Peace Advent Candle

Peace Advent Candle (revised)

The second Advent candle is frequently called the Peace candle. Reflecting on the peace promised by Christ’s birth and the faithfulness of those who repent and trust in Him. The advent candle lighting is a celebration of the restoration of creation and wonder of God’s peace lived out here on earth.

If you had to choose between world peace or all the money in the world…

What color Ferrari would you buy? Just kidding. Of course you would choose world peace!

In his classic book called, “Peace with God,” written over 50 years ago, Billy Graham hits it on the head: “The greatest warfare going on in the world today is between mankind and God. People may not realize that they are at war with God, but if they don’t know Jesus Christ as their Savior…God considers them to be at war with Him.”

Did you realize that the people of the Earth are at War with God. Some people don’t even realize it or know it! They are totally unprepared to meet God!

In a war with God, who do you think will win? Pretty easy to figure that one out, right? God is Almighty and always wins in any fight! It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an almighty God!

So why would people want to fight with God? To be clear, God does not want a fight with people, but people are in a fight with God because of their opposition to God because of their Sin! God wants unity, love, and peace, but our sin makes us, willingly or not, as enemies of God.

So how do you stop a war with God? To stop a war with God, you must take away the sin, and then God has no reason to war with you! Sadly, it’s easier said than done, once a sinner, you cannot take away your own sin. Sin requires the penalty of death! Sins can be forgiven, tho, if you repent of sin and ask Jesus for forgiveness of sin. To grant forgiveness, Jesus had to take your penalty upon Himself by dying in your place.

Romans 1:18-20 God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The very world around them proves there is a God. Further people know there is good and evil, yet people choose evil, and thereby become an enemy of God.

In the Bible, it says Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, which may mean he was actually a hunter of God or rebellious against God. He was a bad guy, likely built the tower of Babel, Nineveh, and historically a leader of the Assyrians, enemies of God’s people. How could anyone be proud to be an enemy of God? What do you think he did when he met God?

Isaiah in Chapter 6:5 when he saw God, said,

Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.”

This sort of sounds like one of those Hell Fire and Brimstone type messages, right?

We are messed up in sin, we are broken, who will fix us?

Well, there’s hope for the hopeless! There is a balm in Gilead! There is a fix! God doesn’t want a war, He wants reconciliation!

Imagine, that God loved us so much that He sacrificed His Son for us.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

God wishes that none should perish, and He does not want to just watch us burn or stomp on us! No, instead God’s love was shown by His willingness to send His Son to this Earth to be our sacrifice!

Peace is what the story of Christmas is all about. That God sent His Son to be our reconciliation! God did it by letting Jesus be born as a baby, be our Immanuel (God with us) and even go to the Cross to be our Sacrifice.

The angels heralded this coming peace with God!