Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Websters defines the quality of being "meek" as:
1. enduring injury with patience and without resentment :
2 : deficient in spirit and courage :
3 : not violent or strong
Now, the second definition of Webster's "meekness", I think we can reasonably rule out as being interpretted in God's standard as a good thing, since the Bible lumps "cowardly" people into the same category as the "unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars" (Revelation 21:8)...so deficient in courage is NOT the definition of meekness we're after here. I think it has more to do with the other two definitions.
Our society has become obsessively centered on "rights". Many of us insist that our rights not be trod on by anyone else. Of course, there is a problem with this when one person's rights and another person's rights overlap in an antagonistic fashion. Does someone have the "right" not to be offended by someone else's "right" to say what they want and utter a stream of curse-words? We are all obsessed with defending our rights...even from people who are not even necessarily trying to overstep them.
Yet, if we look at the definitions of meekness, it would appear that our approptiate response to such injury is to endure it...and to not resent the person who caused the injury in the first place. And definitely not to take a violent action against such injury.
This can be a particularly tricky area in regards not to strangers are non-believers (from whom we are often willing to take an emotional beating with little or no objection) but when dealing with our own families, loved ones, and fellow Christians. Especially in these relationships, we could use a healthy dose of looking at our responsibilities and focussing on those instead of spending our energy asserting our "rights".
No one's asking us to be a doormat, and the Scripture is full of examples of people who stood up for themselves and, more importantly, for their God when the situation warranted it. But in our me-obsessed society, we seem to believe that these situations where we should stand up for ourselves against someone else's attack are much more common than they actually are. We need to all step back and think before the next time we lash out with a verbally violent attack that leaves the object of our outburst ripped to emotional tatters.
Action for Today: Find one situation today where you perceive that someone else has done you wrong, violated your rights, or mistreated you. Instead of getting upset and stewing about it...or giving them a tongue lashing...or instigating an argument or fight, simply step back and ignore the insult if it is not important. Or carefully speak to that person about the wrong...in terms of love, not attacks...if it is.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Day 2: Matthew 5:4
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."
No one wants to think about mourning. In fact, when I came across this verse, I thought that I really didn't even want to write about mourning. We don't want to be faced with a situation in which mourning is the natural response, because all such situations are, by virtue of what they entail, some of the most unpleasant situations anyone can ever face.
However, someone around you is facing that situation. They may be mourning the loss of a loved one or a friend. Or they may not be mourning the loss of a person...but maybe something else. They may be mourning the loss of a pet. Or maybe the loss of a thing, a position, a relationship, a job. Someone around you is mourning, or maybe you yourself are in the midst of that kind of trial. Whatever the case, this verse offers comfort about one of life's most...comfortless...times.
ACTION: Find someone who is mourning, and pray for that person, for God to give tehm comfort. It may be a family member, accquaintance, or co-worker, and if so, it's even more personal. Maybe it is someone in your church or Bible study group. If you are fortunate enough that no one around you is in a position to be mourning anything, then find someone on your local news and pray for that person. You don't know their whole situation...but God does. And maybe it may not seem personal to you if it's just a face in the news, but it is personal for them, and it is personal for God, and God does not always call us only to pray for or minister to our immediate circle of friends.
If you are yourself in a time of mourning right now, and if you are comfortable sharing that situation, post it here so that others on the blog can pray for you.
No one wants to think about mourning. In fact, when I came across this verse, I thought that I really didn't even want to write about mourning. We don't want to be faced with a situation in which mourning is the natural response, because all such situations are, by virtue of what they entail, some of the most unpleasant situations anyone can ever face.
However, someone around you is facing that situation. They may be mourning the loss of a loved one or a friend. Or they may not be mourning the loss of a person...but maybe something else. They may be mourning the loss of a pet. Or maybe the loss of a thing, a position, a relationship, a job. Someone around you is mourning, or maybe you yourself are in the midst of that kind of trial. Whatever the case, this verse offers comfort about one of life's most...comfortless...times.
ACTION: Find someone who is mourning, and pray for that person, for God to give tehm comfort. It may be a family member, accquaintance, or co-worker, and if so, it's even more personal. Maybe it is someone in your church or Bible study group. If you are fortunate enough that no one around you is in a position to be mourning anything, then find someone on your local news and pray for that person. You don't know their whole situation...but God does. And maybe it may not seem personal to you if it's just a face in the news, but it is personal for them, and it is personal for God, and God does not always call us only to pray for or minister to our immediate circle of friends.
