Hi Folks:

OnFire hits the big Four-Oh today - yayyyyyyyyyy! Thank you so much for letting me write to you each week. Many of you have written to tell me how much it encourages you, which blows me away. God is cool to let me be a part of this. This week I received a neat "onfire" bumper sticker from my friend Norm in Saint John quoting Jeremiah 20:9. Check it out - Thanks Norm.

I made a typo in last week's header. I called it, "The Best *if* Yet to Come." As it turned out, that was probably a better title than the proper spelling would have been.

Hope you have a good week,

Troy

-----------------------------

Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests."

Parties have a way of spilling over. Even when we corral the people, its hard to contain the noise and excitement. When we were in college, we often heard the noise of parties on campus. One building in particular, Crowell Tower, was noted for loud speakers in the windows. Our apartment building was quiet, but I remember camping with friends at a park one night where another group was making merry. We didn’t get much sleep that night.

One of the biggest, loudest parties ever happened the night Jesus came to earth. It spilled over as the shepherds watched their sheep. "Glory to God in the highest!" The praise of God in heaven couldn’t be contained and so it poured out onto earth, where the shepherds were privileged to receive the wonderful news of Jesus’ birth.

We tend to think of heaven as a quiet place with lots of solitude and peace - a certain brand of cream cheese makes the most of this notion. I don’t think so - there’s lots of praise and celebration in heaven. In particular, there was lots of cause for celebration when Jesus came to earth.

WHY THE CELEBRATION?

The angels celebrated in heaven because peace was made possible when Jesus came to earth. We read, "and on earth peace for those on whom his favour rests"

This word "peace" is like a diamond with many sides. We can’t hope to describe all the facets in so short a letter, but let me highlight two today.

1) The angels celebrated because Jesus came to bring peace between us and God. Colossians 1:19-20 tells us that Jesus brought reconciliation "by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."

There are some churches where it is fashionable to preach that Jesus saved everyone when he came, but the Bible is clear that our salvation is possible only as we accept it for ourselves. It is a gift we need to accept in order to enjoy our peace with God.

Some people think God weighs good works at the end of our lives, but this is a balance which will never tip in our favour until we have Jesus in our hearts. The angels celebrated because Jesus came to offer us peace with God.

I’m glad I decided to follow Jesus. While I have been a Christian since I was 12 years old, in the last several years I have enjoyed a new sense of the fulness of life and the excitement of living because of Jesus Christ. I feel like God has been winding me up for 37 years and now he is letting me go.

2) There was a party in heaven because Jesus came to bring inner peace.

Lack of inner peace is an epidemic. The largest number of books sold are in the self-help, psychology, inspirational, and religious sections. Many people feel overwhelmed by life and long for a sense of meaning and tranquillity. In their search, people try all sorts of solutions.

I often get up very early in the morning. The only shows on tv are infomercials. Its my feeling that many of the people who buy the health and beauty products are really looking for inner peace.

Philippians 4:4-7 reminds us that God’s peace cannot be bought. Rather, it is only a request away: " Rejoice in the Lord always. . . . Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

It takes faith to say to God, "This is out of my control, so I’m going to turn it over to you because I know you can do something about." This is not the way we are wired. We want to DO something. And so when we can’t DO anything, we worry and fret.

God promises his peace when we take our problems and issues to him. Notice that Paul never said life would be perfect. In fact, when he wrote he was in prison because be believed in Jesus. Life won’t be perfect, but we can have peace deep inside because of Jesus.

The way it often happens with me is that I’ll find myself worrying over something without even realizing it. DOH! As soon as I tell God about it, I feel better. I keep thinking that I should remember how much better it feels to let go of this heavy burden - hopefully the time between worry and handing it over is getting shorter.

The party in heaven spilled over to earth when Jesus was born because of the peace he brought. While we could fill volumes with all that Jesus’ peace means for us, there are two aspects we have seen today: peace with God, and inner peace. When we understand these and know them in our hearts, our Christmas will be a celebration of thankfulness which overflows into all areas of our lives.

Hope this helps. Be On Fire,

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. This letter published Dec 11, 2005. www.onfireletter.com