A Peacemakers Prayer

This prayer is posted on hispeace.org and is authored by Ken Sande. Let's all start here as we lead our church into understanding how to cultivate a culture of peace.

Oh Lord God,

Today I am called to be a peacemaker,
but I am unfit for the task.

By nature I am a peace-faker
and a peace-breaker,
so I myself need help.

Others ask me to understand and guide them,
but my ears are dull, my eyes are dim,
and I lack the wisdom they need.

But you, Lord, have all they need,
so I come to you for supply.

Make me fit for your purposes,
so I might serve them
and honor you.

Cleanse me from my own sin
so I will not add to their problems;
take the logs from my eyes,
so I can remove the specks from theirs.

Fill me with your Spirit
so they may benefit from your fruit:
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Give me wisdom from above
so I might be pure and peace-loving,
considerate and submissive,
full of mercy and good fruit,
impartial and sincere.

Open your Word to my eyes
and to my heart,
so I will have a steady lamp
to light our path.

Strip me of my own agenda and desires,
so I might look only to others' good
and be absolutely worthy of their trust.

Help me to model everything I teach,
so others can see the way.


Give me humility to admit my weaknesses
and confess my wrongs,
so others might do the same.

Draw me again and again into prayer,
where you can strengthen and correct me.

Make me submissive -- help me to show
that I myself am under authority.

Help me to treat others
as I want to be treated,
so they may see
the essence of your Law.

Make me creative, versatile, and adaptable
so I can adjust to the surprises ahead.

Help me to accept others
as you have accepted me,
and thus bring praise to your name.

Give me faith and perseverence
so I will not doubt your provision
or abandon your principles,
even when others fight against them.

Grant me the gift of encouragement,
to give others hope
and help them believe
that our labor is not in vain.

Help me to model your forgiveness
so relationships are healed
and your Gospel is revealed.

Grant me discernment so that I may read
the deep waters of others' hearts,
sort fiction from fact,
and know when it's time to act.

Give me boldness and courage,
tempered with kindness,
to confront others in love
so they might see their errors
and find their way back to you.

Help me to prepare thoroughly
and not presume upon your grace.

Make me just and fair,
so that even if people disagree
with my counsel they will believe
that I treated them well.

In short, Father,
please give me the Spirit of Christ
so that I might walk in his steps
and guide your people
into the path of your peace.

Perspectives from Peacemaker Ministries on Vimeo.

Hey Team. Welcome back to the Zone. Let's do our best to allow Christ to keep our perspective focused on HIS purpose for peace. See you all soon!

Stay Tuned

Stay Tuned

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!Psalm 133:1

Unity results from extreme Devotion to Christ not just from cultivating organizational uniformity

One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.A. W. Tozer -

Living in the outflow of the Trinity

Life springs from the fountainhead of Christ Himself. It is only from Him that we "Live, Move and have our Being"(Acts 17:28) . So life is new life that flows into us from Christ - this very life is the same life that Jesus is living this very moment. This NEW life in us is life eternal coming from the Father, flowing into Christ, it raised Him from the dead and is now flowing into us through the Holy Spirit. None of this could be happening now unless the Father, Son and Holy Spirit offered this life in the unity with which they live. The unity of the Trinity is seen in God's expression of Divine love (John 3:16).

The Fruit of the Devoted

Our response to this eternal flow must be the focus we give to our lives. Paul encourages us to live with minds and hearts concentrated on things above-Col. 3:2, not earthly things. One avenue to accomplish this focus is through an active devotional life founded on a passionate desire for God's Word. Unity, therefore is a fruit of the devotional life focused on Christ who is "above all things" Psalm 138:2.

Seeking First

It was Jesus intent that we live in unity in order to demonstrate the agape love of God. John 17:23b May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John goes on to say in his epistle that our love needs to be in actions and not just words, 1 John 3. But our love when founded in unity which flows from devotion to Christ is pure love since it comes from the source of agape. So we can cultivate this love in unity as we seek Jesus FIRST, Seek His Kingdom FIRST, Seek His Righteousness FIRST-Then all other things necessary for life will be added.

