Pass The Light Salt Please

Have you ever wondered what it would take to live a safe, successful, satisfied life? I know I have many times. Well the answer is closer than you might think. In fact there really are no secrets to your life being as fulfilling and as happy as you have dreamed, hoped and prayed. (Contrary to popular media and the "new thought" gurus, there really is no "Secret")

We've been thinking together over this past month or so, about the "Be-Happy Attitudes For Success and Fulfillment"; found in Matthew 5:1-12. Today we sum it all up when we discover that behaving like SALT and LIGHT is the way to bookend our understandings in Matthew 5:1-12 and the way to make our lives shine like light and flavor our world like salt.


Light and Salt are excellent metaphors for living a truly amazing and helpful spiritual life.

LIVE LIKE THE LIGHT

LIGHT

• chases away any and all darkness
  


• guides our steps along the path of life
  


• brings life, warmth and health to our world
  

SALT

• preserves
  
  
• heals
  
  
• seasons
  
  
• purifies
  

JAMI SMITH Sings SALT AND LIGHT (4 minutes)

May you be as salt for a world in need of flavor and light for a world stumbling around in the darkness. Happy Easter. Breathe new life into all you think, feel and do this week!

Blessings,

Rev. Bill

Turning BAD Days Into GOOD Days

Why do we like to blame God for all the bad in our lives? I have heard it said so many times when folks are talking about the unfortunate circumstances and misfortunes they and others face. "I guess it must have been God's will." "Why did God cause this to happen to me?"

As I understand the teachings of sacred texts about our Creator, I must tell you that God is never responsible for or the cause of bad things happening in our lives and in our world. Most of the time we are; AND our response to what we create or what catches us determines our outcomes and fianlly our success or the lack there of.

YOUR RESPONSE ENABLES YOUR OUTCOMES

God has set up definite Laws to govern our lives and run the universe and when these laws are broken and thwarted bad results transpire. Don't blame God when people fail to follow the rules. Also, in Gods place of love for all creation, we all have the freedom and power to follow the laws or break the laws; thereby hurting others and ourselves.

You turn your bad days into good days by taking ownership and responsibility for your actions that cause your pain.

1. When we ignore and break the Laws of the universe we pay the price and suffer the consequences.
2. When other people ignore and break the Laws of the universe they too and sometimes us, if we are in the line of fire, pay the price and suffer the consequences. Yes, sometimes bad things do happen to good people.
3. God's ultimate plan for our lives is that we experience abundance, peace, happiness, fulfillment and success.
4. When we follow the Laws (see the previous post on the "Law of Like Return") we can expect very Good results. Faith is believing in and trusting in good results even while we may have to wait a while for them to show up.

The wise person understands where bad comes from and seeks to learn and become wiser even in the bad so as to experience a final good result.

God the source of all that is good and wonderful loves us so much that God made the Laws knowable and understandable. God does this so we can experience the good in life and grow even in and through the bad.

GOD IS INFINITE

Blessings,

Rev. Bill

Spring Has Sprung

Welcome Spring! I saw my first robin, actually 6 of them in my backyard last week and that gave me the assurance and satisfaction of knowing spring is on its way. Having been in ministry for ten of my 33 years up north in Wisconsin, I have become an apostle for spring.

Take two minutes with me today and watch a movie I compiled to celebrate the return of spring to Wisconsin. It is entitled "Ah Spring."

The Pain of Purity

This weeks beatitude; Matthew 5:8 is a real pain. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

We live in an age that seems to applaud the naughty side of behavior. I remember when I lived in LaCrosse there was even a store named "Naughty But Nice." Yes, you might agree, naughty is the new nice and purity and cleanliness are the new pain.

Talk about a challenge; purity of thoughts and deeds and a morally clean existence. We might want to skip this verse and move on to easier claims on our lives. BUT God does not work that way. In fact, if we want to "see" God we know what we need to do..."Blessed are the pure in heart....."

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world." (The Message)

"God blesses those people whose hearts are pure.They will see him!" (Contemporary English Version)

"They are blessed whose thoughts are pure, for they will see God." (New Century Version)

Our beatitude this week calls us clearly to live as cleanly and with as much purity as humanly possible. Having a pure heart first of all means living by the rules of God that bring moral purity. The initial use of the word “pure” in the Bible was in the sense of “clean” as opposed to “unclean” – clean or unclean animals, clean or unclean foods, the clean or unclean condition of a person.

What do you think the basis was for determining what (or who) was “clean” or “unclean”? It was God’s decision. Since God is the Creator and the Source of everything good and loving, God gets to decide. The Good News is, right standards for behavior are not kept a secret by God. Thus the writings of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.

Check Out This 5 Minute Audio Bible Study on Matthew 5:8

There are ways we can maintain the purity of our heart, and one of the most primary is our time in the Word of God. As the psalmist said, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9), and, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

A second way to maintain the purity of our heart is through fellowship with the people of God. It helps to be accountable to one another. Solomon said:

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up! (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

We have two ways to fulfill our beatitude this week:

1. Fellowship with God


2. Fellowship with each other

Matthew 5:1-10 Stunning slides of the Beatitudes 2':27"

May you get as close to God as you can this week. Look for God and you will see God.

Blessings,

Rev. Bill McBride

The Law of Like Return

Our beatitude for this week is Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy." I'd venture to say that no one will debate the value of this beatitude. Mercy appears at leat 208 times in the Bible. God is merciful and God wants us to show mercy. No questions here.

What I'd like to share with you is a more general and larger understanding that this scripture prompts. I call it The Law Of Like Return. This law goes by many assorted names; perhaps you have heard some variations or even said them.

• What goes around comes around,
• Life is a cricle,
• Like attracts like;
• The Law of Attraction
  
  Here is how I understand this law that governs everything we do: "You will always get back into your life what you fist give away to others through your life." Pretty simple and pretty basic. BUT do we forget it a lot and then wonder why our lives get so messed up and "under enjoyed."
  
  

The prblem is we think that to get something or enjoy something we have to work really hard to acquire it and hold onto it and never let it go. Here is another really important point; the Universe is not a finite sum game. We wrongly think there is a finite amount of that which we want and need. So therefore, when we get some we had better not give any of it away or we will lose it for sure and never get it back. WRONG!

God, the source of all that is good, gracious and enjoyable has an infinite suply of good things and wonderful experiences for you and me to enjoy. And the only way to get them and keep them is to be willing to first give them away. It is not grab and hold on tight, it is give and share and receive in return. This is how The Law of Like Return Works. Guaranteed!

"Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy."

Blessings

Reverend Bill McBride

Are You Hungry Yet?

We have a problem.

We are never really hungry enough to understand this beatitude that deals with hungering and thirsting for God. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6)

We have come to understand that in order to achieve all the things we really crave and dream about and perhaps even pray about, we have to stop chasing them so hard and continue really chasing God.

By chasing God we mean that God is not running away from us so we must run fast to try to catch God, but rather our chase and pursuit demonstrate our devotion. We hunger for God in order to get as close to God as is humanly possible. This beatitude about hungering and thirsting is all about "chasing after" the one who is the source of all our goodness, the cause of all our greatness, and the real provider of all our joys, peace in life, success and fulfillment.

Again the telling and challenging question for you to figure out-How hungry are you really?

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat." (The Message)

"God blesses those people who want to obey him more than to eat or drink. They will be given what they want!"(Contemporary English Version)

God's blessing,

Reverend Bill