'Lest we Forget'
'Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore'.
The above few verses are Psalm 133 in its entirety. Three short voices with one of the most powerful messages of the Bible and known to humankind. In summary, they speak of PEACE and with their reference to the priesthood of Aaron, they reveal that dwelling in unity is both a happy and holy way to live. Godly unity is worship to our Lord when we are united in Him and His ways!
How precious peace is and how incredibly tragic it is that so many people have had to die over the centuries to defend peace where peace has been attacked.
I have never heard of anyone wanting to send their son or daughter to war and we are thankful beyond what words can express for all of those that have given their lives to protect their countries when attacked or severely threatened.
Amazingly, out of His tremendous and matchless love, our Lord God WANTED to send His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ to protect us from Satan and to help us in our war with sin. Our sin (all of the darkness in our hearts and lives) causes war between us and God. In one sense, The Lord Jesus Christ ended the war for all those who believe in Him and His Glorious Gospel. Jesus died on the cross to make amends for our sin; to make us right with God and has made it that all those who have truly accepted Him as their Saviour will never be punished by God with eternal death and will instead receive eternal life!
We now face another war with sin because Satan wants to use sin to get us to walk away from God and His grace. He wants to lure us back into his hands and get us to give up on God and His Glorious Gospel BUT after The Lord Jesus rose again and ascended to heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit to help us in our daily fight against sin! We can avoid or overcome sin if we regularly ask for The Holy Spirit's help. We may fall at times as we cannot be sinless but through The Holy Spirit and the love and support of other brothers and sisters in Christ, we can sin less and never return to a life of sin.
A key goal of Living Hope Ministries is to play a part in the immensely important Kingdom goal of uniting the world in Christ; helping the bride (the Church) be ready as one for Christ's return! We actively attempt to unite people from different churches within countries and continents and to unite people from different countries and continents across the globe.
We do not want to lose our daily war against sin and we do not want countries to be at war in any way at all because of sin!
Pray for unity, pray for peace and lest we forget all those who have given their lives so that we can have unity and peace including the ONE who gave His all for us all at Calvary.
Pastor Steve
