Monday January 30, 2012 The Beatitudes

Now when He saw the crowds He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them, saying "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled."

Good Monday morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Can you believe it, January is all but over and it has been, well, almost spring-like. The other day we saw some tulips coming up from the earth (no, the earth was not in a pot in a flower shop).  Monday and the day we pray for our leaders and also for our military and all those who work hard to keep us safe and free. I am also asking for prayer today for former Senator Rick Santorum's 3 year old daughter. She is very ill, was born with a birth defect. (Senator Santorum is a strong, strong supporter of LIFE.) Also I am asking for your prayers this week. I am to have hand surgery on Thursday, but I have run into a "heart" problem that needs to be cleared first. Tuesday I go for several more heart tests. Vicki still needs our prayers as does Carol and others on our prayer lists from last week.

The Beatitudes:  Matthew 5:1 - Now when He saw the crowds He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him 2 and He began to teach them, saying 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled."   (NIV)

As I have told you in some of my past messages, I am trying to bring out the examples that Jesus set for us when He walked the earth that we should be following today. As I start the Beatitudes today, I confess I struggled with Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I was thinking that we who love Jesus should be very, very rich in spirit and why would the poor in spirit have the kingdom of heaven?So I called on my dear friend Neil Enloe who helps me when I get into trouble or need to get deeper into the word to really understand it. Neil responded to me and his words will be at the end of the message. With his help, my thinking turns to the fact we are just plain unworthy of what He, Jesus, did for us. With that I will leave verse three and go back to verses one and two. Here we find Jesus heading up on the mountainside, more than likely a nice peaceful place and a place to talk and teach His disciples. The example to me is that even as we follow Him, we need to sit down with Him, even though we cannot be face to face (for now anyway) and we need to listen to his teachings. How do we do that? We can dig into the word, we can go to church and take in fuel, and we can talk to Him... Yes, talk to Him and then we must listen to Him for answers. We can also dig into His word by having dear friends who also know and love Jesus, just as I have on this line and call upon them for help and understanding.

So now let's look at Matthew 5:4. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Have you ever been to a funeral? Of course you have! Has it been a very near relation and/or a dear friend or someone you dearly love? We hurt and I have said many times how does someone get through times like this and not know Jesus? Folks, I hope you never need to go through it, but I am sure when you are in love with Jesus, He will carry you through. He will hear your crying and He will be there for you.

OK, enough for this day, let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, please forgive us of our sins and thanks for opening Your word to us this day. This is tough, Lord, and I really need Your help, thanks for sending Your love in the form of a friend today to help me. Please honor our prayer requests according to Your will, dear Jesus... as we pray in Your name. Amen.

Now go forth and share your blessings, and please take time to read these words from my dear friend Neil Enloe.   Love ya,  Pastor Dan.

Dan-

Good to hear from you, Bro. I have an app on my iPhone that has many translations of the Bible and I went looking for “poor in spirit.”

The Amplified Bible says, “the humble, who rate themselves insignificant”.
The Common English Bible says, “hopeless”.
The Good News Translation says, “those who know they are spiritually poor”.
The God’s Word Translation says, “those who recognize they are spiritually helpless”.
The New Century Version says, those “who realize their spiritual poverty”.
The New International Reader Version says, “those who are spiritually needy”.

I think we’re seeing a pattern here that seems to agree that “poor in spirit” refers to our recognizing that we are utterly bankrupt (as opposed to being proud) in spirit, and knowing that even though we are broke we have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. Pretty comforting, huh? Makes you feel rich.

Have a great one, Dan.

Neil