5 steps to finding peace in a chaotic world

Peace is a hard commodity to come by these days. People are losing their jobs, their homes and some, their life savings at an unprecedented rate. Violence is running rampant in our cities, schools; and tearing communities apart. 

Life seems like a roller coaster speeding precipitously out of control. Natural disasters plague us at home and abroad and war seems unending. Many nations to grieve at the lost of so many innocent lives. Refugees flee their homes looking for safe haven. The Bible predicts things will get worse before they get better. It reads: "Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. People will starve to death, and in some places there will be earthquakes (Matthew 24:7 CEV)."

And as if this weren't enough, people's hearts have become cold. The Bible says: "You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity.

These people will hate everything that is good. They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real (2 Timothy 3:1-4 CEV)." 

These signs of the times are happening now. Just look at the faces of people today, where's the joy, the love, the peace? People don't smile as much, or extend a hand to help a stranger like they used to. 

The search for peace is instinctive to us all. Everybody wants it but not everybody knows how or where to find it. It can't be found in drugs, alcohol, sex, wealth or fame ---many have tried and some have died trying. The search for true, lasting peace in a chaotic world begins with the five steps that follow.

Step 1 - Trust in God even when everything else around you is falling apart. God promises, "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. Isaiah 26:3 AMP

Step 2 -  Pray and ask God to guide you. "With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment. Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow." Proverbs 3:5-6 CEV

Step 3 - Cry out to the Lord and He will answer you. God promises, "Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone."  Lamentations 3:32-33 NIV

 Step 4 - Believe that God loves you. He showed his love by sacrificing his Son, Jesus, as the final payment for your sins. He even put it in writing for all to read: "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted..."  John 3:16 MSG

Step 5- Accept God's plan of salvation through  Jesus Christ. Peace comes with knowing your sins are forgiven and accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. Romans 6:23 (CEV) says, "Sin pays off with death. But God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord." Knowing where you'll end up after you die puts your soul at peace. You can have peace today by saying a simple prayer of faith like this one:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life. I ask you into my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior. I want to serve you always. Amen.

Welcome to God's family. To understand more about your new life in Christ go to this website, knowjesus.net

How to lose everything and still be happy

I'll bet you American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams was none too Happy about being ordered to pay the late Marvin Gaye's family $7.5 million after a jury found that his song, 'Blurred Lines' infringed on Gaye's hit, Gotta Give It Up. No doubt, Williams and his co-defendant, Robin Thicke, had to be upset over the court's decision. But that's how happy-ness is.

Happy-ness is circumstantial. It lifts you up when things are going well, and lets you down when they're not. Happy-ness is like a drug addiction. There's that initial 'high' you get when you use for the first time. But then to duplicate the same 'high' you have to keep increasing the amount you consume. Before you realize it, you're addicted. Happy-ness is a drug some people need in order to function in life.

Happy-ness is fleeting. It can turn on a dime. Here's a common scenario. You get a raise on your job that you weren't expecting. That would make most people happy. But soon after your good news, the boss comes back and tells you that the company’s fortunes have changed and you will be losing your job at week’s end. Now, instead of thinking about all the things you could do with the extra money, you start to imagine all the hardships that lay ahead of you with no job and no money.

Happy-ness is an emotional roller coaster with ups and downs, unexpected twists and turns that can keep you off balance. Nowhere is the pressure to be happy more intense than in our relationships with others. Some people are fixated on needing to be happy, and trying to make others happy. Breakups and divorces happen when one or both parties feel the other no longer makes him or her happy.

It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness. —Author Viktor Frankl

A Harris Poll survey revealed that two-thirds of Americans are not very happy. They blamed their unhappy-ness on external issues like the economy, job market, finances, college debt, government policies, particularly, cuts in services. In America, the Declaration of Independence gives us the right to pursue happy-ness. So, why are so many missing the mark?

