We all want peace in our lives and the place to find peace is when we spend time with God, just on our own. Problem is so many people seem to be too busy for that kind of peace.

I know you’re probably expecting me to be talking about Christmas right now but we’ve been going through that over the last few weeks. And as we head into what is effectively the last week of the year I thought we’d look back a bit on the year that has been by sharing the story of my guest on the program today, Dave Hanson.

He’s an American with an ordinary upbringing but somebody who God is using in the most extraordinary way in his role as the Vice President of International Ministries for the media ministry Back To The Bible. Now by any measure you and I would look at Dave and think, “wow man, he’s made it, he’s arrived, he has it all together.”

I’m going to ask him today about the year thats just been and we might get a few surprises and perhaps as we look back on the year we can take a moment to reflect on our story through his.

Berni: Dave, thanks for joining me. You know, I don’t know how it is for you, whether you’ve had this experience but I look back on this last year and there have been some hard things in the year and there have been some fun things in the year too. Each year comes and we have this sense of anticipation of the New Year and we don’t know what’s around the corner and some years are really hard years, what’s your year been like?

Dave: It’s been a year of a lot of growing, we’ve had a lot of growing because it’s also been a very very hard year. Maybe one of the most difficult for me as a leader of the international part of Back To The Bible, some of it relates to money and yet sometimes God brings us through those circumstances financially in ministry in order to get us where He wants us to go both as an organisation or as a ministry, as well personally.

And besides that it’s also been a very difficult year because we watched a personal friend die from cancer. Exactly the same age, we’ve had Bible study with this couple over and over for the past ten years and in the last four she has struggled and we knew our watching someone’s life on this earth had come to an end. While all of us know that eternity is around the corner for those who know Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour it’s still hard.

But it also makes us understand that life is not about this earth but it’s about eternity. And for me it’s an understanding that, as it says in Psalms that:

God is the strength of my heart and that portion of my life forever.

And as I’ve gone through these hard times and some of them have caused me to weep, some of them have been hard decisions, some of them have been areas in my own life that I’ve had to come back and ask myself, “so do I really believe in Gods strength, is He really all to me or am I trying to do this in my own strength?” and here I am having done missions now, part of Back to the Bible and been in a VP position, you’d think that you had arrived, right?

Berni: I was going to ask you that, I mean people must look at you in your home town, Lincoln Nebraska, it’s a metropolis of what two hundred and fifty thousand people.

Dave: Yeah right, a major city (both laugh).

Berni: And people look at you and you are the Vice President of International Ministries of Back To The Bible, it’s a global ministry, you’ve got a wonderful wife, you’ve got two grown up, well adjusted boys, you’ve got a nice home, Dave you’ve arrived, you’ve made it. How can you be talking to me about a hard year?

Dave: Well, you know, it reminds me of the reality that the Christian life is not about taking a cruise on what used to be called the “Love Boat”.

Berni: Oh dang, that’s it, I’m out of here.

Dave: Yeah, it’s about taking a battleship and the Christian life for us has to be about being prepared for whatever battles are before us and there will be battles. You know, I think all of us would just love to kind of zoom through life as if we were taking a cruise, we went swimming every day, sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun and all this kind of stuff.

Berni: That’s what I thought you did.

Dave: Ah no, no it’s not that way. But the realities are God calls us to be prepared for the battles that are going to come before us and there are all kinds of battles that we’re going to face because we are in a spiritual battle and the spiritual battle is between good and evil and we who are proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ are going to face those battles and so the question is, are we ready for the battle or are we not ready for the battle that is before us?

Berni: I used to look at people who were in full time ministry before I was in full time ministry and think, “well they’ve got a pretty easy life, you know, they’re God’s people and God must look after them” and that sort of stuff but you’ve been doing this for a lot of years I guess you’ve been through a lot of battles.

Dave: The fortunate part is that at least I haven’t lost any personal family members like Sue who passed away a few months ago.

Berni: Well, tell us a bit about her, I mean these are good friends of yours, you’ve known them for many many years, husband and wife and the wife is dying of cancer as I understand.

