Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Matthew 5:9 ESV “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. The world is plagued by wars and rumours of wars. Israel, Gaza, Sudan, Iran, Ukraine and Russia have all experienced war recently. Even the UK experiences riots and criminal violence on the streets. Jesus was speaking into a situation where the Roman Empire was occupying Israel and oppressing the Jewish people. One of his hearers was Simon the Zealot, who wanted to kick the Romans out. Jesus insisted that we should be peacemakers. It doesn't take much effort to start a fight. It requires resolve to make peace. As Solomon said, 'when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him'. The promise is that if we make peace, we will be called children of God. It's not that making peace earns us the right to be called children of God. It's that a characteristic of God's children is that we are peacemakers. 'Heavenly Father, please help u...

 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is one of the most astounding verses in the Bible. Jesus is the only perfect Man to have ever lived. He lived in our fallen world but knew no sin. Even though the Spirit conceived virgin born Son of God isn't tainted with our original sin, God treated him as such. God condemned his own beloved Son in our place. The sinless Saviour was treated like the worst of criminals deserve. Why did God the Father treat his Son like he did? For our undeserving selves. We deserve hell, but our heavenly Lord went through it for our sakes. We know about substitutes in football. That's a pale illustration of the supernatural substitution Jesus made for us sinners to become the righteousness of God. When God sees us his adopted children, he sees a reflection of his beloved Son. 'Abba, Father in heaven, please accept us in the well beloved. In his mighty n...

 Matthew 5:8 ESV Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This verse seems to be addressing the impossible. Which of us can say we have a pure heart? If we think we do, we're lying to ourselves, which is impurity! Miraculously, our impure hearts can be purified. The blood of Jesus can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We just need to confess and renounce our sinfulness. Who can see God and live? He dwells in unapproachable light. Yet Jesus is the image of the invisible God. In the end, we will see the Lord. If we trust in him, we won't see some disappointed face. We'll see someone beaming with acceptance between his outstretched, nail pierced hands for us. 'Almighty God, we're astounded that one day we will see you face to face. We're grateful that we can be purified. Please do so, in Christ's name, amen'.

 2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. We tend to assume the opposite of this verse. We think the things we can see, touch, taste, smell and hear are the definite things. We reckon unseen things are more ethereal and uncertain. In reality, the opposite of our assumptions are true. God, the Source of all reality, is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and truth. We're not just flesh and blood; we're souls and spirits. This world and its desires are passing away. We're not to get too comfortable here. This world isn't our home, we're just passing through. We either belong in our heavenly Father's house, through faith in his Son, or else we face eternal estrangement from him. The new creation or the lake of fire are both eternal. All that we take for granted in this life will fade away. 'Our h...

 Matthew 5:7 ESV Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. At first glance, this verse seems to suggest we can earn our salvation. If we're merciful to others, it seems, maybe God will feel obliged to be merciful to us. If we think that, we've got things the wrong way round. If we receive mercy from God, we will be merciful. If we claim to have received God's mercy but are unmerciful, we betray the fact we never received his mercy in the first place. The evidence of a recipient of God's mercy is that they're merciful. The world is a merciless place. If someone messes up, they're ostracised and turned into a pariah. Thankfully, God is merciful. Christ died to pay the price for our mess. Because he bore Father God's wrath at our sins, we can receive God's mercy. If we do, we will be merciful to others. 'Merciful Father God, please forgive us our sins and help us to forgive those who wrong us, for we ask in Christ's name, amen'.

 Here's the link to my WhatsApp Community: feel free to join- https://chat.whatsapp.com/J1v8kQhVoQF71xtQdR6aWV

 Matthew 5:6 ESV Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. What we hunger and thirst for says a lot about us. Of course, as humans, we literally hunger and thirst. Yet there are many other things we could long for. Humanity is sociable, so we may long for company if we're lonely. Many of us are sexual, so we might long for sex (hopefully with our heterosexual, monogamous marriage partners for life). Here, Jesus refers to the greatest desire we can have. The greatest desire we can have is to long to be righteous. That sounds religious, but it's basically to be Christlike. To be like Christ is the greatest thing we could be. Jesus gives us a wonderful promise, that if we long for righteousness, we will be satisfied. As CS Lewis said, if we have a desire this world can't satisfy, we can infer that we were made for another world. We were made to know and to enjoy fellowship with Jesus for eternity. 'Dear Abba God, may we desire ...

 Matthew 5:5 ESV Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness might rhyme with weakness, but they're not synonymous. Bullies are weak because they feel they have to put others down to feel good about themselves. Meekness is the opposite. To be meek means to not insist on our own rights. We live in a society where people say, 'I know my rights'. Just because we have a right to do something doesn't mean to say it's necessarily right in all circumstances. If we're meek, we won't mind even if we don't inherit the earth. We'd be happy to simply be in our Father's house. Yet he will entrust us with the new creation. If we treat ourselves as the bosses of the earth, we abuse it. If we know ourselves to be servants of our Creator, we will wisely steward our resources. Then God will graciously allow us to inherit the new creation. 'Dear heavenly Father, please humble us, and help us not to insist on our rights. May we be found to b...

 Matthew 5:4 ESV Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. This verse is completely counterintuitive. We would assume that those who mourn are cursed, not blessed! Jesus seems to declare the opposite of what we might expect. Blessedness is to be made joyful by God. To mourn is seemingly the opposite. It's as though Jesus is saying 'happy are the sad'! Jesus's teaching is spiritual. So when he refers to mourning, he's not on about how you feel when your dog dies. He's referring to our sorrow over our sinfulness. If we hate our sins that grieve Father God, he will comfort us with his forgiveness. God doesn't want to leave us miserable. He wants to bless us. 'Blessed God, please bless us even in spite of our sorrows. May we renounce our sins and live for you alone, for your glory, amen'.