Jack’s Winning Words 12/26/13
“Peace is the first thing the angels sang.”  (John Keble)  What do you think the angels were singing about when they used the words, “Peace on earth, good will to all?”  What does peace mean to you?  No war?  No fighting?  Stillness?  Harmony?  Contentment?  Reconciliation?  Calm?  No arguing?  No bullying?  Or is it a peace that passes all understanding?  Think about that as you sing, “Hark! The herald angels…”     ;-)  Jack

 FROM TARMART REV:  "Peace" in the midst of war, fighting, stillness, harmony, contentment, reconciliation, calm, argument and bullying...a certain peace that passeth all understanding! Oh! to be gifted with a greater amount this coming year would be my New Year resolution.====JACK:  "Let there be be peace on earth, and let it begin with me," is a good resolution.

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  "wholeness"====JACK:  Would you explain what you mean by, wholeness?  My holiday brain is a bit slow today.====JOHN:  No longer half a person because of the alienation from God====JACK:  I like the song, "We are one in the Spirit, We are one in the Lord"....which makes us whole.====JOHN:  The wholeness with God promotes whole ness with All.====JACK:  Does it help that I buy some groceries at Whole Foods occasionally?

 FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Knowing that I belong to God. I always did want to belong somewhere and have grown into understanding that I belong to God and He accepts me as I am.====JACK:  Everyone belongs to the Creator, but not everyone knows where they come from.  Peace can bring closure...Now, I know!  In Sunday School we used to sing a song that had this chorus..."Now I belong to Jesus,  Jesus belongs to me,  Not for the years of time alone,  But for eternity."

 FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  It seems to me that Jesus' commandment to love one another as we are loved by Him, sets a standard for what Love truly is - rather than what I might otherwise believe it to be. Within this state of love, which is by its nature absent a focus of oneself, a peace within (in an experiential way) accompanies the love that is provided for another. For when the concern for oneself becomes absent in the love for another, how could there be any experience of oneself? ====JACK:  So...if there's love for one another, there will peace?====RAY:  I think this would be so. For does it not also follow that where there is no Love, there can be also no Peace? And, further, the world knows of turmoil, anxieties, lust for power, the desirable avoidance of Freedom, the idolatry of things, etc., all of which bring an absence of Peace. This we, as mankind, can claim as something we have experienced first-hand. So, if we know the fruit of the aforementioned brings no peace, would it not then be a wiser venture to pursue peace through its polarity, Love? In the biblical sense, Jesus brings Light to the darkness, and the same Light dwells within those who believe in Him and who follow Him, which is the Light, the Way, and the Life. When the Light (Love) comes to the world otherwise blinded in darkness, the angels sing a song of Peace on earth.====JACK:  It's sorta like in The Blues Brothers movie, when Jake shouts, "YES! YES! JESUS... I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!"

 FROM MKH IN MICHIGAN:  True Peace...must mean all of those things... A peace that surpasses all understanding!====JACK:  True peace is like trying to explain true love.  Words don't do it justice.