Where's the 'Peace on Earth'?

I went to foxnews.com and the top headline reads "Fight Isn't Over".  If you go to the 'world' section on usatoday.com, the devote whole pages to the war in Afghanistan.  If you've seen any Christmas movie there is always conflict.  Everyone hates Charlie Brown as the director for the Christmas play.  In "Elf", Buddy exposes the fraudulent Santa in the store and then they fight it out.  Even "The Muppets Christmas Carol", Scrooge forces  the rats to work late with little pay almost causing a revolt.

WHERE'S THE PEACE ON EARTH?  Did those angels get it wrong on the hillside when they told the Shepherds in Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"  So wasn't Jesus suppose to bring peace to the earth?  Why is there still all this fighting?

Don't worry, the disciples thought that Jesus was going to stop all the wars and reign on earth at the Incarnation as well.  In John 18:10-11, Peter wanted to fight in order to keep Jesus alive, perhaps still not understanding what Jesus later told Pilate.  John 18:36, "...If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world."

So if at the Incarnation, Jesus was not to set up His kingdom (which He WILL do in time) and instill peace on earth.  If He's not going to overthrow Rome so that the Jews can live in peace, what did the angels mean by "peace on earth"?

Through Jesus, we can have peace with God.  It is only through the shed blood of Christ that we can have forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22) and thus no longer be an enemy of God (Rom. 5:10).  So you can see that ONLY THROUGH CHRIST, you can be a friend of God, at peace with God, and no longer an enemy.

How many friends do you have are trusting in their own goodness to get them to Heaven?  Here's an illustration for you Lord of the Rings buffs.  Saruman (a double agent for Sauron) did lots of nice things for Gandalf, giving him advice and all that.  But finally we found out his true allegiance to Sauron.  Even though he was a nice guy for a while, he was still an enemy of Gandalf and all that was good.  Unbelievers can often fool themselves saying that they have enough good deeds to outweigh the bad deeds.  The deeds do not matter, because in their heart of hearts they are at war with God.

Let us pray that those who are enemies of God, can see how they can have peace.  What a great opportunity Christmas is to share about eternal peace with God.  You'd be surprise at how many people are searching for peace and just don't know how to get it.  I will pray that you will take the opportunity to share about peace with God during this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas>Christ came to earth>Lived a perfect life>Died for my sins (and yours)>Rose from the dead>Seated at the right hand of God>Will come back to claim His children>Praise the Lord!!!