Posts detailing the Character of a kingdom citizen.
Four times in Matthew’s telling of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us we can expect to be treated in direct relationship to the way we treat others. The first shows up here, in the beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. ~ Matthew 5:7 The next is in the Lord’s [...]
A few days back, I put up a post called “Satisfy Your Deepest Longings” about how our longings are not sin but God designed and given to us to manage. It stirred up some conversations here and on social media, but one reader posed a question I wanted to answer here. Debbie Zeigler (Ziggy317) asked: [...]
for they shall be completely satisfied. ~ Matthew 5:6 AMP I love that the Amplified Bible has it this way “completely satisfied.” Not just, satisfied, not just, they will get what they are hungering after and thirsting for, but they will be completely satisfied. The world preaches that satisfaction comes from evil hungers and desires, [...]
for they shall be completely satisfied. ~ Matthew 5:6 AMP Wait! This can’t be right. Do you believe this? Is it true? Or is Jesus telling us a little white lie to try to motivate us to be good? Does true satisfaction really come from the pursuit of righteousness? All our lives we are told [...]
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. - Matthew 5:6 Jesus’ lays before us the next earmark of a citizen of His kingdom, and it’s all about our appetite. Let’s start with a definition of hunger. I walked into the house after a long day at the office, [...]
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matthew 5:3 & 10 I know I am getting out of order here. I was just lying in bed – it is about 10 minutes to 12 on Friday night, and I was mulling. Now let me be clear. I have studied through and taught through the Beatitudes [...]
…for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 Some Christians are of the opinion that the earth really doesn’t matter. They reason, God's going to destroy it and start over somewhere down the line. Who wants to inherit something God’s getting ready to “rolled up like a scroll,” and toss in the bin? What kind [...]
Blessed are the meek... - Matthew 5:5 By now, you see a pattern emerging. Is Jesus totally confused about what makes people happy? If we are going to believe Him, the worse off we are, the happier we should be. If I realize that I am worthless and that I have offended God at every [...]
…for they shall be comforted. - Matthew 5:4 Comfort is a misunderstood commodity. Often when we think of comfort we think of someone patting us on the knee and saying, “there, there, it will all work out all right.” So when we think of the Holy Spirit, our “comforter” we fall into this trap. We think [...]
Before we dig in today, I want to state that this is one of my core teachings. I share this message when I have the opportunity because I truly believe it’s a missing note in the current chord of Christianity. If we get this idea planted in our hearts and stop resisting this wonderful gift [...]