Peace or Shalom?
While visiting Israel many years ago I discovered that the term Shalom can be used both as a greeting and a salutation. I thought shalom simply meant peace but it has far stronger implications.
Peace implies a lack of conflict in English, and that is a very good thing. However, shalom means that plus much, much more.
Prosperity
Health
Wholeness of life
Abundance
Vigor
Resilience
Forgiveness of sin and guilt
Mercy
Grace
So, when Jesus sent out the 72 as lambs among wolves what did He mean when He said for them to bless the homes and businesses with shalom?
Was the focus on a cessation of conflict or more than that?
Did He really expect the wolves to receive forgiveness, mercy, grace, prosperity and all the good things of God? Is that reasonable?
Did the strategy work? (A hint: read on and see what happened.)
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment