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

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

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

Why It Is a Good Thing to Be MEEK.

We are studying the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-16 at church this Lent, Feb 17th -March 4th. Today, I want to share with you a very important insight in the concept of MEEKNESS.

Most of the time we really get it all wrong. And if you read one portion of the Bible and you think it makes no sense at all, you may be tempted to throw it all out as irrelevant or unimportant. That would be a BIG mistake.

But in realty most of the time, we are the ones who approach the sacred texts with wrong presuppositions. So, in an effort to get our heads on straight about Matthew 5:5, here are some of my thoughts on MEEKNESS.

“Blessed, or O How happy are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

“We tend to think of the meek as the casualties, not as the winners.” Miserable are the meek, because they get trampled upon." We live in a world of assertiveness training. We live in a world which values getting what you want and then wanting more for yourself. There are countless courses, books, and television shows about getting what is "due" to you and that for which you are “entitled”. And a good part of the growth in our national debt is from folks insisting on getting what they consider to be their entitlements.” -John A. Terry

At the time the Greek word "praeis" was first translated into English, the word "meek" had a different meaning than it does today. The Greek word in the Bible that we translate into the English -Meek- means: Humble, Obedient, God-controlled, Bridled-able to be led by God and Disciplined.

Try the following description of MEEK - “Living humbly toward God and kindly toward others.” Do you find this description of meekness helpful? Now that makes a whole lot of sense in terms of our faith and our relationships with each other.

The word we render as "meek" is difficult to translate from the original Greek into English. We tend to link the works "meek" and "little," as in "he is a meek, little man." Or “she is a meek and submissive woman.” There are unfortunate implications with the word "meek" which imply a meek person is without courage, or self-respect, a broken-spirited person. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The truth of the matter is that the MEEK are the real winners in this world. In fact, if you want to be meek you had better be strong.

If Jesus Christ is our model and example, which he is, consider how he described himself in Matthew 11:29? “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” And, we must remember it is the meek who will one day inherit it all, from God.

Blessings,

Reverend Bill Mcbride