Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9 NIV). God promises to bless those who bring reconciliation to the world. Making peace, in other words, reconciliation, is one of God’s primary missions. His original plan for people was that they would all join together in harmony and mutual edification. Sadly, this world is full of people who do not pursue this peace. People lack peace with God, with each other and with themselves. His followers are called to be aware of this discord and make a positive effort to bring reconciliation. This is not easy work. It requires talking with people who may not want to come to peace. They might argue and resist and even fight. Our role is to be patient, listen, understand where they are coming from and then point them in the direction of reconciliation. Then we walk with them one Continue Reading →

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matt. 5:8 (NIV). This is one of the most popular verses in Christian history. Devout followers of Jesus who wanted to be close to God and “see” him in their life made a serious effort to purify their lives. This verse gives us a tremendous gift: the opportunity to see God! Jesus doesn’t give details about what that means but we know that it means that we will be very close to him. In this life it may mean that we experience his presence in a powerful way. In the next life we get to see God directly. The condition is that have a pure heart. Believers have judicial purity but Jesus is also asking for actual purity in our hearts. This takes time and effort and a willingness to examine our hearts. But if we pursue this we will 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. And 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 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 actual be hungry to be good. That our throats would be parched and dry because we do not have the water of God’s righteousness. And the encouragement is that if we adopt that passion then God will satisfy us, He will wine and dine us with his goodness so that we do live righteous lives. Jesus said ““If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37 ESV). He will do this both in this age and in Continue Reading →

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Mt. 5:5 ESV). A meek person is someone who is gentle and not argumentative or aggressive. When Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey he described his coming by saying “your king is coming to you, [meek} and mounted on a donkey” (Mt. 21:5 ESV). The irony is that the one is not warlike is the one who will inherit leadership over the earth. In other words, ultimate political victory will not come by the strategies that humans usually use. Rather, God will bring a time when his followers, the ones who do not conquer their home or town or the world by force, will be the ones who will be in control of the world and those who are not meek will be absent. This is a tremendous promise for us when we choose to be meek instead of adversarial Continue Reading →