Month: June 2024

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 NIV

When I think of mourning, I think of how you respond when you lose a loved one to death or you lose a friendship. So, when I read the verse for today, my mind goes to the question ‘How can someone who is mourning be blessed?’ The reason for the mourning in the Beatitudes is not the common reason of mourning over a lose due to death.

In the Beatitudes Jesus is referring to mourning as being the attitude a Christian holds in their heart towards sin. As a sinner who does not know Christ, a person who has sinned may feel bad about what they have done, or they may not. If they do feel bad about their sin, it may be that they feel bad for hurting someone’s feelings or for lying to someone. People who are not born-again do feel sorry for behaving in ways that hurt others or they deem to be wrong.

However as a Christian, the attitude that we hold in our hearts towards sin goes deeper than simply feeling bad for committing the sin. The attitude is not about getting caught after having committed the sin, it is more about the sorrow we feel because we have now placed a barrier between us and God. God cannot and does not look at sin, so once we have sinned, we have made the choice to place that sin between us and God. We have moved away from our Lord and Savior.

As God’s children, separating ourselves from Him causes us pain and grief over the lose of that closeness we have when we are not sinning and placing barriers between us and God. Our sin also causes God pain and grief. He doesn’t want us to be separated from Him or He wouldn’t have sent Jesus in the first place. He wants us close to Him but He won’t be close to sin. Once we realize that the deep pain and grief we are feeling over our sin is about having grieved God, having sinned against Him, then we can be moved to the point of going to God and asking for forgiveness.

The second half of the verse states that those who mourn will be comforted. The level of comfort that is needed to relieve this type of pain and grief only comes from God. It cannot come from anyone else or anywhere else because no one else is who we have offended by our sin. True comfort comes only from confessing what we have done and asking forgiveness from the One who we have offended and moved away from – God.

The great news is that once we have acknowledged that we have sinned, have gone to God and sincerely asked for forgiveness, we are forgiven. He gives us that comfort of being forgiven and being able to move back closer to Him. Remember back to being a child and having done something that upset your parent or someone who was very important to you, now remember what it was like when your parent or that important person forgave you and opened their arms inviting you in to show you how much they have forgiven you and truly love you. That feeling of warmth and comfort found in that embrace, that is the feeling we can experience as a child of God when we repent of our sins. However, that feeling goes much deeper because it is God we are getting that embrace from.

Are you in a place of mourning right now? Do you feel all alone because you have moved away from God? I pray that you will go to God today and ask for His forgiveness, that you will accept that forgiveness from Him and that you will rest in the embrace of our Heavenly Father as He pulls you closer to Him. If you are mourning today, please go and be comforted by the only true source of comfort, our Lord and Savior.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 NIV

In the world we live in we are taught to be proud of our actions, our character and our possessions. The idea of not needing anyone is a constant theme that parents teach children throughout their childhood, to promote independence. As with everything in life, I believe that moderation is better than absolution.

When we are trying to lose weight, we tend to fail because we go to an extreme of absolution – absolutely no sugar or no carbs or we are exercising 5 days a week for an hour at a time. However, when we change our thinking to exclude or include some of it all, take some sugar or carbs out of our diet or add some exercise into our daily habits, we are more likely to succeed.

So what about our pride in our actions, our character, our possessions and our independence. This is where, I believe, we need some moderation as well. As followers of Christ, the actions that we are asked to take are actions that most people would be proud of, such as caring for others, loving others. The character traits are traits such as selflessness, patience. When we move into possessions we need to begin to be very mindful of what we focus on as our focus can become on the accumulation of worldly items instead of heavenly treasures.

As we talk about independence, I want us to look at our verse for the day. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. As I said before, the way that God views how we should live is the exact opposite of the way the world views how we should live. Poor in spirit is the idea of acknowledging that we are dependent on another being, God. We cannot be righteous without God, we cannot be born again with God, we cannot produce the fruits of the spirit without God.

