Posts Tagged ‘beatitudes’

The Peacemakers

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

(Sorry I have been so negligent to post in the past month.)


War
Since the first two brothers, our human race is one that by nature reverts to conflict.  We just can’t get along.  As I type there are about 40 known conflicts or wars going in the world.  The longest and bloodiest?  Burma or Myanmar.   War breeds orphans, widows, poverty, famine, misery, hopelessness and more war.  
Yes, I do believe war can be just and right like stopping a Hitler or ending slavery.  Just wars are usually in response to a conflict or injustice already going on.  Too often though I think we are quick to justify war especially if we are confident we are the ones on the side of right.  This is not just some anti-war post.  In fact, some of the most angry people I have ever met are anti-war protesters.  It is about another way, a kingdom way.
The Peacemakers
The apostle Paul wrote that some of the acts of the sinful nature are things like hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.   But peace is a fruit of life under control of His Spirit.  It is peace that Jesus came to give.  In fact, the first thing he said to his followers who he appeared after his resurrection was “Peace be with you.”  James tells us that peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
I wonder if peacemaking come from a root of a heart at rest.  What causes me to be angry or jealous or to have selfish ambitions?  It is when my rest is not at peace.   I respond rather than trust.  I become quick to defend my rights rather than sacrifice and surrender.  
Sons of God 
Perhaps if my heart was truly at rest, I would be a person of peace.  I would learn to make peace.  I would live, as far as its possible with me, to be at peace with others.
I recall token phrases that have been uttered from my foolish mouth.   In speaking of present wars, “peace will only come when the Prince of Peace comes.”  I was talking about some distant day of his return.  But did He not tell me to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”  Why would a peacemaker be blessed if there is no calling to make peace now?
What if my life was not characterized by something who had fits of rage or hatred or discord?  What if our homes not no discord or jealousy?   What if our churches had no factions or dissensions?  What if our communities had no selfish ambition or envy?  What if it was on earth as it is in heaven?
What if I made peace and in doing so I would be called a son of God?

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The Merciful

Monday, February 9th, 2009

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” – Jesus


Mercy
Mercy is both not receiving the justice we are due and extending gifts to the poor and those in need. Both find their root in a compassionate heart; a heart that says ‘you do not deserve this but you need it’.   
It is the cry of the blind man, the sinner in the temple, the father whose son was having seizures, the Canaanite mother whose daughter was imprisoned by demons, and the 10 lepers.   Lord, I do not deserve your healing hand but I desperately need it.  I have no hope apart from you. 
It is the act of loving others as ourselves demonstrated by the Good Samaritan.  It is what God desires from us more than sacrifice.  It is having a large heart.  It is the opposite of a heart of greed.  It is a response of a heart that knows I have nothing apart from God’s mercy and generously extending a hand toward those in need. 

Shown Mercy
Jesus gives a parable in Matthew 18 about forgiveness.  The kicker is that to the extent of the mercy we give is the extent of mercy we will receive..   (See also James 2:13 among others.)  It would be easy for me (and is) to gloss over this and think, “Hey I am covered… saved by grace”. I tend to interrupt passages like these and Matthew 25 in light of promises we have of our salvation.  And I guess that’s good so I don’t veer toward thinking I can gain acceptance by what I do.  But the assurance causes me to blow off the need, the command to extend mercy.   I want it for myself but rarely offer it to others.   I am  quick to judge and slow to extend mercy.
I recall a few years back I heard a sermon on mercy.  It was at a time when I was weighing out whether to send this guy on a summer project or not.  On paper, he had done some things recently in his life that disqualified him.  But I sensed God was telling me to offer him mercy.  I called him up and said, “I shouldn’t be sending you, but I am gonna give you mercy.”   I didn’t blow off what he did what offered him the gospel.  After that summer, he told me he thought of that every day - when he extended the gospel to others, when he faced temptation, when he might have judged others he served with, when he saw people in need .  Every day, he thought of mercy.  He saw others in the vein of people that just needed mercy and he saw himself as someone who needed mercy. 

The Merciful
I wish that story was more common in my life.  I wish my first thought was to drop the stone and grant mercy.  I wish my first action would be when I see someone in need to get off my donkey and love my neighbor.  I wish I was full of the love of God, full of mercy – merciful… like Christ, like the Father.
Lord, I need mercy.  May I cry out like the tax collector in temple, “God, have mercy on me a sinner!”  May I cry like the blind beggar, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”   May I be quick to extend mercy to others. Take my greedy heart and make it a heart of mercy.

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The Meek

Monday, January 26th, 2009

“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”  - Jesus.

