Finale

Thus we come to the end of the Beatitudes. Jesus has just taken us on a journey of the heart. He took us to a place of righteousness, a place of right standing with Him. How amazing is our Lord when we do have to fear disappointing Him because we do not know how to please Him. He gives us a road map through the Beatitudes and continues on throughout the rest of the Bible. Even in the Old Testament we are faced with examples of how to please our God.

Getting back to the subject at hand, the Lord ends the Beatitudes with a simple statement. It is a statement of fact, not possibility:

"Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake." Matthew 5:11 NKJV

It is a promise that we will get persecuted for our belief in Him. If we are not suffering for his name sake right now in our walk, then we must question the fact are we truly following Him? I am not talking about death our imprisonment, the suffering that I speak of is on a lower level. Are there those at work who talk about you because of your faith? Does your boss or friends threat you differently because of your faith. This is far from persecution, however, it does take us one step closer to that point of tolerance. If we cannot handle the discomfort of our daily lives how will we stand in that day against the forces of darkness for our King? If we cannot make a stand with those around us whom we know and have built a relationship with, how then can we say that we will stand against the devil? The truth is that persecution is coming, it will be coming very fast and swift. Plant your feet on the Rock, make Him your foundation.

But there is another promise:

"Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:12 NKJV

Who are we to think that we are above the patriarchs of our faith? No one of us have been through the trials of Job, no one of us has seen the persecutions of Daniel, no one of us have had a mission field that bore no fruit like Jeremiah. No one of us.

Continue to pray for the strength to stand in that day. Pray for the opportunity that your life might shine forth Jesus. Pray that you demeanor is so that no one can bring any ill repute against you save your faith in the Lord. Because of that life of faith, we have a reward in heaven. Our Lord promises us rest in Him, when that time comes. The Lord has equipped us with the knowledge. We will be persecuted, we will reap reward, we will live eternally.

Persecution

The final installment of the Beatitudes is concerning persecution. How appropriate this is that the Lord would save this for the last. Each step that was taken to up to this point brought as believers to the point of persecution.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10 NKJV

The path to the point of persecution has been a rough one. I am not speaking from personal experience, rather I am identifying with the list given by our Lord.

Poor in Spirit - One must empty himself of all goods and become the beggar, the one in need

Mourning - One must empty himself of all comforts; the Lord must be his only comfort as he grieves over his own state of spiritual being

Meekness - One must come to that place a quite authority, knowing that the Lord has called him to inheritance and chooses to wait on the Lord's timing

Hunger & Thirst - One must come to a place of emptiness, a place the world encourages to fill with sex, drugs and all other sorts of deception; this man chooses rather to fill himself with the things of the Lord, everlasting sustenance

Be Merciful - One must come to a place in his heart where revenge is no longer the forefront of life and thought, mercy and forgiveness has been given to him, so he must, too, offer the same mercy and forgiveness

Be Pure - One must always cleanse his heart. In this world, this man in inundated with nothing but filth. It would be hard for one to remain pure if he tried in his own strength, but he falls upon the Lord for support

Make Peace - One must come to a place where he is at peace with the Lord so he is at peace with the world, therefore he is able to make peace in the world.

Given this list of items, it is no wonder why the Lord tells us that those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake will be blessed. This path, this treasure map that He has lain out is guaranteed to bring one thing, persecution. We are in the world but not of the world. The Lord has designed for us a lifestyle designed to keep us separate.

"It is a gift from God to be allowed to suffer for His namesake." (Spurgeon) Our Lord suffered constant persecution on this earth, so we must suffer as well. May the Lord bless you in your endevors to live a life separated and know this my friend, you are not alone.

Making Peace

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they called be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9 (NKJV)

It has always been said that you are your father's child. This statement could not be more true than right now.

Who are the peacemakers? Maybe they are two-fold. Those who first make peace with God, for those are the only one's who have the ability to be called a son of God. There are many different charitable groups who want world peace, but they want nothing to do with God.

Then there are those who have made their peace with God and can now operate on a worldly level to bring peace to others. I a not talking about making friends, or holding hands or singing Kumbaya. I am talking about leading those lost souls of a lost world into the eternal rest of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

You are your Father's son. As your Father does, so you must do as well. His desire is for all to come to Christ:

"For God so loved the world, the He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16, 17 (NKJV)

"Never let us be peacebreakers; evermore let us be peacemakers." (Spugeon)

Crystal Hearts Will Not Be Broken

According to Webter's Dictionary, pure is defined like this: "having a homogenous composition: unmixed; to be free from impurities and contaminates: clean; to be free from faults: sinless." In conjunction with the next Beatitude, this has to be one of the best secular definitions to a Biblical concept I have come across.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8 (NKJV)

To be pure of heart is a tall order in today's world. How does one go from day to day, intending to be pure in all they do, not get tainted by the world around them. Turn the television of and get inundated with sex and smut, go to your local high school and receive the same thing. Travel anywhere in the Morongo Basin and you will find sin in a sinful world. How does one stay pure of heart? It is all about the eyes.

