Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Poetry in peace

Sunday, May 1, 2011

John 20:19
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."

1 Peter 1:3-9
God gave us a new birth
   to a living hope,
   to an inheritance that is
     imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for
     you, who,
     by the power of God,
     are safeguarded through faith ...
Although you have not seen Jesus, you love him.
Even though you do not see him now, you still believe in him,
   and you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy as you attain the goal of your faith:
           the salvation
           of your
           souls

In those last five words the rhythm returns to Peter's tongue. He can hardly hold together the glorious nouns and verbs and adjectives that describe the indescribable; they pour out and flow everywhere. And then, I think, he returns to the memory of Jesus beside him, and the peace he felt, and his relief to be free and be himself: loved. Peter could be a wild man. Adrenalin rushed through his veins all the time. It's exhausting. But then Jesus touches his shoulder, looks at him with a smile, and says, "Peace be with you, Peter."

He is saved from himself as much as anything, saved to be who God made him to be. His salvation has become the Precious Pearl to Peter, and he knows it is just as precious to every one of us who read his words.

       this goal of my faith
       the salvation of my soul
       what word would add more?

To become myself as God sees me, to glimpse and hold on to Life as more than a phantom for more than an instant, then the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Although I have not seen Jesus, I love him.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me the Joy of Thy Salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Devotions Archive

Poetry in peace

Sunday, May 1, 2011