Blessed Man 11

 ^“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

Reading this verse in preparation for this writing, I was convicted by the Holy Ghost. I was living in fear. Now, those who have read my blog know I don't mind being called a narrow-minded racist, homophobic, right wing nut. Truth be told, I revel in that label. Why not? By modern definitions; it's true. I'm not afraid of labels.

What I've been afraid of is my tendency to react violently to unjust and false criticism. That kind of reaction is not only improper for a Christian, but has gotten me in trouble more than once. It affected me to such a degree that it was difficult for me to go to work everyday lest my quick response to some idiot got me in hot water. At work, I lived constantly on guard and avoided doing anything that was not absolutely necessary. Our “Thou shalt not offend” culture had me on the run. No more. I have no intention of backing away from my opinions or my beliefs. Jesus offended many of the people who opposed Him. I simply hope to emulate His ability to “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” That is, I'm trusting the Holy Spirit to teach me to reply politely. It's a tall order.

Our society is crowded with fools, hypocrites, and whining children plagued with an entitlement world view. The rest of us cannot change that. However, there is a chance that God may save these people if they are left in His capable hands. The old folks called it “giving them enough rope to hang themselves.” The Bible puts it this way: “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself. “

Give the revilers to God—He may not want them either, but He's their best hope. This is the response of the man who is blessed by God. Living right will bring persecution, that's a given, the response to unjust criticism is up to us. Blessing awaits a wise answer.

Blessed Man 10

 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." In God's design, living creatures produce after their own kind. Dogs do not spontaneously produce cats; they produce other dogs. Producing after one's own kind is a tiny portion of the nature of God that is instilled in His creations. As God desired man to be His closest form of fellowship, He made man after His likeness and in His image. God is a peacemaker.

From the foundation of the world, God worked out a peace plan to rescue man from the possible ill effects of man's free will. Even as God cursed man for rebellion, He unveiled His plan for reconciliation. When man became so corrupt that it repented God that He made man, Noah found peace with God. But peace did not come by Noah's efforts; it came by God's grace. Through the Prince of Peace, God has extended grace and peace to all men. God has done everything to secure peace for man except force man to accept peace. This He will not do.

Jesus urged His disciples to bless when cursed by our fellow man. He asks this because this is what He has done daily since the world began in an effort to make His peace known. Peace on earth, good will to men, is not some holiday greeting card sentiment. It is the mission of Jesus Christ. He has committed this ministry of reconciliation to His followers.

If the followers of Jesus appear narrow minded, and uncompromising, it is with good cause. God does not make peace by compromise; He does not negotiate; nor does He appease His enemies. When it comes to peace God declares, "This is the way, walk ye in it." His children can do no more and no less. Behaving after their kind, Christians are to imitate God as peacemakers extending the word of reconciliation that comes from above.  

Blessed Man 9

 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." I am out of my element more here than anywhere else in the kingdom of God. If you've ever watched the television program Finding Bigfoot, you may be familiar with my predicament. The hunters are convinced Bigfoot is out there. They have seen his footprints and heard his call. However, the creature always remains just out of sight and reach of his pursuers. Purity of heart eludes my grasp in much the same way. I've seen purity; I've heard it; I've even lived alongside it, but I cannot capture it for myself.

Skeptics say that Bigfoot hunters want to prove its existence so badly that they see Bigfoot behind every tree or hear Bigfoot in every rustling of the wind. The skeptics may be right--or perhaps they are simply blind to all with which they disagree. The pure in heart are blessed with the gift of seeing God in everything and everywhere they look. The pure in heart are life's ultimate lemonade stand operators.

The pure in heart have a single true love that comes before all else, is manifested in complete obedience, and for which all else is sacrificed. Their one love is God and they see God operating in them at every turn. Don't get me wrong, I love God: I have made sacrifices for God, but I still catch myself doing stuff just for me and when I do happen to stop and think about it; it's likely I didn't consult God to start with. I regularly find myself scratching my head wondering, "Where's God in all this?" As for complete obedience--let's not talk about that.

The scripture says that to the pure all things are pure, but to the vile and the unbelieving is nothing pure. That puts me at an embarrassingly low place on the purity scale. In the normal course of a day people lie to me; try to manipulate me; threaten me; cast aspersions on my skills and generally endeavor to blow smoke up my behind. When someone tells me that there is good in everyone, I'm quick to reply that they haven't met everyone.

In keeping with their singleness of purpose, the pure in heart are congruent in thought, word, and action. Which is to say, they not only walk the talk, but their thinking agrees 100% with where they are going. In the pure of heart there is no guile; what you see is actually what you get. Purity of heart has no place for hidden agendas, or ulterior motives. The truth is their rock--whatsoever they think, that they say and do.

