Peace Seymour Weekly Messages

There are bad things that happen in this world. There are frightening things. We don't feel secure or safe in this world, because bad things happen not only to bad people, but to all people. There's wars, violence, storms, disasters, and all kinds of bad things in this world. What we need is safety and security. Our God gives us that safety and security in Jesus. We are his people, and he is our all-powerful all caring God who prot...

Home can be a tough place to be. It can be filled with tension, conflict, arguments, and strife. When you're there, you can be tempted to avoid people, keep to yourself, or even leave altogether. Home is supposed to be a happy, peaceful place. Yet it often is not. Jesus came and died and rose again, that we may have peace. We have peace with God, but also with each other, in Jesus. By coming into our conflict of sin and suffering, ...

Coming to church can be hard sometimes. We often wonder, am I good enough? Have I been away for too long? Have I gone too far? Have I done too much? Have I done not enough? Do I belong here? Will God accept me? We often can think we are too far gone. We can't come home to God, maybe like we can't come to our earthly homes and earthly families. You are always welcome at God's table. No matter what you've done or not done, where you'...

We feel like this world is not the way it should be. That's because it isn't. Our world is broken, messed up, and it feels, not quite right. Sin has entered into our world through us, just as it did through the first two people, and because of sin making a home in our hearts, we were exiled from our home with God, and left on our own in this broken world. God gives us a home in Jesus. He gives us a new home with his son, who left h...

The easy, attractive, pleasant things in life, are not the things worth imitating. The things that in the moment feel good and seem good to do, are not usually the things that we are called to do as followers of Jesus. What we want to leave behind is a life that people look back on and consider to be good and well-lived, but for most of us, that means doing the hard thing rather than the easy thing. In Jesus, we are given life eter...

Money is often times the most important thing to us. We may claim that other things are more important, and even know that deep down, but money often takes control over our lives. We live always thinking on, being reliant upon, and worrying about money and earthly riches, whether we are rich ourselves, or we want to desperately hold on to the little that we have. Jesus gives us true riches. In Jesus, we have a sure and certain trea...

We often focus on leaving behind a legacy about what we've done, what we've gained, and all our successes. We leave a legacy that points to ourselves and the good things we want people to remember. We work towards things in life that are about gaining for ourselves, rather than giving something to others. We are called to a better legacy. We are to leave behind and give to others, legacy of faith. In our lives, we ought to seek to ...

It's easy for us to think of the saints as holy, pious, better-than-me kind of people. We think of them as people who have done what we never could. People who have attained a certain status that overshadows and will always be better than us. When we think this, it's easy to become discouraged, and to even give up trying to follow God's desires for us. God has made us all saints in Jesus. All people are called to be his own. Even a...

We can often fall into a trap of thinking that faith in Jesus is all about going to church. It's all about doing the right thing. It's all about being a good person. It's all about loving your neighbor. It's all about being holy or pious. We replace faith, with works. With being enough. Doing enough. Living holy enough. The issue is, we can never be enough. Jesus is enough for you. All faith is, is trust in Jesus. It's not about yo...

Today, all too many people don't know about Jesus. We simply are ok with that. We allow that to be the status quo. We don't speak about Jesus as often as we should. We even are tempted to think that Jesus is only for certain people. We are even frightened, that it is just us going out into this world, and we don't think we can do it successfully or 'right'. Jesus is for all people. He uses all people, any people, even you, to deliv...

Power, awards, admiration, popularity, applause, all of it and more can and will go to our heads. We get our worth and find our identity in all kinds of achievements and accolades that are determined by the world's standards. Even if we do earn these things, we may not find happiness, and we also may end up losing these things, if another wants them. God loves you, not for what you can do, or what you can contribute, or what you ea...

There are many temptations in this world, to fall away from faith. It's easy to fall in with the direction and morals of the culture. To live your truth, and do what you want with your life and body. To follow cultural saviors, who speak a false Gospel. To get caught up in issues that feel like they are 'Christian' but are truly not. We all fall victim to the temptations to fall away from faithfulness, and we all do in little ways....

Unfortunately in this world, there is much pressure when it comes to our faith. We don't often like to be uncomfortable, or under pressure. We want to keep comforts close at hand. We want to live with our luxuries and things that we "need". We don't want to give up that which we like to have. Jesus gave up all that he had, that he might have you. He descended from heaven, became a human, was humiliated as a true man, suffered, died...

In this world, we often have bad examples to watch and look to. Leaders acting badly. Trusted individuals, breaking that trust. People you know or who you grew up with, giving you less than excellent examples for your future life. When we look to ourselves, we also see that we are fallible, failing, sinful human beings too, who also lead less than stellar examples for others. In Jesus, we have more than a perfect example, we have a...

This world is dark. It is broken. We must often suffer. Especially those who are followers of Jesus endure suffering in this world. For the sake of Jesus and his Gospel, we are called to live differently. We are called to live lives not for ourselves, but for Jesus, which often means, discomfort, awkwardness, pain, suffering, and even death. Yet, we live as witnesses of Christ's love. We endure what many would not bother enduring. ...