IN THREE DIRECTIONS The story of Peace is a beautiful one. It is the story of healing. It is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. It is a rescue story that pierces bone and marrow. It is a hero’s story, a marriage story, a loved and lost and found story. What happens to a child who grows up not knowing Jesus? What does that child grow up to become? Lost, wandering, anxious, searching, spinning, quarreling, hating. Conflict is the norm. Chaos is the norm. Disorder is the norm. These are stormy seas and turbulent times. Man is not inherently good. Have you ever walked a dying friend down the Roman Road to salvation? I have. It’s a difficult road to walk when your loved one, who grew up just down the hill attending church, has never owned a Bible, has never sought the Savior, has feared not God but man. Now she sits before me on her death bed blaming God. “I had nothing to confess,” said she to the Priest one week before. “It’s not like I ever killed a person,” her angry heart shot forth. The tears of God I felt, I let wash over me in sorrow, not for judgement or for fright or for anger or for might, but for silent retrospection for this place I know too well. Always spinning, never moving, one step forward two steps back. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) I heard my words say softly. It’s this first most difficult step toward peace on the Roman Road to salvation.
Introducing
THE STORY OF PEACE IN THREE PARTS
My journal entry about real and fake peace has grown very large, and because I want to do the subject of peace justice, the Story of Peace will be split into three parts. Part One will publish soon.
Cyclone Nature
There are many articles you can read about peace in worldly terms. This is not one of them. I am reaching for the peace of salvation, and for that we will need to recognize the pit of our own despair is far deeper than you or I can bear alone.
Peace and chaos dance as partners in this story made for two. What seems random though is not because justice will prevail. In this house that soon will perish it was written long ago that the water is for cleansing and for washing sins anew.
The following verse describes just how far away we are from God …
“As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of asps is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood.’ ”
Spinning in Circles
Think of a snake as a figure in the flesh who acts in opposition to the will of God … everyone basically, but Jesus.The snake stirs up a storm of trouble. He spins you around in circles going nowhere, like a tornado of your own angry energy.
When I first started writing this journal, I would imagine all the darts of the enemy as objects in a whirlpool spinning around in circles going nowhere. I imagined reaching down and grabbing one of those lies and setting it straight on the narrow path of Truth. I have asked the Holy Spirit to show me those lies and, in His strength, grab on and set them free.
Global to local
CHAOS & CONFUSION
The world is full of stormy whirlpools right now. How shall I grab just one? …
UNESCO
Every month, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization highlights one of their 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many government agencies then follow suite. The GOAL OF THE MONTH for March is Gender Equality (Goal 5). On Wednesday, the Minnesota Department of Education’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Center published their School Culture and Climate Newsletter, and in it educators were invited to celebrate Women’s History Month. The SoWashCo School District is right in step with MDE’s affirmation of global education, and so for the whole month of March, gender equality will be central.
The term, “Gender Equality” sounds like a positive goal to get behind, right? It is good to celebrate women across science, arts, education, organizing, and public life. Look a little closer at the UN’s symbol for gender equality though. Compare it to God’s design for man and woman. Does this symbol represent His duality of creation? Are man and woman made equal to do the same labor? A woman’s labor comes from a very different part of her body than a man’s labor. They are equally united in their dual purpose of creation, but their labor is polar opposite.
We can see this storm for what it truly is when MDE names Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31st as an expression of Women’s History Month. Educators, students, and community members are invited to get involved in Restorative Practices training and to pause and consider: “whose stories we center, whose leadership we uplift, and whose humanity we affirm.”
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
Gender Inclusion
CENTER, UPLIFT AND AFFIRM
This goal is an example of the eye of a storm. It is the same language as F.L.A.S.H., the gender inclusive Sexual Health Curriculum SoWashCo selected for their Health class. The image below is a representation of how, through the lens of gender inclusion, we may simultaneously see the lie of both the religious middle and the political middle. By the end of this 3-part Story of Peace I hope to be able to better define the relationship between Church and State (religion and politics) as under God’s dictation.
The enemy of God will tell you the first step to peacemaking is you.
“Peace begins with you,” or so the songs proclaim. This is false, and I hope you recognize the reptilian nature of this sentiment. The truth is, peace begins with God, and only when we accept His gift of mercy will comfort fill the soul and true justice rule the nation.
