Forgiveness
Mercy and grace go hand-in-hand. We talk about God’s grace all the time. We love Him for His mercy. As His children, we bear His characteristics. We extend mercy to others.
Is this not the same teaching of Jesus as He said, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12)? He also said, “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you? …My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:33, 35). This is not a random teaching of the Lord; it’s pervasive throughout Scripture.
Revel in the mercy God has shown to you. Understand the power of His grace. He did not wait for you to clean up your act; He gave over His Son to the torturers while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:6-11). So often men ask the question: “Do I have to forgive someone who doesn’t ask for forgiveness?” All I know is Jesus was PROACTIVE in His forgiveness. He extended grace, and then He called us to come into that grace and accept His forgiveness. If I look like Him, I suspect I need to do the same with my brother. It’s eternally important I forgive my brother!
The promise: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. God promises to forgive us when we forgive others.
Let’s look for opportunities to extend mercy today. Mercy is NOT giving someone a punishment they deserve. Please don’t confuse this with withholding all punishment from your children. God still gives us consequences to our sins to teach us and train us. But He has removed the STING of sin, that is death, that we really deserve. So we can practice mercy with our children by working with their repentant hearts, lessening punishments when we see it would defeat them. I hope my wife keeps extending mercy to me by putting up with my many faults and weaknesses with a smile.
So many applications…what are your thoughts?
God bless,
Nathan
I'm So Hungry!
Notice, Jesus did not say, “Hunger and thirst for the word of God.” He said, “Hunger and thirst for righteousness.” In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”
What is this righteousness for which we should hunger and thirst? The word “righteous” is the same as the word for “just” in the New Testament. To be made righteous is to be justified. God is the only truly righteous One. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, He became both just and the justifier of mankind (Romans 3:26). He is righteous. He makes righteous.
God wants us to hunger for His righteousness. Of course, we FIND His righteousness in His word, but the two are not equivalent. You might study God’s word for years and not really want His righteousness. Many do. To want His righteousness is to want His character to live in you. The first three blessings here in Matthew 5:3-5 deal with understanding and mourning sin in our lives. Now we see the truly blessed man also reflects the character of God!
Oh, to be like Him! To think like Him! To love like Him! To live with Him!
God’s promise to that man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness: “He will be satisfied.”
What thoughts come into your head concerning this blessing?
God bless,
Nathan
Power Under Control
It’s not enough to simply recognize the sin in your life (Blessed are the poor in spirit).
It’s not enough to just weep and mope about that sin (Blessed are those who mourn).
We must also submit to God – Blessed are the gentle [meek], for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
I don’t like the word “gentle” in my New American Standard Bible. The term is not understood in our culture in the way it is meant here. If you have a good understanding of the term “gentleman,” then you can get a better idea of it’s meaning. But don’t get the picture in your head of a man who lets others walk all over him and direct him, who doesn’t seem to have a backbone, who constantly pets everyone and coos and talks in a very low voice. That is one version of gentle.
This word is better translated “meek.” But again, we might have trouble getting the meaning if we think of “meekness” as a little mouse. Think of meekness as a horse with powerful muscles rippling. She submits to the bridle, the saddle, and the one who mounts. She could easily buck and roll and attempt to cast off her rider, but she restrains herself and bows to her rider’s wishes. Think of meekness as a massive soldier who could easily overpower his superior officer, yet he obeys orders instantly and efficiently. There is no weakness in this meekness. Restraint and control rule. The horse and the soldier both bring their awesome power into check and use their strength in obedience.
Women sometimes hate the concept of submission to their husbands (as to the Lord – Ephesians 5:22-24). Our culture paints this submission as weakness. It is not weak to recognize authority the way God created it from the beginning. It is not weak to bring your passions and strengths under control and use them the way God intended!
We all hate the concept of submission at some time or another. We are all to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:5) and absolutely to the Lord (James 4:10).
And the promise to the meek? “They shall inherit the earth.” Authority awaits those who walk in humility!
God bless,
Nathan
Introspection
One who is poor in spirit understands the sin in his life. His spiritual poverty leads naturally into Jesus’ next statement:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5:4)
Why mourn? Is there something truly blessed in being downcast, weeping all the time? Why are there so many scriptures which talk about the JOY of walking with the Lord if we should be in mourning?