Dave: That’s right.

Berni: What was that journey like?

Dave: Well, Ralph and Sue. And in fact, believe it or not, their last name is Hanson as well, but they’re no relation whatsoever. Ralph and Sue are exactly the same age and four years ago she was diagnosed as having ovarian cancer. She actually just went in for a check up and discovered that she had a tumour and during these four years she has gone through one treatment after another. And you know it was amazing because you never really wanted to give up hope but all the statistics said there’s no way she could beat this.

So you’re dealing with that difficulty in life of saying, “well I don’t want to ever give up hope”. But unless God steps in in a miraculous way it’s going to be over as far as this earth is concerned. But amazingly to me was her faith, she never complained. You know one week before she died she attended the wedding of her son and she had to be wheeled down in a wheelchair to the front of the Church and I spoke with her as much as you could afterwards and she was still joyful, still thankful for what God had given to her and yet within one week she spends eternity with Him.

Berni: Its interesting, I’ve been walking with the Lord for twelve years but I meet people who have been walking with God for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years and it’s the people who are drawn close to Him in that time because you can believe but not draw close to Jesus, right?

Dave: Yeah.

Berni: You can believe and keep Him at arm’s length but it’s the people who have believed and who have drawn close to Him when the battles come, when the storms come, when the grenades are blowing up around you, they seem to have this peace, as Paul writes when he was on death row, this peace that surpasses all understanding, you can’t explain it, there’s no physical reason, this woman is going to die and yet she has a peace and a joy about her.

Dave: Well in the Christian life what you have to do is take advantage of the good times and you have to prepare yourself for when the bad times come. If you don’t you won’t be prepared for those difficult days, those difficult times. So we need to take advantage of the good times, we need to spend regular time in the Word, we need to spend regular time in prayer so when we hit those moments in life that are very very difficult we’re prepared, it’s a routine for us, it’s an understanding of who God is.

You can’t at the last minute all of sudden change; it’s a process of growing in your understanding in your relationship with Him.

Berni: I’m interested that you quoted out of the Book of Psalms there, I often think of Psalms, Psalms were really kind of the Hebrew hymn book, would that be the best way to describe it?

Dave: Yeah

Berni: A book of hymns and prayers. I often think of the Book of Psalms as being a book of praise but actually there are more psalms of lament and of woe and of crying out to God than there are psalms of praise. I LOVE that about God, I love that God puts that in His Bible, that He’s real and practical not some dry theological text book but people who are crying out to God.

Dave: And many of them were David, you know King David so to speak and yet God allowed us to see the difficult side of his life and how he cried out to God so that we could understand that that’s what we need to do as well.

Life is so full of risks and uncertainties and sometimes fears, that many people don’t live a life of peace. Yet, peace is exactly what God has planned for each one of us.

You know what I really love? I really love the fact that we’re all so different and what that means is that I can’t do everything on my own and nor can you, we need each other.

I’m joined on the program again today by my good friend Dave Hanson the Vice President of the International Ministries of Back To The Bible. Now Dave and I are so different and yet we make a great team. One of the things that strikes me about the man is that he has really well sorted out in his head and his heart what makes him tick.

See a lot of people are in jobs and careers, well you can just tell they’re a bad fit. Not Dave, he’s figured it out and he’s following that corn. What makes you tick? Maybe as you listen to Dave’s story you might take a moment to ponder that very question.

Berni: We’ve been talking this week Dave about your life and about your last year and you shared with us yesterday that it’s been a tough year. Lost a good friend to cancer, she wasn’t that old. One of the things, I watch Dave Hanson a lot, you know across the Pacific and we talk on Skype and we chat by email and stuff and I have often said to Dave who manages the international side of the ministry of Back To The Bible, so all these radio Bible teachers all around the world of which I am one, Dave’s job is to kind of keep us all on the straight and narrow and help us.

