Peace at the Precipice

Our daughter Natalie was a daredevil from the day she was born. She might still be. We first noticed it when she learned to walk. She always found something to climb and had no fear doing it. For instance: When she was two years old, we lived in Cali, Colombia. The houses there are all connected around the block. Everyone shares a wall with the neighbors as if it were all just a row of condos. That made garages an interesting prospect because there just wasn't much room. So, they put the garages under the houses. You would drive up to your home, then turn into your drive way and go below ground level to your garage doors. Thus, every home had to have at least one retaining wall. On the neighbors side, the wall was grass level. On your side, it started at the sidewalk and climbed at about a 15% incline. Where the retaining wall met the facade of the home, there would be a ten foot drop from grass to concrete. Guess where Natalie loved to go? We couldn't go outside without a designated 'Natalie Keeper' to prevent her from running up the wall. It was only about 6 inches wide, and little kid's heads don't do so well when they hit concrete form ten feet up. It was a dangerous precipice that we had to continually be watchful of.

The present state of the world can be described as being at the edge of a precipice. Economic uncertainty, soaring gas prices, rampant crime, disregard for one another, unbridled immorality in the form of adultery, pornography, and homosexuality; hunger, food shortages, ethnic turmoil; all of it says PRECIPICE....GOING OVER CAN BE FATAL!

Where does the peace come from in all this mess? Listen to this: "You will keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you." Wow, there is peace. We can have it..we can live it....we can be at the precipice and not be rattled; all because of peace. No, not a cessation of hostilities, but an inner, wholesome sensation that comes from knowing the One who still has everything under control. What are you trusting in? Government? Drugs? Booze? Sex? MONEY? None of these will provide peace. Rather, when you trust in them you find they are actually pushing you closer to the edge.
No, you've got to be stayed on Him. Stayed means firmly connected, attached. Are you attached to God?

My advice in these precipice dangling days....find Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. Peace will follow immediately.
Pastor Jim