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What is peace? In our culture today, we typically define peace in terms of absence. It's the absence of noise, the absence of storms, the absence of conflict and anxiety. But when Jesus spoke of peace, he used the Hebrew word, shalom. Shalom is fullness and wholeness, not absence. Shalom is well-being in the widest sense of the word. It's the blessing of God which sums up all other blessings. Shalom is more about fullness than emptiness, more about presence than absence. Shalom is the wholeness of heart that comes from a fullness of God.

Are you seeking peace?

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Expectancy is a tenacious hope that never stops believing that the best is yet to come. In this episode we will hear Jesus tie together expectancy, child-birth, and travailing prayer. Travailing prayer is the painful work of giving birth to something new. The Bible seems to speak little of casual prayer. It's pages are filled with examples of people who wrestled with God, travailed, groaned and cried out in prayer to see God's purposes birthed in their lives and the world around them.

So I have to ask you, the same questions, I ask myself. Who are the people in our day who will pray like this? Where are the next gen students who will travail in prayer until God births something new in their school? Where are the neighbors who will let expectancy saturate their trouble so that they cannot help but travail in prayer? Where are the employees who will push in prayer till God births smthng new in their company? Where are the travailing mothers and fathers, the grandmas and grandpas, who will not let God rest till the Spirit gives birth to a new season in their family?

It's time to travail...

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It would probably be a good thing for you to read on your own all of John 14-17 multiple times as you listen to the next 5-6 episodes. These four chapters are Jesus last words before he gives his life for a world in trouble. So imagine this, you're with Jesus, sitting by a fire in a cabin, or talking a walk in the afternoon. You're walking through a vineyard and you don't know it but Jesus is sharing his last words before he dies on a cross. Most scholars call these four chapters, Jesus "Farewell Discourse." I think it's anything but his farewell discourse. These are not last words, they are beginning words; summation words maybe, transition words definitely, but not last words.

This is Jesus locker-room challenge before you go out and play the most important game of your life. This is your favorite teacher at commencement looking you in the eye and saying, "You got this." It's your OBGYN doctor, saying, "push, it's time to push. I know it hurts, but something good is coming."

I hope these next few episodes covering John 14-17, truly encourage you!