At some point in our lives, conflicts with others inevitably arise. It does not matter how kind, gentle, and patient we are, because even these traits can embitter some based on how they interpret our motives. It also does not matter if our convictions are rooted in what is right, for some will firmly disagree and become our enemies. These circumstances should not surprise us. Even without consulting the Scriptures we understand that conflict is part of what it means to live life. Yet our society has steadily trended toward the mistaken idea that conflict can be totally avoided. In fact, it not only can be totally avoided, but conflict in and of itself is viewed as bad. This leaves no room for discussions over disagreements, requests for forgiveness, or mutual understanding. What this produces is more conflict. Just because a problem is swept under the rug does not mean the problem ceases to exist! The question then becomes whether we strive for peace with those who oppose us or if we are simply passive with the thought that, maybe, just maybe, they will leave us alone. What would Scripture encourage us to pursue?
​
            We should first understand that God is a peacemaker, not a peacekeeper. The distinction is that the former puts forth effort to produce peace while the latter maintains the peace that exists. God’s character shows us why this distinction matters. Both Old and New Testament teach us that because of sin, we are God’s enemies. We were subject to His divine wrath as a result (Ephesians 2:1-3). Rather than remain idle in this circumstance, God chose to pursue peace through His Son, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:4-7). It is why Paul declares Jesus is Himself our peace (Ephesians 2:14-16). Only through Christ was peace possible, and only because of God’s desire to make peace was Christ’s coming possible. Were it not for God being a peacemaker, we would remain lost in sin and subject to His wrath. This thought alone should alert us to the importance of peacemaking rather than peacekeeping.

            In addition to God’s actions, we must consider Jesus’ teachings on peace. In His Sermon on the Mount, He pronounced a blessing on those who are peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). He did not bless the peacekeepers, nor did He encourage His hearers to be passive and wish for the best. Later in this sermon, Jesus speaks of a circumstance where you recall that your brother has something against you as you come to worship. In this situation, the Savior says it is you—not your brother—who should seek reconciliation (Matthew 5:23-24). Carefully consider what Jesus says. It is your brother, not you, who is offended. In our thinking, it is his obligation to come and tell us about our offense. That is not what Jesus says. Whether you are right, wrong, or anywhere in-between, Jesus teaches us to make peace with others to the best of our ability. That reality grates against a culture which encourages senseless outrage and constant offense, for it tells us that we have an obligation to resolve conflict no matter the circumstance. It demands courage and the willingness to confront problems head-on. Anything less will be a failure to make peace.

            Through Paul, Jesus teaches us more about what it means to be peacemakers. An understudied and easily overlooked text says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15). It is easy to assume that the peace of which Paul speaks is what we feel within because of God’s providential work. The word “rule,” however, changes the impact of the text. In the Greek language that term refers to what controls a person’s decisions. Put simply, then, if the peace of God rules our lives, then our every decision will revolve around what makes peace. That takes the matter beyond a mere feeling and places it in the realm of everyday living. Whenever we interact with others, we always choose words and actions that make peace, not conflict. That means we cannot bite back at others when they speak ill of us. That means we cannot reward evil deeds committed against us with more evil deeds. That means we cannot be passive in how we live our lives if we would have peace in it.

            We must be people who pursue peace. We cannot be passive in our efforts to have peace with others. While we understand that enemies will arise who care nothing for peace, it does not change the fact that we will do all that we can to make it a reality (Romans 12:18). It is time for us to grow up and realize that it is not about what others say and do but about what we say and do. No one can force us to think or react in evil ways. The only way that will happen is if we fall into temptation. Let us then seek to be peacemakers who resolve conflict rather than pacifists who ignore it.

The following article is from the desk of David Bobbitt, one of the men of the Madisonville church of Christ.

Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, and other ladies’ magazines all purport to offer the secret to gracious living.  Just the right colors, fabrics, and finishes can make your home a place where family and friends can rest and recharge.  Historically, hospitality and gracious living have been synonymous with what it means to be a Southerner.  Those characteristics also describe how we should live as Christians. (I Peter 4:9-10) Yet gracious living is not always as easy as it might sound.  Every day, the trials of life test the limits of our patience and have the potential to deplete our personal reservoir of grace.  The Bible encourages us to be people of grace.  Gracious living means that we overlook wrongs we have suffered.  We don’t walk around with a chip on our shoulder because of the color of our skin, a criticism uttered by a spouse, or a wrong suffered at the hands of a harsh boss.  We endure all and forgive all without keeping a record of wrongs done to us. (I Cor. 13:5)

So why is it so hard to live graciously?  The answer is simple: we selfishly demand justice.  Perhaps it is because of the nation in which we live, a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and deserve to be treated justly.  Yet the Bible has never promised us justice in this life.  Justice is the purview of God alone and we are commanded only to do the best we can in whatever situation we find ourselves. (I Cor. 7:17-24) God is God and we are not.  And because of our sins he owes us nothing, neither are we entitled to an explanation for whatever bad things may happen to us. (Lamentations 3:39) Besides, how many of us really want justice?  Do we really want to stand before God Almighty on Judgment Day and receive what we are due for the sins we have committed?

We also fail to live graciously because we fail to understand the true nature of sin as well as the true purpose of the church.  We like to categorize and quantify sins causing us to see some sins as heinous while others are fairly benevolent.  Surely the darkest recesses of Hell are reserved for the Jeffery Dahmers and Ted Bundys of the world, and not for the person who might tell a “little white lie” or occasionally break the speed limit.  Yet to God, a sin is a sin, and the person who tells the “little white lie” is just as guilty in God’s eyes as a murderer.  Some of us have a difficult time wrapping our minds around that Biblical truth.  All sin separates us from God, thus we all stand in need of God’s grace to put us back into a right relationship with him. (Rom. 3:23-24) Because we stand in need of God’s grace, believers repent, confess the name of Christ, submit to baptism, and are added to his church.  And the church we are added to is not a place for the good.  Jesus himself said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) Again, this is a tough concept for many of us to grasp, but until we do, we will probably not look forward to being in heaven with our brother Jeffery Dahmer, and we may end up missing out on God’s grace altogether.

Fact is, none of us is “good enough” to go to heaven and without God’s grace, purchased by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, none of us will ever get there.  Thus, it is incumbent upon us to learn what it means to live as persons of grace.  Gracious living means treating people better than they deserve to be treated.  We do this because that is what God did for us when he sent his Son to earth, so that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) We also do this because we know that “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matt. 7:2) Like Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, we should always try to see the best in those around us.  We should answer kindly when insulted or challenged, and not always feel a need to “get in the last word.”  Rather than leaving a wound to fester, we should reconcile quickly whenever we find that relations between us and a brother or sister are strained. (Matt. 18:15-35) We should humble ourselves and take a genuine interest in what those around us are doing.  The world doesn’t revolve around us and we should come to see others as better than ourselves and worthy of our attention. (Phil. 2:2-5) Above all else, we should be gracious by praying for those with whom we may have differences. (Matt. 5:44-46) Adopting a servant heart, praying for others, thinking of others as more important than ourselves, and accepting the opinions and ideas of others as worthy of our consideration, will ultimately help us realize how little we really know and how much we need Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In time, we will find our greatest satisfaction and deepest joy in service to others, and truly come to understand what it means to enjoy gracious living.

The following article is from the desk of Hardie Logan, one of the men of the Madisonville church of Christ.

In most cars and trucks that are not electric, there is a fuel gauge. Some people think it is one of the most, if not the most, important gauge in the vehicle. Drivers of the vehicle use it all the time to tell how much fuel they have and how far they can go. Even in electric vehicles, there is a gauge to tell how much charge you have in the vehicle. We know some things cause the fuel gauge to drop faster, like hot rodding or driving 90 miles an hour. Gauges can be very important.

