Sermon Illustrations: Peace

You can purchase sleep from the chemist but you can't purchase rest.

Australian Bureau of Statistics stats for 2002: 318 murders, 396 attempted murders, 159,548 assaults, 17,850 sexual assaults, 696 kidnappings / abductions, 7,817 armed robberies, 292,769 unlawful entries with taking of property, 344 cases of blackmail / extortion. In 1997 there were an estimated 74,000 dependent heroin users.

Nicholas Ridley (1500 - 1555) had been condemned to death for his faith. The night before, his brother offered to stay with him in prison. Ridley said that he planned to sleep as well as usual. The next day he encouraged another Christian who was being executed. "Be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it." They knelt and prayed next to the stake, talked briefly, then were burned.