As you can see, the idea of independence or dependence that I am referring to is not about being able to pick up heavy boxes by yourself, it is about your attitude, the attitude of your heart. When the attitude of our heart is that we don’t need anyone to help us be righteous, help us gain eternal life or help us walk in the spirit, then we are not able to accept the gift of salvation from God. Being poor in spirit is being willing to acknowledge that we cannot earn our salvation and the only way we are able to be saved is by accepting Christ.

When we are able to find joy in simply being a child of God, knowing we are not the reason we are able to spend eternity with Jesus and knowing that He paid a debt for each one of us, we are living the way God wants us to live and not the world. Once we are able to do that, the second half of the verse makes more sense. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven” is recognition that they will be in heaven for eternity. I believe that heaven is going to be filled with humble people who know that they are not responsible for being there, they did not earn the right to be there and it is a gift from God to spend eternity in paradise.

Being poor in spirit is NOT being weak, it is actually being the strongest you can be because you are willing to admit that you are in total need of Christ and with Christ you are the righteousness in God’s sight. We all need to examine our hearts at times to determine if we have a spiritually correct attitude. So, what is the attitude in your heart?

‘Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.’ Matthew 5:1-2 NIV

I think it is wonderful that Matthew has captured this teaching moment of Jesus’s when he is talking with His disciples along with a large crowd along. These were great moments that Jesus was able to use so He could share why He was here, Who He was and what path His followers to travel. The beatitudes are a wonderful way that Jesus uses to explain what it means to be a citizen of God’s kingdom. The character we should possess, the actions we should take and the beliefs we should hold.

The Beatitudes are a list of 8 distinct ways to think, act and believe. What you will notice about each one of them is that they are the exact opposite of how the world has taught us to think, act and believe. As Christians we are blessed to be given the opportunity each and every morning to be able to choose who we will listen to that day. We can choose to listen to the world and all that it has to offer, such as anger, chaos and confusion or we can choose to listen to God and what He has to offer, such as love, calmness and clarity. The choice is truly ours and ours alone.

When we choose to follow the world and all that it wants us to experience, we are choosing to be ‘of the world’ and that separates us from God. While we follow the world’s way of doing things, it may look like we are getting ahead in our careers, or being successful in relationships, however, that is just a facade. What is truly happening behind all the noise that the world produces is the slow decaying of our souls, the slow transition of us giving our lives over to the devil and the evil powers of this world.

When we choose to follow God and all that He has to offer, we are choosing to walk in line with His will and purpose for our lives. We are able to take that time and move closer to God. We will be successful in all that He wants us to do, not just successful in temporary moments of our life. The difference is that the success that God has waiting for us is a type of success that we cannot even imagine we are capable of having. As we walk each and every day with God, we grow closer to Him, we grow in our faith, we mature in our spirits.

So this morning, or whenever you are reading this, now is your time to decide who you will follow – the world or our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is your choice and yours alone but I encourage you to choose carefully because your decision each day has eternal repercussions.

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 NIV

So many times when I pray I ask God for something. Please understand that I am thankful and thank Him daily for what He has blessed me with but I don’t feel like I dedicate many prayers or much prayer time to simply praising God and giving Him thanks. David writes this Psalm as a way of expressing how thankful and grateful he is for all that God had done for him. He opens the psalm by stating that he will give thanks to God and that it will be with all of his heart, his whole heart.

Sometimes we give thanks to God but it almost seems like it is an after thought. We are enjoying whatever the blessing is or enduring the trial and we simply forget to give thanks for it. When we realize we haven’t given thanks yet, we hurry to say a prayer of thanksgiving.

The idea of giving thanks with your whole heart can be described as being as grateful as you can be. You are ALL in, your gratitude and thankfulness is pouring out of you so much that you cannot contain it. One of the ways we show that level of thankfulness is by telling just about everyone we know all about the wonderful thing we are grateful or thankful for. That is the last part of the verse.

David states that he is going to tell of ALL of God’s wonderful deeds that He has done for David. Just like us, David was not perfect and sinned, but with a humble heart, he repented to God and changed his behaviors. God accepts a repenting sinner and forgives them. That is not all that David did though, he also did his best to follow God’s will for his life by listening to God.

