Matthew
"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there's more of God and God's rule.
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.
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.
You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God.
You're blessed when you care.
You're blessed when you get your inside world--your mind and heart--put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
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.
You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper inot God's kingdom.
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."
Am I willing to be so poor, and so vulnerable that all I depend upon is God? We humans are generally very capable. We can get far not even giving God a nod. Have I, today, given God a nod? Have a listened? Have I said thank you?
"Salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of the earth." Be light. Bring out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept--go public! Be a light-bearer. Be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God.
"Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you' won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom."
Don't murder, or say idiot or stupid. Words kill. Don't make an offering to God while you're holding a grudge--fix it. Make things right. Then come back and work things out with God. Make broken relationships right.
Anger is legitimate emotion. It's ok to be angry, but don't let anger get away from you. It can cause you to sin. Anger is dangerous. It can consume us. As it does, we are the ones condemned. Most anger ends up being sinful. "Human anger generates a toxic and suffocating smoke." EP
Adultery doesn't have to be physical. Leering, thinking about it, still corrupts. Don't use the courts to use legal cover for moral failure.
Mean what you say. Do what you say you will. Yes or No will do.
Love your enemies. Don't retaliate or counter-sue. No tit for tat. Live generously. Let your enemies bring out the best in you, not the worst. Can you love the unlovable?
"In a word, what I'm saying is Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."
Don't be a hypocrite, or falsely holy and pious. No masks.
To pray, find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God...simple, honest...shift the focus from you to God. Feel God's grace..."Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best--as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes.Yes.Yes. "
Can't get forgiveness from God without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.
God doesn't require attention-getting devices. God won't overlook what you're doing and will reward you well.
Don't hoard treasure down here. The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. (Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Your treasure, not your time and your talent. What sort of stewardship question is this?)
"If you open your eyes up with wonder and belief, you fill up with light. If you live squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar."
Can't worship two Gods---if you love one, you'll hate the other. What to do, what to do, what to do?! Can't worship both God and money.
If you choose God, food and clothes won't matter. Appearances won't matter.
"Relax. Don't be so preoccupied with getting, so that you can respond to God's giving. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."
"Give your entire attention to what God is doing now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
What pinches most from this part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount?
Acts
Steven, under threat of death, does not back down from telling the salvation story beginning with Abraham and Genesis 11. He will not deny the story of God's faithfulness through Moses and Aaron, Joshua, and Jesus. He calls out the Pharisees for squandering God's law. Stephen doesn't notice the mob rush on him, as he has been empowered by the Holy Spirit and can only see Jesus. He's dragged out, stoned and killed, praying and asking Jesus to forgive the crowd--they don't know what they are doing. Was Stephen crazy?!
The church was strengthened by the intensity of Stephen's witness. Stephen's final prayer offered up to God all that he was. "Master Jesus, take my life. Master, don't blame them for this sin."
Persecution of church in Jerusalem and scattering of believers. Saul continued to devastate the followers of Jesus. They all became missionaries, scattered proclaimers of the Story. Philip outpreaches Simon the wizard, who becomes a believer and is baptized. Can't buy what God gives, as Simon soon learned. Need a new life--right now you reek with money lust.
"Simon treated the gift of God as something that could be used, traded, and purchased. He would never have committed this sin had he truly and deeply believed in God. If he had presented himself as a worshiper, giving himself in humility and service, it would never have entered his mind to try to take God's gift and make a profession of using it. For the Holy Spirit is not a Power to be manipulated but a Power to be obeyed." EP
Ethiopian Eunuch when questioned whether he understood what he was reading in the scroll of Isaiah the prophet: "How can I (know) without some help?" Philip told the eunuch about Jesus and baptized the eunuch (who would have been deemed "unclean" by the religious folks) in a stream of water.
Saul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, on his way to do in a few more Jesus followers. This story is told here in chapter 9, and again in chapters 22 and 26. It's important. Shows that anybody, absolutely anybody, is capable of conversion.
Ananais told to "trust Paul's conversion." Can only imagine his reasonable hesitancy. Spirit said, "Do it." And Ananias does. EP: "The narrative underscores the element of surprise in its expectation of what God could do. The story of Paul's conversion comes as a sudden and surprising invasion of God's activity in a person whom I think is the enemy, the one individual I've given up on. This man from whom I expect the worst is the man about whom God said, 'I have picked him as my personal representative (v. 15).'"
So what can God do with the person whom I think is beyond God's grace? What ought I think now of the person about whom I think the worst? What if God is saying, "I have picked him/her as my personal representative?"
Saul becomes a turncoat to the persecuters and catches folks off guard as he speaks positively about Jesus. Paul is threatened with death and gets out of it, is accepted by the disciples, and then givein more teaching in Tarsus.
Peter heals Aeneas. And he brings Tabitha back to life.
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