Many a believer has faced the storms of death, especially martyrdom, and the Lord was their anchor in the storm. On February 23, 155 A.D., a Roman officer publicly demanded Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrma to renounce Jesus Christ. Polycarp was a very kind and gentle man but his reply to this challenge was as bold as a lion. He said, “Eighty and six years have I served Him and He has done me no wrong. How can I revile my King that saved me?” The Roman officer continued his threats, “I’ll throw you to the beasts!” Polycarp told him to bring the beast on! The officer threatened again, “Then I’ll have you burned.” Polycarp replied, “You try to frighten me with fire that burns for an hour and you forget the fire of Hell that never goes out.” An hour later his body was smouldered in the ashes, but his soul was with his anchor, Jesus Christ.
Ignatius was the pastor at the church in Antioch for forty years. He would not sacrifice to pagan practices and was hauled to Rome. It was there he was thrown to the lions in the Colosseum. He said, “I would rather die for Christ than rule the whole earth.” Christ was his anchor to the very end.
Jesus is still an anchor today. Cassie Bernall was a seventeen year old girl who had been saved for only two years. It was like any other day at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. It was April 20, 1999, and school would be out in about a month. Cassie was in the library studying her Bible as she did everyday at lunch time. Little did she know that morning that she would face one of the greatest tests of faith and courage that few Christians in the United States know anything about. Gunfire began to erupt in the school hallways and classrooms. The calm in the school turned into panic and pandemonium. One of the gunmen entered the library and Cassie reportedly knelt and prayed which angered the attacker. He approached her and asked her sarcastically if she believed in God. She paused, then said one word: “Yes.” The gunman asked her “Why?”, but Cassie had no time to answer before she was shot to death and left in a pool of blood on the library floor. With her life on the line Christ was her anchor and gave her grace to stand up for Him knowing it might cost her life. If you were in Cassie’s shoes, could you say “Yes?” You can if you make the Lord your anchor each day.
Over two million Christians per year are persecuted for Christ across the world and over 150,000 Christians per year are martyred for Christ. They know what it is to make Christ the anchor of their lives. Do you?

This world was once a garden of peace. Man was at peace with God and at peace with his mate. But sin entered the world and man declared war against God. He forfeited the peace he had been guaranteed and aligned himself with the prince of darkness in battle. That conflict with God created conflict in the human heart. This conflict quickly erupted into conflict with our fellow man. Cain and Abel went to war. Murder ensued and man has been at war with God and at war with man ever since. But, there is Good News. This Good News is the gospel of peace. It has been given to peacemakers.      (RUSSELL KELFER)

The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to  console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Peacemakers not only live peaceful lives but also try to bring peace and friendship to others, and to preserve peace between God and man. St. Gregory of Nyssa calls a peacemaker a man who brings peace to another; but one cannot give another what one does not possess oneself. Hence the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the blessings of peace and then to communicate it to those who have need of it. By imitating God’s love of man, the peacemakers become children of God.

Everything seems to be in crisis. We hear daily of natural disasters, wars, environmental calamity, industrial accidents, and political uncertainty. And more, we may be anxious about degradation in civil life, in law and order, and about the loss of Christian heritage and faith, and the sidelining and decline of the church. We may face the crisis closer to home in death, sin and spiritual attack. Is everything falling apart?

The Psalmist compares these tumults and troubles to the crashing ocean. But in the face of it he sang, “The LORD is King; He is robed with majesty… He has established the world; it shall never be moved.” Jesus said of the Church that  He  builds,  that  the  gates of  hell would not prevail against it. There is a deep security known by faith, and only by faith – never by sight.

That security is the security of God’s covenant. From the beginning of creation, the work of God the Father has been to invite us into the deepest friendship with Himself through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. At the end of this creation’s history, as the new history of the renewed creation begins, God will say emphatically: “It is done!” He will dwell with us, and be our God and we will be His people. None of the angry reactions in history will have thwarted the covenant of God.

As we face the difficulties and stresses of life in this world, it is the security of covenant that keeps us and guides us, saving  us  with  joy  from  the  madness  of hopelessness and giving us courage instead of despair.

(NEW CREATION TEACHING MINISTRY)

(LIFE APPLICATION STUDY BIBLE, THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)