God was gracious to David from helping him with Goliath to protecting him from Saul and eventually blessing him as King. David didn’t have to be perfect for God to bless him, but he did need to listen to God, follow God’s will and directions. When David did those things then God blessed him and David is writing in his psalm telling God that he will not keep all the wonderful things God has done for him a secret. He wants to tell everyone.

Has God blessed you? I know He has blessed me. Have you told people about what God has done for you? I have and not in a bragging kind of way, but in a humble, grateful manner, I have told people how God has blessed me with a wonderful husband, beautiful son, and awesome family. I also state that I know that I do not deserve any of the blessings that God has given me and that I am so thankful that God wants to have anything to do with me, a sinner.

That is the beautiful thing about God, He does want to have everything to do with me and you. He did the most wonderful deed already, He gave us the gift of salvation and eternal life with Him. If I could only tell of one wonderful deed that God has done for me, it would be that one. Thankfully, I am not limited to telling people only about one of His deeds, I can tell them about ALL of them. What wonderful deeds has God done for you that you can tell others about? Think about it and then tell them to everyone.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30 NIV

In this chapter of Mark, Jesus is with crowds as He usually was and a teacher of the law asks Jesus which commandment Jesus believed to be the most important one. Jesus told the teacher which one is the most important of all and that is to love the Lord your God. Jesus doesn’t say that the commandment stops there but instead explains what that means.

So, what does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. We could break each one of these down and we would be here for a while, instead let’s look at them as a whole. Loving God is a wonderful commandment but without adding some specific directions, it could become a superficial kind of love.

When we say to a friend “I love you” there is a certain level that your love goes to. For example, a friend might not know the same intimate details about you or your life that a spouse might know or that your parent might know. The level of the love for a friend typically goes deeper than your love for a co-worker with whom you do not hold a friendship, remembering that we are to love everyone.

For us to make sure that we don’t limit the level of our love for God, Jesus further explains what “love the Lord your God” means. When you love someone with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, you are putting your whole self into this love. Again, this isn’t your surface love that we have for all mankind. This love is different.

When you let yourself feel love with all of your being, you are involving all of you. You think about the person all the time, you want to do things with that person, you want to do things to make that person happy, you become very connected to that person, and you put that person in a place of importance in your life. Some of these aspects are connected to the emotional part of love, feeling connected, but some of these aspects of love are choices.

So love is not just an emotion? No, it is also a choice. The feeling of love, that warm feeling you get in your stomach, that is an emotion but our emotions change. When you love someone with every part of your being, your emotions do not rule how you feel. There are going to be times when the person you love upsets you, hurts your feelings or pulls away from you and if your love for that person is only based on emotion, then you may decide that you do not love them anymore.

When you think of love as a choice or an action that you take, love becomes more. When the person does not do what you want, hurts your feelings or pulls away from you, you have a choice to do the same or to continue to show your love for them by continuing to love them.

So when we apply that to this verse, we can see that loving God is great especially when we are in worship and things are going the way that we want them to go, but what about when they don’t. What about when God has answered your prayer with ‘wait’ or ‘no’? Then we have a choice, are we going to continue to love God or are we going to follow our emotion and give up? Choosing to act on love and continue to show love for someone when you are hurt or disappointed can be hard but that is what is being called for in this verse. Putting God above all else, whether He has answered our prayers the way we want or not, whether He is moving as fast as we want and whether we feel like it or not.

Remember that God loves us that way. We have sinned against Him and He still sent Jesus to die for our sins. He could have given up and walked away so many times, but He didn’t. So, as you go about your day, think about what kind of love you show to others and to God.

“To the one he gave 5 talents of money, to another 2 talents and to another 1 talent, each according to his ability. And he went on his journey.” Matthew 25:15 Berean Standard Bible

Have you ever heard someone say “I can’t do that. I’m not talented enough?” Have you ever said that? I have said it more times than I should have said it over the years. I have come to realize that when I say things such as “I am not good enough or I have no authority to do that” I have taken my eye off of God. I have placed my trust in my own strength, my own ability and my authority, which is NOT where it belongs.

