Randy Loubier's Blog, page 2

The Beatitudes and a Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

This makes the fourth post in my series breaking down The Beatitudes. So far, we have discussed that when we recognize our spiritual poverty we are blessed with the Kingdom of God. We’ve also looked at the comfort God has in store for us when ,we are willing to mourn over the depravity of our own sins. Finally, in last week’s post, I discussed what it means to be meek and despite how powerful we may be, when we allow Jesus to take control of our lives, he blesses us in inheriting the earth.

This week, we will look at what The Beatitudes tell us about hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We will be diving into Matthew 5:6.

,“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

The Beatitudes begin taking a shift here with this verse. Jesus’ focus begins shifting from what we feel and think to what we do. I don’t want to give the wrong idea here. Nothing you ever do is going to earn your salvation. We are saved by our faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nothing more and nothing less. Still, once we have realized how spiritually poor we are, have mourned for our sins, and have surrendered our lives and our will to Jesus, the way we live matters.

When Jesus says “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” He is not referring to those who believe they are going to act or earn their way into heaven. That’s not how salvation works. Very few people hunger and thirst for true righteousness. The majority of us hunger and thirst for whatever will bring us happiness at any given moment. Our focus is on what makes us feel better about ourselves. Not righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Acting right or a right behavior is not the same thing as righteousness. This is why Jesus had so many issues with the Pharisees and religious leaders of His day. Let’s clear something up right now. Righteousness is not acting right. Being righteous means that you have a right standing before God the Father.

If Jesus isn’t your Lord and Savior, this will never happen. You are simply not good enough on your own. The beatitudes are progressive, remember. If it helps, go back and start your thinking once again in seeing yourself as spiritually poor and God as spiritually perfect (1). Mourn for your imperfections (2). Then see your powerful self listening and reacting to everything He says (3). And now you are ready to hunger and thirst for God’s approval (4).

The way we react to circumstances and situations will be different. We no longer feel like we have to be right in everything we do. Instead, demonstrating love becomes the focus. Our interaction with others becomes different. They will no longer be able to recognize us as the person we used to be.

We begin to reflect Jesus more every day. We start to realize that Jesus’ righteousness has been imputed to us. The sin that has dominated us has been imputed to Him while He was hanging on the cross. As a result, we begin living our entire life differently. Through what Jesus has accomplished on the cross, we are able to share in His righteousness.

What does it mean to hunger and thirst?

The more effort you put into feeding something, the more that appetite will grow. Depending on the hunger and thirst you are feeding, this can be either very good or very bad. This is something each of us needs to spend time examining. Do your appetites lead you closer to Jesus or further away from Him?

I’m not saying it is a sin to desire nice things. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But, here’s the thing you want to keep in mind. When you hunger and thirst for the things of this world, are they being used to glorify God or to make much of yourself?

When the focus is me me me, this is where sin gets involved. There is nothing wrong with working hard to earn a nice salary. Nowhere does the Bible say you can’t want a nice home or vehicle. There’s nothing wrong with having nice things. That being said, is pursuing this stuff what drives you? Is the reason you wake up every morning to pursue a feeling from the things of the world that only God can fulfill inside of you?

Remember, Jesus tells us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” So let me ask you this, where are you looking for satisfaction? What is it that provides you with fulfillment? This is what you are hungering and thirsting over. Is your answer righteousness? Do you hunger to please God?

Here’s a secret few know: Just as your hunger grows for earthly pleasures when you practice pleasing yourself, your desire will grow for righteousness when you practice pleasing God.

Being satisfied

Too many of us adults are unsatisfied because we hunger and thirst for worldly possessions instead of a right relationship with our Creator. This is precisely why so many of us are left feeling so empty inside.

We have been successful. We have checked off goals we wanted to accomplish. We studied hard and received the degree. We started out at an entry position and climbed our way up the corporate ladder. We married the person of our dreams and had the children we wanted who have promising futures in front of them.

Still, every night when our head hits the pillow, we catch ourselves asking, “Is this it? Is this really all life is going to be? Wake up, go to work, spend time with family, enjoy a little free time, go to sleep, and then wake up tomorrow and do it all over again? Is this really all my life is ever going to be?”

