As we encounter 2006, remember Jesus says, 'Be Not Afraid!'

values. That isn't peace; that's escapism. That is not what Christians are called to do.

Peace is not a passive, or naive state of mind.  Only in one sense is it submissive, but that is the sense which is most important to it.  Jesus asks us to be obedient to the will of the Father, just as He is perfectly obedient. He calls us to Him and asks us to follow Him, and when we are submissive to Christ, we find that we are not surrending to fear, but learning how to conquer it.

"Be not afraid," Jesus tells us in the Gospels. "Fear not."

"Peace be with you," He says. "Not peace as the world understands it, but the peace of the Kingdom of Heaven."

These aren't just words. Jesus supernaturally grants us His powerful peace that calms us and at the same time energizes us to face the real dangers that are in the world, and in our lives. He also helps us discern, as we grow in faith, what those real dangers are.

The real dangers are not global warming, pollutants, military-industrial complexes, radical Islamic terrorists, and the host of other headline issues of our day.

The real dangers for humanity are those each of us face within ourselves: self-centeredness, anger, jealously, callousness, greed, lust, gluttony, pride and sloth. The taking for granted of God's great gifts to us. And the worst danger is fear.

Someone once quoted FEAR as an acronym: False Evidence Appearing Real. 
It is one of the wisest things anyone has ever said. When we have fear it is because we are misinterpreting the data, or allowing others to panic us through their own misinterpretation.

In his recent novel, "State of Fear," author Michael Crichton includes a passage where one of the characters has this remarkable quote:

"Has it ever occurred to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialized nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health and comfort. Average life spans increased fifty percent in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over things they can't see - germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful and depressed. And even more amazing they are convinced that the environment of the entire planet is being destroyed around them. Remarkable! ... Everything is going to hell, and we must all live in fear."

Doesn't this just about sum it up?

Are there real dangers in the world? In your town? Sure.

Is the world going to end tomorrow? There's a slight chance, perhaps, but the overwhelming odds are that you are going to live another day, maybe a whole lot more of them. Are you a more functional or less functional human being because you worry and fret?

More importantly, what would Jesus do? What would He say? "Who can add a day to their life by worrying about tomorrow? ... Let today's troubles be sufficient for today."

The year 2006 may well pose considerable challenges for Christians in the world. We expect it. The trends are not good. What was once unthinkable - that Christians would have to struggle to maintain the practice of their faith in the once faith-friendly United States - is now a concept forced upon us. There are signs in nature, in the body politic, that God's favor and patience with our nation may have reached its logical end, given our failure to reach out and re-evangelize our culture.

But whatever that means, for each Christian individual it is not a time to fear. It is a time to accept the peace of Christ which is both calming and energizing, a source of joy and of confidence.

Let's meet 2006 as Jesus would have us do: "Fear not!"

                                        By Dave Jones
As the final hours of 2005 tick down and 2006 arrives, it is my fervent wish - no, make it fervent prayer - that your new year bring you something that may have eluded you previously. Something vital; that is, something that restores life, joy and a sense of worth. It is an intangible in this world, a spiritual value for which many claim to aspire and few possess.

It is peace.

Peace is not something we experience a great deal. In this anxious, fearful world we are confronted daily, sometimes hourly, with the cares and concerns of the entire world.  Perhaps more today than at any other time in history we have access to the data stream - we call it the "news" - of reports from across the globe, a never-ending 24/7 of mostly bad tidings.

Is there more bad news today than in the past?

Probably not. But there are more reporters in more places and a great deal more ways to transmit that bad news to you, and fast.  Where news was once words and the occasional picture, now the bad news comes at you in living color, live via satellite or freshly edited videotape.  The demand for instant news is great, or at least the operating theory is that fresher is better, so there is less time for third party editors to study the news, ask questions, or even understand what it is they are broadcasting or publishing.

For it is a competitive business and to compete successful must captivate viewers. It is not easy to capture an audience with the subtle nuances of Mideast diplomacy or why water treatment systems may be winning a war, or the true roots of famine in Africa.  Those stories can be found in scholarly journals that are read by a select audience that will pay for them. What sells is sex and violence, and fear sells best of all.

Fear of war. Fear of destruction. Fear of disruption and inconvenience in life. Fear of rocking the boat. Fear of loss of freedom. Fear of the unknown.

If you can get people to worry about how a roadside bomb in Afghanistan might affect the price of coffee next Saturday in the local supermart, then you are a successful journalist. If you unnerve a sufficient number of people, you can alter markets. Witness the price of gasoline last fall as Katrina and then Rita hit the Gulf Coast. The futures market (comprised of experienced, savvy energy buyers and sellers) panicked itself into driving the future price of a barrel of crude to record heights. Bottom line: the people who act in the market are, after all, just people. They react just as you or I react when we are uncertain. They created a demand for a product based on a perceived possibility that supply would be scarce.

And millions of people paid $3-plus per gallon for a few weeks. Until the truth of the situation became apparent and the futures jitters settled.

This is just one example among thousands of individual reports and stories that are aimed, with negativity aforethought, straight at the hearts and minds of billions across the planet.  The emotional impact on the average human heart is considerable, although repeated shocks dull the senses and lead one to become discouraged, saddened and afraid.

If this is not the plan of Satan, the prince of liars, and a deceiver from the beginning, then it is a devishly good imitation. It could not work better with his plans. And what are his plans, you might ask? Well, to obstruct and derail, as much as is in his power yet to do so, the Will of God and the salvation of humanity through Jesus.

But Jesus has a plan too. It involves total cooperation with the Divine Will of the Father and the working of the Holy Spirit. The plan of Jesus involves inviting us to partake of His peace.

Peace is not the absence of war, although that is certainly a good thing when it happens, which isn't often.

Peace is not some nirvanic serenity achieved only by those who meditate in far-off places, like mountaintops or primeval forest