Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward ALL Men

Peace on Earth.…that’s pretty much what we hear when we arrive at this time of the year; year after year.  Peace on earth and good will (good thoughts; thoughts of kindness, love and good wishes; wishing the best for all, even the person we do not know; even, yes even those whom we may be angry at, whom we may dislike; we do not wish them harm, but good things) towards all men.  Is this what my mind and my heart say, at this time of the year?  I can absolutely and truthfully say; unequivocally say without hesitation a resounding NO!  Little things, like when someone disagrees with me ‘cause I am right, I just have to be right; well, I think nasty thoughts like, “Don’t be so dumb.  Or, I think ‘G-d you are so wrong, so arrogant.’”  And, I want to prove them wrong, to humiliate them.  Are those thoughts of good will towards all men?  They certainly aren’t in my idea of what good will and thoughts about a person should be.

So, just once a year, for a little while, according to what Christmas is about, I can’t even wish good will towards all men; even those who despitefully use me.  What are the reasons behind this; why do I behave other than what my Spirit would have me do; my heart’s desire, to “love all mankind” as I am commanded by YHWH.  The great command(s):  love YHWH and love my fellow man.  If I could do this, would I indeed be an, “instrument of peace?”  That marvelous prayer of St. Francis, once heard by anyone is never forgotten.  “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, where there is …. Let me sow peace….”

Those in religions known as Christianity celebrate this holiday as one of the two greatest:  Christmas and Easter.  This day is supposedly about the birth of Yahshua (I won’t get into the history and the truth: suffice it to say he was not born on December 25^th; and that date has its roots in paganism….long, long before Yahshua and long, long before the books we call the Bible/Torah).  Yahshua gave us a gift as he departed to return to the Father.  He said, “Peace I give you…not as the world has known.”  I guess if you look at that statement and take it word for word – we’ve never had that peace that he spoke about, because we’ve never had peace of any kind; there have always been conflicts and wars on a national and international level.  And, individually, when’s the last time you felt, I mean really felt, “at peace?”  If you can even remember having had that feeling, how long did it last; a second, a nana-second?  Surely Yahshua’s gifts last longer than that; so what’s the cause of our unrest people?

I believe with all of my heart and soul that it lies in not knowing who each and every one of us are, I mean really are deep within; underneath the skin and bones; where the eye cannot see, the essence of each of us.  If we believe we are indeed (as Genesis says) made in the image of YHWH….then we need to begin to understand, to know deep, deep within who YHWH is, although we’ll never know the magnitude nor depth of that, because our minds tend to put things in a box. We tend to quantify and qualify and then decide, “There.  I’ve got it. That is who He is.”  And end it with an unsaid, “Well, that’s that.  Now I’ve figured that one out; and, I am right.  Phew.  Let’s tell everyone else how they have to think, what they have to believe, because I figured it all out….and ain’t I marvelous.”  That’s just what the thing called religion tries to do.  It happens first within a community, a congregation, and then it tries to spread itself out; to engulf all others; to prove they are king, they have all the answers, and if you don’t believe what I, man…weak and fallible (though they’d never say such a thing about themselves), then, “You will die and go to hell and there is no hope for you.”  But, “If you follow me, if you believe what I (or we) say, our interpretation of this or that…then you can join me (us) on our journey to heaven while the whole of the rest of humanity goes to hell.”

How tragic is that, I ask you?  What about all of humankind before we had things and religions known as “Judaism” or “Christianity” or “Muslims?”  Is all that came before these doomed to hell; to an eternity of sorrow and pain?  If we think that, are we any better than any other modern day religionist?  I say, absolutely not!

Yahshua, why did he come?  Why was he born?  Surely there were wonderful men before him; men who taught us the way(s) of our Father?  We believed without seeing; just like today we believe without seeing Yahshua.  So, why was Yahshua born (and not on December 25^th)?

We know that Scripture tells us that Abraham’s righteousness was his unadulterated faith and belief in YHWH; his absolute obedience when YHWH spoke.  How many of you would set out on a road trip, with your whole family (let alone a whole city), no questions asked, if someone knocked on your door and simply said, “Pack up your bags and go.” That’s it; those are your entire instructions.  I dare to say, none of us would go without first:  asking where, and then once told where, googling it on MapQuest to get a route to travel – the shortest; and knowing how long it would take you to get there.  Abraham did as told.  He loved YHWH; no questions asked.  His faith, by my account, was pretty powerful; pretty strong.  And yet…generations later we have Yahshua.  Why?  What went wrong to the faith of the descendants of Abraham?  Did it become weak and almost non-existent by the time of the birth of Yahshua?  Did it become so watered down as to be almost non-existent?  Absolutely.  Everyone needed a sign, a route, and a road map.  They needed prove.  They needed to see, to know. They needed things, “tangible,” in order to keep on the path; the path of YHWH.  They needed, “someone in their face; someone real!”

And so, I believe YHWH seeing just how weak and insecure we are, He decided He had better intervene before our faith was utterly wiped out and we disappeared into nothingness, and so He sent something visible, something tangible; someone who we could see, feel, touch, hear and fellowship with; someone just like you and I to relate to in our humanity.

