Understandings of the Power of Peace

By Elwin L. Dickerson III Ed.D.

Every hour of every day proves that inadequate solutions for social, political, and personal crises flamed by multifaceted hate singes everyone. Peace cannot be a compromise. Peace visits, and like great escape artists, it vanishes, leaving in its place bewilderment and unquenchable desire for more. Peacelessness is profitable. Industry and governments grow in response to peacelessness. Corporations and cousins fight for a piece of the pie. Blessed must be the peacemakers, they experience only temporary success yet their efforts continue in hope as evidence of things not seen.

Peace is the strong cord running through history. Peace ties together every chapter of every book of the Bible. Peace is the subject of every sermon and hymn and is the cause of every war. Peace is so powerful even God works under its influence. Who understands that? Peace will bring this world to its end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512770728

Elwin L. Dickerson III Ed.D.

With almost thirty-five years of teaching Dr. Dickerson has uncountable experiences to prove his teaching and writing philosophy, “Strong structures have strong foundations”.Teaching accomplishes temporary success when the foundation is weak. Dr. Dickerson assesses every aspect of teaching to establish mutual starting places for learning. His Bible teaching and preaching and now writing are built from common knowledge of students and congregants helping to grow personal and spiritual knowledge and glorifying revelations for his readers.

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Copyright © 2017 Elwin L. Dickerson, III Ed.D.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7074-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7073-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7072-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921635

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/26/2017

Contents

Acknowledgments

Scripture References

Introduction

Chapter 1 Do You Understand …. God?

Chapter 2 Understanding Peace—Passing Understanding

Chapter 3 Peace on Earth?

Chapter 4 Articles of Peace

Chapter 5 Paradise Reopened

Chapter 6 Portions and Morsels of Peace

Chapter 7 The Power of Peace

Chapter 8 The Promise of Peace

Appendix

References

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

C hapter 6, Portions and Morsels of Peace, is my effort to help my readers recognize peace in their lives. Familiar biblical characters’ potions and morsels of peace from family and friends illustrate the process and product of God’s peace. Writing this book has brought me more measures of peace than I can number, but the indisputable evidence of peace in my life will always begin with the peace that rocked and continues to rock my world.

Rock my world is my expression of peace contrary to how most comprehend this statement. Rock my world expresses the stability, contentment, and hope God established for me even before I accepted Christ’s sacrifice as my invitation into eternal peace. My confession of faith began as a small pebble on March 6, 1969, and gave me wonderful times of reflection and opportunities to thank God. I experienced His wonderful provision for my life. That day is the day I met my future wife.

As a young man, I was full of myself thinking the world revolved at my command. It was a time of going every way at once—no limits, no bounds. I was in a constant state of flux and confusion. Then on March 6, 1969, Irene came into my life. I acknowledge that my life then was a jigsaw puzzle, Rubik’s cube, and connect-the-dots combined. God provided me a rock, Irene, for my life. She and her family were greatly influential in my coming to the Rock of my salvation.

I thank God for the friends and family He sent my way to show me His love, grace, mercy, and hope. But as I finish this book about peace, my thoughts are directed at the peace that has remained constant if not consistent—Irene.

Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace in the Old Testament. It conveyed God’s greatest desire for His chosen people. In the New Testament, God’s great desire for all people manifested incarnate in the Prince of Peace, Jesus, our Savior and Lord. He became real, tangible, and embraceable in my life and in Irene’s, whose name is New Testament Greek for peace. Who can understand such a God as mine?

Scripture References

Abbreviations for Bible versions in text:

AMP—Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

KJV—Scripture quotes marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

MSG—Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

NASB—Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

NET—NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved

NIV—Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

NKJV—Scripture quotes marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

P eace is the substance of everything hoped for, the evidence of many things unseen. Every chapter of every book of God’s Holy Word is an exposition fueling exploration of God’s greatest blessing for believers in expectation of the culmination of His plan of redemption—peace.

Peace—not hunger, thirst, reproduction, or even mortal survival—is the most powerful human motivator. People and nations suffer mortality to secure peace. Only God knows the number of times Rest in Peace is inscribed on grave markers and spoken at funerals. The final prayer and wish for most at the gravesite is that they be granted what they and everyone covets—peace.

