Prince Of Peace Series

"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Quit feeding the warring wolf! Surrender to the Prince of Peace!

John 14:27

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

(NIV)

There is always a price to pay for peace. It was not easy for God to give us Christmas. It was not easy for Christ. It was not easy to keep loving and coming after a creation that had continually rejected him and his love. It was not easy when he realized what his Son would have to go through, especially the cross. The Christmas story is not as cute as it is profound. A child born to die. A child destined for suffering, abuse and misunderstanding. A child whose life was in danger shortly after his birth. It is a story of a God who gave until it hurt—until we could know peace.

Where there is no God, there is no peace.

When we know God, we know peace!

Gordon McDonald tells this story: “A Nigerian woman who is a physician at a great teaching hospital in the United States came out of the crowd today to say something kind about the lecture I had just given. She introduced herself using an American name. ‘What’s your African name?’ I asked. She immediately gave it to me, several syllables long with a musical sound to it. ‘What does the name mean?’ I wondered. She answered, ‘It means “Child who takes the anger away.”’ When I inquired as to why she would have been given this name, she said, ‘My parents had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they defied the family opinions and married anyway. For several years they were ostracized from both their families. Then my mother became pregnant with me. And when the grandparents held me in their arms for the first time, the walls of hostility came down. I became the one who swept the anger away. And that’s the name my mother and father gave me.’” McDonald concluded, “It occurred to me that her name would be a suitable one for Jesus.”

Yes, when Jesus came, he was the child who took the anger away between ourselves and God. God’s wrath melted, and our anger at God was over. He brought us together. He was the child who takes the anger away — or as we know him: The Prince of Peace.

Peace on Earth can never start until we surrender one-by-one and let the Prince reign in our hearts !

Perhaps you desperately need the Prince of Peace to come and settle a conflict or mend a division. That’s why Jesus came: to be your Prince of Peace. To mend your brokenness, your broken relationships and bring peace.

In 1962, missionaries named Don and Carol Richardson went to New Guinea to bring the Good News of Christ to a group of people known as the Sawi. The Sawi was a headhunting, cannibalistic tribe who used the skulls of their victims as pillows. He wrote a book about his experience called Peace Child. He began his work among the Sawi by reading through the Gospel of Matthew. But to his consternation when he got to the part of Judas betraying Christ everyone cheered. He did not realize that their culture was one built around treachery. The one who was the most devious was the one who had the most respect in their tribe. The missionary searched for every possible means to explain the greatness of God’s gift of truth and pure love to a people whose values were based on deceit. Then one day he witnessed a solemn ceremony between two warring tribes. One of the chiefs walked over to the other and handed him a child. In fact, it was the chief’s own son. Their custom had been that peace could come between two tribes only if the chief of one of the tribes would give his son over to the people of the other tribe. He was called the “peace child.” The chief would place his own son in the hands of a people who hated him and had been his enemies. It was the only way to bring peace between them. Richardson saw in this act the perfect bridge to help these people understand what God had done. God had given his “peace child” into the hands of a hostile world in order to bring the hostility between us to an end.