Merry Christmas!

O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid every strife and quarrel cease

And fill the world with heaven’s peace.

-verse seven of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Christmas has become a very important season to me. In recent years I have spent the season reflecting on one of the hymns significant to Advent. This year’s selection is O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

We live in a global society that allows us to watch real-time events taking place on different continents, sometimes before someone standing a few buildings away from the event knows it is taking place. It is so easy to see all of the strife and quarrel. Nobody with a cell phone or an iPad believes there is peace in any far place of this world.

Our pains are all too familiar and accessible.

When I read the news, open my Facebook, watch TV, whatever… I see people without peace, warring against one another and with God. It is easy to forget sometimes that Jesus is the Desire of Nations, and that He has called us to be peacemakers among men.

I love the songs of God. The old ones, the new ones, just as long as they contain those precious stones of truth that have been poured out from the hearts of God’s worshipers.

O Come, Desire of Nations bind in one the hearts of all mankind…

There is only one who can bring true unity and He has expended the fullness of His grace to see that we would be bound in Him. Jesus is the profit of all mankind. To know Him is our everlasting benefit. He is worth more than all of the riches of this world. His name is excellent in all the earth.

There is only one true desire of all nations. No religion, ideology, belief or attitude apart from Jesus can fulfill the desires of mankind. He is the peace that overthrows all chaos. Until we see Him, know Him, and exalt Him, the hearts of all mankind will be in disunity.

He made a way…

Bid every strife and quarrel cease, and fill the world with heaven’s peace…

Through prayer we usher heaven’s peace, the very peace of Christ, to make its advent upon this chaotic world. O, that we would bid every strife and quarrel cease! Let our bidding be before His throne of great grace!

Here is the calling of mankind. From the walks with God in Genesis, to the cries of the faithful beneath the altar in Revelation, the purpose of mankind has been, and will always be to establish God’s perfect and heavenly peace upon this earth.

When we failed, this heavenly peace was brought forth as baby. He is now the man, Jesus. Peace from heaven has been given to us who are full of deep anarchy. Jesus is the God of peace.

You are called to be sons and daughters of peace.

The world has its own brand of peace and it has made us to be enemies of God, and it has led to us being our own enemy.

Jesus is heaven’s peace. He is where we need to look.