Ok, maybe the list you have checked off looks different than what I just mentioned. Still, you get what I am aiming at here. Suppose your most significant pursuit in life is anything other than Jesus. In that case, you are never going to succeed, regardless of what you accomplish. You have been created by a loving Creator. Because God made you, in His image, only He can fulfill you.

The people who hunger and thirst for righteousness view God as the supreme means of authentic righteousness. They crave and pursue God's righteous character to be displayed through the lives of His people here on earth. These people will be satisfied by responding to God’s invitation to live in a relationship with Him.

A kingdom-minded person will be pursuing other blessings and benefits from worldly people. They will also live with different attitudes and outlooks. Does your attitude display the self-sacrifice of Jesus, or does it duplicate the pride, lust of power, and selfishness of the world?

Blessed are you when you discover and continue developing a relationship with Jesus Christ. Then and only then will you be truly satisfied.

Dining with Jesus and the Journey of Faith

I want to look at the journey of faith with the third post of my series on ,“Dining with Jesus.” There is a specific story of one woman’s journey of faith we read about in the second meal with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. I think there is a lot to learn from the story we read in Luke 7:36-51.

,The passage can be read in its entirety here. I encourage you to take a few seconds to read the text before we get started. I will touch on a few specific verses throughout the post, but they need to be kept in their proper context.

The first detail from this story that needs our attention is who is throwing this dinner for Jesus. Simon, a Pharisee, hosts the gathering to have Jesus come and eat and speak to his friends. I discussed what this would have looked like with last week’s post. First, many of Simon’s friends would have been invited to come and partake in the meal. Then, once everyone was finished eating, others would have been invited to come in and hear Jesus teach or speak from a distance.

This is what we read about in Luke 7:36-50. A woman from the city, a sinner, walks in on the party. Her journey of faith has led her to seek out Jesus wherever she has to go to find Him. This woman isn’t ok with attending the after-party and listening to Jesus from a distance. She doesn’t need to be reminded that she is a sinner. Her shame and guilt, her need for forgiveness, is so blatantly clear in her own eyes that she is willing to get as close to Jesus as she can, despite what Simon and the others might think.

In verse 38, we learn that she stands directly behind Jesus as he reclines at the table. She brings a flask of ointment, washes Jesus’ feet with her tears, drys His feet with her hair, kisses the feet of Jesus, and then anoints them with the ointment she had brought.

Imagine what would have been going through the minds of Simon and the other guests? Here they were, enjoying a meal and getting to know Jesus better. This woman, who is well known as a sinner, dares to come and interrupt the event with her crying. Think about the scene this would have created? Instead of being frustrated with the commotion taking place, Simon’s mind goes to, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

It’s stories such as this one that remind me of my fifty years of snubbing my nose at Jesus and the love that awaited me when I finally let Him in. Scripture tells us in Luke 7:40 that Jesus knows what Simon is thinking to himself. He goes on to tell Simon a story of a moneylender with two different debtors. Jesus uses the example of the woman to explain how those forgiven for much have much love to give. Those who have been forgiven little, love little.

Jesus goes on in verse 48 to tell the woman that her sins have been forgiven because of her faith. Of course, those in attendance at the dinner immediately begin questioning who he thinks He is to tell someone their sins are forgiven? But, because of her faith, the woman is allowed to go in peace, knowing that her sins have been forgiven.

There are three main takeaways I want to touch on from this woman’s journey of faith that led her to Jesus with the rest of this post. For starters, she was willing to seek Jesus out. Even if it meant ruining a well-attended dinner party, she was going to do whatever needed to be done to spend time with Jesus.

Secondly, she was willing to mourn over her own sins, which takes a tremendous amount of humility. While everyone wanted to focus on who she was and what she was doing wrong, she focused on Jesus. She was humble before her Lord.

Thirdly, she was willing to surrender herself to Jesus' will. Because she was ready to do whatever Jesus commanded, He told her to go in peace. Let’s get started with pursuing Jesus.

