Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

It was World War I - Christmas Eve. The German and British soldiers were dug in just hundreds of yards apart. But it turned out to be much more than just another tense and violent night on the battlefield. It began when one German soldier began singing "Silent Night" from his trench. Soon he was joined in German by many more of his fellow soldiers. Amazingly, the voices of hundreds of British soldiers began to join in the carol from their trenches. Now that must have been a moment those soldiers never forgot - opposing armies singing "Sleep in heavenly peace" - in the middle of a battlefield.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and on this Christmas Day, I'd like to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Battlefield Peace."

It's good to remember this day that we celebrate Jesus' birth - no one has the power to bring peace in the midst of a battle like Jesus does. And that hope seems more important than ever in our world right now - a world that is feeling more and more like a battlefield.

Not to mention the unsettling battles in our own lives - battles which sometimes are actually amplified by the joy of the Christmas season - that strained relationship, the broken relationship, the loneliness, the uncertainties about the future, or the emptiness on the inside that makes us feel like an attractively wrapped present with not much inside. For some of us, not even Christmas can tame the battlefield in our own heart.

Of course, peace is part of the promise of Christmas - the angels who announced Jesus' birth said He would make possible "peace on earth to men on whom His favor rests" (Luke 2:14). It wasn't so much political peace they were talking about - it was personal peace, inner peace - the kind that has eluded some of us for so long. It's a peace you may be ready for - and wouldn't it be incredible if you could finally experience that peace this very day - this Christmas day!

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God, that peace is actually a Person. God says we were "without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace."

That peace is actually the bringing together of you and me with the God that we're away from. All our running of our own life, all the wrong things we've done have left us far from the God whose love we were made for. So there's never really any inner peace - until we let Jesus bring us home to Him. It took Jesus dying on the cross to pay for all of your sin - but because He did, He made it possible for your war with God to end - for you to finally experience that awesome feeling of knowing that you're at peace with your God.

If you've never actually placed your life in the hands of Jesus, this Christmas Day would be a wonderful time to open the door of your heart to Him. Tell Him you want to belong to Him from now on. And if you want to begin this love relationship with the Man who died for you, I'd love to send you the booklet, "Yours For Life." I wrote it to help people get started with Him. Just let me know you want it.

From this day on, you can have that "heavenly peace" on that battlefield in your heart. Have a very special Christmas.

---

Share or Bookmark This Page