Turmoil and War // A Peace Beyond All Understanding, Part 2

<p>It’s amazing how on the one hand, we head into Christmas wanting it to be full of peace and rest – yet so often, there’s turmoil … what’s going on.</p> <p> </p> <h3><span style="color: #ff9900;"><strong>The Mother of All Wars</strong></span></h3> <p>I don’t know what your December generally looks like, but for a lot of people it’s rush, rush, rush, getting things done at work, its presents, its parties, it's getting ready to have a bit of a break, its anticipation and for some people its despair. And into that special time that we call Christmas - no matter where we live, it seems to be a special time.</p> <p>December tends to be a month of preoccupation with other things, with something, and so often we get to Christmas and we’re exhausted and the whole Christmas experience can be empty and hallow. Sometimes it doesn’t live up to the expectation – to all the hype. "Why did I do that?" Have you ever felt that? You go into Christmas and you look back on that busy month that we’ve just been through and you think, "my goodness!", there’s this turmoil where there should be peace; there’s an unrest.</p> <p>Sometimes you can feel so far away from the <em>"peace and the goodwill to all men"</em> thing, that’s supposed to be happening at Christmas time. Because peace is what Christmas is all about. Christmas, as we are going to see over the next few weeks on the programme, is God’s declaration of peace with us. Peace from what? Peace from all the turmoil; peace from all the war; peace from the mother of all wars because until and unless we come to know Jesus Christ, there’s a war happening between us and God. Maybe your have never thought of it that way but at Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace. Everybody’s life has a sense of turmoil sometimes and our lives can feel like a war zone.</p> <p>We need peace so over these coming four weeks – this week and the next three weeks on the programme <em>"Christianityworks"</em>, we are going to be working our way through a teaching series that I’ve called,