Praise the Lord we are still standing! For the past several months I've been growing in grace with an amazing group of women. Our journey has taken us through a spiritual warfare study. It was not the typical Ephesians 6:10, put on the whole armor lesson; instead, we learned to wage war daily against the ungodly attitudes that rise up in us. Whew, this has been a challenging and convicting leg of the journey. Our study concluding in Matthew 5, The Beatitudes. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him: And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying...blessed are... ( Matt 5:1-2). At this point in His ministry, Jesus had reached the pinnacle of His popularity. The setting for the sermon On The Mount is a hillside near Capernaum, and took place over a course of several days in front of a growing crowd. So as Jesus started His discourse, He began to describe the characteristics of people who belong to the kingdom of heaven, answering the question who on earth are we? Or better yet, Who are earth should we be? It is clear to me that if today Jesus were to post the Beatitudes on Instagram and FB, the likes would be few and the follows even less. But we should not be surprised because, Jesus was radical in His thinking. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts - Is 55:8-9. He makes it clear that as believers who we should be on earth are not people whose primary pursuit is power, popularity, prominence, or prosperity. The blessed life He describes has nothing at all to do with any of the aforementioned things. This blessed life He describes is a spiritual state of being filled with such an abundance of joy, peace, comfort and intimacy with Him it surpasses what was normally attributed to any human experience. Interested in living that kind of blessed life? Journey with us over the course of the next few posts to discover, how to live that blessed life and to discover who on earth we should be as we examine the Beatitudes. desiring to live the blessed life, Diane Just joining us? Check previous posts to catch up, and if you have not done so already, please subscribe to keep pace. Yes, every journey does have a beginning. My journey began with a conversion experience at the age of 14, followed by an almost immediate deviation from the straight and narrow. Our spiritual journey begins when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior (If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved - Rom 10:9). I chose to travel down the road of rebellion instead of the path of righteousness during my teenage and early young adult life. Except for the deep ache in my heart that I would feel when I was not under the influence, there was very little evidence of my salvation. (But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith he loved us... Eph 2:4.) Because of His grace, love and mercy the Lord began to draw me back to Himself. When the Lord begins to call you to Himself, nothing will be able to sedate you or satisfy the ache in your heart for purpose in your life. I don't know your story, but I wholeheartedly believe that you are on this site, not by accident, but rather by divine appointment. This journey is not about religion, but relationship. The Lord is calling us, and continues to call us into a deeper relationship. A relationship with a real and Almighty Awesome God, who loves us with HUGE love (...that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God - Eph 3:17 -18.) So my prayer for us is that we will get delivered from religion, with all of its rituals and things done out of mere habit or just because that's what we were raised to do; and instead, ushered into intimate relationship where we begin to experience the HUGE love of Christ. I pray also that we will learn how to love Him back (Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment - Matthew 22:37-38). And so, our journey continues as we learn to: live out our purpose, experience His love and love Him back with passion. Until the next time, Diane P.S. Imagine how our relationship would change if we began to see the Word of God as a love letter instead of a rule book. If you would like to receive a personalized love letter written from the Word of God (and it is a personal relationship) send a request from the contact page, put love letter request in comment block. |
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