A journey of faith starts with our own brokenness

Throughout the four Gospels, we read of Jesus going out of His way to bump into specific people. This is actually how each of the original 12 disciples are called to follow. Jesus makes sure He crosses a few paths and ends up with an inner circle of 12.

This is one of the stories we read where the person goes out of their way to find Jesus. These are the people in desperate enough need for Him that they will do whatever it takes to spend just a few minutes with Jesus. They go out of their way to make themselves available to God.

This is something we regularly need to be doing ourselves. Time with Jesus isn’t something we do when it’s convenient for us. It’s just the opposite. Our time with Jesus is what everything else should be scheduled around. This is the kind of commitment we need if our journey of faith is going to be used to glorify God. Jesus is only going to be as important in our lives as we make Him. If you want your faith to be one of the defining characteristics of who you are, you have to be going out of your way to make yourself available to Jesus.

Mourning over our sins

If you notice in our story today, this woman is cleansing Jesus’ feet with her own tears. These weren’t tears of joy from being in His presence. They also weren’t tears from situations or circumstances. Instead, this woman was weeping over her own sins. She was spiritually broken and knew that Jesus was her only hope.

We know from Paul’s letter to the Romans that, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Still, we need to feel the weight of our own sins from time to time. We need to be reminded of the depravity of our sin. Following Jesus doesn’t mean we become perfect and never sin again. Sin is going to happen, and we need to remember that it separates us from the presence of God.

There’s no condemnation, but there is the feeling of letting God down. Keep in mind, though. You were never holding Him up, to begin with. Still, until we are willing to mourn over our sin, we are never going to experience the comfort we can only find through Him. Remember, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted—we don’t want to miss that blessing. The secret is to follow this woman’s example and weep in a way that guides us closer to Jesus instead of pulling us further away from Him. He quickly comforts us so our tears turn to praise, worship and anointing Him!

Living a life of surrender

As I mentioned earlier, this woman was completely willing to obey whatever Jesus asked her to do. She sought Jesus, ready to go wherever needed to encounter His presence. She wept over her sins, showing a desire to be forgiven and repent. She then surrendered her will to Jesus. As a result, she was saved by her faith and allowed to leave in peace.

We have to be willing to follow each of these steps, especially living a life of surrender. This is how we go about living God’s will in our daily lives. We become meek, allowing Him to take the reins. Jesus becomes our guide, leading us towards what He has in store for us. This leads to being blessed. We can live a life of peace, regardless of the situations and circumstances going on around us. Even if someone ruins our dinner party.

Learning to Dine with Jesus

Dining is much more than the act of eating food. When I think of some of the greatest meals I have had in the last 10 years, I remember more details concerning the people I was with than I do the food we had to eat. This was especially true during New Testament times. A feast wasn’t a meal. It was an event.

This is my ,second post in the series “Dining with Jesus.” Throughout this series, I will be taking a closer look at the 10 meals we find with Jesus throughout the Gospel of Luke. This week I want to focus on the feast Levi has for Jesus after being called to give up his career as a tax collector and follow Jesus. The story can be read in Luke 5:27-32. Before discussing this specific feast, we need to address what was going on before Levi is called to follow Jesus.

There are three key things Jesus does throughout Luke chapter five that need our attention. Jesus heals a man in Luke 5:12-16, making him ceremonially clean. He then heals a man in Luke 5:24-25, forgiving him of his sins. Thirdly, Jesus invites others to follow Him as we see here with Levi, who is later given the name Matthew. We read each of these events, and then Luke describes the feast that is thrown for Jesus in very little detail.

One of the first things we need to focus on is who was in attendance at this feast. The tax collectors and sinners had been invited to recline at the table and partake in the feast. Then, Luke mentions the Pharisees and scribes, and I think this is important. As I mentioned earlier, dinner was much more than eating a meal.

It was about the conversation. Relationships are formed and deepened over a meal. You wouldn’t simply eat food together. You would get to know the other person, appreciating their company. You would learn about the other people and get to know them on a personal level. There would be people who were invited to take part in the meal. After everyone was finished eating, even more people would be invited to hear someone speak or be entertained.

