Matthew 5:5

The different English translations of the Bible always amaze me. I love reading a portion of scripture in many different versions then meditating on it and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak the truth of the scripture to my heart. Many times you can read a passage in different versions and each will speak the truth but give it a bit of nuance that again touches the soul.

As we continue our series on the Sermon we move to the next verse Matthew 5:5. Read with me from these three very different translations.

"Blessed are the gentle , for they shall inherit the earth." (NAS)

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought." (Message)

"Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!" (Amplified)

"Gentle", "meek", "content with who you are", - very different emphasis in each. The Greek word used here is praus which means to be "mild in disposition, or gentle". This can be very different than simply being content with who you are. What if who you are is not meek or mild and you like it that way?

Websters defines meekness as "enduring injury with patience and without resentment" and "not violent or strong". How then can it be that being meek will allow us to inherit the earth?

Scattered throughout the bible is story after story where the Lord looked for the week in order that He might show Himself strong. Take the story of Gideon from the book of Judges. Gideon says in chapter 6:15 ...“how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” Later in the same story the Lord reduces Gideon's army to 300, just so they could not say that they had won the victory, that the Lord is the only one who could have done it.

This is the point of this b-attitude. The Lord does not want us to inherit the earth under our own strength if we try we will fail.

This on one promise of God's that takes a good amount of faith to walk out in our daily life. It requires that we lay down our pride, ego, and yes even our rights. It is at this moment in our life where the Lord will finally step in on your behalf. It is at this point when the Lord can tell you which direction to go and you will go without question.

The former pastor at our church once described it like a horse getting broke in. Only then can the master of the horse mount up on it and give it gentle direction and the horse will respond no matter what. It is when we are meek in spirit that we must rely on the master and put our full trust in him for everything. A horse that has been broken and forms that new trusting relationship with his master will go into battle no matter what is going on around him because all he know to do now if follow the command of the rider.

This is one view of the type of relationship the Lord desires from us. He calls us to humble ourselves so that He can mount up the cherubim and ride into victory. (2 Samuel 22:11) This cherub is the redeemed man. The man who submitted themselves to the cleansing fire of the Lord. (Smiths Bible Dictionary)

Dear readers it has taken me the past few weeks for the Lord to reveal this to me and even when I started typing I was not sure what it was all about. But has as I sit here my mind is flooded with thoughts and pictures of this, and how it is the truth of the Kingdom.

I pray that you too will take the time to ponder the true meaning of this powerful sermon delivered not by just any man but by the Lord or Lords and the King of Kings. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth in His words.

Circumcises your heart, turn to Jesus, He is calling you!

Who will respond?

Psalm 73

OK so, I know I am not the only Christian out there who has felt this way. You know when it feels like all the "wicked" people have it easy and us Christians are getting the short end of the stick. Well during prayer earlier this week I opened up to this Psalm and man did it speak to me.

Psalm 73 is credited to the choir director Asaph, and I think it really shows us how to command our thoughts and take them captive. As the director he knew that if he got down in the spirit that he would take others with him. He shows us how to take our thought captive and what to do with them so we do not spread poison to our fellow brothers and sisters. The key is in verses 15-17

Psalm 73: 15If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

First in verse 15, he reminds himself of his obligation as a believer to be a good witness. He recognizes that as a believer claiming the name of the Lord he must present the truth to the choir and not the rotten thought in this heart.

Second in verse 16, he acknowledges what thinking about such things is doing to his heart. Note that he says that it was wearisome and oppressive. That's what happens when we dwell on thoughts planted by the enemy. The thoughts of doubt and worry are planted to be stumbling block on our walk with Christ and a wall between us and our father.

Third in verse 17 he takes this thought with him to the sanctuary of God, where God can reveal the truth about such matters.

This is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 11:28-30, 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (NAS)

If you are like me you feel the least worthy of entering the Holy of Holies when you have thoughts like Asaph recorded in this Psalm. But friends that is when we need to go there the most. The Lord has invited you to be His bride and come into His most intimate sanctuary. It is there that He will reveal His will to you.

Please read this Psalm (Psalm 73 this link to the the Message version) and if the Holy Spirits speak to you through it like He did me you will find yourself on you knees thanking the Lord for His great mercy, love and correction. I know better understand what it means to be forced to the feet of Jesus because that is the only place anything makes since.

I hope you will read this Psalm and share with us what the Lord speaks to you. Until then be blessed.

The Ladder of Success

So, sometimes the Lord brings a truth to light through the most usual of circumstances in your daily life. The other day I was down in my office and my son was wondering around the basement getting into everything he could find (he is 21 months so what else is he gonna do, right?). Finally it was time to go upstairs to do something else. So we started the climb up the 14 steps to the top. Some days he races right up but most of the time like this particular day he was taking his own sweet time. I was eager to get to the top but he had all the time in the world. That was when I was hit with this insight from the Lord.

