Discipling the Undisciplined no. 2

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12 NRSV-CI).

Blessings are ours for being faithful to God. For our faithfulness to His teachings, we get the Kingdom. And we get the Kingdom now, not later. God is giving us the opportunity today to take part in His Kingdom. Not later, not after death, right now is the time for living in the Kingdom. I only need to follow His lead.

There are a lot of folks waiting and praying for things to get better or even those waiting and praying for things to get worse. We don’t have to wait BUT certainly should be praying for the Kingdom right now. To be part of His Kingdom is to be part of His community. Community with Him and with the world. Far too often folks want to separate from the creation, from the world, from other people, BUT God is all about inclusion. He came to earth as Jesus to make sure we were all included in His Kingdom. He could have stayed away. He could have held us at a distance BUT He didn’t. He became one of us after creating us. He showed us the way to live this life through His words and deeds as Jesus. He showed us how to live out His Kingdom. He gave us the example to follow and model.

Rejoice and be glad that God cares enough about each of us to get involved in our lives, our world, and our salvation. We are blessed to have a creator that truly cares and is involved with us. A savior, a king, a father, a friend, a creator, a counselor, and everything . . . That’s my Jesus. How blessed are you? 

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH

Discipling the Undisciplined no. 1

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12 NRSV-CI).

I am not a big fan of religion. A lot of folks getting organized into groups and deciding this is how we do things seems to always lead to an us vs. them mentality that I cannot abide. Organizing into systems can be helpful BUT, given the state of humanity, is often a weapon for others to wield against the out group. And, folks, I am often in the out-group. And I know how it feels to have thoughts that the in-group does not like and how that turns out from life experience. I am typically at odds with most folks because I ask a lot of questions and typically am not content with the answers I receive. It took me nearly four decades to get this whole relationship model with God under control. So I am definitely a slow learner on how this whole thing is supposed to work. And that meant a lot of reading of The Bible and meditation. And when I say meditation I mean totally immersing myself into a book and really thinking about its impact in every aspect of my life. And that is what I have been doing since I first started studying The Bible nearly four years ago. Sure, I spent a lot of time in church and Sunday Schools and reading a verse here and a verse there BUT I never really immersed myself and meditated about these things until about four years ago. And what follows is me again reading through what I find to be the most important part of the entire Bible, The Sermon on the Mount. I am going to again go through the entirety of The Sermon on the Mount this year and focus on what truths I draw from it during this reading. I am then going to follow up this year with the speeches delivered in the Acts of the Apostles. I want to immerse myself into those speeches in the light of The Sermon on the Mount to hopefully shed some light on the confusion of what is so good about The Good News.

Again, the Good News is something that after four decades of trying to figure out, I think needs revisiting. And through the lens of Jesus and His Sermon on the Mount, I want to take some time to look at what His disciples were actually saying in front of crowds weeks and months after His death and resurrection. I mean if this is where the church started, it should hold a lot of direction for what the church should still be. So, spend a little time with me as I try to wander through this whole idea of discipleship and the Good News? I call it Discipling the Undisciplined because I think this study is going to shine some light on where discipleship today falls short in discipline and I hope to get myself refocused on exactly what it means to be a disciplined disciple of The Christ Jesus. 

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherIn Love #NotMyWayYHWH