You’re Blessed
The scripture reading from Micah reminds me of a court room setting. That God is suing Israel for breaking their covenant with him. Israel has complained that God is responsible for all the disasters that are happening. Israel sounds like many of us today when something has gone wrong in our personal life isn’t God the first one we blame, and when we realized how many things we have such as a home, car, bank account, vacations our answer is our answer is that we are bless from God, no it isn’t, it is because of our all the hard work we have done, God, he has nothing to do with that! You can imagine God asking everyone present, what have I your God done? Look at all of creation isn’t it beautiful,
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Rather, we live as if the rule of God were present in all its fullness. By the way we live, we translate these words into reality. The Beatitudes are true because of Jesus Christ; they are blessings on disciples who live in authentic Christian …show more content…
When you read this you just might be thinking wait a minute now, I am blessed when someone does this to me? Jesus explained the last beatitude more. He spoke directly to the *disciples: ‘How bless you can be...’, he said. He warned them about how difficult it may be to remain loyal to him. After Jesus returned to heaven, people told many evil lies about the Christians. However, in spite of this last beatitude that Jesus told his disciples about, he also told us that Never will He leaves us, nor never will he forsake us which can be found in the book of Hebrews chapter 13. Each principle is a key to living a godly life. Each brings a blessing from God. They are focused positively on what we should be like rather on what we should not do. They do not merely keep us from evil but lead us to truth. Because of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the people of God can have the love and holiness of God dominate their lives. We can live the way described in the Beatitudes because we know that God’s promises are not empty. God will make them happen. But this, is not a pattern for success, nor a scheme for getting ahead, solving our problems, or even “making it” in the realm of God. That’s why the Beatitudes are counter-cultural. Our culture demands success measured in money and power; the Beatitudes pose a direct challenger to that. We live in this way in spite of whatever happens
It is compassion and love that God looks for in each of us. We can lead normal lives, but yet still be a king or a queen in the eyes of God. The Hebrew Scriptures will always have a lesson for us, no matter how much our world changes, and these lessons are eternally applicable to our lives.
While the Holy Spirit enables us to be holy, this is also our action as well (p.77). Bridges offers personal experience from a time when he thought that God viewed him striving to be holy as “of the flesh” (p. 79). He then learns that this is not that case and while holiness is not obtainable by a human alone, it does require us to work for it. Holiness is not reached when we receive the Holy Spirit. Bridges describes holiness as an attitude towards life. We must have self-discipline as Christians. The book urges readers to read and memorize scripture as a way to be a self-disciplined Christian. When we memorize the word of God, it is stored in our hearts and minds and the Spirit may use that in times of need so that we may apply that scripture to the matter at hand. The Holy Spirit has been given to all of us. It is working in and through us and in empowering believer to be more like Christ. However, we are still called to be obedient, and to answer this call. We can choose to suppress it. Or we can choose to listen to the calling of the Spirit and live for
The first portion of Jesus teachings were made up of blessings known as beatitudes. Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus. The word beatitude stimulates from a Latin adjective beatitudo which means happiness, fortunate, and blissful. The beatitudes are mainly located in versus 3 to 6. According to Wilkins, “They apply in an almost, “upside down” reality and this vision that should be adhered to life in operating the kingdom life among God’s people.” If an individual decided to disobey or decided to not follow the rules of the pattern of this world, God would considered that type of behavior as an upside down life style. If you are an authentic discipline you would follow the guidelines of the beatitudes. “Jesus was looking to set goals in the beatitudes and the whole Sermon on the Mount. These goals should not be seen as impossible ideals, rather a new kind of life that strives,permeats and change lives”(Robinson, et al.).
In the Gospel of Matthew eight blessings are recorded that we know as the “Beatitudes”.
The word “beatitude” comes from the Latin word beatitudo meaning “blessedness”. The Beatitudes describe the happiness we can get from inner spiritual qualities. The Beatitudes are short passages that hold deep meanings and is addressed to everyone. Each of them serve a different purpose. They are deep interpretations of different principles. It measures our faith and trust in God. It expresses our need for Jesus and God’s guidance. God explains how things that seem to be undesirable are also blessed in a way we might not think. It elaborates the meaning behind unwanted qualities and how they can be good. These conditions might make us unhappy but God’s words tells otherwise. The piece suggests the kind of people who really are blessed. The Beatitudes is similar to the Ten Commandments. Both are God’s wishes that we hope to follow. This also contains the goal of our existence. It is basically describes how we, as God’s children, are expected to live. It fulfills God’s promises by showing a way to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a path to our inner happiness and pureness. Why do we study the beatitudes? It leaves us choices on how we could purify our hearts. This piece describes how we can live our lives as God’s disciples. It is to remind us that people who are suffering are being cared for. It helps us further understand the concept of salvation. We could incorporate this teaching in our everyday lives by praying, allowing us to have a talk with God. Another way is to simply believe in God. By believing in him, we prove that we are faithful and that we put our trust on Him. We could always instill good behaviours within us, to promote goodness. There are a lot of interpretations of the Beatitudes. Many of the passage is applied in...