This is not a constant state of sadness. This mourning is for a specific, spiritual purpose. We mourn because of sin, mostly because of our own sin and what that sin did to our Father and His Son. But I think this is also a general mourning for the sin we see all around us. As Jesus looked over Jerusalem and saw their future destruction, He lamented: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…” (Matthew 23:37). Hebrews 5:7 tells us that Jesus “offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” Jesus did not weep over His own sins but over the pain that sin brought into the world.
Where is the comfort? It’s in the future. Jesus looked FORWARD to His day of salvation from this earth. He “for the joy set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus was able to look past the sin and suffering to the joy of His glorification and reunion with the Father!
Of course, we are more than conquerors NOW, if we are in Christ. We overcome now (Romans 8:37) because God MAKES us overcome! We mourn and weep now in the flesh (James 4:9), but God is working in us to make us brand-new. Though our outer man is perishing, our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you! (James 4:10)
May God’s blessings be upon you today,
Nathan
Destitute
“Poor.” What comes to mind? Poverty. Rags. A lot of hard work with nothing much to show for it. You can find statistics such as: “At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day”; and “Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.” (Find these statistics as well as many more at www.globalissues.org.) Poverty will always be with us.
But when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” (Matthew 5:3) He was not talking about physical poverty. I wonder what our spiritual statistics would look like. Maybe “over 80% of humanity thinks it’s doing just fine on a spiritual level.” Do you think that would fit?
How does one become poor in spirit? What does that look like? What is spiritual poverty?
A man is poor in spirit when he realizes his real worthlessness. He realizes he is spiritually bankrupt. There is no way to pay his debt. Jesus told a story (Matthew 18:21-35) about a master who was about to throw a servant in prison because he had such a large debt he could never repay. The man wept and grovelled and begged the master to give him a little time to repay! He knew he was guilty as charged, and these debts were about to swallow him whole. He was, as we say, “upside-down” in his payments in a big way.
Have you ever owed so much money that you just couldn’t see an end in sight? The number of families who file for bankruptcy in this nation is astounding! They commit financial suicide because it’s the only escape they can see.
Hitting Bottom
Jesus said you are HAPPY (blessed) when you realize your spiritual poverty. This is not the happiness of the world. This is not the giddy, emotional state of elation. This is the blessing of recognizing reality. Jesus came to reveal truth – and the truth can really hurt. Take some time right now to think about your life. Most of us tell ourselves how good we are all the time. That’s not the way to spiritual poverty. We need to see ourselves as we really are. We need to see our sins as God sees them – Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” The phrase “filthy garment” is actually a term used to describe a rag a woman uses when on her period! Our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag. Disgusting creatures we are.
We will find true blessing when we can agree with God on how bad our sins really are. Until then, we simply lie to ourselves and do not know the truth.
But the blessings continue – more later 
God bless,
Nathan
Truly Happy
I wonder how a worldly man would teach happiness. If he was purely honest, he would admit that he’s NOT happy most of the time. When he pinpoints the times he really IS happy, I’ll bet it is when he accidentally stumbles upon a Christ-like attitude. He would be most surprised if he stopped to think about it.
The world lies about happiness. It promises happiness in all the wrong places. We are allowed, in the United States, the pursuit of happiness, so that’s what we do – we are busy pursuing it. Little do they know they are pursuing the wrong thing! If they would pursue GOD and give up themselves, they would end up with the very thing they desire!
Jesus opened His most famous sermon (Matthew 5-8) with a short lesson on the path to true happiness (Matthew 5:2-10). It is not intuitive to the worldly mind. Jesus used the Greek word makarios, which most English translations render “blessed.” My Greek lexicon defines this word as “supremely blest; by extension, fortunate, well off:– blessed, happy.” I will use the word “happy” in place of “blessed” in the New American Standard Bible to get closer to the meaning:
Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Happy are the gentle [meek], for they shall inherit the earth.
Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Happy are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Happy are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus, how can You pack so much into such a short sermon?! I am in awe, amazed at the brevity and the raw power of these statements. It will take me a lifetime to understand their true richness. This way is opposite the way of the world.
Cool Exercise: Take the eight beatitudes above and write them the way the world might write them. It would make an interesting contrast.
May you be Happy in the Way of Christ today,
Nathan
Kneeling = Standing
Here’s a little gem for the day from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14:
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
This is a command given by the Holy Spirit.