Where it, my trust and faith, does belong, where it should always be, is with God. When I keep my trust and faith in God and His miraculous abilities, then I am able to do anything that He wants to us me to do. I can do it because and only because of His strength, because of His ability and because of His authority, not mine.

God gave us free will and we can choose to follow God and His promptings or not, it is completely up to us. We are not robots that God has programmed to make the choices He wants us to make or to do the tasks that He wants us to do. He is not going to make us into robots either by following Him, we maintain our free will. God wants us to be free so that we can choose whether or not we want to submit to Him and follow His will for our lives. It pleases God when we use our free will to follow Him and choose to walk the path that He has laid out for us to walk.

Have you felt God’s prompting to do something, go somewhere or say something? Do you want to do it? Are you afraid to say ‘yes’ to it? What is driving your fear? Where have you placed your trust that what is being asked of you can be done by you? These are all questions that we should be asking ourselves when we think we are being nudged to do something, go somewhere or say something by God.

When God is calling you to walk a particular path, He is going to give you the strength, the ability, the talent, the time, the authority to do it. Our fear of not being enough is accurate because we are not enough – God is and that is where we draw from to enable us to do what is asked of us when it should be impossible for us to do it. Please do not rely on your own talent, instead remember and believe that God has enough talent for all of us.

So I ask again, have you felt God prompting you to do something, go somewhere or say something? What is your choice going to be? I pray that it is to follow God as He wants what is best for you and we hopefully want what is best for the furthering of His kingdom. Think about it as you go about your day. Have a great day.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” Exodus 3:4 NIV

The first 3 verses of this chapter explain that Moses was tending to his father-in-law’s sheep when he saw this miraculous sight of a bush that was on fire but did not seem to be consumed by the fire. His curiosity won out and he goes up to the area where the bush that is on fire but not being consumed is located. It is at that point when the Lord calls out to Moses by name.

Think about that for a moment. First very odd, very strange thing is a burning bush that is not being consumed by the fire. Second very odd, very strange thing is a voice coming out of that same bush. Third very odd, very strange thing is that the voice knows his name. Moses is a lot calmer about this than I would have been, he is a lot braver about this than I would have been and he is a lot more willing than I would have been to stand there.

My response may have been to look around for who was messing with me, run away, yell out of fear or possibly even faint. Not Moses, he stands there and says ‘Here I am’. That is someone who is willing. However, if you know anything about Moses’s story than you know that as the conversation with God continues that Moses goes from a person who was willing to stand in the presence of God at the burning bush to someone who begins to question his ability to do what God is asking him to do.

I believe that a lot of us have that moment of willingness to answer God’s call, but for some of us, that willingness fades fast as we learn of the details of God’s plan. For some of us that willingness fades because we cannot seem to see the details of God’s plan or at least enough of the details to keep us calm. Willingness can be hard and what God is asking you or I to do may be hard as well, but God knows things we do not know. The one thing that we do know is that God will be with us each step of the way as we go through the event, circumstance, trial or challenge that God is calling us to go through.

I have friends who are Officers in the Salvation Army and are required to move to new appointments every so many years. This is hard on the people in the congregation as we say ‘good-bye’ or at least ‘see you later’ to our friends who are leaving and say ‘hello’ to the new officer as they arrive. However, I do not believe that this is not as hard for us as it can be for them. We are staying in the same home we have been in, staying in the same town that we have been in and staying with the same group of people we have been with, where they are going to a new home, new town and to meet a new group of people.

Yesterday we said those ‘good-byes’ or ‘see you laters’ to our friends as they moved from our church to their next church appointment. It was not easy for us but I know that it was harder for them to leave what they have known for the last several years and go out into the unknown. But as I said, they are Officers, which in the Salvation Army means that they are pastors who know that God walks with them each step of the way.

They are willing to do what God has asked them to do. Are you willing? Willing to do what God asks you to do.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Psalms 23:6 KJV

As David finishes this psalm, he moves from talking about this life on earth to describing life in heaven. David is acknowledging that God’s goodness and mercy have been with him through his life and will continue to be with him as he lives out the remainder of his days. Then David makes a bold statement about where he will spend eternity. He states that he will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. He is describing living in very close proximity to the Lord and he will do this for eternity.