History is the record of struggles for peace from war and oppression. But whose peace? Everyone will develop his or her definition of peace and what he or she counts as a personal bed of roses. They will gather others with similar ideas of contentment rather than those with contrary thoughts and beliefs, not wanting what’s happening elsewhere to affect what’s happening in their worlds.

Disagreement about how to maintain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness results in arguments. Those who drive the wrong way down a one-way street will meet head-on those who follow the rules. One person’s peace may be another person’s discord. The solution is to agree on an absolute standard for peace. People will never be able to do that on their own; only God can. Satan, the deceiver, will keep this world fractured until God ushers His peacemaker onto the scene.

God the Father designed the universe to operate in harmony. He desired men and women to live willingly in concert with nature and each other. He had one requirement of the overseers of the earth—obedience.

Obedience in paradise, where everything was provided, should have been easy. Who understands what happened in the Garden of Eden? We here on the other side of Eden can offer explanations of what’s in the Holy Word, but only God knows every choice Adam and Eve could have made.

No divide is greater than the divides in Genesis 3—the divide of trust between God and humanity has prompted both parties to desire to bridge it. The divide between promise and paradise is so great that only God can fill it. Confusion on humanity’s side of the divide fractures any hopes of real peace. Humanity’s rebirth to the promise of God is the only way to achieve everlasting peace. A war of reconciliation is being fought right now, but Satan desires to maintain his status and peace as prince of this world as long as he can, and God desires than no one perish in the coming Day of Judgment.

God is the God of love and peace; He gave His only begotten Son to the cause of His greatest desire, peace. The Holy Spirit revealed to the apostle Paul that believers should be prepared for the war of peace.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13–17 NKJV)

The lack of peace is our constant state of life but only for a while for those who believe, are armed for battle, and take up the banner and cause of eternal peace with the Prince of Peace.

Chapter 1

Do You Understand …. God?

The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple.

—Psalm 119:130 AMP

I wasn’t impressed when the preacher said, God understands at the burial of my best friend’s brother when I was a boy. As Mom’s tears wet my father’s shirt when her brother was lowered into the grave, God understands was punchless. My first Sunday school teacher, who told about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Matthew, and John, insisted, God understands.

As a youngster, I wanted in on the secret of those words. God, do you understand why my father and mother have to work so hard? Why is my life not like the lives of the kids I see on TV? I can’t have all the things I want; we have too many cousins living with us. I don’t understand. Dad warned me not to walk in that neighborhood by myself, not to sit in the front seats of the streetcar, and not go trick-or-treating over there.

The law of the LORD is perfect … making wise the simple (Psalm 19:7 KJV). Heartaches and injustices affect young and old, big and small, black and white, rich and poor. The phrase God understands no longer puzzles me. I had to live, gather facts and opinions, experience things, and form a perspective that enables my faith to grow. In hindsight, I see that I took a path filled with travail because I hadn’t walked in the Light.

Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it (Psalm 139:5–6 NASB). Even now, I can hardly catch my breath in the light of the reality of God. His power is incomprehensible, so inaccessibly high that I can respond only with praises for Him.

I was almost twenty years beyond the age of responsibility before I accepted being adopted into God’s family. He had my back through those questioning and questing years and will do so hereafter. I don’t understand love like that. I know it, I may comprehend it, but it is too high, I cannot attain to it (Psalm 139:6 NASB).

God understands penetrates beyond mortal being to the Spirit God breathed into humanity. His love, mercy, and grace are elemental. As water is drawn to water, the love God gave us seeks the reservoir of its kind in His heart. His mercy flows around us as the unworthy leaf gathers the wind that touches it; we tremble at His thoughts for us (Psalm 139:17). God’s grace nourishes the seed of grace in us that we may bear a fruitful witness for His Son.

God understands confounds the intellect. God’s ways, purposes, and plans are beyond our comprehension (Isaiah 55:9).

God really understands. He relieves our burdens and offers us eternal life. Just as a child fears the words Wait until your father gets home, we ask ourselves, Can I withstand the punishment God will rightfully give me? Will someone please take my place under the wrath coming my way?

God understands; He shelters His sons and daughters from the consequences of their imperfection inherited from Adam and Eve (Genesis 3); that shows us the depth of His love for us. We can be securely shielded all the day between His shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12). Ancestral afflictions course through our blood, but our Savior’s grace assures a cleansing: If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 NKJV).