The human eye has a normal field of vision of 60 degrees. That is about 16.67% of your world around you. Add 40 degrees of peripheral vision and you add 11.11% of vision. That comes to a total of 27.78% of your world flooding through the eyes.

If one was to concentrate on one particular object, the field of vision actually narrows. The field of vision shrinks to a mere 6 degrees, that is only 1.67%. Wow!

Now apply this to your spiritual walk. Instead of taking in the entire one-quarter of the world, how about narrowing the field of vision. concentrate on Jesus. Make Jesus the focus. "Purity in heart is not measured by the practices of people but rather by the character of God Himself." (J. Dwight Pentecost)

If Jesus is the focus, then it is He and only He that we see on a daily basis. We tend to imitate what we see on a daily basis. As children, we mimic those things that we look up to because we wish to be like that. As adults, I feel that it is less apparent to the individual. Who imitates an adulterer because he appreciates what the adulterer is doing? None. However, if one surrounds himself with these sorts of things, he will inevitably stray toward that lifestyle. Keep Jesus the focus.

The eyes actually move about 100,000 times a day. In between movements, there should be a blur of vision that no one experiences. If you want to test this, look at yourself in the mirror and move your eye back and forth. You will not see your eyes move at all. This is a phenomenon know as "psychotic suppression". The brain automatically takes those blurs out. Through psychotic suppression, we loose 40 minutes of our day to blindness. Imagine loosing 2.78% of your day. In fact, do not imagine it, because it happens to everybody everyday. Do we really risk loosing focus of Jesus through spiritual suppression? Are we willing to allow Him to become a blur that is erased from our vision? Keep Jesus the focus.

If Jesus is the focus and remains the focus then the reward is sweet. Those of pure hearts will see God. If Jesus is the focus then we will see God in everything. How wonderful a feeling it is to know that God is there with us, and we can see His handiwork. This is the immediate reward, however, the future reward is to see God face to face. Keep Jesus the focus.

"He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend."

Proverbs 22:11

Give Quarter

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7

"Quarter" is an archaic word meaning "mercy". When one was about to be killed in war or battle, he would ask for quarter.

Do we give quarter in our daily lives? Is it in our nature to give quarter? It should be, for if we give quarter we shall receive quarter.

How interesting it is that the Lord does not use the word graceful. "Blessed are the graceful, for they shall receive grace." The difference between mercy and grace is simple. Grace is receiving something that you do not deserve, mercy is not receiving something that you do deserve.

This goes against everything in our human nature. Do unto others as has been done unto you. Retaliate! Fight back! Get revenge! This is my true self. I cannot speak for anyone else on this matter. However, to give quarter, to show mercy, is an lifestyle well worth striving toward. Mercy receives mercy.

As believers, mercy surrounds our daily lives. "Followers of Jesus must be men [and women] of mercy; for they have found mercy, and mercy has found them. As we look for 'mercy of the Lord in that day,' we must show mercy in this day." (Spurgeon)

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Jude 20-21

Hunger and Thirst = Spiritual Need

For the first three Beatitudes, we see attitudes and states of being that go against human nature. They are, however, a natural spiritual progression. They are designed by God to create a space and a need in our lives for something from the outside to fulfill. Becoming poor allows the Lord to make us rich. Mourning allows the Lord to comfort. Our being meek allows the Lord to give us an inheritance. The same is with the next installment in the Beatitudes:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 (NKJV)

It is interesting that the Lord uses two descriptions of human need. We do not need to be rich to survive, we do not need comfort to survive, we do not need and inheritance to survive. We need, however, to eat and drink to survive. What is it about the righteousness of God that He would liken it to a need for survival?

To subdue hunger, we ingest; to quench thirst, we ingest. So to is the Word of God. 56 times in the Bible the word honey is used. Out of those 56 times, twice it is in direct reference to the Word of God. Ezekiel 3:3, "And He said to me, 'Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.' So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness." Revelation 10:9, 10, "And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter."

The idea of eating is to assimilate that very thing. It forever becomes a part of you. It nourishes the entire body. So those who hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God will be filled. This is a promise.

David wrote, "For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." (Psalm 107:9, NKJV)

Weakness?

Meekness should never be mistaken for weakness!

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5 (KJV)

Whenever I hear this word, I think of Dorothy standing before the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. She describes herself as "small and meek", but is she really all that meek? This one single word has to be the most misconstrued word. Meekness is not weakness. The Biblical interpretation for the word meek is "power under control".