If you are yourself in a time of mourning right now, and if you are comfortable sharing that situation, post it here so that others on the blog can pray for you.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Day 1: Matthew 5:3
I heard a preacher once who talked about a man who came to a missionary in a foreign country and recited the Beatitudes. (Matthew 5:3-12) The story goes that the man was illiterate and had memorized the verses by rote. And when he had finished, the preacher said that was great, but now go and DO these things he had learned. The man responded that he had learned them by doing them, practicing each one until he knew it by heart...by experience as well as words. That seems like a simple and good place to start. These are some of the best known verses in the Bible, yet some of the most profound and rich with opportunities to put into practice.
Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven.
When younger, I often struggled with what "poor in spirit" meant and why someone would be blessed to have that quality. After all, we talk alot about being "spiritually rich"...who would want to be spiritually poor?
(If anyone has a theological authority about what the phrase actually means, or a better translation of the original text and what it "really" means, I would be glad to hear that. Please post.)
After thinking about it a long time, I think that poor "in spirit" means living in a spirit of poverty, identifying with poverty, even if you are wealthy. Certainly there is nothing wrong with wealth. Certainly, God pours out his blessings on some individuals and has historically done so. Solomon is an especially good example of this. God never chastised him for being rich, and he never commanded us to be poor, either. Though Jesus did say it was much harder for a rich man to get into heaven than a poor one...but "be poor" has never been a command.
However, being "poor in spirit" is called blessed. We live in the richest nation in the world. If you live in America, you are among the absolute wealthiest people in the world. Only a small percentage of the world's population even lives at the standard of those at our "poverty line". To most of the world, our rich live like princes. We have SO much...and sometimes when seeing how much we have, we forget how much it really is and we take things for granted. To be "poor in spirit" means, I think, to set aside the concerns that go with richness, to set aside the comfort a complacency and the illusion that we are providing for ourselves...rather than having our needs met by God. (After all...it was He who put us in this rich country. No matter how much we worked for our goods, He richly stacked the deck in our favor by virtue of letting us be born where we were.) So... I think that this verse says that we are blessed if we remember that we may be rich in earthly things but we are poor compared to the richness of God, and all we have comes from him...and to remember that there are others who are not as fortunate as we and let our hearts be broken by that and moved to compassion.
Action Challenge for Today:
Choose one luxury of our western culture. Something you enjoy, maybe even something you need, that others do not have or cannot do. Voluntarily give that up for one week. Post that decision here, and give an update at the end of the week...were you successful in living without that excess for even one week?
Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven.
When younger, I often struggled with what "poor in spirit" meant and why someone would be blessed to have that quality. After all, we talk alot about being "spiritually rich"...who would want to be spiritually poor?
(If anyone has a theological authority about what the phrase actually means, or a better translation of the original text and what it "really" means, I would be glad to hear that. Please post.)
After thinking about it a long time, I think that poor "in spirit" means living in a spirit of poverty, identifying with poverty, even if you are wealthy. Certainly there is nothing wrong with wealth. Certainly, God pours out his blessings on some individuals and has historically done so. Solomon is an especially good example of this. God never chastised him for being rich, and he never commanded us to be poor, either. Though Jesus did say it was much harder for a rich man to get into heaven than a poor one...but "be poor" has never been a command.
However, being "poor in spirit" is called blessed. We live in the richest nation in the world. If you live in America, you are among the absolute wealthiest people in the world. Only a small percentage of the world's population even lives at the standard of those at our "poverty line". To most of the world, our rich live like princes. We have SO much...and sometimes when seeing how much we have, we forget how much it really is and we take things for granted. To be "poor in spirit" means, I think, to set aside the concerns that go with richness, to set aside the comfort a complacency and the illusion that we are providing for ourselves...rather than having our needs met by God. (After all...it was He who put us in this rich country. No matter how much we worked for our goods, He richly stacked the deck in our favor by virtue of letting us be born where we were.) So... I think that this verse says that we are blessed if we remember that we may be rich in earthly things but we are poor compared to the richness of God, and all we have comes from him...and to remember that there are others who are not as fortunate as we and let our hearts be broken by that and moved to compassion.