As I wrote before about how the 4th verse sometimes brings peace of mind and comfort to people who are facing the last days of their mortal life here on earth, this last sentence of the last verse can also bring peace of mind and comfort. Not only do we, as believers know we are not alone, but we are also reminded in this verse that we are going to live with God for all of eternity.

When I think of my mother, my aunt and my friend Hope, I can picture them making their homes in heaven and rejoicing as they are with the Lord. They know that being with Him will not end and when I get there, it will not end for me either. I also know that I will see them again when I join them, which also brings me peace.

Do you have this peace. the peace of knowing that when your time on earth is done, that you will dwell with God? That you will live in close proximity with Him for ALL of eternity? As a believer, I know this and even though I do not wish to leave this life just yet, I know that when the time comes, my eternal home will be a wonderful place but most importantly I will be with God. Are you able to believe that you will be with God for eternity? I certainly hope so.

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” Psalms 23:5

David describes a scene where a host has prepared the dinner table for the guest to sit at and eat. The host has brought to the dinner the enemies of the guest and by having them watch as the guest is able to eat and enjoy himself, they are shown the protected status of the guest. David is saying that this table was prepared for him by the Lord and that the Lord has brought David’s enemies together as a captive audience to watch as the Lord is protecting David.

As David talks about the use of oil, it is important to know that oil was used for many things, in David’s time. A person would use it for healing purposes as well as welcoming guests into their home and even as fuel. So when David writes that God has anointed his head with oil, he is telling those who read this psalm that he knows Who has been providing for him, Who has protected him throughout the years and Who has blessed him as king.

The visual of a cup that is running over with the liquid inside of it is also a way of demonstrating being blessed and provided for. David has used 3 different ways to show that the Lord provides for him, protects him and blesses him within this verse inside the psalm.

How many ways can we say that God has provided for us, protected us and blessed us? I know that there many ways that God has provided for me. I have a job, food, clothes, a home, electricity, a car and people who value and love me. He has protected me by helping me to not enter into relationships that are harmful to me and given me direction about the path I am to be walking. He has blessed me in my profession and my personal relationships.

As you go through your day today, I challenge you to stop and think about all the different ways that God has provided for you, has protected you and has blessed you. You will be amazed at how many ways you will find when you stop and look. Have a wonderful day.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Psalms 23:4 KJV

Even in those darkest moments of life when all seems lost or hopeless, we are not alone. David realized this and was acknowledging that God was with him as He is always with us today, even in the lowest valleys of life. Once we embrace that God is with us, we stand a little taller as we choose not to fear evil. Fear happens though, but knowing that we have God on our side, walking right along with us, gives us the courage to face that fear.

In this verse, David talks about the rod and the staff, making a parallel to the shepherd again. Shepherds would use their rod to protect their sheep from predators as they used the rod to strike the predator. They use their staff to guide their sheep by placing the hooked end around the sheep and physically guiding the sheep back to the herd. When a shepherd is carrying his rod and staff, he is able to protect the sheep and guide them. This is a source of comfort to the sheep, and in that same way David is using this imagery to say that God, the ultimate Shepherd, is able to protect and guide us as well.

This verse, in particular, in the psalm has also brought comfort to a lot of people who have been in their last days as they think about walking through the valley of death. To know that they will not take that walk alone brings peace of mind, and not only to them but to their loved ones as well. This particular verse in this psalm brought my mother and myself comfort in her last days as she knew she would not need to fear death. We both knew that she would not walk that path alone and that when she made it through the valley, she would be with God for all of eternity.

This was only guaranteed for my mother because she was born again. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, then that is not how you will experience the valley of death when your time comes. I cannot urge everyone enough to really look at your life and determine if you want to have a close relationship with Jesus or walk that valley alone. You don’t have to ever be alone, God will always be with you, but you need to accept Him and reach out for Him.