I could carry you to the top. it would be much faster and in the end the result would be the same. You will up here with me. I could just pick you up and bring you up to my level and it would be much easier on the both of us. However if I do that how many more time will I have to do that. No, I want you to practice getting up those steps so that as you grow stronger you can run up them like your daddy does. Yes, I am right here with you as you are learning to climb these steps because if not you might fall and that would not be good. So instead I patiently wait right here beside you for you to learn to climb. No, I won't hold your hand I want you to do it on your own. If I help it will take you longer to figure out how to do it on your own.

I knew right away that this was not just an idea I had for my son, but it was a concept being burned into me by the Holy Spirit. You see He does love us and Yes, He wants to have us with Him. He wants you to become strong He wants you to learn how to run up the stairs into his arms.

The thought of our Lord letting us struggle up the steps to Him like we were babies or puppies seems a bit strange. But look, we do that so that the process of learning will be accelerated.

Matthew 5:4

As Christians you and I have probably repented of a sinful behavior the moment we accepted Christ. Sometime after that if you're like me you missed that sin and what it did for you. You see the issue is not that we have not been forgiven and its not that we are about to give into those old temptations again, it that we probably did not take the time to mourn the loss of that old lifestyle, or that old sinful behavior. To understand this better lets take a look at Matthew 5:4 as we continue to look at the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:4 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Now I don't know about you but at a time of mourning is when I feel the least blessed. Lets look at this in the Message and see if we get any other understanding from this passage.

5:4"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you."

When I read this lots of different pictures come into my head, the story of Job loosing his family is a big one that keeps coming to mind but I am not convinced that is what Jesus is talking about here. I for one long to be comforted by Jesus. I come to Him daily and worship Him with all my heart. Would He really want me to loose everything dear to me just so I could be blessed by His love.

The answer is simple yet so hard to understand without the Holy Spirit quickening it to your heart. I see the answer as this: Yes, if what is most dear to you is your sin. You must mourn the loss of everything (most dear to your flesh) to be blessed if, holding on the sin or not mourning its loss would stand in your way of His place in your life.

When His holy fire comes to remove something from your life, mourn the passing of that old part of your life and you will find yourself comforted by the Holy Spirit who will enable you to move on and not look back. Lot's wife was unable to mourn the last chapter in her life when she and Lot fled. Because she could not mourn the loss and move on she was trapped by looking back on that life and what it offered.

One definition for mourn is "to show deep regret for something" (i.e mourning the wasted years). This definition fits with what I think scripture tells us. In this context mourning is a form of confession. In order to mourn you must acknowledge that the past was not what it should have been then the act of mourning is the confession lived out. And confession leads to repentance. Repentance leads to freedom.

So my dear brothers and sisters. When you find yourself that place where the Lord is removing the old, cleaning up the past, take the appropriate time to mourn and then let the Holy Spirit show you how to move on to victory.

Matthew 5:3

The Sermon on the Mount, perhaps the best face forward oration from Jesus where He lays before us the governing principles of His Kingdom. Most of you have hear countless modern sermons trying to bring light to these words. There are hundreds of books written on it and how it should apply to our life. So why is what it teaches us still so foreign to our daily lives. Oh sure we can recite it, quote it, give out the address of it at a moments notice but what impact has Jesus' sermon really had on your life?

Join me today as we start to look at this sermon and what it means about our daily walk with Christ. Lets begin with just the B-attitudes. Read the first one in each version:

5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (NIV)

5:3 "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." (The Message)

5:3 "Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!" (The Amplified)

I have heard this and read this many many times. And every version gives a bit different picture in my mind. So, how about you? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? The word "poor" here is the Greek word "ptochos" which means to be reduced to begging, desolate of wealth, and lacking in anything. And in this context the word spirit "pneuma" is your soul, the part of you that gives life to your flesh.

So, this is what I get from these different translations and the word study. The Lord will bless you when your soul is at the point of crying out for Him and only Him, where you are reduced to seeking Him like a person begging for a meal. Where you cry out to Him as your ONE Lord and King. It is at that point that He gives you the understanding of His Kingdom and how it works right here and right now. Not some time in the future not some time after your body dies and you go to Heaven. It is at this point that He will open your eyes to the very truth of how to walk in the Kingdom of Heaven right in this very present day.

Blessed are you when you reach the point where your soul longs for Him above all else, that is when you find the Kingdom of God.

Proverbs 3:5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this. (The Message)