What if God gave every Christian a “Righteous gauge” (R gauge) when they were baptized. After one is baptized their “R gauge” would read “full”. Basically, that is the point in which the gauge should be the “fullest” simply because Jesus’ blood has removed all sin and the Holy Spirit has made His presence in the temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). So, now your “R gauge” is full.

But then, the next day, you get back into the world. You meet some old friends; they tell some vulgar jokes and you laugh at the jokes with your friends. Does your “R gauge” drop from full? What would cause your “R gauge” to start going down? Do some things cause it to drop faster than others?

Then you miss worshipping with the saints. How many times can you miss before your “R gauge” starts to drop? One, two, ten? Is missing worship a greater drain on your “R gauge” than laughing at vulgar jokes? What about discouraging a brother? Or maybe watching pornographic movies or not partaking of communion or not giving as one has prospered?

Then there is the question of how low are you willing to let your “R gauge” go? Is it acceptable to God if you run on “half a tank” or “one fourth of a tank”? Or maybe just enough to get by? How full do you think God wants your “R gauge” to be when Jesus comes back?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

The real issue in all this is God didn’t give us a gauge. We are ones that act like we have a “R gauge” by the way we live. Some laugh at vulgar jokes, some don’t attend church services, and some watch pornographic movies. But God does tell us no matter what, we should seek after righteousness. Paul told Timothy to pursue righteousness, but Paul did not tell Timothy when to stop (1 Timothy 6:11). Do you think Paul meant for Timothy to pursue righteousness all the time? Every day?

The only real example we have is Jesus. Jesus sought to be righteous every minute of every day. Whatever God wanted Jesus to do, Jesus did it. No questions asked. And Jesus was found righteous in God’s eyes. Is Jesus your example?

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

​Without a doubt every person who reads this article has made an excuse. Indeed, excuses are as natural as breathing for most people. We take refuge in the cute and clever excuses we forge to avoid what we ought to do. In fact, we spend more time inventing excuses to skirt our God-given responsibilities than we do carrying them out. How foolish! Yet, we continue to waste our time with rationales that irritate God. Let us be direct and address the common excuses we often use to evade the Lord’s work.

            Foremost among the excuses we make is a lack of knowledge. We have all heard a fellow Christian say, “I don’t know enough to work for the Lord.” Though it may sound unkind, ignorance is usually not the issue. Dedication, however, is. Christianity is simple (2 Cor. 11:3). It does not take a man with a fancy degree or decades of experience to understand the message of Jesus. If it did, then Peter, a fisherman from the backwoods of Galilee, would not have been privileged to preach the first sermon recorded in Acts (Matt. 4:18; Acts 2:14-40). Knowledge, then, is not the issue; it is our lack of dedication.

            Another common excuse concerns reception. It seems that some brethren assume that no one will listen to the gospel, so they never preach it in the first place. Yet, the Bible emphasis is on proclamation, not reception. Jesus expects His people to preach Him and allow their hearers to decide what to do (Luke 10:16). We do not pout in the corner simply because no one liked what we had to say. Every Christian must understand that Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived, was rejected (Jn. 12:37-43). Reception is not the point!

            Both former excuses pale in comparison to the final one: “I have other obligations.” No other excuse reveals a greater misunderstanding of Christ and His work than this. Somewhere down the line we were convinced that our families and jobs supersede the kingdom of God. Yet Jesus taught the exact opposite. The kingdom always comes first (Matt. 6:33; Luke 14:26-27, 33). Nothing compares to the cause of Christ. Several early disciples forsook all that they had to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11, 28). The same ought to be said about us.
​
            All that we have stated leads us to this: no excuse rationalizes our lack of work. We might convince others with our excuses, but God knows better. There is work to be done, and no room exists for excuse makers in the mission set before us. A wise man once stated, “he that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Which would you rather be? A craftsman of excuses or a worker for God? The decision is yours.