Jesus continues his explanation of what it means to live in the Kingdom of God.  And He continues to flip what we think is the normal way of living… the world’s way.
The Meek
Humble… gentle… kind…   self-effacing…  unassuming…  patient… not quick-tempered…  Some might say compliant, docile or overly submissive.   I have heard it defined as ‘power under control’ like a bridled horse and wind in a sail.   In version of Numbers 12:3, it says “Moses was very meek, above all the men on the face of the earth”.  Though this version might be hard to read and grasp, I find it interesting that ‘meek’ here is juxtaposed to ‘above all’.  Meek is not above all, its below all.   And yet…
They will Inherit the Earth  
What does that mean?  I mean, I look at these promises of the Beatitudes and this seems the least appealing.  I get ‘comfort’ especially if I am mourning.  I get ‘wanting to see God’ or ‘being filled’.  But really, I don’t want to inherit the earth… do I?
Control.  We want to be in control.  I want to be in control.  Maybe I don’t want to inherit the whole earth, that’s cartoonish.   But i do want to control my world.   My family, my home, my finances, my work…  I get angry when things are spinning out of control.  I want to control traffic.  I want to control my sons.  I want life to be in control.
And yet life since the Fall has been spinning out of control.  My world will never be under control.  if it is for a second, entropy sets it.  Tonight my son my obey me.  Tomorrow he won’t.  Things in my home may work today but tomorrow something will stop working.  It never ends.  I want to control but its out of control.
Real Power
The world says that power is what rules.  Being in control, that’s leadership.  It’s staring down the opponent.  It’s being in charge.  It’s ruling and reining, not from humility but actually from the exact opposite.
Jesus says that real power is found in being under control…  in meekness… in servitude… in humility… in not bringing glory to myself… in looking out for the needs of others.   
The meek will inherit the earth.  Oh Lord make my soul long for meekness!

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Those who Mourn

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” – Jesus

After Jesus stated “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit“, he continued to lay out what living in the Kingdom of God looks like.  
Those who Mourn
To grieve, to wail, to lament… over a lose, a regret, sin.   Abraham mourned for Sarah, Jacob over his son, Bathsheba over Uriah, David over Absalom and Rachel over her children who were no more.  Godly men mourned for Stephen
Jesus wept over Jerusalem.  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!”  When He returns, all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him – the One pierced for all.
Will be Comforted
One day there will be no more mourning.  Be even now in the Kingdom, under the reign of the King, there is comfort.  He came to heal the brokenhearted, to comfort those who mourn, to provide for those who grieve.  Comfort.  He is the God of all Comfort, the Prince of Peace.  We can enter His rest.
Blessed
Do I mourn?  Do I weep over injustice?  For the unborn?  For those living under oppression? For those without hope?  Over my own sin, my own pride, my own wretchedness?  Do I grieve and lament because the world is not the way it should be?  Is my heart broken?  Do I grieve as I would if I lost a son or my wife?
Jesus wept over Jerusalem… a city that kill prophets, a city that would kill him.  He wept because they were unwilling to surrender to His Kingship…  Does He weep over me?

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Poor in Spirit

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009


“Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God” – Jesus

Jesus had begun his ministry teaching that the Kingdom of God had arrived.   News of his healing power had spread and large crowds began to gather.  The people were hoping, He was the promised King who would deliver them.
And so Jesus begins teaching about this Kingdom.  The whole sermon on the mount is about the reality of this coming kingdom and how we should live.  Even these first little verses (Matthew 5:3-10) bookend with the promise of the Kingdom of God.  But really its all about His Kingdom.
Poor in Spirit
Poverty of the soul…  To be desperate…. to realize I can’t make it on my own… I am in great need….  I need Him.  This is the condition that opens the door for God’s Kingdom to Come.  It is the first cry that invites a relationship with this King.  ”I Need You!”  ”Have mercy on me, Oh God!”  ”Come, Lord Jesus!”  It is brokenness.  It is surrender.  It is desperation.   

A person poor in spirit is not playing church or some religious game.  it is not for the sake of others.  It’s the shameless wailing of the widow in Luke 18.  it is the cry of the blind man in that same chapter.  It is the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 who will not shut up.  

It is a soul that is restless until it finds rest in Him.

Theirs is the Kingdom of God
A promise of something amazing from someone who has nothing. His Kingdom and all the glory.  
His presence, His love, His forgiveness, His fulfillment.  

Blessed.
Joy. Some use the word “happy” instead “blessed”. I like “full of joy”. Full of joy is the one who 
is desperate and understands their need for God. To them will be given the Kingdom of God.


May I be a soul that is desperate. May I realize I need the gospel every day. I am in deep, 
desperate need of You. May I be poor in Spirit!

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