Could anything be better than perfect peace and still be living at the same time?  Perfect peace would mean that you have no aggravating conflicts, no worries, fears, doubts, or any such thing.  Is it possible?  Isaiah 26:3 holds forth a promise to those who will receive it, saying, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon You, because he trusts in You.”

In order to have your mind stayed upon God, you must make a decision to free your mind from the necessary clutter.  You may not know everything that is going on in Washington, you may not know all the sports statistics, and you may not know who’s who on American Idol, but you know something of God’s word, because you have deliberately put your mind there.  When you are in your car, choose a radio station where the music and talk is about God, or maybe spend that drive time praying (with your eyes open.)  Meditate on God’s word.  Let your mind just keep going back to a particular verse or passage.  Purposefully think about how good God has been to you, and give Him praise and thanks.

The verse also says, “Because he trusts in You.”  To have perfect peace, you must completely trust what God has said.  It is things like relationships, health, and money that the devil most often uses to steal, kill, and, destroy your peace, but God has said things about all of those areas of life.  God has done everything necessary for you to have perfect peace.  Keep your mind stayed upon Him, and trust Him completely, and it is yours.

Genesis 1:27 tells us that we are created by God, we are created in the image of God, and that both males and females are equally created in the image of God.  One thing that we can safely conclude from this is that God places a high value on human life, since no other creatures were said to be created in His image.

The subject of sanctity of human life has two book-ends, one being the preborn, and the other being the elderly, and those who are apparently at the end of their life.

More than 55 million preborns have been killed in America since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, and almost all of them because people thought that allowing them to live was too embarrassing, too expensive, or too inconvenient.  Proverbs 6 gives a listing of things that God hates, and high on the list is hands that shed innocent blood.  What blood could be more innocent than the preborn?

Where are we going in America in regard to how we treat people at the end of their life?  Will the government decide when to “pull the plug”?  Will the elderly have access to aggressive medical treatments that are not considered “cost effective?”  This is a much bigger issue than just democrat or republican.  It has been coming for quite a while.  It is the result of a couple of generations of selfish whiners, who have been given everything they wanted before they had time to want it, and now they think the world owes them, and the government is the paymaster.

When a loved one is at the point of death, and the doctor says recovery is very unlikely, decisions have to be made.  There are, however, some things that can be done to ease the burden.

Encourage your loved ones to draft a living will, indicating what they want done in extreme end of life circumstances.

Make sure that you value the sanctity of life over the quality of life.  Quality of life is a very subjective determination. 

Make sure you exhaust every option for life.  High risk surgery is worth the risk.  When the odds are 98% against success, they are 2% for success. 

If there is a decision to not resuscitate or to withhold certain treatments, make sure you have gotten as much information from the doctors as possible, and that family members are in agreement.  Make sure you feel confident that you can stand before the Lord at the judgment and say, “I did the best thing I knew to do.”

I suspect that many churches are somewhat like Samson in the Old Testament, in that they do not even realize that the glory of the Lord is not present with them.  I believe it was Vance Havner who said, “Most churches have been subnormal for so long, that if they ever saw one that was normal, they would think it to be abnormal.”  There is a wide variety of worship styles, and I honestly don’t think the Lord is all that concerned about the style, but He is very concerned about the focus, content and  heart of our worship.

Yet, when I think of how church ought to be, I’m not even thinking about what we do so much, as I am thinking of what God does, or doesn’t do, for us.  We often say that if two or more are gathered in His name, He is there, but the qualifying factor is to be gathered in His name.  What we call, “in His name,” may not actually be in His name.  To gather in His name means that we gather in His authority, that is giving Him the absolute authority over us.

In the Old Testament book of Haggai, after the work on the temple had been completed, the Lord’s word was that He was going to shake the desire of the nations, so that they would come and seek His face at His house.  He said that He was going to fill the place with His glory.  Well, obviously that’s what every church needs, and it’s what every church ought to have, seeing as how the church of the first century surely had it, but the question is, what will bring that about?  Is there anything that we can do?  The answer is, yes, we can make the matter of seeking His presence in our lives the number one priority in our lives.  The rebuilding of the temple in Haggai’s day was about bringing back the presence of God.  God is with us, in the sense that He never leaves us, but we need Him to be with us in power and blessing, not just as a resident in the stable of our backsliden lives.

I would submit that this blessing of God’s approval is the critical factor that determines  whether or not anything of lasting and eternal value takes place in any church.  It is also true in our individual lives.  Oh, that God would shake our desires.