FAKE
I am more and more convinced that the work of Satan is a multiplicity of MIDDLES with many heads (spirits).
REAL
The work of God is simply a duality of opposites that are united by one core (Spirit). The core is their head as two bodies becomes one.
Now that I have defined the parameters of the cyclone nature of sinful humanity, I hope you will seek to understand just how awesome God’s love is for you that he was willing to send His Son, Jesus, in the flesh. Without Jesus, there was no way to reach peace with God. Now, with Jesus, there IS a way to reach peace with God. I am so excited to walk deeper down this path together!
Follow my Journal.
Peace is made in three directions.
I will briefly explain the layout of the story.
Three Directions
OF PEACE
There are three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and there are three directions to peacemaking – vertical, central and horizontal. In fact, each Fruit of the Spirit is an action that moves in one of these three relational directions.
God is so clever.
The Story of Peace
Part 1 – Peace With God
Part 2 – Peace With Self
Part 3 – Peace With Man
Since the peacemaking process happens in three relational directions – God, self and man – The Story of Peace will follow this same structural pattern through the next three articles. My goal through this study is to get to know God better and to get to know His intent for government better – both for the here and now on earth and for there and then in heaven.
Little School+House
WHO - WHAT - WHEN - WHERE - WHY - HOW - WHICH
I will use the 7 W’s (expanded from the typical 5) and ask seven questions that will highlight the story of peace. I say “highlight” because your faith is your own, and I believe that having a WHOLE Christian faith means reading the WHOLE Holy Bible and learning to know the WHOLE Jesus Christ. I set out to use the tool of the 5 W’s last winter when introducing “This Little School+House Review”, but my aim has shifted slightly since then. I want to focus more on the solution and let the solution inform the problem.
Dear Reader,
Jesus is the solution to every problem. If you are one in Christ, then your body is a temple of the living God. You become a house of prayer, a place of study and a magnet for followers to assemble when you are one in Christ.
I invite you to let government school problems become secondary. When you are one in Christ, God’s school+house dwells inside you. Your little HOME becomes His big little school+house when you are present with your spouse and children. Your little CHURCH becomes His big school+house when you are present with your congregants and church leaders. Your little PRIVATE school, CHARTER school, HOME school and/or PUBLIC school becomes His big school+house when you are present with your students, staff and peers.
Blessings, Jaime
Two Kingdoms
SEPARATE NOW & SEPARATE THEN
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. "
THE QUESTION I HAVE IS
How does God separate?
The recent reaction by Minnesotans over illegal immigration vs. law enforcement this January has made one thing clear. The Sword does not divide down the same line as men. The church, for instance, has been so easily divided by the topic of open and closed borders that to say the separation of Church and State is a duality of creation is just not true, or if it is then Satan has done some serious disfiguring. I don’t see any churches in South Washington County pushing back on immoral government legislation. Do you? Please contact me if you do. I can be reached through the menu bar above.
Many churches give a neutral sermon and therefore are able to entertain both Progressive Christians and Conservative Christians alike.
The temptation of Satan here is for the Church of Christ to preach to the political middle. The church that refuses to connect Scripture to culturally controversial issues today is the church that fears man more than God and the church that refuses to preach about the WHOLE person of Jesus.
To preach the Gospel to a political middle is to not preach the Gospel at all. Jesus was radical in his teaching. A WHOLE Jesus cannot be moved to the sociopolitical middle. A WHOLE Jesus has a RIGHT brain and a LEFT brain, a RIGHT arm and a LEFT arm, etc.
In fact, I think God’s process of separation is, and will be, much more creative than we can imagine. I am excited to explore the parables in PART 1 for insight on this subject of separation. There is something about the seeds and weeds, wheat and chaff that has got me drawing pictures.
Sin is a Cancer
OF THE SPIRITUAL KIND
Cancer under siege
This is an image created though electron microscopy of an oral squamous cancer cell with two cytotoxic T cells attached to it. The image is taken by Rita Elena Serda from Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine.
“Pioneering research has shown that the immune system is quite good at fighting cancer if it knows what to look for. This image shows a patient’s immune cells (in red) attacking a cancer cell (in white) during treatment.”
Know yourself in Christ
KNOW THE ENEMY WHO FIGHTS CHRIST IN YOU.
It appears that every governing body has a built-in system of immunity.
