> Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
My wife was sitting in the hair salon today and a woman came in who was a customer and said to the clerk - my friend gave me these shoes she has never worn as she is down sizing and wondered if anyone here would like these - what size someone ? They are size 8. The only person there size 8 was my wife. She said so. Looked at the shoes. They are $500+ designer shoes!! Would you like them, my wife was asked? Oh yes!! So she now has a free pair of designer shoes that she could never have afforded or purchased. The gospel shoes of peace are free, gracious provided by our Lord Jesus Christ and they are beautiful shoes of peace designed by our Creator and Redeemer - and the nature of these shoes is described below.
http://biblestudy.churches.net/CCEL/S/SPURGEON/TILL_HE_/JASLEEP.HTM
Spurgeon preached a sermon about the peace that was IN our Lord Jesus that permitted Him to sleep in a raging storm on a tossing sea. See the link above for the whole text.
My point in referencing this sermon is that it refers to the peace that our Lord Jesus wants us to have, indeed, has bought and paid for with His precious blood on that cross.
Unfortunately Spurgeon talks about how we should try to attain to that inner peace, rather than remember how or Lord Jesus gives us that peace, His peace: "My peace I give to you..." It is a GIFT of God's grace. We are given this peace.
Recall how our Lord said "My peace I give to you..." Notice it is His peace, that peace that was within His heart as a perfect human being who completely trusted in the Father because He Himself was perfect, had never sinned. This is the kind of perfect peace we are given by our Lord. He earned it for us so put it on and you can walk through the roughest storms Satan can throw your way, in fact, you can sleep through those storms in the perfect lullaby sleep of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was sleeping on a pillow in a boat being tossed about because why should He fear His Father when He had never sinned. This is the way His Father regards you and I because the Father looks at those who are IN CHRIST as those who are perfect, imputing His perfection to us. The disciples should have laid down on that pillow with Him and later, after His resurrection and ascension, they were storm sleepers with Him, regardless of how Satan tried to disturb their gospel rest, he failed because they had been given the Lord's peace - "My peace I give you..."
In our text there are two great calms; the first is, the calm in the Saviour's heart, and the second is, the calm which He created with a word upon the storm-tossed sea.
I. Within the Lord where was a great calm, and that is why there was soon a great calm around Him; for what is in God comes out of God. Since there was a calm in Christ for Himself, there was afterwards a calm outside for others. What a wonderful inner calm it was! "He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow."
He had perfect confidence in God that all was well. The waves might roar, the winds might rage, but He was not at all disquieted by their fury. He knew that the waters were in the hollow of His Father's hand, and that every wind was but the breath of His Father's mouth; and so He was not troubled; nay, He had not even a careful thought, He was as much at ease as on a sunny day. His mind and heart were free from every kind of care, for amid the gathering tempest He deliberately laid Himself down, and slept like a weary child. He went to the hinder part of the ship, most out of the gash of the spray; He took a pillow, and put it under His head, and with fixed intent disposed Himself to slumber. It was His own act and deed to go to sleep in the storm; He had nothing for which to keep awake, so pure and perfect was His confidence in the great Father.
On the believer's feet are the shoes of the gospel of peace, peace given to the believer to enjoy, His peace. Satan seeks to destroy this peace, he seeks to throw up in our way we must walk through this life great storms of accusation - to cause us to fear God's wrath but no! We put on these shoes, shoes that were made for walking all over Satan's obstacles, shoes that enable us to walk right up to that gospel pillow and lay down in gospel sleep and rest in peace for we are forgiven, our sins forgotten, our Father regards us as His children in Christ, as those who can sleep with His sleep regardless of the noise, the thunder, the lightning of our enemy.
Spurgeon writes about how we should try to attain this peace, but Scripture teaches us that this is Christ's gift to us, the gift of His peace, that inner calm that not only lets us sleep in peace makes us peace makers.
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety
Peace is a calm and quietness on the inside. It is a steady confidence that everything is okay. The Bible says that ". . . he [Jesus] himself is our peace . . ." (Ephesians 2:14). You have peace with God when you trust Jesus as your Savior. God also gives you peace with yourself because He helps you to see yourself as He sees you. You are loved by Him, forgiven and accepted into His family! In addition, God gives you peace with others. http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/life/2217/section/1.htm