Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5: 13"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Wow! Fellow Christians this is a mouth full. Look, the keys to the kingdom are here in these few verses. You can read pages and pages on how to live a good, successful, even fulfilling Christian life or you can grasp the simple truth Jesus gives us in these 4 verses.

Lets start with being the salt of the earth. If any of you bake or cook you know that even a pinch of salt makes the flavors increase in just about anything you are making. Want to make something a bit sweeter and a pinch of salt. Want to bring out the flavor in a nice steak, add a pinch of salt. Look around you at what God is doing. What part are you to be, inorder to be that pinch of salt. Jesus himself said I must be about my fathers business. Then we too must be about His business. We must be the salt in His perfect recipe. I for one don't want to be cast aside by God because He thinks I have lost my usefulness.

How then are we to be a light? Jesus said I am the light. How then can we be a light? We do what He did. We share with others the love, grace, mercy and compassion that He shared with us. We do for others as Jesus did for them. We correct them when they are wrong we heal them when they are sick, and we feed them when they are hungry. The Holy Spirit is with us to help us establish the kingdom of God in men's hearts, if we will just follow his lead. We lead them to the Lord and He leads them to repentance. Christianity Confesses is just the beginning of this process. We are here to help men confess their sin and lead them to repentance. Christian confession is just the first step once we recognize that there is sin in our heart and life. Therefor be the light to the world take the confession of a brother or sister and pray to the Lord and help lead them along the path of true repentance that they may be saved.

In this day we are called, as many were so long ago, to be a voice crying in the wilderness "Repent, Prepair they way of the Lord." This cannot be done alone in your room, or even just in your prayer closet you must put your voice on a hill top and not under a basket and declair the Lord's work in men's hearts. That is what it means to be a light. Be generouse with your love and the Lord is with His love of us.

Remember we must be about our fathers work.

The Omega Generation

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Cain and Abel one perspective

Genesis 4 1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

There are many perspectives on the story of Cain and Abel. Many sermons have been preached on Cain's offering vs. Abel's offering. So, when I read this passage about a week ago I was surprised that a different perspective jumped off the pages of my Bible at me.

First off notice, in verse 3, Cain is the first to bring a offering to the Lord, then Abel. I also want to point out that at this point in scripture (reading front to back or chronologically) we are not told to the reason the Lord rejects Cain's offering. Except for this one point, we are told that Cain brings SOME of his crop, but Abel brings the BEST of this flock. This is were most teaching on this stops and jumps strait to Cain's murder of Abel. If we stop at this point though we have missed the rest of what the Lord wants to show us, the Lord also reveal to us a warning that is so pointed and relevant to today.

From the end of verse 5 - 7 we see what the Lord wants to deal with Cain's reaction to His rejection of the offering. Look at what the Lord tells him, "if you do what is right you will be accepted." Oh man, you mean it is possible that the sin was not just in what Cain brought as the offering but more so in his reaction to the Lord's rejection of that offering. I know this flies in the face of much church doctrine on this topic but bear with me for a moment. Cain's sin was not just the offering he brought but that he got mad at the Lord for rejecting it. After all he was a farmer and he brought a offering from what the Lord gave him to do. (Hang in there I am not focusing on why the Lord rejected Cain's offering in this post, in order to prove a different point.)

Has that happened to you brothers and sisters? Did an offering you brought before the Lord get rejected? You know He is a sovereign Lord and He has the right to reject anything He wants, and just because we think a offering should be accepted doesn't mean it has to be. I recently went through a period in my life where I knew that I knew I was doing the Lord's work. Work that He ask me to do and the way He asked me to do it. But as time passed the Lord rejected that work. The reason he rejected it is not the issue at this point and a topic for another time. He has the right to reject or accept anything He chooses He is the Lord, King of Kings. If He should decide he does not want to accept something who are we to tell Him that He has to?

Cain bigger problem was that he got offended by the rejection of his offering, sound familiar? Truth is rejection hurts and we don't like it, especially if think it was the best gift we had to offer. He still had a chance to be accepted by the lord if he would react correctly. How then are we to react when the Lord rejects our offerings to Him? How are we to react when the church or ministry rejects our offering, or help work prayer or even revelation knowledge? What would have been the correct response for Cain? What was the right thing for him to do and then be accepted by the Lord?

Might I propose that the right thing to do is also the hardest for us most of the time. Worship the Lord even if He rejects your offering. Later in Deuteronomy we read that the Lord does not really even want our burnt offerings any more but our hearts. So even the Abel type offering gets rejected by the Lord at some point. The offering the Lord really wants is you. All that you are.

Observing wounded Christians I see, this is what has happened to them. They got rejected by someone or for some reason by the Church body and now they are not doing the right thing. Dear friends if this is you, like God told Cain "sin will come your way and you must subdue it." I know this is a hard message and if you are currently in the position Cain found himself this message is not one you want to accept, but I urge you to come back to the Lord worship Him because He is Lord. Not because He accepted or rejected your gift but because He is the King who reigns on High.

