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Sermon on the Mount

Devotions: Beatitudes (8) — Persecution

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. — Matthew 5:10-12, The Message

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-92) was referred to as “the prince of preachers” for his labors in England during the second half of the nineteenth century.

The great 19th century preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, coined the famous saying:

God had a Son that had no fault, but He never had a son that was not found fault with.

He went on to say,

Great hearts can only be made by great troubles.

Jesus Himself laid out the course of life for all of His followers when he said,

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. (John 15:20)

[Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (8) — Persecution

Devotions: Beatitudes (7) — God’s Peace Corps

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. — Matthew 5:9, The Message

Peaceable Kingdom

Perhaps no other saying from Jesus needs attention as this one in our very dangerous and destructive world. World and area events point to the need for “peacemaking.” What is a peacemaker? Can the ordinary believer be a peacemaker? The answer, says Jesus, is a resounding YES! The church group to which I belong actually has “peacemaking” as one of its core values:

We value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation and non-violent resolution of conflict.

Such peace is not merely a cease-fire or a cessation of hostilities or even a truce. While the Jewish citizens of Jesus’ day enjoyed what was called the pax Romana, an external peace, the first century Christian writer Epictetus gave this comment:

While the Emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward peace. [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (7) — God’s Peace Corps

Devotions: Beatitudes (6) — Pure in Heart

Sermon on the Mount

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. — Matthew 5:8 (The Message)

Notice that God does NOT say, “Blessed are the perfect.” Purity of heart, that is, the inner life, is not the same thing as perfection. This beatitude is for normal people who mess up, who fail, who sin, who don’t have it together, who think less of themselves than they should. “Purity” means those who seek and serve God in accordance with the truth in his Word and in the power and presence of the Spirit of God. It is not merely being sincere or honest. It is being sincere and honest before God. And such purity indicates a loving relationship with God that is both ongoing and transformative. Jesus once said that the problem with being clean or pure is not what is on the outside, but what is on the inside:

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander (Matthew 15:18,19).

As the inside world is made clean by the forgiveness one receives from God through Jesus Christ, he or she is made “pure.” [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (6) — Pure in Heart

Devotions: Beatitudes (5) — Mercy

Seven Works of Mercy (1607) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573 – 1610).

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. — Matthew 5:7

Probably next to love, no other character quality so defines God as that of “mercy”.

  • And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” — Exodus 33:19
  • “Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.” — Psalm 25:6
  • “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” — Psalm 51:1
  • “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us . . .” — Ephesians 2:4

The believer who has experienced such mercy from God now is told in Christ’s kingdom he or she is to be “merciful.” An old Puritan definition of mercy is:

A melting disposition whereby we lay to heart the miseries of others and are ready on all occasions to be instrumental for their good. — Thomas Watson

Mercy is likewise granted to those who show mercy. [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (5) — Mercy

Devotions: Beatitudes (4) — Hungering and thirsting for God

Blake, William, 1757-1827. The First Temptation —” Command that these stones be made bread.”, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54291 (retrieved July 12, 2014). Original source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ParadiseRBlake2.jpg.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. – Matthew 5:6

“Hungering and thirsting” for God is one of the principles of kingdom-living, Jesus teaches us here. We usually get what we want, and Jesus challenges us here to want God more than anything else, to “pant” after Him, using the figure of Psalm 63. In his temptation, Jesus retorted to Satan who tempted him to turn stones to bread after forty days and nights in the wilderness, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The true follower of Jesus has an insatiable desire for God, and a delight in God’s presence that the unbelieving world cannot ever understand. Religion is much more than a list of rules, or even a correct theological interpretation, or having the right church. Religion is a matter of really wanting God!

What does it mean to really want God? [Read more…] about Devotions: Beatitudes (4) — Hungering and thirsting for God