Blessed are...
I have not had a lot of reading time lately and it shows in my blog. This morning, I did manage to sit down and continue reading from "Lord, only you can change me" by Kay Arthur. This book is a devotional study on growing in character from the Beatitudes.
As I was reading about meekness and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, I thought once again about how we can evaluate the messages that are continually being thrust upon us by "spiritual" authors. We can evaluate a message by how well it lines up with the Sermon on the Mount. Did Jesus say, "Blessed are those who find their purpose in life?" or "Blessed are those who are tolerant of all religions and faiths?" Did He ever say, "Blessed are those who have faith in themselves?" I could go on and on here. And I guess you know that about me by now.
The answer is no, Jesus didn't say what a lot of author s are saying these days. He didn't teach high self-esteem or a life of personal self-fulfillment. Instead, he talked about being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness (or gentleness), hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, having a pure heart, being a peacemaker and being persecuted for righteousness. All of these are directed toward living a life for God and not for self. They are all about the attitude and focus of our hearts.
Why focus on our sin if we are forgiven? The answer is found in the Sermon on the Mount (as well as in other places). We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not a righteousness of our own. That is the righteousness of the Pharisees. We are to seek the righteousness of God, which means that we love what He loves and hate what He hates. How can we mourn our sin if we don't think about it or we dismiss it? If thinking about our sinfulness gets us down, that is a good thing according to Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
To quote Kay Arthur:
Self-righteousness means living by your version of what you think is required of man. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus deals pointedly with this kind of righteousness. He does it repeatedly in chapter 5 when He says, "You have heard...but I say to you..." They had heard from the scribes and Pharisees about a certain code of righteousness to which they must adhere. Jesus pulled the rug out from under those false standards! And then he laid the shining truth at their very feet.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was a self-righteousness.
God's righteousness went far beyond self-righteousness.
Arthur goes on to explain:
In our area of the country, some people have evaluated women on the length of their skirts. Men were evaluated on the length of their hair. Issues such as movie-going or card-playing or frequency of church attendance found their way onto the "righteousness scorecard."
These dos and don'ts, of course, change with the passing of years. Which is precisely the point! They are external, changing standards which compose an artificial, man-centered standard of righteousness. But what's the real issue? It's what's happening in men's and women's hearts!
What's going on in the hearts of those who set up these various legalistic codes and lists of dos and don'ts? Do they judge and criticize others? Do they cut them down or murder them with their tongues? What kinds of thoughts are harbored in the mind, in the heart? If the heart does not match the outward performance, then it is a case of self-righteousness. It is a righteousness lived by the letter of the Law rather than a righteousness based on faith. And those sorts of hollow, external evaluations made God's Son very angry!
...God's righteousness begins with a dissatisfaction, a yearning. When sin's presence within is finally realized, an inner longing is kindled and begins to burn with a slow, steady flame. A longing to be righteous! With every glimpse of God's shining holiness and purity comes an accompanying awareness of self (just as the prophet experienced in Isaiah 6)...Finally the realization comes: "God, You alone are righteous." A hunger and thirst for righteousness, His righteousness, awakens and grows.
I have always struggled a bit with the words of Jesus in Matthew 7: 21-23.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
In reading that passage, I have wondered whether I could be one of those and not know it. Kay Arthur quotes this passage in connection with meekness and poverty of spirit. She explained it this way:
As we have already noted, the starting point of meekness is poverty of spirit. Before we can ever come to salvation, we must demonstrate the meekness that bows to God's authority and lordship over our lives. Jesus makes this plain as He comes to the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:13-23. Those who call Him "Lord" but do not live as His subjects will not enter the kingdom of heaven. To call Him "Lord," and yet fail to do His will, clearly shows that we have never been truly born again.
My pastor often says that if Jesus is not Lord over your whole life, He is not Lord at all. I think this is what Kay Arthur is saying. If we profess Christianity, but we do not submit ourselves to the authority of God and His Word, we are Christians in words alone and we have not come to saving faith. Our heart has not yet yielded to Him. Our hearts are still far from Him.
