The Sermon on the Mount - No. 2

Key Lessons

 

Matthew 5:4 … “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

 

            In the world we live in being happy must come at any cost for the ungodly. So when tragedy strikes, they have no idea how to react, so they overreact. They largely blame God, which is interesting to me. They don’t pray to God, worship God, or serve him in any capacity, yet he is the first name that comes to their lips when things go awry. That along with using his name as a curse. As a side note, isn’t it interesting, in a tragic sense, that the name God and / or Jesus Christ are the only names of deitys’ that are verbalized as curses? Not Buddha, or Hari Krishna or Mohammed, only Almighty God and Jesus Christ. It’s the enemy’s way of marginalizing the one true God and his Son.

            Those who proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior of their life will sooner or later have reason to mourn, however, our Heavenly Father promises to both bless and comfort those who do. ⁽¹⁾ There is a very specific reason for God’s comfort toward those who mourn, and that reason lies in Paul’s 2^nd letter to the church in Corinth. Paul says: “He (God) comforts us in all our troubles so we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” It can’t get a whole lot clearer than that. Everything happens for a purpose.  Allow yourself to be open to God’s peace and comfort, for a peaceful spirit exists due to the comfort we receive from our Lord. 

            We will invariably become sad at one time or another, perhaps over a lost loved one, but though they are no longer with you, God is with you always and his comfort helps you slowly move past your sorrow into a new position of positivity and praise. Mourning is for only a moment (comparatively speaking), but joy comes in the morning and lasts for all eternity. God is many things, and one thing is he is joyful. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In his name & for his glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

(1) “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released, and prisoners will be freed.  He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.” (Isaiah 61:1-2)

The Sermon on the Mount - No. 1

Key Lesson No. 1

 

Matthew 5:3 … “God blesses those who are poor & realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

 

            Matthew 5:3-12 is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, also referred to as The Beatitudes. They were and are “a code of ethics for the disciples and a standard of conduct for all believers.” ⁽¹⁾ I will be touching on the key lessons to be learned from this sermon.

Jesus isn’t speaking to those who are financially poor, but rather who are spiritually poor. Those individuals will more times than not realize their spiritually bankrupt state and seek God realizing something is missing in their life. While financial and spiritual poverty can go together, they are not at all identical.

God speaks to these individuals in Isaiah 57:15, when he says, “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” The Lord is in each and every one of his children by virtue of his indwelling Spirit and because of his ubiquitous nature, all around us.

Living for God is a direct contradiction to the world’s values and clashes directly with them.  We are called to avoid being unduly influenced by the system of the world by living according to the standards scripture offers. It’s not always easy, but it’s necessary to please the Lord with our lives. If we do this, we will be blessed. This is not to say our lives with become void of flaws or disappointments, or even significant challenges. What it does say is that if we live our lives to please God and not ourselves we will be blessed and achieve a heaven bound future. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In his name & for his glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

⁽¹⁾ Footnote from p. 2003 of The Life Application Study Bible; New Living Translation; copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Worry Not ...

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:6-7 ^{New Living Translation}

                  Unfortunately, worrying has become an integral part of each person’s life. We have worries on the job, in our homes, at school and yet Paul tells us not to worry about anything. Seems impossible, doesn’t it? We’re all prone to worry, but Paul says to turn our worries into prayer. Essentially, he is saying the more we pray the less we will worry. 

            Jesus says in Matthew 6:25, “…do not worry about your life…” and says in verse 27, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life.” We need to train ourselves to not worry. That is most assuredly easier said than done, but it is possible, for anything is possible with God. 

            There is a definitive difference between worrying and being concerned. “Worry immobilizes you; concern moves you to action.” ⁽¹⁾ Worrying can have an ill effect on your health, make you unproductive, cause you to treat others in an ugly manner and negatively affect your trust in God. Notice nothing positive comes from worrying. Concern leads us to God and prayer as we seek an answer to the problem at hand.  

            There are many things going on in our country and around the world to be concerned about, but God is in control of all of it. So because of that truth, we truly have nothing to be worried about. Our concern should help us move in a positive direction in an effort to help others seize the day and right the many wrongs that exist in society today. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In his name & for his glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

⁽¹⁾ Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation, footnote on pg. 2012.

Word for the Day

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

Augustine

Word for the Day

“One of the enemy's sneaky attacks against the joy of our salvation is to put us in a spiral of self-condemnation.”

― Linda Evans Shepherd, Winning Your Daily Spiritual Battles

Word for the Day

 

Thoughts on healing … where does your faith stand?

Today I would like to revisit the 10 lepers, only look at it from a different perspective. We already know how horrible the disease of leprosy was from the description in my last posting. When Jesus told them all to go show themselves to the priest none of them questioned the Lord, they simply went. They showed great faith in Jesus’ authority and power. 

While they don’t have anything to do with healing, I have two other examples of faith without having specifics prior to their action. The first example lies in Joshua 3:15-16 where the Jews crossed the River Jordan on dry land. The priests were carrying the Ark of the Covenant and were instructed by God thru Joshua that when their feet touched the edge of the river bank the water would cease to flow, allowing them to cross on dry land. So the priests had to show their faith in God by doing something first before the miracle would take place. The miracle itself was a two-fold miracle, because not only did the flow of the river cease, but the riverbed was dry, which was not possible under normal circumstances. It should have been wet, muddy and difficult to get traction. * The same with the Red Sea when God parted the waters allowing the Israelites to cross escaping the Pharoah’s army.

The second example was in Genesis 12:1 when God instructed Abraham to leave his hometown and family to go to a place He would show him. Hebrews 11:8 says the following: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.” It requires great faith to leave everything you know to go somewhere to be determined by an unseen God. He had to go in faith before God would reveal where he was going. Amazing!

Therefore, my point is that the lepers had to exhibit great faith without any promise of healing other than a man’s reputation; a man they know only by reputation. Yet they went and had their faith rewarded ON THE WAY to the priest. So what I’m telling you is to hold on to your faith because it may be all you have, but it also all you need. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His name & for His glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

* The text explains that this event took place a great distance away south of the town of Adam (v. 16). The time was in the spring of the year when the river is in its flood stage and therefore wider than its normal width of 90-100 feet and deeper than its average 3-10 feet. The southern flow of the Jordan is turbulent. The ez-Zor surrounds it. This is a thicket that makes the river itself difficult to reach, and that in ancient times contained wild animals. - www.neverthirsty.org