How do we know that we can trust God? Is He really even interested in us? Does He even care about us? I think the answer to these questions is summed up in the Bible verses below:

Psalm 139, verses 1-18:

1. O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.

2. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.

3. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.

4. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

5. You hem me in-behind and before; You have laid Your hand on me.

6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

8. If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.

9. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10. even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.

11. If I say "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

12. even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You..

13. For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.

14. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

17. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

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In reading this portion of Scripture, one thing is certain: GOD IS IMMENSELY INTERESTED IN YOU. Not only is He interested in you, but He cares for you beyond imagination. Look again at verse 13, it reads "For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb." That's right, the almighty, infinite, awesome Creator of the universe tenderly and carefully constructed you.

So what does this have to do with peace? When I read Psalm 139, I am reminded that no matter where I go, no matter what is happening, GOD IS THERE. We live in a painful world. Bad things happen. But know this: God longs for you to put your trust in Him.

God desires so much for us to trust Him that He sent Jesus to provide our salvation. Jesus suffered the punishment for our sin when He was killed on the cross. He conquered sin by rising from the dead. When we trust Christ and surrender to Him, we have access to God the Father. Not only do we have access to God, but the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us! This is where my peace comes from.

I often find it difficult to trust God when bad things are happening. But this is what I am learning: as God brings me through painful times, He is equipping me, He is sculpting me. Remember the picture of the dove in my last entry? Even in the midst of the storm, the dove seems peaceful. For that dove, peace wasn't the absence of the storm. Rather, peace was a feeling of security within the storm. I suppose it is the same for me. Peace is to know that God has my best in mind. Peace is to know that my sins are forgiven, and that I am washed by the blood of Christ. Peace is to know that I live in the presence of Creator God, now and forevermore.

Change of plans...

Ok. I've changed my mind. I had started to post my essay on peace and published the first section of it for you. It's a great paper, but is rather textbook-like in form. I would really rather be a little more candid on the subject, so, I'm not going to post the rest of the essay right now. If anyone wants it, I would be happy to forward it on to you. I may publish it on here later on, but for now I'll keep this more blog-like.

So what can I say about peace? I chose this picture because it symbolizes my thoughts about peace. Look at the picture. Your eyes will probably lock onto the dove right away. Doves generally symbolize peace. Now look all around the dove. What do you see? Angry storm clouds all around. Look at the dove again. It doesn't seem at all threatened or scared of the storm. This is what peace is.

It is so easy to believe that peace is the absence of the storm. No troubles. No pain. But I think this idea is wrong. Yes, such a problemless life would be peaceful but life doesn't happen that way. Peace for me is a stillness in my heart that stems from the knowledge that God is my Father. No matter what is happening around me or to me, I know that my Creator holds my very existence in the palm of His hand. All I have to do is trust Him.

So it sounds simple enough. But it really is easier said than done. So in the next few posts, I will begin to present some of the aspects of who God is. And in so doing, show that He is trustworthy and does have our best interests in mind.

More to come...

Peace

I was looking through my desk just now and found a paper I wrote over five years ago. The essay is on peace. Having quickly skimmed through it, I realized that I've been slowly beginning to lack peace in my day to day life. I think I just need to be reminded of all that YAHWEH my God has done to provide peace for me. So, I'm going to post excerpts of my essay here on my blog. I can't find the introduction so I'll dive right into the main body of the paper. I pray that this will lead me back into a place where I can truly experience God's peace. I also pray that, through this, God will bless each person who reads it. So here goes...

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How To Find Peace

By Bryan Johns

1. Peace With God

Peace with God is the most important part of our lives. Without it, we are at war with God and will not spend eternity in His presence.

Because of sin, we are unable to attain peace with God. We are sinful. We were born that way. In fact, we can trace our sin all the way back to our first grandfather: Adam. He committed the first sin. Because he is the human father of all mankind, we have inherited his sinful nature.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." -- Romans 5: 12

God is perfect. He cannot look upon sin, nor can He accept any part of it. Therefore, because of our sin nature, we are incapable of redeeming ourselves into a peaceful relationship with God.

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -- Romans 3: 23

Our situation seems hopeless. However, God has provided a way for us to be saved from our horrible state. In order to find true peace, we must go to the source. Jesus Christ is the source of peace.