Stay Tuned

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God. *

Welcome Back to the Servant Zone

Directed to SERVE:

Jesus had a supernatural way of unnerving His hearers. Using verbiage like “vipers, white-washed tombs, love your enemies and Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.” He consistently saw people with question marks circling around their heads. One thing is sure, Jesus certainly made people think-And to that point, I say Amen.

As leaders who have come alongside of the vision of the Sanctuary, it is important to understand that the same phrases Jesus used for the original twelve He uses for us and wants us to think about them. Ask yourself, “What is He saying?” “What does that mean?”, and “How can I apply that to my life?” are all very important questions that need to be personally wrestled out. So, as servant leaders at the Sanctuary we have been called to think and act in accord with the words of Christ. Here we go: The word of the Lord (Paraphrased)…

Serve the least

Be of one mind
Look after the need of others

Reach out to hurting people who need to find real hope

Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs

Think on praiseworthy things

Guard your heart

Love one another

Touch the hurting

Keep yourself pure

Enjoy the journey

Of course Jesus said so much more and He continues to speak today: Through the life of the church, the soft voice of prayer, and the color of the sunset, Jesus still speaks. Listen, think, think some more, count the cost. Now make the commitment and take the first step- This is our response as a servant leader.

The Bait of Satan Review

Hey all. At the beginning of our 50 days of Prayer we were challenged to read John Bevere's book, "The Bait of Satan". After several weeks of prayer and reading, I thought it may be helpful to put together an executive summary that might help condense the ideas that are relevant to understand and put into practice. Please know that the following summary is not original, it comes from the blog of a Nathan Bluedom. Why reinvent the wheel. Please read through it and know that we will be involved in this ongoing conversation.

"The Bait of Satan" is about learning to overcome bitterness. It is about learning to deal with offenses, and forgive the person who has offended you. An offended person is one who has “taken offense” when someone mistreated him or her in some way. This may also include offended people who believe they were mistreated when they were not.

These are the points that Bevere made which stood out to me:

Dealing with Difficult Situations

• If we are in a situation where someone is offending us, we are not necessarily called to leave that situation. We are not necessarily called to fix the situation either.
• If we become offended and leave a difficult situation, we often fail to learn the character lessons that God wanted to teach us.
• If we become offended and leave a situation angry, we can become spiritual vagabonds. For the rest of our lives we grow more and more offended and isolated, and develop a persecution complex. We blame everyone else for our unhappiness.
• Immature Christians often try to protect themselves in difficult situations. They do not see that God has brought them into this situation to help them acknowledge their own character flaws.
• The way we view the difficulties we have left behind will determine how we will react to our next difficulties. When we leave one situation bitter, we will carry that into other relationships. No one is able to develop a healthy relationship with someone who is running from bitterness.
• We should not leave a bad situation until we feel the Holy Spirit leading us out with peace. We should not react to the difficulties in the situation. Instead we should be moved by the Holy Spirit.
• If we leave a difficult situation without the Holy Spirit’s leading, it may take many years before we see the offense we have hidden in our heart. God will eventually make us face our problem, even though we may avoid it for many years. If God does not, we may never come to grips with our own character flaws.
• If we do leave a situation with the peace of the Holy Spirit, we won’t feel compelled to defend or explain our difficulties to others.
• We should not enter a situation or relationship, like a church, unless we really know God wants us to join. We will not be able to leave the situation until God releases us.