I think that is what is happening here. The tax collectors and sinners were invited to the personal encounter while reclining at the table. The Pharisees and their scribes had simply been invited to hear Jesus speak after Levi’s close friends had finished their meal. There obviously would have been some jealousy. Once the Pharisees start mumbling about this, Jesus informs them, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” This leads to the point I really want to touch on today.

A Meal that Creates Transformation

You notice Levi was at his booth collecting taxes, Jesus called him to follow, and then we read about this feast. This is important. Jesus doesn’t tell Levi to get his act together, then he will have a shot at becoming Matthew. Jesus met Levi exactly where he was currently at.

This is no different with us today. You don’t need to go to church for 12 consecutive Sundays to qualify for following Jesus. You aren’t required to memorize the Bible, or even become familiar with it, for that matter. Regardless of where you are, Jesus has an invitation for you to follow Him. Life change and transformation are part of the journey, not a requirement to make a start.

Levi begins following Jesus, and then we read about the feast. Keep in mind. Dining isn’t simply sharing a meal. It’s all about building a relationship with the people you are eating with. As soon as we start following our Lord and Savior, we can begin building this relationship with Him. The more time we spend getting to know Jesus, the more we are dining with Him, the more our hearts and minds begin transforming.

That being said, none of this will happen until we are willing to recline at the table with Him. We can’t expect to live like Jesus did until we get to know who He is. Think about it this way. You wouldn’t go on one date to eat dinner with someone and then ask them to marry you. You would go on several dinner dates, getting to know them better and better with each meal. Getting to know Jesus isn’t a one-meal event. It’s a process that involves reclining at the table with Him during many feasts.

Repentance That Comes from the Heart

Let’s go back to the passage we’re using today for just a second. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees wasn’t that He comes to call sinners to dinner. ,Jesus said He came to call sinners to repentance. While our actions alone are never going to be enough to save us, once you begin following Jesus, your actions matter. They matter a lot.

Getting to know Jesus isn’t a one-time event. The same thing can be said about repentance. As a follower of Christ, repentance is a part of our daily lives. Here’s the thing. Repentance isn’t something we do to avoid going to hell. We repent of our sins as a response to God’s love for us. There is a difference between the two.

When your goal is to avoid hell, your heart isn’t involved. As children, each of us had at least a couple of rules we followed, simply to avoid getting in trouble. We also had rules we followed because we loved our parents and wanted to show them obedience was important. Obeying wasn’t something we did to earn a prize or reward. It was how we responded to love.

This is precisely how we are to respond to God. The only reason we are able to love Him is because of His great love for us. His grace and mercy aren’t permission to live however we want. They are invitations to follow Him, changing who we are from the inside out.

Becoming a New Vessel

Very seldom is change easy. More often than not, change requires time, sacrifice, and commitment. The best example I have of this is buying a new pair of shoes. You know they are going to be more comfortable than the ones you already have. They look newer and are going to feel better. Still, until you get used to wearing the new shoes, they can be uncomfortable.

Repentance and living a new life can be the same. Old habits have to be broken. There will usually be people, places, and things that we have to distance ourselves from, at least for a while. As uncomfortable as this can be, we have to stay committed to following Jesus.

I’ll be honest, living a life based on faith isn’t always easy. Things can get complicated at times. Still, we have to keep our focus on God and His will for us. Very rarely will Jesus call you to the comfortable. That would defeat the whole purpose of faith.

Here’s the thing. The more uncomfortable repentance, our faith, and following Jesus makes us, the more peace we find when we spend time reclining at the table with Him. These are the feasts we spend our lives cherishing.

The Beatitudes and What it Means to Mourn

This is the second of an eight-post series on the Beatitudes. ,In the last post, we discussed exactly what it means to be poor in spirit. This has nothing to do with our finances or how much we are giving to others. Being poor in spirit is realizing how spiritually broken we are. You and I are not bad people who need to do better. We are sinners in need of a Savior.

This week, we will be looking at the second point Jesus makes with the Beatitudesis the perfect example of our need for keeping the Bible in its proper context. In Matthew 5:4, Jesus tells us,

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Often, someone will read this, and their mind will take off racing in one of two directions. They either tell themselves that Jesus intends for them to be sad and gloomy, or they believe mourning over any situation will create a blessing.