God understands separated Jesus, the consecrated One, for service. In infinite mystery, God became human: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth (John 1:14 NKJV). Disobedience deserves punishment, not service, except in infinite, awesome grace. God is omnipotent; He would lay His glory aside. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28 NKJV). Do you understand?

God understands. His best and most encompassing gift is peace. He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by His understanding (Jeremiah 51:15 NKJV).

His understanding is immeasurable, infinite, and eternal. We may be able to identify a point of His understanding in what Moses wrote.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without void; and darkness was on face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said. Let there be light; and there was light. (Genesis 1:1–3 NKJV)

He gave us the Light before He created us, before He created the sun, moon and stars. Why? I read there was darkness on the face of the deep, and my mind dispatches a train of thought. In 1 John 1:5, we read, God is light and in Him is no darkness. Daniel 2:22 (NKJV) says, He knows what lies in darkness, and the light dwells with Him. Might this darkness be Satan? I believe Jesus saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 19:18 NKJV). Satan was at least a constant earth visitor (Genesis 3:1–6; Job 1:7), and it’s possible God permitted Satan to observe Creation.

Satan is only the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), not the Sovereign of creation. He is the god of this world blinding the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV).

Jesus commissioned Paul of Tarsus to preach to the Gentiles to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18 NKJV). Satan, the darkness of this world, has permitted power and influence in this world. God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:3–4 NKJV). The indescribable gift of the Separator, His Son, the Light, promises us that if we keep His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him (1 John 1:4 NKJV). He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause of stumbling in him (1 John 2:10 NKJV).

God understood our need to see through the darkness before we were created; He provides us the Light. The darkness of disobedience in the garden succumbs to the pure light of obedience: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5:19 NKJV).

Understand vs. Understanding

Our overuse, abuse, and misuse of the concept of understanding has taken it out of the majestic character of the Creator and allowed it as a creation attainment. God understands is so grand a revelation that it has no rival in the heart of the believer. God understands quickens the Spirit that dwells in every believer. The Holy Spirit rejoices at the received gift of knowledge to the individual that God understands. Jesus Christ, the Son, joins the rejoicing when the knowledge comes to light for those confessing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The sinner turns away from sin and through the sacrifice of God’s only Son receives grace and eternal life. But as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12 NKJV). Beloved now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2 NKJV). Believers have a clouded but not dark vision of their future and boldly proclaim, God understands!

We know some things; we may even dare to comprehend some things, but to say we understand anything apart from God’s revelation is our tower built on shifting sand.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20 NKJV)

The Greek word dianoia is usually rendered understanding. However, the translation is more accurately imagination.¹ The Son of God has given us an imagination that we may know Him. No one has seen God at any time, The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18 NKJV). Imagination is our only view of God the Father. Whatever we can imagine, He is greater than that. However, the foretaste of truth and eternal life is enough to excite believers about what they shall see. Their courage swells, their joy infects, their love extends, and they draw closer to Him.

We may be able to teach some things and be able to make some things work as they ought. We can know only that which exists; does anything exist without God? We may be able to state laws of physics, thermodynamics, chemistry, medicine, and human nature, but to claim to understand anything changes our address to 4 Golden Highway, Third Heaven. We are living next door to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We have all been part of conversations, events, and gatherings and heard words like these: We have to understand. Don’t you understand? To understand this, you must know …, and the most common question in any classroom, Does everyone understand? We hear from the pulpit, Do you understand God loves you? We read in Christian literature, To understand God, you must know that … Yes, some dare to understand God.

I recall hearing many times as a preacher reached the high point of a message that the time to convict and convince is now to come to faith in Christ Jesus or grow in faith, I know that I know, that I know, that I know, that I know that Jesus Christ is the only way. These words always gave me pause. I wanted to know what the preachers knew they knew so I could claim enthusiastically with certainty that I knew that I knew …

James 1:5 (AMP) is my standard when I am in my prayer closet: If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God (Who gives) to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.

Countless times in prayer have brought me countless portions of wisdom and peace and times of praise. My efforts to write this book, live this Christian life as a husband, father, and educator, and share His Word are founded on this great promise. This is the portion of wisdom I received from the Holy Spirit when I asked what it meant when Christians say, I know that I know that I know that I know that I know …

• I have knowledge of the One who saves then in progressive knowledge.

• I know that the truth has convicted me.

• I know that I believe the truth is meant for me.

• I know I have the faith promised me by