Relationship is a two way street
Ok, I'm totally excited about finishing the sermon on the mount. So lets jump in. Chapter 6 He starts off talking about Giving to the needy. He starts out strong with [1] Beware of practicing your rightousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Basically what hes saying here is if your going to give ti the poor, do it for the right reasons. Don't do it to look wealthy or "spiritual". I know I've been caught red handed with this. In fact usually I tell only the religious people i know of the things I give, I don't tell my "worldly" friends. Granted I don't have much to give, but that supports my previous theory that because I'm so broke, it better be darn amazing when I give something away.
This verse particularly hard for me, but I see the point. I'm usually on the other end, the recipient of the gift. Which is an amazing blessing always. But if the person who gave me the gift went around boasting about what they gave me, it would feel less like a blessing from God and more like the good will of someone who's better off than me. Take for example, my sister, whom I love with all my heart and who is such an encouragement to me. About 3 weeks ago I came home with a pamphlet for this EMT class that I wanted to take. The class cost $425 to sign up, so I went to my parents to see if I could borrow the cash. After a brief conversation with my mom, It looked like the chances were slim that they could afford it. But out of no where, my sisters like "I'll pay for it". My jaw droped. She totally fronted the cost. Given, a gift. This came to me at a point in time when I was like "God never blesses me with anything" and all pouting about life and such. If she were to go around and be like "look what i did for my brother" it wouldnt mean the same thing to me, it'd be much more forced and much less out of love. Thats what Jesus means, give gifts out of love, not out of obligation. (back to the Love over Law thing from chapter 5)
As soon as hes done talking about giving he says the same thing about prayer. He says don't go into church and put your hands in the air and pray loudly so everybody can hear you. If you do these things do them because you love God, not too look like you love God.
After this Jesus begins the famous Lord's paryer. Before he delivers the prayer he says something interesting that made me chuckle to myself a little bit. He says [5] And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for thier many words. I know people like this. I've done it myself a bunch of times. Empty words do not mean fulfilling prayers. I'm not going to go too much into detail with this, the main reason is because over the past few months I've been checking out a church in Bethel, Walnut Hill. They've been doing a whole series on "praying like Jesus" and I would just end up rewriting the book. Definatly check out the book, its amazing.
One thing I do want to mention, is one part of the Lord's prayer thats been hitting me hard since I heard it at Core (Walnut Hill). [11] Give us this day our daily bread. The first thing I want to mention here is that we as Americans do not comprehend what its like to have to go without food. Especially in New England, we dont have to drive farther than a mile to find some kind of food at our fingertips. Go through your phone book and count how many Dunkin Donuts are in a 10 minute radius....Mcdonalds.....TacoBell.....Stop & Shop? So that makes it a little hard for us to understand here, theres always something in the fridge, cupboard, down the street. But why doesn't Jesus just say Give us this day the food we need? I think its related to back in the day when Moses was leading his people out of the desert. Thats right, crack open that Old Testament to Exodus chapter 16. Now I'm gonna paraphrase this, but deffinatly read it if you get the chance. Basically heres what happens, Moses is leading the Israelites this is not too long after the parting the Red Sea, so they haven't been doing this wandering in the desert thing for too long. The Isrealites were starting to whine and comlain that they are hungry, word gets back to moses and hes like, Yo God, everybodies hungry down here help a brotha out? So Gods like I got this. He says no problem, I'll just make it rain bread....BUT only take what you need, this is a test, you will be graded...So Moses goes back and is like, chill out, its gonna rain bread. And it did....for 40 years. God made it rain bread for 40 years. If they took too much and tried to save it, it would rot and grow worms. God was like, TRUST ME, if i made it rain bread once, I can do it for 40 years no prob.
I need to rewrite the bible in ebonix....tonight.....
back to matthew
So hes not only saying God, give me the food i need for each day, but hes saying God, you fed Isreal for 40 years by making it rain bread, I trust you.
After the Lord's prayer he starts talking the same way about fasting. Don't fast just so your religious friends will think your ubber religious, do it as an intimate act between you and God.
Jesus then starts talking about laying up treasures in heaven. One of my new favorite verses in this part. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If all you care about is looking religious, you will be excellent at...but you wont have a relationship with God. Jesus is saying your social, political, and religious standings will probably be challenged and you might have to give them up. [24] No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. If your gonna walk the walk with God, you better talk the talk, live the life.
Ok, now hes about to tie all this together. One big Jesus knot. here it is. Trust in God, trust that he loves you and that he wants to be in a 24/7 all encompassing relationship with you, and trust that He will take care of you. He says [26] look at the birds in the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? God knows our needs, every last one of them. But Jesus says [33] seek first the kingdom of God and his rightousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He makes it sound so easy. I have a really hard time trusting that God will take care of me. I have a really hard time thinking that anyone will take care of me for that matter. I've felt for so long that its up to me to look out for me. Theres no free lunch. No one else cares about me, so I better be watching my own back. Its so hard to turn that over to God. But I find the more he keeps blessing me, like when my sister fronted that cash for me to take my EMT class, the more he really does want to take care of me. I still backslide and somedays just try and justify my blessings. But I'm coming to recognize those attacks more and more lately.
