 30th of 1862, both armies were camped out, one on one side of the river, one on the other, and it was nighttime.
Speaker 1:
They're around their campfires, they're not fighting at this point, right, and I mean that's pretty awesome that they're not fighting. It's nighttime and they I don't know cease fire for the night. That's pretty cool. Well, as they're around their campfires, they start playing instruments. You know, they pull out what they have. They have harmonicas, they have fiddles, whatever they have on them, they pull up and they start playing different music, and so one army's playing yankee doodle, while then the other army's playing dixie, and so they were just enjoying this back and forth of music, even though they're enemies, even though they're against each other like they're at war, and in this moment they're enjoying, just relaxing and taking that moment of peace and playing music back and forth together. The sad part to this story that the author shares is that of course it's the Civil War and they're fighting against each other. So the next morning they go back to fighting each other and it results in thousands of casualties, which is really sad.
Speaker 1:
And the author makes a really good point that any effort that we put towards trying to create peace world peace, country peace it doesn't last. It is very thin. There's always hostility somewhere, there's always something that ignites a spark that leads to more fighting, and the only peace that we really have is through God. God is our only peacemaker. He's the only one that we can trust to give us that peace. So I really like that.
Speaker 1:
The verse John 16, 33 says I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace, because we're not going to find that anywhere else. There's a lot of people that search for peace in all kinds of places, but the truth is we're not going to find it anywhere else except for in God. It anywhere else except for in God. So our job is to help participate in bringing about that peace. God uses our gifts, god uses our talents, god uses different things in our lives to help us bring about that peace which is for his purpose, which is amazing. God's reconciliation makes real peace possible. We can't escape what's happening in the world. We can't escape troubles from here, but because of Jesus we can spread peace, we can spread his love. We can make things better in different moments for different people.
Speaker 1:
The question here is where do you see humans working for peace? How is God's peacemaking different? I mean, I hate to say it, but because I'm a teacher, I do always go back to my school. I do. I know that there are other places that humans are working for peace, obviously, but for me, in my everyday world, my school is absolutely somewhere that I see humans working for peace. I see teachers pouring love into students and encouraging peace and kindness. I see students trying to step up and do the right thing and encourage peace. I see parents that are trying to do the best that they can by their kids and they're encouraging peace. Now, granted, that's not every parent of every student in our school, but I do see parents trying and our school is a rough school, so you know it's. It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort to bring about that peace. But I'll tell you, when we have like a school-wide event and you have that happiness and joy and kindness running through the school, the school is at peace. It is an incredible feeling. It's just an incredible feeling. My school is just absolutely an amazing place to work. It is. It's just an amazing place to be, be the staff work together to help each other, mentor each other, problem solve and to bring about peace. It's just unlike anywhere else I've ever worked.
Speaker 1:
I I see humans working for peace downtown and where I live, we have a rescue mission and people are working to help homeless people and bring them a moment of peace. I somewhere else also, of course, which, because I'm a librarian as well At my library, librarians at my library go out of their way to make people feel at home. We have a lot of homeless people that come into the adult area and our librarians work to make them feel accepted, which gives you a moment of peace, like when you feel accepted and not judged. That gives you peace. And our librarians are top notch. They are fantastic about making sure that people feel accepted and not judged and giving them that space to exist which gives you peace. I mean, my school that I work for is amazing. My library that I work for is also an amazing place. Y'all it is amazing. I mean, I can't imagine any of our libraries not making you feel joyful and happy just to be there, like truly. And a lot of areas of our libraries have more quiet. I mean, obviously, the part of the library that I work in doesn't because I work with teens, but a lot of the areas of the library have more quiet, which, for a lot of people, gives them peace.
Speaker 1:
So that's my answer to that question how is God's peacemaking different? I know I always repeat the second question, you know I just feel the need to say both and then I come back and repeat the second one. I'm sure you guys don't mind. How is God's peacemaking different? God's peacemaking is different because he's all powerful. We are not all powerful. We cannot make peace happen. We can work at making peace happen, but we can't guarantee that it's going to happen. We can put forth our best efforts and it does happen a lot of the time, but we are not all powerful.
Speaker 1:
God is all powerful, y'all. He can make peace happen anywhere, anytime, with anything, with anyone. Because it's God. He can be anywhere at any time. He is so amazing our minds can't even fathom it. So that's how his peace is different to me. That's how his peacemaking is different. He can encourage anyone, but they still have free will to decide if they're going to do that or not. Where God by himself can do whatever he sets his mind to. That's a weird way to say that and, sorry, this is a different question for me, but that's my opinion. God's peacemaking is different because he is all powerful and we are not, so he could always make it happen. Where we cannot, because people have free will, we go in an environment and do our best to make it happen and have people reject it, if that makes sense Down at the bottom.
Speaker 1:
It gives insight. I do really love the insight, but the insight is a little deeper. So it talks about how Jesus was preparing his disciples. He knew he was going to be arrested. He knew he was going to die. He was trying to prepare them that this was going to happen and that they were going to have to face really hard times and they weren't going to have him Like he was going to be gone, and so he wanted to prepare them for this time that they were going to go through. That was going to be really rough, and so he let them know when I'm gone, you will have the Holy Spirit with you. The Holy Spirit will give you peace, and the disciples really needed that gift. I mean, they were going to go through a lot of really tough things and God knew that they were going to need something with them. So Jesus told them I am leaving you with a gift peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. John 14 27.
Speaker 1:
Being in a world where there's so much trouble, where there's so much brokenness because people have free will and make bad choices and sin, really means that we need to have that promised peace.
Speaker 1:
We need to have that. We need to have the Holy Spirit with us, helping us to make the right choices and do the right things that give peace to others. The Holy Spirit gives us peace. We have the ability, then, to give peace to others that give peace to others. The Holy Spirit gives us peace. We have the ability, then, to give peace to others. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Sorry, trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord, the Lord himself, is the rock eternal. Isaiah 26, 3 and 4. Well, friends, that is the end of this devotional. If you have any questions, comments, prayer requests, I absolutely would love to hear from you. You can email me at adventures of ginger, at gmailcom. You can find me on facebook, facebookcom slash adventures of ginger, or on twitter at ginger adventure, and also on youtube as well youtubecom slash at adventures of ginger. See you on the wild side.