The Bible shows God constantly pursuing His people and man rejecting him over and over again. This passage displays this ongoing struggle by showing all Jesus did for us and how the people still shunned and rejected him. However, this passage also gives reassurance that it is never too late to repent and accept the Lord. This passage displays some important themes of the Bible: man’s redemption, God’s forgiveness and grace, and the blessing of a relationship with God. This passage is essentially the message of the Bible in one small
In The Pursuit of Holiness the author, Jerry Bridges, shows the Christian what it looks like to be truly holy. Holiness is to live a life of conformity to God’s will. Holiness is a joint effort between God and his people, it is not something God just gives us when we accept him into our lives. Many times Christians neglect the responsibility we have of moving towards God and pursuing holiness. Holiness is not something that is fully attainable, it is a constant pursuit to be like God. Holiness is expected by God. Not only is it expected, it is a part of our birthright as Christians. God specifically calls us to holiness, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44a). God is perfectly holy. Therefore, to be holy is to conform to the character of God, and not to this world. Since God is perfectly holy we can have confidence that when dealing with us he is just and perfect. Bridges explains that holiness is God’s greatest attribute. Since he is holy, that makes all his other attributes good, holy, and just. God, being all of these things, cannot hold us to a standard of any less than holiness.
...s how Jesus wants people to live. When we act as disciples and conduct ourselves as servant leaders it honors God. It may reflect onto others the good will God gave us and lead others to him. It also gives a great internal fulfillment to help others, not because we are getting something out of it but rather that it helped someone else.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,”
The beatitudes mark the start of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and are simple statements that lead you toward the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ words have authority, and if you have read Matthew 5, you know that blessed are the ugly is not in the passage. Have no fear; this is NOT a new commandment that I am writing to you (Scripture is inspired, this article is not). What I believe to be true, however, is the message behind this phrase.
What those people experienced was something like what the Hebrew mentioned in his prayer - “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will exult in You, the God of my salvation.” What he means in these lines is that people should be able to not only enjoy God and His presence when “full” or content, but also when they are “empty” and are faced with hardship(s). The true people of faith will have the courage to praise God despite the hard times and distress. Though the Hebrew claimed to be aware of the difficult comings, he proclaimed that he will still stay on God’s side and his faith will help him overcome it. On the other hand, what the Hebrew actually wanted was for God to not only talk about his works but to “revive it; in our own time make it known.” He requests God to renew what he has done in order for it to be seen by the world’s eyes. What also emphasizes the revival is the choice of wards. For example, “O” Lord - the “O” is a symbol for an intense feeling. And the repetition of “Lord” emphasizes the author of revival which is
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.
Benner and Pennington discuss what security really is – and consider that if found in the reliance to our attachments to our ‘special’ attributes, our joy becomes conditional on whether this quality was present or not. This dependence on the special attributes gives weight to – the false self. The less dependence we have on these, the more we are able to be our ‘true self’ and experience the free life that Christ offers. It is in our courage to step into the feelings of pain and fear that being without our ‘specialness’ would invoke, and allow Christ to envelope this ‘self’ as is, that we will begin to experience more of the ‘true
The Messiah left the people hopeful by explaining how easy it is to enter the kingdom of Heaven. According to Matthew 5:3-12, the people with righteous hearts will definitely inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus inspires everyone to be humble, merciful, peaceful, and kind to one another, and he also mentions the importance of forgiveness and love several times, portraying his loving nature. Christ warns the nations to not fear persecution, because their reward in heaven will be great. Jesus mentions that Christians are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. However, salt without saltiness is worthless; hence, Christians without spiritual knowledge won’t get far in life. Christ motivates Christians to stand out by being loving, kind, compassionate; a reflection of Jesus so that unbelievers are eager to become Christians as well (New International Version, Matt.5:13-17). Additionally, he mentions the consequences of murder, adultery, and divorce. He talks about the sincerity of oaths and the importance of loving your enemies and giving to the poor. Jesus preaches about the importance of prayer because it is the way of communicating with the Lord. The Lord favors intimate and personal prayers over hypocritical prayers in public (New International Version, Matt.5.21-33,43, 6.1-5,25). Christ mentions the
Temptations are one of life’s most riveting tests or enticements that we face diurnal. Moreover, it causes us to yearn for something that we do not necessarily need or it causes us to sin. Furthermore, if we give into temptation, we may be blissful, but it will only be ephemeral. It is because of “The Fall of Man” that sin is second nature for us, which in turn makes it facile to give into temptation. In other words, as the verbal expression goes “we were born in sin and live therein.” As a result, our temptations can either make us or break us. The Bible states in Romans 7:19 that “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (King James Version). Strictly speaking, albeit we aspire to do good, because of our sinful nature, it becomes a struggle. However, it is for this reason, our nefarious nature that God sent down his son from Heaven, to give us hope. My definition of hope is “a positive anticipation of God’s promise.” It is this hope that gives us a reason to live, a reason to go on and vigor to surmount these temptations. Moreover, it is his death, burial and resurrection that gives us the hope of his saving grace. Nevertheless, despite the fact that hope is inexhaustible, temptation is inevitable, therefore, the Gospel according to Matthew 26:41 states” Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (King James Version).