I believe that we could boil it down to this: we are pursuing happiness, but we are going about it in the wrong way. For most people, their happiness depends entirely on good things happening in their lives. When things are going well, they are happy. When things are not going well, they are unhappy. —Pastor Greg Laurie

In her latest book, Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn't Enough, author Kay Warren says choosing joy over happy-ness involves making a conscious decision of the will to trust God to handle the details no matter what happens. True joy is everlasting and not dependent upon circumstances. It's a spiritual quality that is internal. As Warren puts it:

Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.

I recently learned of a friend's breast cancer diagnosis. When she first told me about it, she smiled this big smile like it [the cancer] was nothing. Still smiling, she added, "God must think I can handle a lot." In addition to cancer, my friend has MS. That she could respond to her situation the way she did is a testimony to her faith in God. After a successful cancer surgery, my friend is now cancer free.

You can bet life will still have its highs and lows, ups and downs either way; but choosing joy over happy-ness helps you ride out the bumps and survive the bruises that come your way.

I am not complaining about having too little. I have learned to be satisfied with whatever I have. I know what it is to be poor or to have plenty, and I have lived under all kinds of conditions. I know what it means to be full or to be hungry, to have too much or too little. Christ gives me the strength to face anything. —Philippians 4:11-13 CEV 

Defeating Islamic extremists will take more than human effort

ISIS on the move in Iraq

How do you stop an enemy who has no regard for human life? How do you defeat an enemy who isn't afraid to die? How do you appease an enemy who has sworn to drive you off the face of the earth? 

It's time to face the truth about Islamic terror groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and others. They are an out of control, scary bunch with little regard for human life, not even their own. And that's what makes them so dangerous. Not since Hitler has the world seen an adversary quite this diabolical. The shear brutality of these Islamic terror groups defies human comprehension as we see innocent victims beheaded, women and children abducted, raped and murdered, suicide bombers committing mass killings and execution style murders of whole communities — proving that they will stop at nothing.

A man beheaded by ISIS

It's pretty clear that Islamic terror groups are determined to wipe their enemies off the face of the earth. They envision a new world order where their brand of Islam will reign supreme, and where to survive, others must submit or be killed. It's what these Islamic terror groups believe, and what they have sworn with unwavering allegiance to achieve. The question is do we dare sit by and watch or do we take action?

President Obama and other world leaders are mistaken to think that Islamic terror groups can be defeated by conventional warfare and weapons, like drone strikes, airstrikes and military force, as happened recently in Paris and Belgium. In all of history, I can think of no other enemy quite like the Islamic terror groups, not even Japan's suicide kamikaze fighters can compare. You hit them hard and the Islamic terror groups just keep coming. So, what's the answer you ask? 

Ever think of praying? This suggestion is not directed at skeptics who never pray, but rather to those believers who do. God's people have a vital role to play in this conflict, and that is to pray for our enemies so that God will intervene in their lives and ours. In his article, "The hardest prayer: why it's time to #prayforISIS," writer Carey Lodge suggests three practical ways to pray for ISIS and the other Islamic terror groups:

1. If you want to pray that they would all perish, instead try praying for justice.
It's so easy to wish that every militant would be killed, leaving the Iraqi people free to rebuild their lives. But rather than pray for their deaths, perhaps instead ask for God's will and justice to be done, trusting that his understanding is greater than ours.
2. If your instinct is to pray for military success, pray instead for peace.
Pope Francis himself has suggested that military action against ISIS could be justified, but rather than focusing our prayer on further violence, petition instead for peace, reconciliation and stability.
3. Rather than only praying for Christians to be saved, pray also that members of ISIS would turn to God.
How incredible it would be for radical Muslims to see the witness of the Iraqi Church, the testimony of persecuted Christians and encounter the living person of Jesus. Nothing is impossible [with God].

Women gather in church

By no means are we limited to these prayers only, but pray we must as individuals, as congregations and as nations. What a shift in the atmosphere it would be if  world leaders at the U.S. led Summit on Violent Extremism would pray. Prayer is a proven game changer and the most powerful weapon in the hands of a believer. As recorded in scripture, many David verses Goliath type victories have been won through prayer. And there are enough praying Christians in the world today to defeat any weapon that Islamic terror groups may try to amass against us. 

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’ But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Matthew 5:43-45