I’ve said to Dave, “I could not imagine doing your job”. I look at you and just think “if they offered me that job I would run a million miles”. So what’s the matter with you? (Both laugh)

Dave: Well, I couldn’t do your job either Berni. So the good thing is that for each of us God prepares us and calls us to what He wants us to do for Him because it’s all about building the Kingdom and you are doing your part and I’m doing my part and other brothers and sisters in Christ are doing their part and together the Kingdom is being built before Jesus returns and it’s a necessity for us to take that same message that He gave the twelve disciples and continue to take it to the ends of the earth.

And what makes me tick is the realisation that if what I have is so important to me and is of such value to my own personal life why would I not want my neighbour, why would I not want the people in India, why would I not want the people in Indonesia, why would I not want the people in Australia to enjoy and know the same blessings that I can have in Jesus Christ.

Berni: It’s interesting because, I mean in Australia for instance, I mean this program is heard all around the world but let me just share with you culturally in Australia, we listen to an American guy like you talking about God and Jesus and the images that that conjures up for many Australians is the American religious rights and arguments about abortion and, you know all that stuff and I’m not saying that that’s bad but there’s always this sense that the Americans have kind of, you know, going out there and whacking people over the head with the Gospels but that’s not what you’re talking about.

Dave: No and unfortunately I apologise for my nation and some of my brothers and sisters who under the name of Christianity have really kind of gotten sidetracked of what really is important and the importance of taking the Gospel of hope and the message of Jesus Christ and the message of Christmas to a world that desperately needs to know of Jesus as their saviour.

Sometimes we kind of get bogged down in some of these other things and use the Bible and in some cases use the platform of Christianity almost as a 2×4 to whack other people and I don’t think that’s what the message of the Bible is all about.

Berni: The only 2×4’s that Jesus ever wielded, it seems to me, were against religious hypocrites and His own disciples who lacked faith. They’re the only people He ever criticised.

Dave: Yeah.

Berni: You think about it and yet He hung around with prostitutes, He hung around with leper’s, He hung around with the flotsam and the jetsam and the outcasts of society and the tax collectors and He was busy telling them how close God was to coming to them through Him instead of telling them how far they’d strayed from

Dave: Well why did God send His only Son? That’s the message, the message of Jesus Christ who came as a baby, died on the cross, was raised from the dead, spends eternity in heaven, gives us a hope of eternity, that’s the message we have to preach and that’s the reason that I do what I do.

The thought of being asleep at night in our homes and having a burglar breaking in is frightening, isn’t it? I mean, imagine you’re lying in bed in the middle of the night and you hear someone in the house. The alarm, the fear, not just robbing us of a TV set and jewelry; they’re robbing us of a good night’s sleep. It’s like that in life. It seems that there are so many people and things out there that want to rob us of our peace. We can be going along just fine when someone says or does something, and it steals our peace and our joy. We need to pursue peace deliberately, to make peace a priority in our lives. Peace makes such a difference not only to our own lives but to all the people around us. And if we’re going to live a life of peace, we have to do it on purpose. We need to know how to deal with the peace robbers.

However, these last four weeks, we’ve been talking about peace. There will be no peace as long as we don’t make peace with God. Because of all our shortcomings, all the things we have done wrong, our rebellion against God, we’ve all done it with our sin. I know people don’t like to use the word sin anymore. It’s how judgmental that sounds, old-fashioned. But we’re not like that when we go to court and see someone being convicted of a crime. We want them to be punished. We have this innate sense of justice, getting it from God. That’s why we’re like that. And when we rebel against God, we deserve to be punished, we deserve His anger, we deserve His wrath, we deserve His judgment. If you’ve ever read any of the Old Testament of the Bible, it’s the story of Israel’s struggling with God. They could never live up to His standard of perfection. And so, His plan for peace happened at the first Christmas.

Jesus and God’s peace are about three things: safety, blessing us in our lives, and the assurance of His presence. And to accept that peace, we need to acknowledge and accept it until we get Him and say, ‘You know something, God, I believe You sent Jesus for me. I believe that Jesus went to the cross for me.’ God, forgive me for all I’ve done. Until we acknowledge and accept, can I tell you something? There’s not going to be any peace.