If you've been following along in your Bible you might notice that in each of these three sections Jesus repeats himself. he says "And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" It comes up in verse 4, 6, and 18.
Give to the needy in secret
Pray in secret
Fast in secret
These are the things that build a relationship between us and God. They aren't made to be trophies displayed to all. They are made as a conduit to relationship. Anyone whos ever been in a relationship knows, relationship is a two way street. God has always been there, Hes just been waiting on me to turn around and give him a hug.
At this point in my night last night I was soooo excited i couldnt sleep, so i kept going on to chapter 7.
Jesus starts out with the whole Judge not, that you be not judged thing. This is the part where he says how can you take a speck of dust out of your brother's eye when you have a plank in yours? Hes leveling the playing field by basically saying, these teachers you have they all talk like they know God, but have no kind of relationship with him.
I'm gonna toot my own horn here for a minute. I know what its like to have people talk like they know me, but have no idea who I am. I used to run a venue and had all the important titles, I had people throw my name around right and left to get special privileges. Hey, he said I could come in early, get backstage, He said we could do this, I've known him forever its cool. Its not. I can only imagine how God feels when we talk like we know him for our "heaven insurance" but when it comes to having a relationship with him haven't done much.
Thats what Jesus says All throughout chapter 7. He says [22] On that day many will come to me saying "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your nameand do might works in your name?" [23] And then I declare to them " I never knew you..." Jesus Died so we can have a relationship with God. Thats how bad God wanted to know us.
The whole sermon on the mount boils down to this. If you love the Law, you can't Love God. We are all equal in the eyes of Jesus. Trust in God, he knows what you need. [7] Ask, and it will be given;seek,and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened. God wants us to ask for things so he can give them to us. God wants us to look for the truth so he can reveal it to us.
He tops all this off by saying if you listen to what I've said, you will start the narrow path to be in a relationship with God. If not, you'll be washed away. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. I still struggle with this a little bit. This means that not everyone who hears the gospel is going to follow it, not everyone will be saved. That means at one point in time, before God made time maybe, He picked some people to be saved and some people not to be saved. I can only rejoice that He chose me. But it still saddens my heart to know that there are people I've known who will never get the gospel. Jesus never ran after people who were like "eh no thanks" but i want to. I want to be like, nono, this is the way, dont you see. Christ gave the truth to everyone, and only a few people took him up on it.
This verse particularly hard for me, but I see the point. I'm usually on the other end, the recipient of the gift. Which is an amazing blessing always. But if the person who gave me the gift went around boasting about what they gave me, it would feel less like a blessing from God and more like the good will of someone who's better off than me. Take for example, my sister, whom I love with all my heart and who is such an encouragement to me. About 3 weeks ago I came home with a pamphlet for this EMT class that I wanted to take. The class cost $425 to sign up, so I went to my parents to see if I could borrow the cash. After a brief conversation with my mom, It looked like the chances were slim that they could afford it. But out of no where, my sisters like "I'll pay for it". My jaw droped. She totally fronted the cost. Given, a gift. This came to me at a point in time when I was like "God never blesses me with anything" and all pouting about life and such. If she were to go around and be like "look what i did for my brother" it wouldnt mean the same thing to me, it'd be much more forced and much less out of love. Thats what Jesus means, give gifts out of love, not out of obligation. (back to the Love over Law thing from chapter 5)
As soon as hes done talking about giving he says the same thing about prayer. He says don't go into church and put your hands in the air and pray loudly so everybody can hear you. If you do these things do them because you love God, not too look like you love God.
After this Jesus begins the famous Lord's paryer. Before he delivers the prayer he says something interesting that made me chuckle to myself a little bit. He says [5] And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for thier many words. I know people like this. I've done it myself a bunch of times. Empty words do not mean fulfilling prayers. I'm not going to go too much into detail with this, the main reason is because over the past few months I've been checking out a church in Bethel, Walnut Hill. They've been doing a whole series on "praying like Jesus" and I would just end up rewriting the book. Definatly check out the book, its amazing.