We just finished a sermon series on prophecy at church. And in this weekend's sermon, Allen talked a lot about overcoming and the promises given to overcomers in the book of Revelation. I have not wanted to read Revelation in the last five years because of all the years I was taught to equate overcoming with literal perfection. I heard so much prophetic teaching from the book of Revelation in connection with perfection that I have feared hearing those tapes playing in my head if I read that book. I know I was taught wrong on this subject. But getting free from that indoctrination has been a long, hard struggle for me. And I don't want to hear those old teachings. So I just haven't read Revelation. For this reason, I soaked up every word of this sermon series like a sponge. And I find myself really wanting to read Revelation again.
Danny and I were talking about this the other day and, with tears in his eyes, he told me that the book of Revelation has become his favorite book of the Bible. We know how the story ends. He said, "It's sometimes hard to live it daily, but it's so exciting to know the battle has been won." (I hope I'm quoting you accurately, Danny.)
In Allen's sermon this weekend, he talked about overcoming in correlation with perseverance and endurance; never abandoning our faith or giving up because of our circumstances. I have not faced every test that will come in my lifetime, nor have I been tested in exactly the same way every other Christian has been tested. And I am nowhere near being perfect. But I realized as I listened to this definition of overcoming that, up to this point in my life, I have overcome my circumstances and trials through the blood of Jesus Christ. I don't think I have done that within myself, but through the grace God has freely given to me. My faith in Christ is stronger than ever before and no adversity or suffering I've had to endure, up to this point, has even tempted me to abandon my faith or give up the fight. I long to please God in the smallest areas of my life.
I am so thankful I am growing in my understanding of what it means to overcome. I am so thankful for the hope that I now have. And I want my response to be obedience. Allen talked this weekend about the battle that is being fought in our minds. I want to bring every thought into submission to Christ. I have been handicapped for years by wrong teaching and a hopeless, defeated faith. But God has mercifully delivered me. I want to live every day in the freedom and in the victory that He has won for me through His perfect life and sacrifice.
I don't want to just believe. Even the demons believe and know who Jesus is. I want Jesus to be the Lord of my life, of all my choices, of all my circumstances; when He grants the desires of my heart and when He doesn't. I want to be like Him. I want to honor Him. I want to demonstrate my love for Him in every area of my life. And I want to have a transformed heart. It is the condition of our heart that separates us from the scribes and Pharisees.
As I was reading about meekness and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, I thought once again about how we can evaluate the messages that are continually being thrust upon us by "spiritual" authors. We can evaluate a message by how well it lines up with the Sermon on the Mount. Did Jesus say, "Blessed are those who find their purpose in life?" or "Blessed are those who are tolerant of all religions and faiths?" Did He ever say, "Blessed are those who have faith in themselves?" I could go on and on here. And I guess you know that about me by now.
The answer is no, Jesus didn't say what a lot of author s are saying these days. He didn't teach high self-esteem or a life of personal self-fulfillment. Instead, he talked about being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness (or gentleness), hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, having a pure heart, being a peacemaker and being persecuted for righteousness. All of these are directed toward living a life for God and not for self. They are all about the attitude and focus of our hearts.
Why focus on our sin if we are forgiven? The answer is found in the Sermon on the Mount (as well as in other places). We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not a righteousness of our own. That is the righteousness of the Pharisees. We are to seek the righteousness of God, which means that we love what He loves and hate what He hates. How can we mourn our sin if we don't think about it or we dismiss it? If thinking about our sinfulness gets us down, that is a good thing according to Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
To quote Kay Arthur:
Self-righteousness means living by your version of what you think is required of man. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus deals pointedly with this kind of righteousness. He does it repeatedly in chapter 5 when He says, "You have heard...but I say to you..." They had heard from the scribes and Pharisees about a certain code of righteousness to which they must adhere. Jesus pulled the rug out from under those false standards! And then he laid the shining truth at their very feet.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was a self-righteousness.
God's righteousness went far beyond self-righteousness.
Arthur goes on to explain:
In our area of the country, some people have evaluated women on the length of their skirts. Men were evaluated on the length of their hair. Issues such as movie-going or card-playing or frequency of church attendance found their way onto the "righteousness scorecard."
These dos and don'ts, of course, change with the passing of years. Which is precisely the point! They are external, changing standards which compose an artificial, man-centered standard of righteousness. But what's the real issue? It's what's happening in men's and women's hearts!