- Lord I pray that if these words reach one, who like Cain, is angry with you because you exercised your sovereignty. Then send your Holy Spirit ahead of the words and prepare their heart to accept your love and fall at your feet and worship you. You rejected the offering not Cain himself. And though you sometimes reject our offering to you, you love us and are calling us back to you. Heal the wounds cause by rejection, strengthen us in your love, that we may come back to you and do what is right.

Amen.

Lord do you love me?

I received this e-mail today that I thought I needed to share. We often find ourselves in the midst of assault on our faith and find ourselves asking "...Jesus, if you hear me, if you love me, I need to hear from you."

This is a dangerous place to walk. Please, if you are feeling this way I hope that this brief testimony will remind you that He does in fact love us.

"In Oct of 2008 I was on a recruiting trip trying to gather teachers willing to come to a little known corner of my state for work. I was hurting in many ways. My leg hurt as I needed a knee replacement and I was walking with a cane. My back hurt, I was short of breath and sure that I was at 61 useless and not wanted. As a sat in the big room I had a pity party for one. I did
not think anyone would come to the table that day and I would be alone and blue all day. I said a little prayer to Jesus, that if he loved me, please, send someone to my table. Within five minutes one of the other presenters came over and said, "I hired you once." I did not recognize the man but said that I had not moved around much in by 38 years in education. He said that
he had hired me many years ago to do an in-service program for him. I remembered going to that little town in the north west of our state. He asked where I was working and what I did. I told him. He then asked if I would like to move closer to home. I said that I was an expensive employee and I couldn't move for less pay. A month or so later he asked me to come and interview for a position with his group. He offered me $4000. more than I make. He offered to pay mileage to and from my job, pay for health insurance and retirement. I have looked at the school where I'll be and I thank God for sending that man to my table on that day. Now I can live at home and be with family every evening. God is really good all the time and has special plans for us. Thank you God for your blessings." -- anonymous.

Thank you for your time to read this testimony. I hope it reminds you of the Lords love. Who knows if the next time the Lord tells you to go up and talk to someone you might just be the answer to someone's prayer. The sad reality is that if you have ever prayed this and it seemed like the Lord did not answer perhaps it was because the one He wanted to use to answer your prayer was disobedient to His call. Will you respond when the Lords calls you into action?

-- Blessings

Matthew 5:10-12

As we conclude the Beatitudes part of the Sermon we get to what is perhaps the least favorite one. Think about when you last read Matthew 5:10-12. Did you hear yourself saying something like, "good to know but I hope it does not happen to me". If you did you are not alone, but that does not make it the correct response. Lets read it now in both the NASB and Message versions.

Matthew 5:10"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

12"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (NASB)

Some key words in this version are: righteousness, persecution, falsely, reward, and Me (Jesus). We will look at these words closer in a moment but first let continue and read the Message version.

Matthew 5:10"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

11-12"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. (The Message)

Some corresponding key phrases in this version are: commitment to God, drives you even deeper, speak lies about you, trouble.

Lets begin now and look closer at Matthew 5:10. What righteousness, mine or Jesus'? Is that the same as commitment to God? I looked up the Greek to try and understand this better and see if the Spirit would show us something from it. The word in this passage for righteousness is "Dikaiosune". And simply put righteousness is a state or condition that is acceptable and pleasing to God. This is impossible without the blood of Christ. In the Message version the corresponding phrase is "commitment to God". A commitment to God does not put us in a state of righteousness acceptable to God. However, it takes nothing less than a complete commitment to Christ to receive the cleaning of His Holy blood and His righteousness.

When we look at Cain and Abel both of them were committed to God, but only one as acceptable. Cain was committed to God because he wanted to bring Him an offering but when his offering was refused Cain's response to God's rejection of his offering caused him to fall to sin. This is just one example of where only having a commitment does not bring about righteousness.

Now persecution is something none of us want if we are honest with ourselves. It is simply no fun. But the Message version states something very key to what this persecution does when we do encounter it. If, unlike, Cain we respond correctly it will drive us deeper into our relationship with the Lord, and deeper into His kingdom.

Before I talk about Matthew 5:11 let me make a point of fact. The key words in this verse are falsely and lies. Now, if what people are saying about you is true, then you may need to examine your own heart and see if you are truly representing Jesus by your words and actions. But this verse refers to when you are being persecuted and false things are being said about you because of Christ or in order to discredit God. The Message version elaborates a bit more to explain why people do this when the truth is staring them in the face. And I think it states it really well. "What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable."

Brothers and sisters. If this is you, and you are being convicted then take this opportunity now to ask the Lord to forgive you. We have all heard the saying, "Pride comes before the fall", and I would hate to think that any of you is willing to take that fall.

Matthew 5:12 is a word of encouragement. Jesus wants us to know that we are not alone when this happens to us. And that we should not expect to be free from it either. Instead, be of good cheer, because many saints before you have been treated this way. Too many to name here. Even Jesus was falsely convicted because of His willingness to follow the Father and only speak truth. How could we servants think we would escape the treatment our master received?

I pray that this somewhat slow walk through the Sermon on the Mount is blessing you, and causing you to seek the Lord deeper than you have before. I feel like His invitation to all of us this year is to come another step (perhaps more if you dare) closer to Him. Allowing Him to continue the work He started in you.

Blessings.