12/2/23
Beatitudes:
Why is it that when I read the Beatitudes, I begin to squirm? It may be because my conscience is attempting to excuse my innermost thoughts.
The Beatitudes of Matthew 5 are words meant to bear upon the ears and press into our consciences, words spoken to our hearts and souls. After we understand the words, we are to bear witness, imitate, and profess to others Jesus Christ, His life, and manner. A Christian’s heart is like a needle in a compass, continually under the influence of a magnetic pull. Outside forces can temporarily divert it, but the Christian heart will return to its spiritual search for a genuine and positive direction.
Christ’s promises, His grace, and love are like an ocean in which all the rivers of life flow—never filled yet supplying all the living waters of life necessary for those who seek after it.
What nation, what religious or political party has ever exceeded in morals? None! We fail because of the deficiencies of our systems, deficient because of the varying degrees of rejection of the gospel of Christ, which should be the first principle of all our lives.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger, and thirst for righteousness.”
Micah 6:8, “He (God) has showed you, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of us, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
But self-love and self-interest betray us all. The Lord’s is a strict equilibrium of standards of justice and judgment that admits no biases, preferences, or favors. We all have broken the golden rule of justice.
I, for one, cringe at the mention of walking humbly with the Lord; I blush; I step back because I have a rebellious heart and an opposition to Jesus’ government and authority. At times, I have become bold, defiant, and fearful. Why do I act like this? Is it because I am unthankful, and ungrateful?
We pray, “Let your will be done,” yet inside, we may look for another result. So, can anyone honestly say, “They are walking humbly with God?”
In what sense are we to accept the sermon on the mount with which Christ, the author and finisher of the faith, had opened his great commission?
Phil LaSpino seekfirstwisdom