The Fruit Of The Spirit - Peace (part 1)

When I met the Jesus people, the home I lived in was constantly full of noise.    TVs.   Radios.   But worst of all there was frustration and misery until both my father and I were delivered by The Gospel.

I'd go 20 miles into Kalamazoo, MI - which was a University Town.    I met some "Jesus People" at the Civic Theatre on Good Friday, 1973.    That summer was spent in the park and on campus - being with my college age Christian Mentors and witnessing with folks, there, about Jesus.     As we hung out in the park we'd often be asked, "What are you ON?"      I was HIGH, alright - but not on drugs.

I'll never forget walking into a tiny apt where 4 of the brothers rented a place for $60.    With those kind of expenses alot of time was left for praying, reading the Word, witnessing to others, and mentoring a crazy young high school student like myself.     I'd walk in the door out of the heat and into the cool of the old house - and it was like walking through a portal into Paradise.    Someone might be reading the Word, or praying.     There was almost always someone there for me.

These disciples knew that when Jesus died, we died with Him, too.    There's nothing more peaceful, in one sense, than a dead man.    But I'm very sure that you can feel LIVING PEACE in the resurrection Life of Jesus.    You do realized we are forgiven by His Death, but Saved . . . . HOW? . . . . By His LIFE!

Most of them went back to Detroit and I was "orphaned" in Kalamazoo.   But Jesus stayed with me, there.    I lived in a rented room of a big old mansion house on South Street.    It was just one simple room, but it had a loft.    Yeah.   It was awesome.      I wrote song after song, there - sometimes 3 in one day.     My friends called me the "South Street Psalmist".     But the best part was the time of prayer.    Anyone could drop in and join me in prayer.     But we weren't talking, we were LISTENING.    And we could just FEEL the PEACE OF GOD!    It almost seemed as though, if you listened real close, you could hear a faint, rather musical, tone - as though an energy of some kind filled the quietness.   

Five children and a hectic career as a computer programmer later - I've had peace and prayerfulness along the way.     But I want it in abundance - as I did then.    And I'm getting it in greater abundance - thanks to God's Grace.

This is all in the Mystery Of Christ because our being dead to sin has much to do with being Filled With The Holy Spirit - and not functioning in the Fleshly Mind of Human Reasoning - but in the Spiritual Mind which we only experience in Brokenness at the foot of the Cross.

More on that tomorrow when we do 

The Fruit Of the Spirit In The Mystery of Christ - Peace - part 2