The human government is a body designed with a shield of skin, hair and cuticles and interior helper T cells. In addition to this, the image-bearer of God is a soul designed with a Shield of Faith, a Belt of Truth, a Helmet of Salvation, a Breastplate of Righteousness, a Sword of the Spirit, and Shoes of the Gospel of Peace. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
The family government is a body designed with a shield of parental protection and an interior set of moral truths, rules. and love.
The civil government is a body designed with a shield of border enforcement (Customs and Border Protection) and interior law and order (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
Diagnosing the Problem
The problem with chaos is sin, and the problem with sin is death and eternal separation from God the Father. The image bearer of God was designed to fight off intruders down to the cellular level, but the soul needs help from the Holy Spirit. Just like when the immune system is unhealthy and does not know itself from its enemy, the human soul is in bondage to its sin and does not know itself from its enemy sometimes. The intruder of the soul takes over and death ensues.
The invading cancer is like the demon. It does not intend to live in harmony with the native cells or image-bearer of God. Its intent is not to improve the body but to destroy the body.
To misdiagnose the problem of sin
is like misdiagnosing the problem of cancer.
The consequences are lethal.
The Cure
We look to Jesus for our source of peace.
Secular Symbolism of the Serpent: Modern experts of medicine explain their logo as the Rod of Asclepius, a Greek god of healing. They explain the snake itself as representing rejuvenation because of its ability to shed its skin, symbolizing the shedding of illness to become new again.
Biblical Symbolism of the Serpent: The serpent narrative arrives in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve into sin. The first time the serpent was lifted up onto a pole was in the wilderness days of Moses. God instructed Moses to lift the serpent on a pole as God’s instrument of healing for those whom He had previously punished for their sin (Numbers 21:4-9).
Likewise, Jesus explained that the Son of Man must be lifted up on a cross as God’s instrument of healing for those whom He had punished for their sin (John 3:14-15).
This symbolism is deeply spiritual for healing the soul, not just the body, for the sinner must gaze upon his sins in order to be healed. Jesus became your sin and mine by dying on a cross that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
“Blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called sons of God.”
(Matthew 5:9)
Make Straight Paths
A CALL TO ACTION
Make Straight Paths is a Call To Action for the body of believers in Christ. Encourage the Church body to teach the WHOLE faith by using the WHOLE Bible to worship the WHOLE person of Jesus Christ. Let the Church be This Little SCHOOL+HOUSE in Him.
Watch for the beautiful dance of duality in God’s created world in everything and everywhere you go. Talk about it with your children. Listen for it in Sunday worship. Underline it in your Bible reading. Point it out at the athletic field, the grocery store, the playground, etc. God’s classroom is not confined to a desk or the walls of a school. Treat the duality of creation like This Little SCHOOL+HOUSE in Him.
And if you don’t hear your church preaching the WHOLE message of Jesus (both his right and left side) then please pray for the Holy Spirit to guide your steps in knowing who to reach out to in leadership. This might be a pastor or minister, an Elder or spiritual mentor, a fellow parishioner or mature believer in Christ. Talk it out. Think it through. You and your family are students worshiping God in the classroom of His creation.
UP NEXT
Peace With God
Take another two steps forward with me on the Roman Road to salvation. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 6:23). We’ll look at why we have peace with God through Jesus, His government, baptism, the place where heaven and earth meets, the seed of life, the elect by election, and more left/right illustrations in the duality of creation.
Make Straight Paths
The theme for 2026 is “Make Straight Paths” as a way for the believer to prepare his/her heart, soul, mind and strength for the second coming of Christ. We can know how to do this by following John the Baptist’s lead who baptized sinners in the water Jordan for the glory of God. We can trust that God will go before us to level high ground, open closed doors and cut through thick bars (Isaiah 45:2).
Moses divided the water with his staff at God’s instruction. As prophesied, John the Baptist prepared the way for the LORD at His first coming and in so doing divided the Old Testament from the New.
THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION. Lord, Forge Us With Fire As A Body Of Christ – The Church!
When you are one in Christ, your body is a temple of the living God. You are His house of prayer, His school of study, His place of assembly, and His center of military training. 1 John 4:1-4 tells us we are to learn the difference between His Spirit and the spirit of the antichrist who is now in the world. We are to test the allegiance of EVERY spirit and teach our children to do the same.
Make Straight Paths
February 5, 2026