What's going on in the hearts of those who set up these various legalistic codes and lists of dos and don'ts? Do they judge and criticize others? Do they cut them down or murder them with their tongues? What kinds of thoughts are harbored in the mind, in the heart? If the heart does not match the outward performance, then it is a case of self-righteousness. It is a righteousness lived by the letter of the Law rather than a righteousness based on faith. And those sorts of hollow, external evaluations made God's Son very angry!
...God's righteousness begins with a dissatisfaction, a yearning. When sin's presence within is finally realized, an inner longing is kindled and begins to burn with a slow, steady flame. A longing to be righteous! With every glimpse of God's shining holiness and purity comes an accompanying awareness of self (just as the prophet experienced in Isaiah 6)...Finally the realization comes: "God, You alone are righteous." A hunger and thirst for righteousness, His righteousness, awakens and grows.
I have always struggled a bit with the words of Jesus in Matthew 7: 21-23.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
In reading that passage, I have wondered whether I could be one of those and not know it. Kay Arthur quotes this passage in connection with meekness and poverty of spirit. She explained it this way:
As we have already noted, the starting point of meekness is poverty of spirit. Before we can ever come to salvation, we must demonstrate the meekness that bows to God's authority and lordship over our lives. Jesus makes this plain as He comes to the conclusion of His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:13-23. Those who call Him "Lord" but do not live as His subjects will not enter the kingdom of heaven. To call Him "Lord," and yet fail to do His will, clearly shows that we have never been truly born again.
My pastor often says that if Jesus is not Lord over your whole life, He is not Lord at all. I think this is what Kay Arthur is saying. If we profess Christianity, but we do not submit ourselves to the authority of God and His Word, we are Christians in words alone and we have not come to saving faith. Our heart has not yet yielded to Him. Our hearts are still far from Him.
We just finished a sermon series on prophecy at church. And in this weekend's sermon, Allen talked a lot about overcoming and the promises given to overcomers in the book of Revelation. I have not wanted to read Revelation in the last five years because of all the years I was taught to equate overcoming with literal perfection. I heard so much prophetic teaching from the book of Revelation in connection with perfection that I have feared hearing those tapes playing in my head if I read that book. I know I was taught wrong on this subject. But getting free from that indoctrination has been a long, hard struggle for me. And I don't want to hear those old teachings. So I just haven't read Revelation. For this reason, I soaked up every word of this sermon series like a sponge. And I find myself really wanting to read Revelation again.
Danny and I were talking about this the other day and, with tears in his eyes, he told me that the book of Revelation has become his favorite book of the Bible. We know how the story ends. He said, "It's sometimes hard to live it daily, but it's so exciting to know the battle has been won." (I hope I'm quoting you accurately, Danny.)
In Allen's sermon this weekend, he talked about overcoming in correlation with perseverance and endurance; never abandoning our faith or giving up because of our circumstances. I have not faced every test that will come in my lifetime, nor have I been tested in exactly the same way every other Christian has been tested. And I am nowhere near being perfect. But I realized as I listened to this definition of overcoming that, up to this point in my life, I have overcome my circumstances and trials through the blood of Jesus Christ. I don't think I have done that within myself, but through the grace God has freely given to me. My faith in Christ is stronger than ever before and no adversity or suffering I've had to endure, up to this point, has even tempted me to abandon my faith or give up the fight. I long to please God in the smallest areas of my life.
I am so thankful I am growing in my understanding of what it means to overcome. I am so thankful for the hope that I now have. And I want my response to be obedience. Allen talked this weekend about the battle that is being fought in our minds. I want to bring every thought into submission to Christ. I have been handicapped for years by wrong teaching and a hopeless, defeated faith. But God has mercifully delivered me. I want to live every day in the freedom and in the victory that He has won for me through His perfect life and sacrifice.
I don't want to just believe. Even the demons believe and know who Jesus is. I want Jesus to be the Lord of my life, of all my choices, of all my circumstances; when He grants the desires of my heart and when He doesn't. I want to be like Him. I want to honor Him. I want to demonstrate my love for Him in every area of my life. And I want to have a transformed heart. It is the condition of our heart that separates us from the scribes and Pharisees.
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