Peace.

Peace.
 Most of the time when I think of peace I think of hippies holding signs that say something like "Make love not war." We typically think peace is something that comes naturally and that war and quarrels and stress are things that are unnatural. That's not the case. The truth is that disagreements naturally lead to quarrels. Peace isn't something that comes naturally it's something that needs to be made and maintained.

 Peace with God was impossible before Jesus. This is the beauty of the gospel, Jesus died and rose again bridging the gap between humanity and God. Peace with God just requires us to accept that Jesus is who he said he was and to have a personal relationship with Him.

 Peace with others requires something as well. In Ephesians, Paul says not to let the sun go down while you are angry with your neighbor. We need to make sure that our disagreements and quarrels with others are taken care of.
 Making peace does NOT mean keeping quiet and holding everything in. Sometimes the best possible thing you can do is voice your opinions and concerns so everything doesn't get bottled up inside. Making peace between you and your neighbor means being mature and discussing your differences and opinions.
 Stephen Covey said in his book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." I think that little proverb can go a long way in making peace with your neighbor.

 Finally, you have to make peace with your self. Here it comes full circle. Once you have a relationship with God you don't have to beat yourself up over your past. Even in circumstances I can't control, I have peace knowing that no matter what, God is with me.

Thanks for reading, I'm going camping next week so you'll just have to be patient ;)


- Jdwayt

Joy

 It's not hard to make me happy. I'm happy when I get paid on thursdays, I'm happy when I'm serving at the church, I'm happy when I'm spending time with my girlfriend but all of these things are temporary.There are a lot of things in this world that can make me happy, but there are very few things that bring me joy.
 Joy is different than happiness. Joy is something that is long term. Just like love isn't always emotional, Joy isn't always happiness. Like all fruit there are times when they are in season out of season. If you had an apple tree in your back yard and I saw it in mid December, it wouldn't be bearing any fruit, but if it's healthy you can confidently tell me that it will bear fruit in it's appropriate season.
 When people go through tough times, it's hard for them to bring joy to others. But if they are spiritually healthy they will bring joy in the appropriate season.
 So. How do we bring joy to God? This is pretty simple, by bringing glory to His name. In Psalm 147:10-11 God is delighted when we put our faith in Him. We should strive daily to bring Joy to God. We should trust Him with our finances, our relationships, our future, literally everything should be %100 in God's hands.
 If we want to bring joy to God, we can't invite Him to follow us. We have to follow Him.
 Bringing Joy to others is a lot like loving others. Bringing joy to others doesn't always mean making them happy. Bringing joy to others means doing things for them without asking for anything in return. I was at Open Door Ministry earlier today, I bagged food to hand out to people. Some of those people will never see me. They will never know that I spent three hours placing frozen meatballs in plastic bags, but it doesn't matter. I know that someone who is struggling to make ends meet will now have food for the next week. Their circumstance might not change, but they will be joyful in the fact that are being cared for by God's people.
 Now for bringing joy to ourselves. We can take joy in serving God. This is the best thing about joy. Bringing joy to others and bringing joy to God will also make us joyful. Remember that this is different than happiness. Serving God and others won't always make us happy, but we will have the long term feeling of joy that we are living out our purpose, to bring honor to the name of Jesus Christ.

 Sorry I haven't been able to blog the past two weeks. Last week was the 4th and the week before that I was in Colorado. However, every Monday I blog on allabout1.tv. Check it everyday for blogs by me and the rest of the Under1 crew!

Thanks for reading!
-JDwayt