Wonderful Reconstruction

Matthew 5

You’re Blessed

1-2When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said: 3“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. 5“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. 6“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. 7“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

8“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 9“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family. 10“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. 11-12“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

God promises a wonderful blessing. It’s not based on your emotions or feelings. No, Matthew 5 describes God’s wonderful reconstruction of the heart. check out the sequence in the Beatitudes. 

We recognize we are in need, we’re poor in spirit (You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope). Next, we repent of our self sufficiency, we mourn (You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you). We quit calling the shots, we’re meek (You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less). We are so grateful for his presence that we want more, we hunger and thirst (You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God). We forgive others, we’re merciful (You’re blessed when you care). We change our outlook, we’re pure in heart (You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right). We love others, we’re peacemakers. We endure injustice, we’re persecuted.

It’s no a casual shift of attitude. It is a tearing down of the old and a creation of the new. The more radical the change, the greater the joy. And it is worth every effort, because this is the joy of God! A wonder blessing....a wonderful reconstruction.

Avoid running on empty

“Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” - 
(Psalm 95:6-7)

Most Christians view worship as an event instead of a lifestyle. But our day of worship is not supposed to replace our weekday and weekend worship. Sunday is supposed to launch us into our week of worship. Worship is meant to be a lifestyle, not an event. To be filled with the Holy Spirit and with a heart full of worship for our great God and King, we must be like a car pulling up to a filling station to receive a full tank of gasoline. Once we are filled up, do we park our vehicle and sit there the rest of the week? No, we go to a filling station to get what we need to leave the station. We have a destination and need full tanks to get there. A problem occurs when we leave the station. As soon as we walk out of our Sunday worship, people begin to burn up that fuel inside them. Our spouse's , children, and work burn it up. When we leave our church, we are full of God’s presence and glory from our time in corporate worship. But Satan’s job is to burn up that fuel. The worst thing we can do is to wait until next Sunday to worship. We need to drink continually to stay filled. What we do on Sunday must become a way of life to remain filled with the Holy Spirit.

Wait- Expect

Psalms 62:5 (NKJV)
My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.



Silence??? What's that? I have found that life with 3 boys is not a quiet one. As I read this Psalm, it woke me up to the fact that we can get extremely busy doing nothing at all. Sometimes our expectations for God are based on how quickly we can get things done, and how busy we are. God does not operate like that.  STOP!  Find a quiet spot to daily get in the word and quietly let God renew your soul. 

I expect God to do something big in my life, marriage, ministry, and kids. I'm also done getting in HIS way. Time for me to wait- be silent- and expect
I can't wait to see what He will do next! If you need your soul renewed, then get with God and be renewed.

Claiming Refuge in God

Attitude Toward Evil

Psalm 91:5–10

5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
 nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
    though ten thousand are dying around you,
    these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
    and see how the wicked are punished.

9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
    if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
    no plague will come near your home.

  In Psalm 91:1–4, the songwriter has acknowledged the Lord as his refuge when under attack by the forces of evil. Now in 91:5–10, he sizes up his enemy and calculates his (and our) chances of surviving the battle. (Spoiler alert: we stand a 100 percent chance of victory.)

  Beginning in verse 5, the songwriter makes a series of predictions about you, presuming that you have placed your trust in the Lord and you're coming to Him for refuge from the enemy. Here are his predictions.

  You will have no fear (91:5–6). Look over the descriptive terms that describe our enemy's tactics: terrors . . . arrow . . disease . . . disaster.  All these describe satanic and demonic assaults against us. Notice also that these assaults take place at any time of the day or night. Our enemy will stop at nothing to make us afraid! Intimidation is one of his sharpest darts of deception.

  But the psalmist assures that you won't be afraid because the truth of God's faithfulness will wrap itself around you like a warm blanket in winter. While the enemy relentlessly fires arrows in your direction, you're safely surrounded by the protection of God's fortress. The psalmist has you standing in a safe place, high above the range of the most powerful bowstring. You watch in complete peace as thousands of missiles fall pathetically to the ground before reaching you.

  Your faith will prevail, while others fall (91:7–10). I see faith written between each line, don't you? Our Lord expects us to stand firmly on His Word—His promises—His strength. Read Ephesians 6:10–11, 16 and you'll see that the "shield of faith" is able to deflect everything the evil one throws at you. Remember, faith demands an object. There are at least four specific biblical truths for the Christian to claim when undergoing or seeking release from satanic/demonic attacks.

We used to be neighbors!

ROMANS

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Our world has become a large, impersonal, busy place. We are alienated from each other. Although crowded, we are lonely. Pushed together but un-involved. No longer do most neighbors visit across the backyard fence. The well-done front lawn is the barrier that keeps weirdos at bay. Hoarding our stuff, and flaunting our toys have replaced sharing and caring. It's like we are occupying common space but have no common interests, it's as if we're on an elevator with rules such as: "No talking, smiling, or eye contact allowed without written consent of the management." 

