I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Jesus begins The Sermon on the Mount with “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and “Blessed are those who mourn . . .” He goes on to say, “Blessed are those who are persecuted . . .”
Then suddenly Jesus says: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” By shifting from the third person to the second person Jesus makes it personal.
The Sermon on the Mount is about you! It’s not theoretical or theological. It’s not describing life in Heaven or in a perfect Christian community. It’s about you and how you need to live your life right now! It’s only three chapters long and I count at least 168 direct references to you and how you live your life today. Here are a few of them:
“You are the salt of the earth.”
“You are the light of the world.”
“Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.
“If you forgive people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.”
“If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
“I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.“
The picture with this post shows about half of The Sermon on the Mount with the references to you heavily underlined. Read it. It’s about you!
Let’s read the Bible To let the living Jesus Continually amaze us. The Emmaus walkers With their knowledge Were blind to the amazing presence Of the living, resurrected Jesus. The Emmaus Road is everywhere, But Christians are too often unaware That the risen Jesus Is communicating with us. His presence is so close That He speaks within us. We know about His Cross And empty tomb But they’re just stories That we’ve heard And read about in the Word. Until we recognize The risen Jesus Along “Roman Road” And in the rest of the Bible, As did the walkers On the Emmaus Road, In the broken bread Of the heartaches of life, Our faith though knowledgeable Will be dead.
Mercy, who needs it? Self-proclaimed good people who believe in their merit are unaware of their need for mercy. I know that I desperately need it. Lord, have mercy!
Mental health? Giving and receiving mercy is vital to our inner peace. I’ve got mercy on my mind today! When you can’t save yourself, you need a Savior to save your sanity.
Rights? Everything that we’ve been given by God is better than we deserve. No amount of human effort ever gives us rights to even the simplest gift from God. Rely on God’s mercy and grace, not on your perceived merit — your self-justified claim to a right to chase your own desires. Calling something a right won’t make it right!
“Blessed are the merciful . . .” Really? Yes! Showing mercy to people who have wronged you is a powerful blessing for you. It flushes the bitterness out of your heart and makes room for God’s mercy to heal and restore you. Can somebody say, “Amen!”?
Forgiven? When you have mercy on people, you open up to the free-flowing faucet of forgiveness and then you’re able to inwardly and continually bathe in and soak up amazing life-giving grace. You can’t find any place like the place where you receive and begin to walk in the sin-stopping power of God’s grace! And that can be right here, right now. Mercy!
Merit? Those who receive mercy haven’t earned a right to wear a merit badge. Mercy can never be deserved. Unless we feel guilty, are being judged or condemned by someone, or are being convicted of our sin by the living God, we seldom sense a need for mercy. But nobody gets inner freedom without it!
God’s kingdom? The kingdom of God isn’t a meritocracy. It’s the gracious combination of just judgment and great mercy — truthful accountability and loving forgiveness. We’ve gotta have King Jesus!
If we want to really grow In Christ the Lord It’s not enough to study Until we know A lot of Bible information. We need to allow Jesus, The living Word To plant and sow, Fertilize and hoe, And cause His seeds To take deep root in our heart Until they flourish and grow, And release within us A never-ending flow Of the fruit of God’s Spirit. Then our life won’t ever be So-so.
So-so Christianity could be called Lukewarmianity. Say “No-no!” to so-so lukewarm Christianity!!!
Lies deflect The light of truth. Have the courage To honestly reflect Reality.
Repentance is to “Walk in the light” And no longer disguise Or hide your lies.
Liar, liar Twists the truth To hide the evil fire Of corrupt desire.
Don’t leave your soul Laying around In the sin Of lying.
The lies you tell Have a stronger hold On your life Than the lies you’re told.
Even a small lie lies outside the realm of truth. Lies are misleading attempts to distort or cover up the truth. Distorting the truth is dishonesty — the sin of deception.
Lies are out of touch with the real world. Liars promote their Lalaland fantasies and deny reality.
Lying isn’t a trivial thing. It’s an attempt to blatantly and intentionally deceive and mislead people. Lies run from truth and hide like Adam and Eve in the garden.
The more lies that you allow to lie around in your heart and in your mind, the further you are from God.To repent is to walk in the light — to honestly testify against yourself.
Until we’re honest and let go of the darkness of deception we’ll never be aligned with God. “In Him there is no darkness at all.”The living Jesus is the door to grace! Lord, have mercy on me.
Dishonesty’s a major sin because unless you honestly admit your need for God’s grace (repent) you falsely believe you deserve it.Grace is unmerited favor. It’s God’s free gift to those who don’t deserve it. Believing that you deserve grace causes you to reject it.
Repentance (admitting the evil of your sin) doesn’t earn God’s grace. It makes you realize that you desperately need it.
Self-love says, “I’m amazing and worthy to be honored.” The reality within me says, “What amazing grace that God can love me!”
Self-love isn’t the way to joy or hope. Love for Jesus is. When we try to prove our worthiness, we go amiss and mislead ourselves into believing that we are something that we aren’t.
Need hope? Too much drinking Will give you a hangover, But full surrender To the ever-living Jesus Will give you a glorious Inner makeover!
The best way Out of a funk Isn’t to get drunk. It’s better to chunk The alcohol And let Jesus plunk Your pain Down the drain.
If you think You need a drink To help unwind Your mind, You should try Soaking in The presence Of the risen Jesus!
If people at restaurants, sporting events, parties, and bars sought to be influenced by the risen Jesus as much as they do by alcohol what a wonderful world it would be.Alcohol is a poor substitute for the new wine of God’s Spirit overflowing from within.The Bible offers being filled with God’s Spirit as a glorious alternative to getting drunk. (Ephesians 5:18.)
The Jesus cycle spirals upwards “from glory to glory.” The drinking cycle can take you down the drain.Let Spirit-led prayer flow as freely and spontaneously as alcohol at a bar. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”If you really want to relax and loosen up, open up and take in the presence of the living Jesus.
The best way to drown your sorrows is to let yourself be captivated by the living Jesus.I’m a Christaholic. I can’t get enough of the risen Jesus! My heart continually drinks the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Jesus keeps me so filled with joy that I have no desire for alcohol.
Under the influence of the living Jesus life is beautiful. I never want to be away from His influence.
There’s never a hangover from being intoxicated with Jesus. When you let Him lift your spirit there’s no need to come down.
You can’t permanently burry your anxiety in a bottle, but Jesus can carry your burdens and bless you with bountiful inner peace.The more you absorb the new wine of God’s Spirit, the more alcohol will seem like drinking the Kool-Aid.
When Christians gather to worship, we should drink in the actual presence of the Lord more than we trust a in program or a pastor.The Bible says that there should be no divisions among Christ-followers. Anything that divides the body of Christ isn’t biblical.
Addiction to alcohol Is devastating. Addiction to Jesus Is liberating.
As alcohol fills your body It drains your brain Til you act insane. Then it sets you up For hangover pain.
True Christianity is more Than religious information. It’s glorious proclamation, Powerful demonstration, Life transformation, And joyous celebration. (For more delight, google: The Joy Of Early Christianity.)
God wants to build With living stones And construct more than Church or chapel domes.
Christians are called To gather To worship and interact with The living Jesus Together.
The churches scattered about are religious buildings. Following Jesus involves so much more than a short weekly visit to one of them. A church on the corner doesn’t pray. People do!
Hearing a good talk about something exciting is nothing like personally experiencing it. Interacting with Jesus is thrilling and healing!
A plumber can service a church’s plumbing, but if Jesus’ living water isn’t freely flowing, it just a building repair. If a church can be demolished, it’s nothing but a building.
No matter how beautifully your church may be decorated, Jesus still wants to be the King who reigns on the throne in your heart.Church windows may be colorful, but if you don’t see the living Jesus through the windows of your soul, what does it matter?
When worship is focused on God’s Spirit people will find a place to meet, but when it’s focused on the place to meet, they may not find God’s Spirit.Jesus said that God wants worship to be “in Spirit and in truth,” not to be in any special building or location. True worship flows from the heart. It doesn’t depend on the availability of a church or any other house of worship.
A church on the corner is only a building but Jesus in your heart is joy unspeakable. Getting you into a church is not God’s primary objective. He wants to get and keep Christ alive in you.
True story: Three men were in an empty church. One said: “This is a marvelous edifice.” Another said: “It’s a glorious structure.” The third (me) said: “Not only that it’s a real nice building.”
As long as Our thoughts Are a mess And our inner life Is full of stress We know far less About our identity Than we think we do.
When you think Other people Are very different than you, It’s just not true. We all have The same identity– Human.
Our pride Tends to hide The commonality Of all humanity– Our shared struggles, Heartbreaks, And insecurities.
Too many people are living with a fake ID, not in their pocket, but in their mind. You can never discover your true identity as long as you choose to live in darkness.When we don’t like something in our character, too often we hide it behind ego instead of turning away from it with humility.
Feelings and desires don’t define who we are. We are humans who have the power to embrace them or to resist them.Our feelings and thoughts are easily subject to deception; we often aren’t who we feel like and think that we are.
The truth about who you are isn’t what you call yourself. It’s revealed in how you choose to live your daily life.No matter what words you use to identify yourself, your true identity is much deeper than that. Self-labeling is usually more self-deceiving than it is self-identifying.
We can’t accurately self-identify because our subconscious mind represses much of who we are and our conscious mind often deceives us.Too often we try to find a self-identity that justifies our desires instead of telling the truth about who we really are.
The first step to finding our true identity is to identify the sin in our life that is hiding it. (That’s called repentance.) As long as there is darkness in your heart, your self-identity will be off base.
When we choose to define the most innocent form of human life as noting but disposable tissue, we destroy our identity. You were once a fetus who someone refused to kill.