Be on the alert against sin, temptation, trouble among the brethren, etc. A Christian has no use for drunkenness. He must not take his eyes off the goal. He must stay focused.
Stand firm in the faith which was once for all passed down to the Saints (Jude 3). There must be no spirit of wavering, of being tossed to-and-fro by every win of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14).
Act like men in that you fulfill the purpose God has for you. God designed man for something specific and special (Genesis 1-3) – are you walking in His design?
Be strong in the Spirit of God. It is not by your own strength you will overcome, but God is at work in you (Philippians 2:13).
Let all that you do be done in love that is pure and completely selfless. Let your love be without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9).
I have to say, God sets the bar pretty high in just a few words. It’s so high we really can’t reach it…or can we?
What do you think?
God bless,
Nathan
Seeking...
In our Bible class last night we learned that Rehoboam was evil because “he did not set his heart to seek God” (2 Chronicles 12:14).
Big question: HOW can I seek God?
Is it as simple as saying, “I want to know God”? Well, that’s where it starts. Acts 17:27-28 says God created man “that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own [Athenian] poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” God created us TO SEEK Him. That’s our purpose in life.
However, the rubber meets the road when we FIND Him. When we discover His heart and His ways we are forced to make the tough decision – do we yield to God or continue doing it our own way? Submission to His will is not easy. There are many individuals all around us who cry out, “Lord, Lord!” and claim to have a personal relationship with Him. Simply claiming the relationship is not the end. We must walk His walk before we can truly be in fellowship with God.
You have not truly sought the Lord until you have walked with Him. You cannot go up for a little peek and claim to have sought Him out. You cannot read through His word one time and say you know God. This kind of seeking and knowing comes from a commitment to walk with Him. Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’” (Matthew 7:22). In other words, “Jesus, don’t we know You? Don’t we have a relationship?” But Jesus goes on: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:23). These people are not walking with Jesus. They claim to, but they don’t. Earlier Jesus had said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20).
So…Seeking the Lord is about (1) WANTING to seek Him and then (2) WALKING in His ways.
Is there anything you would like to add?
God bless,
Nathan
Happy to Serve
In a book entitled Liberated Through Submission by P. B. Wilson, I found a good description of Adam and Eve’s sin and a summary of their separate punishments. Mrs. Wilson writes on page 60:
Poor Adam, who had known no stress, now had to rule over Eve. He had to become responsible for a woman who proved by eating the fruit without discussion that she was, to say the least, a free-thinking, independent individual! Prior to the fall, God was the decision maker, and Adam and Eve had experienced no dissension in their relationship. Up until then, all had been pure and lovely.
Barred from their beautiful garden home, what culture shock they must have experienced! Leading was painstakingly difficult for Adam. Submitting was foreign to Eve. Neither of them wanted the responsibility God had placed on them. And I’m sure they both found it a bitter pill to submit to God’s firm decision.
She made the point that God gave them punishments that fit their personalities and their sins. The man’s position as LEADER and PROVIDER is hard work! The woman’s punishment of her husband “ruling over” her (Genesis 3:16) is hard work!
“Yet your desire will be for your husband” (Genesis 3:16). In Genesis 4:4 God said to Cain, “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” These two verses use the same word “desire,” and they use it in the same sense. This desire is a great urge to overcome or overpower. The CURSE on the woman is this: She will have this strong desire for her husband’s position (i.e. to rule in the family), BUT, as Genesis 3:16 ends, “he will rule over you.” Its difficult.
But it’s also difficult for the man to properly fulfill his responsibilities as provider and ruler of the household.
We are all cursed, but we find liberation, freedom, when we work hard to fulfill our duties God’s way.
God bless,
Nathan
Awesome
– adjective
1. inspiring awe: an awesome sight.
2. showing or characterized by awe.
3. Slang . very impressive: That new white convertible is totally awesome.
(From Dictionary.com)
Awe
– noun
1. an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of god; in awe of great political figures.
2. Archaic . power to inspire fear or reverence.
3. Obsolete . fear or dread.
(From Dictionary.com)
Awesome Works of God
Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.”
Psalm 65:5 “By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea…”
Psalm 68:35 “O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God!”
Psalm 111:9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name.”
Joel 2:31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”
Awesome!
God bless,
Nathan