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation," -- Ephesians 2: 14

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," -- Romans 5: 1

Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead (or Trinity). He is the Son of God, that is, God the Son. Though fully God, Jesus Christ came to the earth in the form of a man. He experienced everything that we experience. He felt pain, anger, fear, and sorrow. Because He is the Light of the world, Jesus Christ not only exposed our sin, but most of all, He revealed our need of a savior.

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" -- John 8: 12

Every part of Jesus' earthly life revolves around one main event: His death and resurrection.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," -- John 3: 15

Jesus had one main purpose in coming to earth. He came to conquer sin, death, and the devil. God makes it very clear in His word that we deserve death. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." -- Romans 6: 23. This isn't talking about just physical death, but also spiritual death. Spiritual death means to be totally separated, and completely shut off from God. Jesus Christ, however, was willing to take our place in spiritual death. He willingly laid down His life and was killed. God's wrath, the punishment we deserve, and payment for sin was inflicted on Christ Jesus. He was abandoned by His Father God so that we wouldn't have to be. Jesus Christ stood in our place.

"...who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness- by whose wounds you were healed." -- 1 Peter 2: 24

Jesus is perfect. He had no sin of His own to pay for. As a result, He conquered sin and rose from the dead. Through the resurrection, as pointed out by Billy Graham, we find that God accepted Jesus' work as sufficient payment for our sin.

"...who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." -- Romans 4: 25. In this manner, Jesus Christ brought peace.

In order to enter a peaceful relationship with God, we must believe in Jesus Christ for who He truly is: God the Son, infinitely perfect and Holy. We must believe that Jesus died for us, and that there is no way to earn our redemption; there is no way for us to earn peace with God. Our redemption is a gift from God. All we have to do is receive it. It is as simple as putting our trust is Jesus to redeem us by what He did in dying for us. We have to accept Jesus' sacrifice as payment for our sin. The moment we do this, we can know that we've been bought and paid for. We are saved forever. And because we are no longer at war with God, we have peace with Him.

Peace with God is available to all who believe:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." -- John 3: 16

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That's it for this post. This was about how to have peace WITH God. My next post will cover the peace OF God.

May YAHWEH Elohim (the LORD God) bless you richly.

Chosen

I can't help but feel that I have been chosen by YAHWEH Elohim (God) to fulfill a very special task in this world. As a small child, I really knew nothing about God. However, as a teenager I began to learn about God. I also learned that I was a sinner -- not just because I had done bad things, but because the Bible (God's Word to us) says that I was born as a sinner. Because I was full of sin, and because God is totally perfect and completely without sin, I was separated from God. God can have nothing to do with sin. This is where the truth of Yeshua (Jesus) became very important to me. God doesn't want to be separated from us. He sent His Son, Yeshua to save us from our sin. I learned that Yeshua (Jesus), was born onto this Earth as a baby, lived among mankind and was then killed by being nailed to a wooden cross-shaped pole. It was through the death of Yeshua that my sins were paid for. While He was hanging on that cross, all of my sins were laid on Him. He took the punishment that I deserved. The Bible says (in Romans 6:23) that the wages (or consequence) of sin is death. I've learned that this death is not merely physical death, but rather, the complete and total separation from God after death. This is what Yeshua experienced as He died in our place. God punished Yeshua for our sin. Our sins were paid for by Yeshua once and for all. But because Yeshua was perfect, even death could not hold Him. God raised Yeshua up from the dead. Shortly after this, Yeshua ascended to Heaven and is waiting to return to this Earth. I know He lives and is victorious over sin, death, and Satan!

Having put my trust in Yeshua ha Mashiach (Jesus the Christ), I know that I'm saved from sin and eternal death. I am able to have a living and vibrant relationship with YAHWEH Elohim- the God and Creator of all things. In fact, God promises that His own Spirit (the Holy Spirit) will dwell within those who trust Him.

Many times I have wrestled with these truths - "Is any of this real?" I would ask myself. "Does any of this make sense?" I'm not one to blindly believe something just for the sake of believing it. I'm not one to believe something just because it feels good to believe it. Well I've done (and continue to do) my research and can tell you this: the Bible is true. God is real. Jesus saves.

As I approach my twenty-fifth birthday, I look back on my life and I see God calling me and preparing me for something amazing. I have many dreams and goals. Perhaps too many for one person to fulfill. But this I know: Wherever I go, whatever crazy things I pursue, God has chosen me to share His truth and love with those around me. As I journey through this life and into eternity, it is my desire to bring with me as many people as possible.