Painful though it may be for us to admit, we're losing touch with one another. The motivation to help, to encourage, to serve our fellow human beings is a thing of the past. People have even observed crimes in progress but refused to help so they don't have to be involved! Our foundational values are getting lost in these confusing days. And yet, it is these things that form the essentials of a happy and fulfilling life.  

Remember that grand declaration of biblical assurance written in truth of Romans 8? I'm referring to verses 28–29, which read: 

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. 

Maybe you've never before stopped to consider that God is committed to one major objective in the lives of all His people: to conform us to "the image of His Son."

Social Gospel?

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said

Instead of writing off our culture as hopelessly secular and doomed, God wants His people to have a redeeming and transforming impact on American society. But what is the relationship of the Gospel to social action? What is the Christian’s responsibility in matters of social ills—injustice, poverty, and hunger?
In many evangelical circles, the terms “social action” and “social gospel” have negative connotations. But the question remains: what does the gospel of Jesus Christ have to say to the poor and the oppressed? This is an important question all Christians need to deal with.

The message of the Gospel is narrow, not broad. The issue of social action is not part of the gospel message. Whenever social action is made part of the Gospel, two problems arise: Social action obscures what the Gospel really is, and no one knows how much emphasis to give to the social aspect of the message.
Those who want to make social action a part of the Gospel’s content make the same mistake repeatedly in biblical interpretation. They apply the non-technical use of the word Gospel as it is used in the first four books of the New Testament rather than applying its more specific use in the epistles, where the word has a much more limited meaning.
When Paul spoke of the Gospel, he limited it to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sin (see the above reading). 
In Matthew 4, Jesus used the term to refer to the good news of the kingdom.
 “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom” (v. 23).

Newborn Christians

Get all the advice and instruction you can,

so you will be wise the rest of your life.

Proverbs 19:20

“I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men,

 but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ”

1 Corinthians 3:1

There are people who are Christians but are not mature in their faith. They are neither carnal Christians nor unbelievers. These are people who are brand-new to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. They have not been saved long enough to become spiritual. A baby Christian cannot be mature. They can be Spirit-controlled, but they cannot be mature because maturity requires time.

When Paul addresses Christians about their infancy, he is referring to weak, brand-new Christians. We cannot condemn a person because he or she is a baby. Neither does the apostle Paul condemn new Christians because they are immature. New Christians should not get frustrated because they are not mature. They should allow the Holy Spirit control over what they have, and He will make it increase with time. When a baby Christian desires to become mature, we should rejoice that they have listened to the Holy Spirit’s voice and have developed a desire for a deeper and more satisfying relationship with God.“I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it”(v. 2). New Christians grow by feeding on the basics of Christianity. They learn who God is and how much He loves us. They learn who Jesus Christ is, and why it was necessary for Him to become the Lamb of God.
A baby Christian learns to love God with all his heart, mind, and soul.

Our you a TRANSFORMER?

 

Romans 12:9-16 (New Living Translation)

 9 Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 11 Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.    12 Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful. 13 When God's children are in need, be the one to help them out. And get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or, if they need lodging, for the night.  

What Do You Expect?

 Psalms 40  

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

1I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,

and he turned to me and heard my cry.

2He lifted me out of the pit of despair,

out of the mud and the mire.

He set my feet on solid ground

and steadied me as I walked along.

3He has given me a new song to sing,

a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see what he has done and be amazed.

They will put their trust in the Lord.

4Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord,

who have no confidence in the proud

or in those who worship idols.

5O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us.

Your plans for us are too numerous to list.

You have no equal.

If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds,

I would never come to the end of them.

6You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.

Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand—

you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.

7Then I said, “Look, I have come.

As is written about me in the Scriptures:

8I take joy in doing your will, my God,

for your instructions are written on my heart.”

9I have told all your people about your justice.

I have not been afraid to speak out,

as you, O Lord, well know.

10I have not kept the good news of your justice hidden in my heart;

I have talked about your faithfulness and saving power.

I have told everyone in the great assembly

of your unfailing love and faithfulness.

11Lord, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me.

Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me.

12For troubles surround me—

too many to count!

My sins pile up so high

I can’t see my way out.

They outnumber the hairs on my head.

I have lost all courage.

13Please, Lord, rescue me!

Come quickly, Lord, and help me.

14May those who try to destroy me

be humiliated and put to shame.

May those who take delight in my trouble

be turned back in disgrace.

15Let them be horrified by their shame,

for they said, “Aha! We’ve got him now!”

16But may all who search for you

be filled with joy and gladness in you.

May those who love your salvation

repeatedly shout, “The Lord is great!”

