Psalm 128 - Be Blessed

There are a bunch of preachers out there - you know - on TV, the Internet, perhaps in your inbox, at the church over there.... who preach a health and wealth Gospel. And they talk about how God wants to bless you and give you stuff and make you healthy and wealthy and they tell you to name it (stuff) and claim it (saying God will give it to you) and to be blessed.

It all sounds too good to be true. And just so you know.... it is!

Well...!!! I'm happy to tell you that I have found the REAL way to be blessed. It's mentioned several places in scripture and here it is in the first verse of Psalm 128

1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.

God told Joshua this

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

"But those are Old Testament", you might argue. Let's see what Jesus had to say about being blessed. 

Jesus healed a demon possessed man (Luke 11:14-28) and a woman called out "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth."

Jesus replied to her, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

Mic drop.

And of course I should mention The Beatitudes, but that would open up an entire sermon series. The Beatitudes

The secret to being "blessed" isn't in figuring out the right words to say in your prayers to make God do something for you. The secret to being "blessed" is fearing (reverence) the LORD and keeping His commandments. 

I'm not sure what else I need to say about that. There aren't "get rich quick" schemes with God. 

Can we Actually Live This Way? (Memory Mondays cont.)

Memory Mondays are still happening. This week we finish up memorizing the Beatitudes. Here are the first ones we have already learned. (New American Standard Bible)

Matthew 5:3-10
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blesed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The last one is a long one.
Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This seems like a lot to memorize. I find myself mixing them up - taking part of one and part of another and putting them together.

But it's good to learn these verses. When the crowds heard these words of Jesus they were a strange concept to them. I've mentioned before how they are strange ideas to modern Americans too. Gentleness and mercy are not qualities that are valued by our society.
We hear things more like these.

"Stand up for your rights."

"Don't let them get away with that."

"He was weak. He deserved what he got."

When was the last time you heard someone say they longed to have a pure heart or that they hungered for righteousness? You won't sell much advertising on a TV show that shows people longing for pure hearts.

Can you imagine a "reality TV" show that celebrated the virtues listed in the Beatitudes?

More importantly than memorizing the Beatitudes is striving to have these in your life. Wow! That is pretty much impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Hearing and then following His voice is the only way.

What changes will you have to make in YOUR life to live a life marked by these words of Christ? What TV programs do you need to give up? What video games will you not play? Where will you become a peacemaker? Where and to whom do you need to show gentleness? (This is not an exhuastive list. This is just to get you thinking.)

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment if you like.

Memory Monday - February 22

I have to admit that memorizing the Beatitudes is turning out to be more difficult than I had imagined. It's not that any one in particular or by itself is difficult to memorize or to understand... the problem seems to be that with my weak mind I end up scrampbling them all together.

For those of you who are just now joining in on our Memory Monday challenge, you have some catching up to do if you want to memorize all of the Beatitudes. We have learned/memorized 6 so far. If you just want to join in starting this week, scroll down a little until you see verses 9-10.

Here is what we have memorized so far (of the Beatitudes. search the blog using "memory monday" and you'll find other verses we have memorized.)
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4."Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5."Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

6."Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7."Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8."Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
 
Here are our two verses for this week.
 

9."Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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

 

The Persecuted Church is something near and dear to my heart. Please click on the link for more information on how our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer for their faith and how you can help them.

The Voice of the Martyrs

Memory Monday - The Beatitudes Continue

I hope that not only are you memorizing the Beatitudes through our Memory Mondays Challenge, but that you are also trying to live a life guided by them.

Here are the next two.

Matthew 5:7-8
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.



Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
 
Check previous posts if you are behind on memorizing with us.

Beatitudes

If you are following along on Memory Mondays then you know we are memorizing the first two Beatitudes this week.

Matthew 5:3-4
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

You may alread know all of the Beatitudes. (I get them all jumbled together. That's why I've decided I need to purposefully memorize them correctly.) If you don't know them you probably know which verses are refered to when you hear the word "Beatitude." But do you know why they are called that?

Beatitude is from the Latin word "beatus" meaning "blessed." The Beatitudes were a big contrast to the thinking of the day in Jesus' time - and for that matter our times too. For example, being "poor in spirit" is not something Americans care to aspire to. Humility is seen as a weakness. So Jesus' words contradict our culture and challenge us to look at life and live life differently.

Painting by Paul Gustave Dore 1865

I really like the commentary found here Beatitude Commentary from JesusChrist Savior.net I'm quoting this site here. I think it will help you begin to grasp the deep truths found in these verses. Here is the commentary on the two we are memorizing this week.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"Poor in spirit" means to be humble. Humility is the realization that all your gifts and blessings come from the grace of God. To have poverty of spirit means to be completely empty and open to the Word of God. When we are an empty cup and devoid of pride, we are humble. Humility brings an openness and an inner peace, allowing one to do the will of God. He who humbles himself is able to accept our frail nature, to repent, and to allow the grace of God to lead us to Conversion.

It is pride, the opposite of humility, that brings misery. For pride brings anger and the seeking of revenge, especially when one is offended. If every man were humble and poor in spirit, there would be no war!

"Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted."

If we are humble and appreciate that all of our gifts and blessings come from God, we grow in love and gratitude for Jesus Christ our Savior. But this can only produce mourning and regret over our own sins and the sins of this world, for we have hurt the one who has been so good to us. One also mourns for the suffering of others.

St. Gregory describes another reason to mourn: the more one ascends in meditation of Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and then realize the poverty of human nature, man can only be left in sorrow. When one contemplates that we were made in the image and likeness of God and lived in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, and compare that to our present state after the Fall, one can only mourn our present condition. But the sentence continues that they shall be comforted, by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and hopefully one day in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mourning in this context is called a blessing, because mourning our fallen nature creates in us a desire to improve ourselves and to do what is right!

Memory Monday - February 1

Happy February! I hope your January was grand!

If you memorized all of last week's memory challenge I'm proud of you. I'm finding that my biggest challenge is not mixing up different translations.

When I was young the King James Version was about the only translation available. I memorized many Bible verses and passages out of the KJV. In 1975 I received a "Scofield Bible" from my lovely girlfriend (who the next year would become my lovely wife). It was KJV, but Dr. Scofield had changed a lot of the archaic words of the KJV into words that made sense! It was so cool!

Later I bought a New International Version. Wow! Sentences in modern English helped make the Bible so much easier to understand.

When I was ordained into the ministry in 1982 my church gave me a New American Standard Bible. I loved it! Like the NIV it was easier to understand than the KJV, but it was written beautifully like the KJV. Since that time I've researched and found that the NASB is considered one of the most acurate translations and uses much older manuscripts than were available in 1611 when King James had his Bible translated.

There are many great translations available today. The Holman Christian Standard is another great translation. The important thing in reading and memorizingscripture is that you use a translation and not a paraphrase.

So... because I have read and memorized so many verses in several different translations I sometimes get some of the words mixed up. So far - and probably always unless for some specific reason - all of our Memory Mondays verses have been taken from the NASB,

For the next few weeks I'd like us (those of you who are joining me) to memorize the Beatitudes. You probably know many of them and probably out of the KJV, but I'm going to put them up here in NASB, Half way through the week I'll give you some background and info on why they are called "the Beatitudes." for now, here are the first two.

painting by Carl Bloch 1890

Matthew 5:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.