With both misconceptions, our relationship with Jesus can suffer significant harm. When we're unable to understand what Jesus is saying, we can't obtain what He is promising. Be careful with that. I'm not saying there is something to do right or a prize to be won. I'm simply saying that if we wish to follow Jesus to the best of our ability, we want to make sure we fully comprehend what He said.

The blessing mentioned in this verse is not based on an individual circumstance. We aren't simply going to be blessed for mourning when we experience painful situations and circumstances. When reading this verse in the context of the eight beatitudes, mourning over life's difficulties simply wouldn't make sense.

The beatitudes are filled with words such as blessed, the Kingdom of Heaven, comforted, inheriting the earth, being satisfied, mercy, pure, seeing God, and being Sons of God. These are words and statements of joy and fulfillment. Not pain and sorrow.

Therefore, with Jesus' intention of blessing us, why in the world would Jesus want us to mourn? Answering this question will bring us more comfort than we have ever known.

With the rest of this week's post, we will look at why we mourn, precisely what we are grieving for, and how we should respond to this mourning. Each of these feeds off, and into, the other. Until we realize what we are mourning, we will never know our reasoning behind it. If we can't understand what we want our mourning to provide, we will never know how to respond. Let's look at this verse again in its entirety and then break down these three sections.

,Matthew 5:4 ,"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Living the Beatitudes

As I mentioned earlier, this verse is not intended for individual circumstances. This mourning is specific. Mourning is not resolution and regret. The mourning Jesus uses here is the breaking of our hearts for our own sins.

As followers of Christ, yes, every one of us is forgiven for our sins. We have been washed clean by His blood on the cross. Still, our actions always have consequences. Sin always creates collateral damage in our lives. When this goes unaddressed for too long, we will be affected. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.

These consequences aren't limited to ourselves. Often, those closest to us will feel the repercussions of our actions just as much as we do. This realization is supposed to hurt! God is all for love, mercy, and forgiveness. Yes, and amen. He is also a holy and just God. He cannot be accepting of our sin. It separates us from Him.

The consequences of our sin should lead to mourning in our lives. Not because you were caught, and there's a punishment to face. We should mourn because our sin breaks God's heart. We get tired of hurting the One who loves us so much that He would give His only Son.

Blessed are you when you finally realize the depravity of your own sin.

You will be comforted.

For What Are We Mourning?

Our sin creates spiritual, emotional, and financial losses in our lives. It leaves us broken, spiritually bankrupt. We are not bad people who need to do better. We aren't in need of a life coach or motivational speaker. We are sinners, dead in our trespasses, in desperate need of a Savior.

When we finally become aware of our brokenness, when our hearts become broken because we are tired of breaking God's heart, we mourn. We aren't simply mourning because we need forgiveness. We mourn because we are in desperate need of healing we can only find through the Holy Spirit's work. This awareness sets us up to work our way through the rest of the beatitudes.

Furthermore, we may have exhausted ourselves trying to be better. Only to find it didn't work. On our own, we are never going to meet God's mark. We can try over and over again. Unless Jesus shows up and shows off, it is doom and gloom for us. We cannot fix ourselves. We mourn because we desperately need God to heal us.

Here's what you have to remember. It's not like God sees our sin and turns around, leaving us. Through our sin, we are the ones walking away from Him. We tell ourselves, "I got this. I can do what I want, when I want, with whoever I want to do it with." Next thing you know, we're in the garden with Adam and Eve sewing leaves together to cover up the mess we have made.

God's mercy, grace, and healing are what we mourn for. Not only for the sin we have already committed. We mourn because we don't want to sin anymore.

Blessed are you when you finally realize that you will never be able to fix yourself without God.

You will be comforted.

How Shall We Respond to Our Mourning?

If your mourning doesn't lead you to repentance—a change of mind, a remembrance of the previous verse that you are not God and He is, leading to a change of behavior—you'd want to ask if your heart is really involved? I'll be careful here. I've already made it clear that we cannot fix ourselves. The beatitudes teach us without what Jesus accomplished through the cross, we are never going to be enough.

