Peace? or Wrath?

By Ray Deaton

Everyone is seeking peace. It cannot be achieved with drugs, alcohol, or what is promised on television or by politicians. It can be achieved in the here and now because Jesus promised, "Peace I give you" and "peace that goes beyond understanding." Peace of this world is full of heartaches, pain, and turmoil, but you have a choice. You can choose the true peace that Jesus can give, or the peace the world offers. The result of the latter is the wrath of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888329368

Book preview

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Peace? or Wrath?

Ray Deaton

ISBN 979-8-88832-935-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-936-8 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Ray Deaton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Part 1

Part 2

About the Author

This is dedicated to anyone who desires peace in this life and the assurance of peace forever after.

Part 1

Up to about the age of five or six, the seed of God was placed in my mind. As an agnostic, belief of a God never grew beyond a small blade barely breaking the ground. It remained as such until I was over thirty-nine years old. I always thought there was a God somewhere, but had little to nothing to do with people in general and the way they lived their lives. During these years, I made mistakes—some silly, some outright stupid, some good, and some not so good. The results, if good, I simply based on being smarter than the average bear, and if not, that is the way it goes. It always seemed to come out all right—perhaps not the way I thought it should have, but all right. I was still alive .

I worked hard to pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I can now look at my life and see that although I thought I was in control, just lucky, or not being in the right place at the right time, how certain events occurred beyond my control that directed me to this place, at this time, and under my present circumstances, all of this had to be in place for me to be able to have the time to write what I am now writing. It amazes me to see out of all the possibilities, all the possible decisions, and all the possible outcomes, and yet each decision provided the exact path of how I came to be here at this place and at this time of my life to be able to do what I am doing now!

I was over thirty-nine years old when I saw what God really was and his love, not only for me, but for everyone in general. I became his child and because I had very little contact with my dad, I began a study of my newfound father. I found wonderful things about him and continue to find new and wonderful things, even to this day.

I will begin with a disclaimer. It will not be written in very small letters, flashed on a television screen for three seconds, containing anywhere from fifty to a hundred words, and unless you are able to read at a rate of a hundred words a second, there is very little possibility of knowing what exactly was being disclaimed.

I am not a pastor, teacher, or any official of any church or denomination, although I was at one time a deacon of a church. I am not a medical professional of any sort. In fact, the only medical training I have ever had was in the military to identify and administer basic first aid for battlefield injuries. The following are either my opinions based on observations of others, outside a controlled environment, or what I have read or been told by others who were supposed to know of those things. I am not a scholar, and my vocabulary is limited, so the use of many official-sounding words I cannot or will not use. This is about the peace I now enjoy, how I attained it; it is not necessarily the only way, but the way, the Lord dealt with me. God deals with individuals differently. I would also like to state that as I began my walk with my Lord, there was not one person that offered assistance or any instruction. The following is how he, my Lord, dealt with me. With the disclaimer, it is now your choice—which God has given every human—to continue or toss aside this document.

I will begin when there was peace, true peace, and it was everywhere. Adam, the first man, was placed in the Garden of Eden to till the ground, and I suppose to feed the animals also there. According to what I have read, there were only a pair of all the animals except cattle, and all the animals ate plants. There were no carnivores.

Adam must have given an immense amount of knowledge because according to Genesis 2:19, Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called a living creature that was its name. If it would have been my job, I most likely would have forgotten and called two entirely different species the same.

I have no idea how long Adam was there alone, but I can only take for granted that he may have been there long enough to want someone of his own kind and to be a helpmate because Genesis 2:22 states, So the Lord God fashioned into a woman, the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Adam called her woman.

Adam and Eve lived together in total peace. God blessed and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28). Again, I have no information as to how long they were in the Garden, but I believe long enough to have at least two children, boys, and possibly several more? I say this because after being expelled from the Garden, the Bible speaks of two sons: Cain, the firstborn, and Abel. When first mentioned, both were old enough to till the ground to grow food and to tend to flocks of animals.

I have been told that the two were conceived and born after being expelled from the Garden. In my opinion, if this were true, it would mean—and it could have been the way it was—almost immediately after Eve was given to Adam, the first sin occurred, and they were driven from the Garden.

From the time that they were driven from the Garden, peace disappeared. The animals and even the ground itself was cursed and placed in a state of turmoil and rebellion. Death had also entered the world and the basic desire to covet and greed, to have, which rules people even to this day.

I say greed because if watched closely, it is apparent—at least to me—because one person has something that another does not have. There is the desire to covet or want and the greed to take it, which creates wars, murders, and stealing what belongs to another. "I want because you have got" becomes the overriding factor in