Last Sunday's chilly morning temps may have forced us inside, but it was still a great morning! I hope you are "being purple" this week giving grace.

This coming Sunday, we launch into chapter 6 of Matthew in our #Unexpected study from the Sermon on the Mount. Feel free to take 32 seconds to read the first four verses and prepare your heart to think about how you individually and we as a church can bless the needy.

Those four verses from Matthew 6 tie in perfectly with our series here in the News & Notes email, as we come to verse 9, which reads...
 

Here in America and much of the West, we are mostly linear thinkers; A leads to B.

But today, rather than start with A ("Blessed are the peacemakers"), I want to begin with B ("for they shall be called sons of God.") and work back to A.

Be like the Prince
Several years ago, I remember getting a call from Mike. During his lunch break at a local park, he got into a spiritual discussion with a young adult who had been skating at the park. Mike had to head back to work, but this young man seemed very interested in the spiritual conversation, so Mike wondered if I could come down and pick up where he left off.

So I headed downtown to the park and found Loki (no, not Thor's brother). I began to get to know Loki, and learned he'd never been to church. During our conversation, I asked Loki if he knew who Jesus was. He said, "God's Son?"

I couldn't help but ask, "Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Mike told me."

Mike was right, which made Loki right. If I asked you, "who is the Son of God?" there is a super high probability that you would say, "Jesus."

Jesus is the Son of God. Another title he carried was "Prince of Peace." He came as a mediator to help make peace between us and God, as well as between people.

So when Jesus calls us "sons of God," He is giving us the same role as him, to help bring peace between God and humans (by sharing the gospel with them), as well as peace between humans.

And when you seek to bring peace to others, you reveal that you are a son (or daughter!) of God.

So let me ask you: who do you need to help find peace with God?

 

In this journey with you,