In 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 11, Peter writes, ‘Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.’ Those two go hand in hand. A few years ago, I was listening to someone speaking who challenged me in just this way to take a deliberate decision for peace. And it changed my life, changed my outlook. Peace just doesn’t flop in our laps, even when we’ve made peace with God through Jesus, even when we’ve repented, old-fashioned word again, turned away from evil to do good. The world out there wants to rob us of our peace, and it’s a big thing to learn to deal with those peace robbers—the whole world, people, their foibles, their weaknesses, failures, deliberate acts, circumstances. Things just happen. They rob us of our peace.

I’m a really organized person, have a place for everything, and everything in its place. The milk goes on the bottom tray on the inside of the fridge door on one side; it always goes there. I cannot believe other people in my family don’t put it in that place. And you know, if you’re like that, God is going to put some people around you to deal with that problem in your life. I’m an on-time person. I spent ten years in the army, and they taught us that on time is five minutes early. I am a time manager. The worst thing you can do to me is waste my time. If you’re like that, God is going to put some people in your life who are going to deal with that problem when you. All the time, there are going to be people who don’t match up to our expectations. Often it’s not their fault; it’s just who they are. It’s just how God’s made them. We have a choice. We can let the robbers of our peace, or we can let it wash by. Boy, that can be hard. Sometimes I want to pound the table and grit my teeth, but we have to learn to let some of those things wash by. And when we do that, a lot switches on us. A media light was the fact that losing my peace isn’t going to make it any better. In fact, when I lose my peace over something small and stupid, it’s going to make my life a whole bunch worse.

You know, we can storm around in that self-righteous kind of anger. And some people find this a lot easier than I do. Maybe you’re one of these naturally easy-going people. I’ve had to learn to be easy-going. I’ve had to learn that 99% of the things that try and rob me of the peace that Jesus died to give me aren’t worth it. I’m a perfectionist, but I’ve had to learn that I can spend my life in a rage most of the time because a whole bunch of the people around me aren’t, or I can get over it. It doesn’t mean that I still don’t set high standards in our ministry or in our family. It doesn’t mean that we pitch for the lowest common denominator. Not at all. It means that I have to take into my heart that when I walk in love and gentleness. I have to forgive people instantaneously even before I do things. Because I know what they’re like, to value them for the wonderful gifts that God’s woven into their DNA and accept the things that I’d rather change as part of that blessed bundle. Not easy some days.

The question is, how much do you want peace? Pursue peace. Seek it out and pursue it. It’s a deliberate decision. It’s learning to die to myself. I don’t know you, but my self. My selfish nature isn’t always in such a great hurry to die, you know. He wants to hang around. It wants to hang on to me and ruin my peace. How much do you want peace? Because just a little while ago, we looked at the fact that. Jesus came. The Christmas to this earth, The Prince of Peace to bring you peace, may peace with God. As we look forward to this next year, how much do we want peace? Are we prepared to spend some time with God every day to drink in His peace? Are we prepared to turn away from the evil stuff and do good, to get right with God in our day-to-day lives? Now behavior to actually change some of the wrong things that we do as God reveals them to us along the way. Are we prepared to rely on God and to walk in love and to not let those little things rob us of our peace?

And I gotta tell you something. When we make a decision to pursue peace, when we make a decision that says Jesus Christ died to give me peace with God and peace on this earth no matter what happens to me. And I’m gonna live that peace when I roll out of bed and put my feet on the deck. I’m going to look God in the eye every morning, say Lord, I believe for your peace today, and I’m going to do everything that I need to do to live that peace. When we take that decision, it makes a huge difference to our lives. Let me just accept people for what they are. Let the little things run by every day, making a deliberate decision. I am going to live in peace. Time when those little peace robbers come attacking me, and they will, I’ll just let them wash by. Sure, we have to deal with things, and we have to set them right, but I will accept those people the way they are. It’s God’s plan. Dying to self brings peace, dying to self. Loving other people, however challenging things might be, is something that words can’t describe. And sadly, all too often, we can completely lose sight of the enormity of that.