Yahshua was born and we know little about him in the in-between years according to our traditional Bibles.  We have been blessed to find out more about the man Yahshua with the uncovering of books like the Gospel of Mary and other of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, and the Dead Sea scrolls.  But, we’ll restrict ourselves to what traditional Christianity and Judaism…and yes, I dare say, Muslim religions know about and have believed for the last 2000 years:  the Bible-Torah and Koran.

Yahshua apparently lived a normal life as a child, teen and young man.  He learned the ways of his family and community.  He kept the Hebrew Holy days with his parents; attended the synagogue and fellowshipped with the rabbis as a child speaking wisdom beyond his years.  So we are told in the Bible.  We also know of his last couple of years; his fellowship with the peoples, his choosing of the disciples; some of his teachings especially by use of parables.  We definitely know of his death – the second holy day kept by the majority of the Christian religions; Easter (yet another pagan rooted day…which the traditional church has chosen to either ignore or keep covered).  There is one Christian religious movement that doesn’t keep the pagan holy days and that is the Messianic movement:  it keeps all of the appointed holy/feast days found in the Scriptures, and folks none of these are found in the books called the New Testament.  They are all found in what we call the Old Testament (the books that make up the Torah – used by the Jewish religion).

It was during the three or so years of Yahshua’s active ministry that we heard his promise of peace.  Yet there seemed to be a conflict because he also told his followers that they would “suffer” for their beliefs, for following his teachings.  (Quick note here:  Yahshua didn’t teach anything that wasn’t already written in the Old Testament, and he didn’t create any new ‘holy’ days!).  So where is the peace if we suffer and are killed?  Does that sound like peace to you:  being beaten, tortured, stoned to death?  Certainly not:  not from my human perspective and understanding of what it means to be at peace!

But you see that’s where I went wrong.  I looked with my physical eyes to determine whether or not I had that thing, that promise of peace.  If I couldn’t see it, then it didn’t exist!

I didn’t look into the eyes and souls of those being tortured and beaten to death; those dying with the love of the L-rd on their lips and burning in their hearts and souls.  I think…no, I know…that despite the physical evidence of great pain and suffering…they were at peace as they were beaten and tortured; scourged and ultimately dying a physical death.  For you see, they were wrapped in a love that could not be penetrated by anything the physical had to offer up by way of unrest, pain, disease and terror.  They…their essence…that had kept their physical bodies alive as they walked about with Yahshua; they were at a place, in a peace with the One.  They knew only love even unto their last physical dying breath.

Believing this to be true, then where is the peace as I walk about day-to-day?  Why do I get angry at a co-worker or a stranger who cuts in line at the grocery store (especially now, this time of the year where the line-ups are crazy with last minute shoppers)?  Did Yahshua mean that should I be tortured and beaten to death, then I’d know that peace; and only then?  I do not believe so and in fact believe that I needed to start to know, to understand and to ask and receive that peace in all ways in all days that I am living on this earth.  To begin to acknowledge that the gift is there for the asking and in those moments when I am tempted to retort and strike back in anger…to dig deep within, to take hold of that peace…to breathe peace and ultimately be at-peace and at-one as it was meant to be; at-one (as it was)me(a)nt (ergo “atonement”) to be with all …. Yes, all that surrounds me; the plant growing on my desk, even this keyboard that I use to type this note….at one and there shall be no conflict.

Peace, my peace I give unto you…I leave you with Peace.

In closing, I’d live to leave you with two things.  One is a poem I wrote on November 2, 1987, (wow, that was 22 years ago…where has the time gone?!) and just had fall out of a book, I’d picked up to read (written on a note card) which got me thinking about what is meant, how should “peace on earth” be and what Yahshua was all about.

If I cannot forgive the man across the hall,
Then I’ll never succeed and forever will be small.
To love and forgive, to try and understand
Just like me, he has the weakness of man.
Afraid and insecure, he fails to see
Not I, nor anyone can remove his security;
If he but turns in Faith to Thee.

Abraham’s faith….faith like Abraham that included hearing the Voice of YHWH and being obedient, because of such great love….Then, perhaps then there would be Peace for we would know that we know that we have everything in Him; we would cease to war and fight for our rights, our things, our stuff…because we would know that we know who in fact ultimately provides and meets all of our needs!

The other thing I’d like to share is something that I read in the book out of which fell the card with my poem.  The book is called, A Cup of Trembling – Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy, by Dave Hunt.  It is found in the chapter entitled, “The Bible or the Koran?”  The author is writing about what the Bible says and what the Koran says about Yahshua (Jesus).  It reveals that the Koran contradicts itself:  on the one hand it says that Yahshua died and then somewhere else it denies his death.   If the latter is the truth, then the author asks, “Then how can they say that Mohammed is a descendant of Yahshua?”  The author then goes on to say, about this business of making a choice:

The Bible or the Koran—which one is the authoritative revelation from the true God who created the universe and mankind and to whom we are all accountable?  This question obviously holds the key to peace both in the Middle East and in the world at large.  Conflicts of all kinds, whether within a family, city or nation, or wars between religious, ethnic or national groups, are all cause by the pursuit of selfish interests.

It starts with me; me and my selfish, self-serving pursuits!

Shalom…Peace On Earth, Good Will Toward All Mankind