Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Matthew 5:11 CSBA  ‘You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.  Typically of Jesus's Beatitudes, this verse seems counterintuitive. We certainly don't feel blessed when people insult, persecute and slander us. Yet Jesus insists we are. Elsewhere, Jesus pronounces woe on those who are spoken well of, for so they did to the false prophets. False prophets flatter people. True believers might not insult, persecute and slander people, but neither do we pretend everything's okay if it isn't. If we belong to Jesus, we're 'in the world but not of the world'. So why would we expect to be accepted by the world? If we are accepted by the world, we're doing something wrong. As we're told elsewhere, 'all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.' Persecution in one sense is wrong. In another sense, it shows that we're doing something right (not that we...

 Matthew 5:10 CSBA  Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven   is theirs. When we think of persecution, we might envisage imprisonment, torture and martyrdom. Jesus seems to emphasise what enables such things: insults and slander. We certainly don't feel blessed when we're insulted and slandered. Elsewhere we're told of Christians rejoicing that they were counted as worthy to suffer for Christ. It's better to suffer for him than as a result of our sinfulness. The Apostle Peter said as much. Also, we're told that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. We won't all be martyred, but we will all be insulted and slandered. The offence of the crucifixion of Christ that we profess will provoke people to attack us. If we want to be part of the Kingdom of heaven, we will be persecuted. We're not to invite persecution. Yet it will inevitably come out way. 'King of heaven, may we dwell...

  Matthew 5:9 CSBA   Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.   This is a very timely verse for me as I seek to defuse a conflict I'm in. The devil would tempt me to retaliate. Jesus calls me to take the hurt and to leave it at the foot of the cross. Our gut reaction when someone hurts us is to hurt them back. Then we'd be as bad as them. The Jesus way is to forgive and to seek to move on. If the other person isn't willing to move on, it's probably best to make a tactical retreat. I know avoidance isn't really actively making peace. Sometimes though it is a way of regrouping and planning a more peaceful response out of the heat of anger. As my daughters were play fighting yesterday, I reflected that it's much easier to start a conflict than it is to end one. Yet whoever initiated conflict, we should be the ones to initiate peace. As Trump has discovered with Iran, peacemaking is easier said than done. 'Dear Father God, we praise you ...

  Matthew 5:8 CSBA Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.   Jesus seems to be stating the impossible here. Surely no one can see God and live. Surely we're all impure in heart! Thankfully, nothing is impossible for God. He can purify our hearts. By the blood of Jesus, our hearts can be cleansed.  Our hearts are naturally impure. Yet God can give us spiritual heart transplants. Then we need to stay healthy spiritually. We're all sinners, and no sinner can see God and live. Yet God can sanctify us to see our Saviour and Lord. God is a Spirit, but Christ reveals him to us. 'God Almighty, please purify our hearts. May we have the honour of seeing you, and dwelling with you for eternity. In Jesus' name, amen'.

I lost access to this account.  I temporarily blogged over at boberlain.blogspot.com. I'll return here now. 

 Galatians 5:16 ESV  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Elsewhere we're told to keep in step with the Spirit. I think there's two main ways we can get out of step with the Spirit and seek gratification elsewhere. One way is selfish hedonism. The other is self righteous moralism. Hedonism is an obvious way people try and gratify the desires of the flesh. Whether it's 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' or eating, drinking and being merry- hedonism is often about idolising good things and allowing them to usurp God's place. Biblically for example, even though sex is good, it should be enjoyed within hetrosexual, monogamous marriages for life, and not at the expense of prayer. Another way people seek to gratify the desires of the flesh is moralism. This is more subtle. They might have an appearance of godliness, but they deny its power- God- and seek to take credit for their own self righteousness. In our flesh we ...

 Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Grace is an undeserved gift. It is often described as God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Faith is the key that unlocks the door of grace. We can't be all self congratulatory if we have faith. Even our faith is a gift of God. So if we don't have faith, we can simply ask God to give it to us. We can't earn the gift of faith. God gives us it out of his loving graciousness. We don't deserve it. There's no room for boasting in the Christian life. Neither is there room for resting on our laurels. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. 'Dear Father God, please reveal to us what works you would have us to do for you today. Yet may our trust ever be in your grace and your gift of faith. In Christ's name we ask...

 1 Peter 3:15 ESV but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,  I can only remember a couple of times when people have asked me for a reason for my happy, cheerful manner. The first time I fluffed an answer and said it must just be my personality. The second time I started to give a reason for my hopefulness, saying I have a lot to be thankful for. Even the first time, at uni, I had a verse on my door: 'taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him'. It's interesting that Peter seems to imply that we shouldn't need to engineer opportunities to testify of our faith in Christ the Lord. Our hope should be evident. People should be asking us why we're hopeful. If we honour Christ the Lord as holy, we're not going to let people take his name in vain without comment. When my work colleag...

 John 16:13 ESV When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  The Bible is a great body of truth. Yet it's the Holy Spirit that makes it come alive. It's not enough to search the Scriptures if the Spirit doesn't reveal Christ in them to us. At this time, the Bible wasn't complete. Now that it is, God's word is the primary way he speaks to us, through his Spirit of truth. We don't need an audible voice, but if we hear one, it mustn't contradict Scripture. Jesus is the truth personified. So the Spirit of truth is his. They work in perfect harmony. The things that are to come are revealed in God's word. Jesus will return and we will be judged. We'll either be forgiven through faith in him, or condemned as we deserve. 'Our Father God, thank you for sending your Son and pouring out your Spiri...