Author: Phil Rehberg

“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.” (Mt. 5:10-12 NLT). There will be times when you are persecuted just for being good. This may happen at your job or school or even at home if people are hostile to God. Some people just don’t like the presence of someone who is good because it just highlights their corruption. In the ninth beatitude, Jesus provides amazing encouragement to those who are persecuted. You will have a great reward in heaven! It is important to take a little time and think about this. Continue Reading →

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7 ESV). God promises to bless us and have mercy on us if we are merciful to others. Jesus told a parable about an unforgiving servant who had a debtor thrown in jail even though he himself had been a debtor to a king who forgave his debts. The king heard about it and told the unforgiving servant “Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?” (Matt. 18:33 NLT). It isn’t always easy to have mercy on those who offend us. Sometimes they do not even appreciate our mercy when we give it to them. Yet, whether they respond or not, God wants us to have mercy on others (in other words, forgive them, release them) because he had mercy on us. By definition, mercy is not earned it is just given when Continue Reading →

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” Matt. 5:6 (ESV). God is pleased when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. This isn’t just judicial righteousness that we receive when we first believe; it is also lived righteousness, that is, living a godly life, a life that is truly good. And this is something that Jesus wants us to passionately pursue, that we would actually be hungry to be good. Our throats would be parched and dry because we do not have the full spring of God’s righteousness. This means that we zealously pursue honesty in all we say and do. It means we love holiness and seek to be pure in every area of our lives, including what we watch. It means we crucify pride, embrace humility and plead with God to expose our pride. This is what it means to thirst for Continue Reading →

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mt. 5:3 (ESV) This is the first of the famous beatitudes which are the beginning of the famous Sermon on the Mount which is considered the core of Christian living taught by Jesus. The poor in spirit are those who recognize that they are spiritually destitute on their own,. Since this sermon is spoken to Jesus’ disciples (Mt. 5:1), Jesus is implying that when we recognize we are not self-sufficient, come to him and follow him, then the kingdom of heaven belongs to us! Even though we are spiritually rich (Eph. 1:3) our posture before God should be one of humility, like one in poverty depending on the generosity of another. This is a matter of our interior life, not our external actions, although later in the Sermon, Jesus makes it clear that without external actions, we Continue Reading →