Reconciliation

• If we won’t forgive someone deep in our heart, then we are waiting for vengeance – even if we only want to see them do a small thing. We have made ourselves the judge and are demanding justice before we forgive. What if Christ did this?
• God wants us to make it our top priority to help a brother who has stumbled, and not try to prove ourselves correct in our judgment of him. Even if the offense was his fault, we should humble ourselves and try to be reconciled.
• When a brother offends us, sometimes we confront him with a wrong attitude. We want to tell him his sin more than we want to be humbly reconciled. The only way to pursue peace and true reconciliation is to maintain an attitude of humility at the expense of pride and our personal rights. Pride defends. Humility is willing to yield and tries to find agreement.
  When we are ready to forgive an offense, we are eager to find a way to make peace.

Other Points

• Listening to the Holy Spirit – It is important to stay tenderhearted to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. We need to be acutely sensitive to hear when the Holy Spirit is telling us that we have a small area of bitterness growing in our heart. We should not be afraid to examine our own heart. A sign that we are truly examining our heart is when we want to hear the insights that other people have about our attitude, and we are searching for what God wants, and not simply standing up for our rights.
• Selfish relationships – If we are easily offended, then our relationships are based on what others can do for us and not on respecting them the way they are.
• Faith – Offences is tied to our trust in God. If we succumb to offenses, it is because our faith is weak. God will need to shake our faith to strengthen it.
• Bitterness – The story of Absalom is a good example of how a person can become angry over a legitimate offense, but then allow bitterness to grow in his heart until it causes much evil. Absalom judged his father David, and then allowed his bitterness over his injustice to rule his life. This happens today when a leader’s faults make his followers angry and bitter, until they try to overthrow him.
• Offending for the truth – If we teach the truth, it is inevitable that we will offend people who do not love the truth. Jesus did this. If we compromise the truth to keep from offending people, then we will lose God’s anointing on our ministry. We have chosen our relationship with our friends over our relationship with God. Jesus left those who were offended by the truth behind and moved on.
• Offending for our rights – We should be careful not to offend someone by flaunting our more liberal understanding of an issue. We should not offend someone who has a weak conscience. Jesus did not owe the temple tax, but he chose to pay the tax in order not to offend those who would not understand his actions if he did not pay the tax. He did not stand up for His rights.

Steps to Overcome an Offense

Just as our body needs exercise, our anti-offense muscle needs exercise. Sometimes it is easy to keep from being offended, but other times it is hard to resist a strong temptation.
Bevere gave these steps for overcoming an offense:

• Admit you are hurt. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings about this.
• Forgive the person who has offended you and release him from your attention on his guilt.
• Practice and strengthen your ability to forgive others when they offend you. This will help you keep an injury from happening again. Stay free.
• Demonstrate a level of forgiveness and freedom by praying for the person who offended you. Pray like you would want Jesus to pray for you. Pray for the offender’s sake.
• Go to the person and communicate reconciliation, apology and forgiveness to him. Learn to love him again despite his faults. You are going for his sake, not yours. You’ve already forgiven him. Communicating reconciliation will seal your forgiveness of him.
• The Holy Spirit will lead us in this process at a pace that we can handle. It may seem at times that we are only getting worse. But we will come out of the situation a more mature Christian who is thankful for this experience.

Challenges for Me

• When I become bitter, I lose faith in God. I am really angry with God for letting this offense happen. I can always imagine a better world where my rights are always respected, and I become dissatisfied with the world that God created where people offend me. When I am angry with someone, my mind focuses on the wrong that person did to me, instead of focusing on the character lesson that God wants to teach me though this event.
  When someone sins and offends me, I feel I should put him into his place – I want to fix his sins. When I get angry, I prove that my relationship was a selfish one. I wouldn’t get angry if I accepted an offensive person just the way he is, and didn’t try to make him into someone who treated me better. My anger often exaggerates and distorts the situation in my mind so that I can’t clearly see the right solution.
  I know God wants me to overcome any cycles of anger and bitterness that I have in my family before I go into the wider world. If I carry bitterness into the rest of my life, I will be more prone to become bitter with new people in my life. Getting this block out of my life would free me to serve God more effectively.