One thing I do want to mention, is one part of the Lord's prayer thats been hitting me hard since I heard it at Core (Walnut Hill). [11] Give us this day our daily bread. The first thing I want to mention here is that we as Americans do not comprehend what its like to have to go without food. Especially in New England, we dont have to drive farther than a mile to find some kind of food at our fingertips. Go through your phone book and count how many Dunkin Donuts are in a 10 minute radius....Mcdonalds.....TacoBell.....Stop & Shop? So that makes it a little hard for us to understand here, theres always something in the fridge, cupboard, down the street. But why doesn't Jesus just say Give us this day the food we need? I think its related to back in the day when Moses was leading his people out of the desert. Thats right, crack open that Old Testament to Exodus chapter 16. Now I'm gonna paraphrase this, but deffinatly read it if you get the chance. Basically heres what happens, Moses is leading the Israelites this is not too long after the parting the Red Sea, so they haven't been doing this wandering in the desert thing for too long. The Isrealites were starting to whine and comlain that they are hungry, word gets back to moses and hes like, Yo God, everybodies hungry down here help a brotha out? So Gods like I got this. He says no problem, I'll just make it rain bread....BUT only take what you need, this is a test, you will be graded...So Moses goes back and is like, chill out, its gonna rain bread. And it did....for 40 years. God made it rain bread for 40 years. If they took too much and tried to save it, it would rot and grow worms. God was like, TRUST ME, if i made it rain bread once, I can do it for 40 years no prob.
I need to rewrite the bible in ebonix....tonight.....
back to matthew
So hes not only saying God, give me the food i need for each day, but hes saying God, you fed Isreal for 40 years by making it rain bread, I trust you.
After the Lord's prayer he starts talking the same way about fasting. Don't fast just so your religious friends will think your ubber religious, do it as an intimate act between you and God.
Jesus then starts talking about laying up treasures in heaven. One of my new favorite verses in this part. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If all you care about is looking religious, you will be excellent at...but you wont have a relationship with God. Jesus is saying your social, political, and religious standings will probably be challenged and you might have to give them up. [24] No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. If your gonna walk the walk with God, you better talk the talk, live the life.
Ok, now hes about to tie all this together. One big Jesus knot. here it is. Trust in God, trust that he loves you and that he wants to be in a 24/7 all encompassing relationship with you, and trust that He will take care of you. He says [26] look at the birds in the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? God knows our needs, every last one of them. But Jesus says [33] seek first the kingdom of God and his rightousness, and all these things will be added to you.
He makes it sound so easy. I have a really hard time trusting that God will take care of me. I have a really hard time thinking that anyone will take care of me for that matter. I've felt for so long that its up to me to look out for me. Theres no free lunch. No one else cares about me, so I better be watching my own back. Its so hard to turn that over to God. But I find the more he keeps blessing me, like when my sister fronted that cash for me to take my EMT class, the more he really does want to take care of me. I still backslide and somedays just try and justify my blessings. But I'm coming to recognize those attacks more and more lately.
If you've been following along in your Bible you might notice that in each of these three sections Jesus repeats himself. he says "And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" It comes up in verse 4, 6, and 18.
Give to the needy in secret
Pray in secret
Fast in secret
These are the things that build a relationship between us and God. They aren't made to be trophies displayed to all. They are made as a conduit to relationship. Anyone whos ever been in a relationship knows, relationship is a two way street. God has always been there, Hes just been waiting on me to turn around and give him a hug.
At this point in my night last night I was soooo excited i couldnt sleep, so i kept going on to chapter 7.
Jesus starts out with the whole Judge not, that you be not judged thing. This is the part where he says how can you take a speck of dust out of your brother's eye when you have a plank in yours? Hes leveling the playing field by basically saying, these teachers you have they all talk like they know God, but have no kind of relationship with him.
I'm gonna toot my own horn here for a minute. I know what its like to have people talk like they know me, but have no idea who I am. I used to run a venue and had all the important titles, I had people throw my name around right and left to get special privileges. Hey, he said I could come in early, get backstage, He said we could do this, I've known him forever its cool. Its not. I can only imagine how God feels when we talk like we know him for our "heaven insurance" but when it comes to having a relationship with him haven't done much.
Thats what Jesus says All throughout chapter 7. He says [22] On that day many will come to me saying "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your nameand do might works in your name?" [23] And then I declare to them " I never knew you..." Jesus Died so we can have a relationship with God. Thats how bad God wanted to know us.
The whole sermon on the mount boils down to this. If you love the Law, you can't Love God. We are all equal in the eyes of Jesus. Trust in God, he knows what you need. [7] Ask, and it will be given;seek,and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened. God wants us to ask for things so he can give them to us. God wants us to look for the truth so he can reveal it to us.
He tops all this off by saying if you listen to what I've said, you will start the narrow path to be in a relationship with God. If not, you'll be washed away. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. I still struggle with this a little bit. This means that not everyone who hears the gospel is going to follow it, not everyone will be saved. That means at one point in time, before God made time maybe, He picked some people to be saved and some people not to be saved. I can only rejoice that He chose me. But it still saddens my heart to know that there are people I've known who will never get the gospel. Jesus never ran after people who were like "eh no thanks" but i want to. I want to be like, nono, this is the way, dont you see. Christ gave the truth to everyone, and only a few people took him up on it.
posted by Its not about Perfection, Its about Progress at 8:23 AM
1 Comments:
The light is on and somebody's home. Keep seeking and finding, God is good and always good and He is doing good things with you.
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