Day 54 - Peace

I didn’t think that I was going to e able to get this blog written today. My plan was to try and write it between simulator periods. I started work at 1:40 and was supposed to be in the simulator for the second period that I worked until 11:30. I was hoping to get done by 5:30 on the first period and have 2 hours off before I had to be in the simulator for the second period. Well, it didn’t work as planned. I didn’t get through until around 6:15. That didn’t leave me enough time to go to Starbucks, write, and come back. So I figured that this would be the first night that I didn’t get the post in before midnight. But, we finished early, almost 2 hours early. So here I am by the fire in my rocking chair listening to “Love came down” writing, It is a comfortable place that I have come to love. I’m going to miss being here while I’m in Nicaragua. I will write there, but it will probably be in the hotel room, or on the bus driving back to the hotel. I think we will have a 4-hour drive to some of the locations we are going to. I will keep up to date on what we are doing, and more importantly what God is doing. I am really excited, and looking forward to the trip. I know that I will be preaching some. I probably have three messages. But they are the same message really. God is Good, and He is in a Good mood. He is a good Father, and we need to trust Him. Really that’s it. I can say it in a number of ways.
Yesterday at the funeral, I was thinking. These were good people who loved God. They are strong Christians, but something was different from Julia’s celebration service. I’m hesitant to say it because I don’t want to say anything negative about them. And I’m not. They are doing the best they know, the best that they have been taught. But they have not been taught about the total, ultimate goodness of God. You could see it. There was a sweet presence there, but there was not the abiding deep sense of peace that we had. It’s that peace that comes with the deep trust in the goodness of God. It’s that peace that enables you to keep fighting, to keep pressing on. It’s that abiding peace that keeps your faith from wavering. I don’t think I have ever realized that. It’s that peace and trust in the goodness of God that allows you to keep a single purpose. I might be wrong, and I might be exaggerating, but I really feel that that peace is abiding in this house right now. It is so strong when I walk in. As I think of how busy I am, I wonder how I am doing everything, but then I just settle into that peace, and it just seems easy. Now we had peace in the house before now. But there is a special grace right now. But it’s not just in this house it resides in me. I carry that peace at a new level. It’s one of the things, the gifts that the Holy Spirit had given me. It’s something that I must nurture, but I will carry, and be able to impart to others. It’s interesting that as I am writing this tonight, I feel that God is revealing things to me as I type.
That peace is the peace you get when you are soaring above the storms looking down. I could be in the middle of many storms right now, but I choose to rest in His presence. As I reflect His presence, I reflect His peace. His love brings life, and peace and I just want to dwell in the middle of it all. So this is what I want to take to the people I meet in Nicaragua: the peace and presence of God. I want to release His love and power wherever I go, and I am praying for the boldness to do it. So for all of you who are reading this blog, please pray for our team this week. I will do my best to keep you updated of what I going on. My prayer is that this blog will read like the book of Acts next week.