Most people are afraid to admit that we treat the truth more like clay to be shaped to suit our purposes or constructed to fit the need of the moment. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is not what lawyers are after in court, but it is the way the pure in heart answer every man. " But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. "

Blessed Man 8

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." On the surface, this seems simple and self-explanatory. So, it is. However, for those who hunger and thirst, there is always more to God than what appears at the surface. His thoughts are eternally deeper and higher than ours. Regardless of your belief, disbelief or standing with God you will be blessed if you so much as pick up the Bible and look through it. If in distress you cry to God, you will be answered. If you tithe or give to God, you will be blessed. He sends rain and sunshine on both the just and the unjust. But, that is not the kind of blessing we are talking about here.

Jesus used the words "hunger" and "thirst" with specific intent. Though 

wanting to be righteous is a good thing, He is not talking about satisfying wants here. He is talking about filling a need. Men must have food and drink to live more than a few days. We may not quite understand hunger in America. 

Despite the bashing he took for it, Phil Graham was right on the mark when he said America is the only place where the poor are overweight. Most 

Americans do not know real hunger; being without food for a week is not the same thing as wanting a cheeseburger. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in 

America. I'm saying that in some parts of the world hunger is the norm.  

Jesus is talking about wanting Him; hungering and thirsting for His 

righteousness to the degree a starving man must have bread. Seek the word 

and presence of God like a man on the brink of death. Seek righteousness like you will die without it. Without the righteousness of God that comes from His word and prayer, you will die as certainly as the man with no food or water.  

Consider the starving man. He is filled with joy to receive a crust of bread. At 

the same time, he is neither full nor satisfied by one bit of food. He wants his belly and his cupboards full of good things to eat. How sad that people are so 

easily satified with one verse of scripture; one prayer; or one childhood of 

church. The storehouse of God is overflowing. Pass close by and you will be 

touched by a blessing. Hunger and thirst after God and you will be filled.  

"O, taste and see that the Lord is good." 

Blessed Man 6.1

 “ Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” What virtue is there in mourning that it should commend a person to God? Mourning seems like such a selfish act. Mourning is all about the sorrow experienced by the mourner; it is self-directed. There's nothing wrong with that. Mourning is the first stage of healing. People need to mourn, but where is the blessedness in doing so?

God is touched by the act mourning. We are designed with the capability to mourn and cursed with the necessity of it. God cares about our sorrows. However, the weight of blessedness rests in the object of our mourning; not in the act itself. What you mourn the loss of is vitally important.

Have you lost a loved one; your home; your job? God cares. All of these are traumatic losses. Behind all of these is a greater loss. We have lost the divine fellowship for which we were created. Sin has separated us from God and is behind every loss we suffer. There is no comfort from the pain of life apart from God. Without God we stumble from loss to loss until even life is lost to us.

We are the cause of our own suffering, but we are also the cure. That is, God has provided a cure; a means of reconciliation with Him. We have only to apply the balm to the wound. In salvation, there is comfort for the losses inflicted upon us by sin. They who mourn the effects of sin will be comforted with new life.

The world will not become a peaceful garden again because a man ceases to sin. The world will continue to suffer the effects of sin. The difference is that he who mourns for the sorrow inflicted by sin will be comforted in the midst of the devastation and heartache that spins around him.

“ This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. “

Blessed Man 7

 "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." This idea of meekness is the antithesis of the Saturday westerns I grew up watching. It is about as foreign a notion today as is death-do-we-part marriage, that is it gets a lot of lip service good and bad, but few practice it and fewer still believe in it. Nevertheless, the meek will endure long after the mighty have fallen. This will shock everyone, but the meek for whom the question was never in doubt. The reason this will come as a shock to so many is that they have the wrong idea of what constitutes meekness. Most people believe meekness is synonymous with weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth. The meek possess a strength greater than any weapon arrayed against them. The advance of the meek cannot be turned back by violence, persecution or the threat of death.

Submitted for your approval, a case in point. Three meek young men living in exile under a tyrant are commanded to bow down and worship the king's image every time they here music. This law is contrary to the young men's faith. The three quietly refuse to obey and they are subsequently arrested. Because the are meek there is no complaint from the three. They refuse to call for waving of flags; protest marches; or riots in retaliation for their arrest. The three are allowed to speak in their defense. They offer nothing except their faith and are condemned to death by fire. They are marched to their execution without protest or apology; still steadfast in their faith. The three young men are thrown into the fire, but they will not burn. The king orders their release from the fire and rescinds the law. Meekness triumphed over might. Now, the king in our story becomes very famous. However, his fame cannot compare to that of the three young men named: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You may know them by the names immortalized in the Book of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Peter struggled to learn the quality of meekness. Perhaps that's why he described it so well when he wrote: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God...For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously..."

The meek aren't looking for applause or admiration. Neither do they seek vengeance, speak threats, or condemn sinners. There is no need for these things while God is on the throne of heaven. The meek seek God. He is the answer to all indignities forced upon them and the answer to their sufferings.