What can decode me and my identity? Because we’re made in God’s image, connecting with Him is the key to finding our identity. I’m not what I think or what I feel. I am what “I AM” says I am.
Lost identity Is a sign Of self-deception. It can’t be restored By self-perception. Only reception Of God’s Light Can reveal it.
To self-identify is to misidentify And to deny Who you really are, A being who is created In the image of God.
The Bible is the Jesus-book. Open up its cover To take an honest look And you’ll soon discover His presence at work In you. (1 Thessalonians 1:13.)
I want to be A fruit stand Of God’s Spirit Giving free samples Of His produce To all who pass by.
Before you express your feelings, align them with reality. “Is this feeling based on truth or is it just my emotional reaction?”
The closer I stay to the risen Jesus, the less my feelings dominate me and the more I freely soar on the wind of God’s Spirit.When we have no direct connection with and awareness of the ever-living Jesus we’re spiritually offline.
Jesus is a fully charged battery of hope and power. If Christ is in you, make sure you stay connected to His unlimited energy flow.
When people have Christ living inside of them, they have a deep, inner connection with each other, even if they don’t recognize it.When Christ in me connects with Christ in you we experience a beautiful sense of kinship.
Reading the Bible with an open, honest heart connects me to the living Jesus. I sense Him working strongly in me as I read.People who are surrendered to the presence and power of the risen Jesus experience a supernatural connection when they open their heart to each other.
The best protection Against feelings of rejection Is ongoing connection With Jesus.
The friction In your life, Doesn’t need To be restriction. Let it be The inner ignition That sets you ablaze With ever-growing hunger For greater connection With God.
I was a church attending cultural Chirstian. One day it was revealed to me that what I thought was belief in Christ was nothing more than my passive acknowledgement of church doctrine. Then I realized that I was a Christian in name only, so to be honest with myself, I rejected Christianity.
Here’s how I became a cultural Christian. I grew up in an unchurched, non-religious home. For some reason, as a small child I had a love for God. I would talk to my parents about Him and ask them to take me to church but they resisted. Then when I was about 10 years old, they started attending a stuffy Presbyterian church.
The pastor wanted me to be a member, so he enrolled me in a new member class with a few other kids my age. It focused on Presbyterian history and doctrine, but I don’t remember anything being taught about a personal relationship with Jesus. Then the pastor sprinkled me in front of the church and proclaimed me a member. I quite naturally assumed that made me a Christian.
A few years later as a high school student, I was sitting in church one morning properly listening to the sermon when all of a sudden, a question came to my mind: “If you were born a Hindu what would be today?” That got my attention, so I tuned out the sermon and began to ponder the question.
What if I had been born in a part of the world where Hinduism was the focal religion? What if when I had asked about God as a child, my parents had taken me to a Hindu temple? What if a Hindu priest had enrolled me in his class on Hindu history and beliefs and then brought me to the front for a religious ceremony and proclaimed me a Hindu? After thinking about that I said to myself that I’d be a Hindu.
Immediately the question came to my mind: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” I instantly realized that my belief that I was a Christian was based solely on outward culture and circumstances, not on personal conviction. I spent most of the rest of the day asking myself what I personally believed independently of what I been taught to believe.
I began to realize that my supposed belief in the Bible, in Jesus, and in Christianity was only cultural so I rejected it all except for one thing. I realized that I did personally believe in some sort of Creator, so I closed my eyes and said something like: “I don’t believe in the Bible, in Jesus, or in Christianity, but whoever or whatever you are, will you show me the truth?”
About two years later I went to an informal Christian gathering of 60 or so students in the lobby of my college dorm (so that a classmate would stop inviting me). There I heard two people briefly tell how they had experienced the living Jesus Christ. I could sense something in them that I didn’t have, and in a moment, Jesus became real and present to me. I’ve never been the same. (It still moves me to tears when I talk about it.)
Then someone asked everybody to go behind the dorm and join in a prayer circle. I found myself going along with the crowd and holding hands in a big circle under the stars. People began to talk to God like He is real. (I’d never heard anybody do that in my Presbyterian church.) I felt something moving through me. Although I was shy and had never prayed out loud, I found myself saying with a strong voice: “Lord, thank You for leading me here tonight and thank You for showing me that You’re real.”
Then the risen Jesus working inside of me prompted me to go to my dorm room and to begin to read the Bible. The words jumped off the pages and thrilled my heart. Reading the written Word flooded my soul with the living Word (Jesus) and began the gradual process of becoming flesh in me by transforming my thoughts, feelings, and desires and changing the way I live from the inside out. That process has never stopped! I still delight in the words of the Bible. Ever since I first began to read it, I’ve only missed a handful of days exploring it. The words echo in my mind and heart throughout the day and help keep me connected with the risen Jesus.
Open your heart and surrender your life to the ever-living Jesus. Then He will lead you to His Book and empower the words to convict, delight, heal, and transform you from within. Regularly read the Jesus-book with an open, tender heart — red or black the words will impact you deeply!
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 