For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Blessed are… MATTHEW 5:3-11
When we first read the statements of Jesus, they seem wonderfully simple and unstartling, and they sink unnoticed into our subconscious minds. For instance, the Beatitudes initially seem to be merely soothing and beautiful precepts for overly spiritual and seemingly useless people, but of very little practical use in the rigid, fast-paced workdays of the world in which we live. We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the “dynamite” of the Holy Spirit. And they “explode” when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of the Beatitudes, we say, “What a startling statement that is!” Then we must decide whether or not we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is the way the Spirit of God works. We do not need to be born again to apply the Sermon on the Mount literally. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is as easy as child’s play. But the interpretation by the Spirit of God as He applies our Lord’s statements to our circumstances is the strict and difficult work of a saint.
The teachings of Jesus are all out of proportion when compared to our natural way of looking at things, and they come to us initially with astonishing discomfort. We gradually have to conform our walk and conversation to the precepts of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit applies them to our circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations— it is a picture of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His unhindered way with us

[USMC87]

Amen and thank you for a great lesson.

[Blackwater]

Wow! What a powerful and accurate lesson! It's always hard to follow the will of God because we're so inextricably tied to our own wills, and often "interpret" the Bible to suit US, and not for any real concern for finding the real Truth of what God's will for us truly is. That's just our basic nature, and the ones most likely to fall prey to this are those who don't know and understand how this works and that they are NOT personally immune from it. To believe we're - any of us - immune from the temptations and twists of the Truth that Satan is constantly inflicting us with, is a virtual guarantee it's the "hook" that Satan has in our mouths! Only those with a pure heart, who are truly determined to know "interpretations" of scripture. It's taken me a lot of years to get to a point where I'm pretty satisfied with whatever the scripture reveals to me, and I'm pretty good at not reading things into it. That last part is really a LOT more difficult to do than would seem rational. But then, we humans are NOT very rational creatures, are we??? We are constantly fooling ourselves, just to believe what we WANT to believe, rather than what the Lord truly gave us. But each of us is responsible to our own selves for what we choose or come to believe, and whether we ever truly sought the Truth, as it really lay right before us, without twisting it somehow into what we WANTED to believe.

Our battle with Satan and his machinations is a constant one. It never ends. And we don't like to think about it, but he's supernatural too, and far, far smarter and more persistent and untiring in his efforts than we COULD ever be with ours! Temptations, lies and traps surround us. As is written, "Narrow is the way and few are they who find it." God be with us. We NEED His help to stay on the lighted path!

[Boaz]

This is a good lesson in several ways . It strikes me that we become so use to the 23'd Psalm , the sermon on the mount , the miracles and all the 'comforting' verse that we ignore many time our obligation and commitment in degree with Christ . Through the message or act given there is a lesson ...not just comfort . Christ first , seek the Holy Spirit , Commitment !