Peace on Earth!

 Hello friends!  Today I'm sharing another Christmas card I made with two stamps sets from this month's release from Our Daily Bread designs: Vintage Ornaments and Earth Verses.  I also cut the ornament with the new ODBD Custom Circle Ornament Dies.

I started with a base of Night of Navy, and then a layer of ivory which was embossed with a holly spray folder.  I stamped the vintage pattern ornament on mirrored card stock using versamark, and heat embossed with pearlescent blue.  I cut the hanger from silver mirrored card, and added a tiny silver thread to "hang" it, then topped that with a navy silk bow using May Arts ribbon.  The ornament is adhered with foam dimensionals.   I heat embossed the sentiment from Earth Verses directly on the ivory layer, and only added 3 blue pearls for trim.  I think I'm beginning to get more comfortable with CAS (clean and simple) designs!  Maybe there's hope for me yet! 

I am entering this in to this week's Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge with a Scripture or encouraging sentiment, and this week's  Shining the Light challenge, which is to be inspired by a song.  I used  "Let there be peace on earth."   

As I ponder the words of this song and others, including various Christmas carols I am reminded that there are different kinds of peace, and it's pretty important that we know the difference!

 The Bible clearly says that there will be no “peace on earth” until the “Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6) comes back to earth and destroys all the enemies of God. It also tells us that until then, things will get worse as the many turn their hearts away from God and His truth (2 Tim. 3:13, 4:3 and 4). Isn't that what we are seeing today?

Though there will not be total peace on earth until the Lord Jesus returns, there can be peace in our own hearts, and that is a peace that only comes from having a relationship with God.

 As humans, our sinful nature has separated us from, and puts us at war with Holy God.  There can be no peace on the outside when there is no peace with God our Maker on the inside.  When we realize we are sinners, and that we need a Savior, and that that Savior was given to us in the form of Jesus, God's one and only son, who became man so that He could pay the price for our sin that we could not pay by dieing on the cross, and rising again in victory over sin and death;  and when we receive Him as our own Savior... that struggle is over.  We now have the peace of God in our hearts, and we are at peace with God because that struggle is over!   He is constantly affirming our new status as His children; children with the hope and assurance of eternal life with Him,  chosen for good works and conforming us to His perfect plan for us.   When we accept Him as our Savior, He changes our hearts, and all things become new.   As we grow in our faith, our hearts continue to be conformed more to what He wants us to be, and while we are still sinners, we are constantly seeking to be more like Him and to do things that please Him.  We begin to see people as God sees them... His dearly loved and prized creation.   He values people beyond our imagination... He made us in His own image!  He has plans for us... and they are for good, not for evil, and He delights over us!  When we as believers start to look at His creation as He does... it changes our priorities and our preconceived ideas, prejudices, and all our incorrect thinking, and we see even our enemies are ones dearly loved by God... so loved, that He sent His only Son to die for their sins, and offered that gift as a free gift of life to any who would but believe and receive His gift.  

We know there will not be true peace on earth until Jesus comes back as The Prince of Peace.... but we do know that the Giver of ALL peace has offered His gift that we can have NOW... the peace OF God, which we have when we are at peace WITH God.   As we begin to plan for and enter this Christmas season when we celebrate God's indescribable gift... The One who ultimately is the source of ALL peace, let's think about how we can share that gift with  those who so desperately need it!

With the prayer that you are enjoying peace with God, and the peace of God,