17As for me, since I am poor and needy,

let the Lord keep me in his thoughts.

You are my helper and my savior.

O my God, do not delay.

Life is filled with expectations. Look at our everyday lives. Some of us wake up expecting the best in our work day or with our family or in our health or in our finances. Others dread the day, or at best, never expect anything to change for the better. Is that you? 

Childhood dreams and hopes might be crushed by comments that discourage rather than encourage. Disillusionment's or disappointments can stop any positive expectations.

What are you expecting in life? Whatever your expectations, there's a good chance you're going to get it. In other words, you get whatever you expect out of life. If your expecting bad things to happen, chances are they will.

Please know that God is still ABLE to deliver you from low expectations. Start believing for something better in your life. The Word tells us that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works in us. 
Expect it! Quit settling for defeat, and claim the victory in Jesus name!

Crazy Love

 

An exhortation from Frances Chan

Recently, out of a desire to grow in my love for God, I decided to spend a few days alone with Him in the woods.

Before I left, a friend prayed, "God, I know how You’ve wanted this time with Francis." Though I didn’t say anything at the time, I secretly thought it was a heretical way to pray and that he was wrong to phrase it that way. I was going to the woods because I wanted more of God. But He’s God; He certainly wouldn’t want more of me! It seemed demeaning to think that God could long for a human being.

The more I searched the Scriptures, however, the more I realized my friend’s prayer was right on, and that my reaction to his prayer indicated how much I still doubted God’s love. My belief in God’s love was still theoretical, not a reality I lived out or experienced.

I ended up spending four days in the woods without speaking to another human being. I had no plan or agenda; I just opened my Bible. I don’t think it was coincidence that on the first day it fell open to Jeremiah 1.

After reading that passage, I meditated on it for the next four days. It spoke of God’s intimate knowledge of me. I had always acknowledged His complete sovereignty over me, but verses 4 and 5 took it to another level: "The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'"

In other words, God knew me before He made me.

Please don't skim over this truth just because you’ve heard it before. Take some time to really think about it. I’ll say it again: God knew you and me before we existed.

When I first digested this, all of my other relationships seemed trivial by comparison. God has been with me from the start--in fact, from well before the start.

My next thought, alone in the woods, was that He determined what Jeremiah would do before he was even born. I questioned whether that was also true of me. Maybe all of this pertained only to Jeremiah’s life?

Then I remembered Ephesians 2:10, which tells us that we were created “to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do? That verse is meant for me and all others who have been “saved by grace through faith? My existence was not random, nor was it an accident. God knew who He was creating, and He designed me for a specific work.

God’s next words to Jeremiah assured me that I need not fear failure:

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child?"

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant?" (Jeremiah 1:6-10)

When Jeremiah voices his hesitation and fear, God--the God of the galaxies--reaches out and touches his mouth. It’s a gentle and affectionate gesture, something a loving parent would do. Through this illustration I realized that I don’t have to worry about not meeting His expectations. God will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine.

This is the God we serve, the God who knew us before He made us. The God who promises to remain with us and rescue us. The God who loves us and longs for us to love Him back.
So why, when we constantly offend Him and are so unlovable and unloving, does God persist in loving us?

In my childhood, doing something offensive resulted in punishment, not love. Whether we admit it or not, every one of us has offended God at some point. Jesus affirmed this when He said, "No one is good--except God alone" (Luke 18:19).

So why does God still love us, despite us? I do not have an answer to this question. But I do know that if God’s mercy didn’t exist, there would be no hope. No matter how good we tried to be, we would be punished because of our sins.

Many people look at their lives and weigh their sins against their good deeds. But Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags? Our good deeds can never outweigh our sins.

The literal interpretation of "filthy rags" in this verse is "menstrual garments" (think used tampons--and if you’re disgusted by that idea, you get Isaiah’s point). It’s hard to imagine something more disgusting that we could brag about or put on display. But compared to God's perfect holiness, that’s how our good deeds appear.

God’s mercy is a free, yet costly, gift. It cannot be earned. Our righteous acts, just like menstrual garments, certainly don’t help us deserve it. The wages of sin will always be death. But because of God’s mercy, sin is paid for through the death of Jesus Christ, instead of the death of you and me.

A Strange Inheritance

The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair, and just God loves you and me is nothing short of astonishing.

The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us. His being is utterly complete and perfect, apart from humanity. He doesn’t need me or you. Yet He wants us, chooses us, even considers us His inheritance (Eph. 1:18). The greatest knowledge we can ever have is knowing God treasures us.

That really is amazing beyond description. The holy Creator sees you as His “glorious inheritance?

The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him--and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by.
Reflection Questions

1. How does it make you feel to consider that the God of Creation loves you personally? Does that seem presumptuous to say?
2. Why are you able to make that claim?