Two men in the Bible were described as meek. Those two men were Moses and Paul. "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." Numbers 12:3 (KJV) And it was said of Paul, "Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent" II Corinthians 10:1 (NASB)

There is something about meekness that one must understand. It is not "adopting a low view of oneself or discrediting the position, the authority, that God has given to the individual." (J. Dwight Pentecost) Meekness is not placing ourselves in the mindset that we are so unworthy of what the Lord has bestowed upon us that we do not allow Him to use us. It "recognizes God's authority and submits itself to every manifestation of it." (J. Dwight Pentecost) Meekness recognizes the power of God in our lives and chooses not to abuse it, rather to use it, to obey it, to be lead by it. The prophet Samuel said it best, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams." Imagine the Lord placing more focus on obedience than sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I only bring up obedience because it is synonymous with meekness. "Meekness is characterized by unquestioning submission." (J. Dwight Pentecost)

The reward for this submission is inheritance. The meek shall inherit the earth. Submission to the Lord always has its rewards. One who realizes the power he has within himself and chooses not to exercise it, that one man is truly deserving of inheritance.

Look the the spiritual progression: First we must become poor, empty ourselves of everything, place ourselves in necessity's way; then we mourn over the state of the world, our own spiritual state. Then comes time for the meek. The Lord will not give the earth to those who are powerful, He will not give the earth to those who are not mournful over their own sinful deeds.

Meekness is not weakness. "If you think weak is meek, try being meek for a week." (Lance Kerwin)

Spirit of Heaviness

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4 (NKJV)

To follow the "poor in spirit", Jesus focuses on those who mourn. Spiritually, it is a natural progression, the way up is down. In order to mourn we must first empty ourselves. To have possessions is to already have filled voids. To be poor is to open those voids, to allow for emptiness, to allow a place of mourning.

What is it that is to be mourned. It is to grieve over sin and evil times. One may also mourn over his own spiritual state. We can always be closer to the Lord; we can always be farther from sin.

There is a direct reaction to this spiritual state, remember. Those who mourn will be comforted. That comfort comes from the Lord alone. "How great a blessing is sorrow, since it gives room for our Lord to administer comfort! Our griefs are blessed, for they are a point of contact with the divine Comforter!" (Spurgeon) Mourning reaps comfort. The Lord always has those who mourn on His heart. We see this to be the case in the book of Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)

This world is ripe for mourning. The signs of the times are upon us. We are almost at the end.

Impoverished Soul

Jesus began speaking, not the the multitudes, but to his disciples. In verse one of chapter 5 its states that "[Jesus saw] the multitudes he went up a mountain: and when He set, His disciples came to Him.." The Sermon on the Mount was never meant for the masses. It was meant for the Lord's disciples, those who are called by His Name. To those on the outside looking in, out lifestyle is nothing more than rubbish. It is interesting how most of the world condones "an eye for an eye" but to "turn the other cheek" is nonsensical. The Sermon on the Mount was never for the masses, rather, it was for those who are called by His Name. Jesus began this dissertation with:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3 (NKJV)

Poor is spirit. Webster's defines "poor" like this: 1. Lacking money and possessions. 2. Lacking in quantity or quality. 3. Not productive. 4. Not favorable or satisfactory. 5. Deserving pity. As we look upon the poor, it is easy to see how this definition shapes our view. But remember, the Beatitudes are "one's spiritual state of being".

The Bible's definition of poor has a different connotation: 1. To be reduced to beggary. 2. Destitute of wealth, position and honor. 3. Utterly helpless. 4. Broken.

To be broken before the Lord, to be utterly helpless, to be destitute of honor or position or wealth, to beg. When one has need of nothing because of money or power, he may never come to the place of the beggar.

I feel that it is very significant that Jesus began with this exhortation. We begin our life in Christ with a request; we must first ask Him into our hearts. We must come to the knowledge that there is nothing in and of ourselves that is worth anything.

To be poor in spirit allows me to ask the Lord to "pour in Spirit". In order to do so, however, we must come to that place of beggary and destitution. We must become like a child, helpless.

The second half to the Beatitude is "a direct and opposite, or complementary, spiritual effect coming from an outside source."

Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Becoming poor, we will inherit so much more than we could have possibly imagined. We can gather out toys together, amass riches, but you will never see a U-Haul truck following a hearse.

It is an interesting oxymoron that beggary should lead to riches, helplessness lead to salvation and a true mending can only come from being broken.

Have Attitude

The Beatitudes is a of adjectives describing a state of being. To define the beattitudes to a non-believer, one might say something like this: The Beatitudes are "one's spiritual state of being resulting in a direct and opposite, or complimentary, spiritual effect coming from an outside source." (Jeffrey Foster)

Jesus opened the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. Why would the Lord decide to begin the greatest dissertation in the history of man with the Beatitudes? As I covered in "To Coin a Phrase", the Sermon of the Mount deals with the heart. Though Jesus is speaking of the Law, He is also exposing the heart of God behind the Law. It all comes down to the situation of the heart. If the heart is not aligned with the Lord, then nothing will be right.

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.

Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake." Matthew 5:1-11 (NKJV)

Over the next few entries, I will be covering the Beatitudes as the Lord has spoken to me and finally end this string of entries with verse 12. How appropriate to end the Beattitudes with a promise.

Have attitude of the heart that is directly liked to the love that the Lord has for you.