Action Challenge for Today:
Choose one luxury of our western culture. Something you enjoy, maybe even something you need, that others do not have or cannot do. Voluntarily give that up for one week. Post that decision here, and give an update at the end of the week...were you successful in living without that excess for even one week?
Welcome to the Scripture Challenge
Hello!
Maybe you're wondering what this "Scripture Challenge" is all about. I felt led to start this blog, based on the truth that the Bible is challenging. It's not challenging in that it can't be understood. As one of my friends likes saying, its truth is simple enough for the youngest of children...but complex enough to interest the most learned theologian.
What I mean by "challenging" is that Scripture challenges us to be something other than we are. Simply reading Scripture may be uplifting. It may be enlightening. It may be encouraging. Or it may be simply an act of obedience, done out of habit because a preacher told you that you ought to. But putting Scripture into practice...now THAT can be life-changing.
In this blog, you will find a daily Bible study...or at least that is my ambitious intent. This study may be a verse, a passage, a chapter, or a whole story. But studying the day's passage should go beyond that. Read on it, think on it, meditate on it, even memorize it. But, most importantly... DO something about it. Apply it to your daily life.
Then...tell the other readers of this blog what you did, what you learned, how it turned out... how you were obedient...and how God worked in your life as a result.
Now, some may say, isn't that a bit much of "tooting your own horn"? What about humility? Well, there's a place for humility, and certainly if you feel something is private and not to be shared, then keep it to yourself. Some moments are personal. But there is also a place of encouragement and inspiration. And actions, good and bad, tend to be contagious. When one believer hears another believer's story, they may be inspired to take a similar step of faith. That's what testimonials are all about...and your "testimony" does not have to be simply about the moment you came to know Jesus personally, though that is certainly the most important testimony you have.
Your testimony can also be just letting others know what God has done for you, what you have learned in your walk with him. So take that step and testify if you feel so led! If you would like to share an experience or story anonymously, you can email me, and I'll post it for you as "one member of the blog told me..."
I hope that you enjoy this daily study/devotional, and that you get involved, by reading, studying, even memorizing the passage, but also by taking the specific challenge corresponding to the verse each day...or another relevant action to apply God's Word to your own life instead of merely hearing it.
What a difference Christians acting out their professed faith would make in their families, commuties, country, and world!
God bless you!
Maybe you're wondering what this "Scripture Challenge" is all about. I felt led to start this blog, based on the truth that the Bible is challenging. It's not challenging in that it can't be understood. As one of my friends likes saying, its truth is simple enough for the youngest of children...but complex enough to interest the most learned theologian.
What I mean by "challenging" is that Scripture challenges us to be something other than we are. Simply reading Scripture may be uplifting. It may be enlightening. It may be encouraging. Or it may be simply an act of obedience, done out of habit because a preacher told you that you ought to. But putting Scripture into practice...now THAT can be life-changing.
In this blog, you will find a daily Bible study...or at least that is my ambitious intent. This study may be a verse, a passage, a chapter, or a whole story. But studying the day's passage should go beyond that. Read on it, think on it, meditate on it, even memorize it. But, most importantly... DO something about it. Apply it to your daily life.
Then...tell the other readers of this blog what you did, what you learned, how it turned out... how you were obedient...and how God worked in your life as a result.
Now, some may say, isn't that a bit much of "tooting your own horn"? What about humility? Well, there's a place for humility, and certainly if you feel something is private and not to be shared, then keep it to yourself. Some moments are personal. But there is also a place of encouragement and inspiration. And actions, good and bad, tend to be contagious. When one believer hears another believer's story, they may be inspired to take a similar step of faith. That's what testimonials are all about...and your "testimony" does not have to be simply about the moment you came to know Jesus personally, though that is certainly the most important testimony you have.
Your testimony can also be just letting others know what God has done for you, what you have learned in your walk with him. So take that step and testify if you feel so led! If you would like to share an experience or story anonymously, you can email me, and I'll post it for you as "one member of the blog told me..."
I hope that you enjoy this daily study/devotional, and that you get involved, by reading, studying, even memorizing the passage, but also by taking the specific challenge corresponding to the verse each day...or another relevant action to apply God's Word to your own life instead of merely hearing it.
What a difference Christians acting out their professed faith would make in their families, commuties, country, and world!
God bless you!
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