Yet, when you finally get wrecked by the Gospel, when you experience the mercy of a resurrected Jesus Christ, lifestyles are going to change. You cannot experience a grace that saves without being changed by it. Not because of what you are doing. Because He loves you, and you let Him change you with His love.

Repentance is not a prayer you mumble before falling asleep. It is a way of life that leads to joyful blessings. Repentance is only an option because while you were a sinner, God the Father loved you. He sent His Son on a rescue mission. When Jesus stood up on His nail-pierced feet and said, "Tetelestai," it is finished, that counted for you. That counted for your sin. So that what? So you could be blessed in your spiritual poverty by living in the Kingdom of Heaven, so you could mourn your transgressions against His better judgement and be magnificently comforted!

God looked at you, knowing your depravity, your spiritual brokenness, and said, "I want that person. They belong to me." He knew you would never be enough, and still, He wanted you. And He still wants you, every day.

Blessed are you when you become fully aware of your need for Him, and it leads you to mourn.

You will be comforted!

This series on The Beatitudes is a preview of my next book, The Tea Room Scrolls: Volume 2. ,The book can be preordered at this link!

Blessings to you,

Pastor Randy

A Deeper Look at the Kingdom of God Bible Verses

When studying the Kingdom of God Bible verses we find throughout the New Testament, many Christians are left with a common question. Is the Kingdom of God something we are already experiencing now? Or, is the Kingdom of God something we won’t encounter until we’ve taken our last breath?

Before digging into today’s message, I want to take just a second to clear something up. Yes, the Kingdom of God is Heaven. Because of this, this is where followers of Christ will be after we are finished with our early lives. We are simply sojourners passing through the world as we know it on this trip we call life. I realize many Christians believe that eternity is where our focus should be because of how much longer eternity is than the few years we live.

I’m not trying to say that any of these points are invalid. Personally, I believe far too many parents are more concerned with where their children will go to college than what will happen to their souls. The point I want to make today is that following Jesus is far more than simply going to heaven. When we really take in the Kingdom of God Bible verses, looking at them in their proper context, it’s easy to see that Jesus is far more concerned with how we live our daily lives now than what happens when we die.

Kingdom of God Bible Verses

The Kingdom of God is something we have been created to experience here and now. Not later on in the future. This is clearly stated time and time again by Jesus throughout the New Testament. I want to focus on just three Kingdom of God Bible verses today to support what I’m saying.

Before getting started with these Scriptures, you must realize the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same. Depending on the Gospel writer and the audience they were trying to reach, they used the words their audience would have best related to.

For instance, if I were writing a blog post you could only read in the southeastern states, I would write about the city of “Boston.” Writing about the same exact city, if my audience were people in the northeast, I would use the names “Beantown” or “The City of Champions,” and they would know I was writing about Boston.

Each of these names represents the same location on a map. Depending on who I am writing to, one phrase will better resonate with the reader than the other. Let’s get started with these three Scriptures!

Mark 9:1

And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Jesus is the “he” in this statement. When this statement is made, Jesus is talking to a small crowd of people that included the twelve disciples. The point that I want to drive home today is that if the Kingdom of God is a physical location we can only experience after our death, Jesus wouldn’t have used these words to describe what was about to happen.

The Kingdom of God isn’t just a physical location. It’s something we encounter while living a life centered around Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God Bible Verses we’re looking at today don’t point to this Kingdom as a place with streets paved with gold. The Kingdom of God is a way of life, a spiritual society, a transformed existence that Jesus wants us to experience today.

Just days later, Peter, John, and James followed Jesus up a mountain where they were to witness Jesus’ transfiguration. They weren’t going up the mountain to visit a place on a map. They were going to experience the power of God in a way you only encounter when He is the King of your life. On that mountain, God displayed His power and authority to illustrate the Kingdom of God in the daily lives of these disciples. He wants us to experience the same display, right now, today. The Kingdom of God isn’t something reserved for us after we have finished living our lives.

Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This phrase “kingdom of heaven” is only found in Matthew’s Gospel. The phrase interchanges with the “kingdom of God.” In this verse, through the person of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven has come to the people. While Jesus has ascended back to Heaven himself, His spirit, the Holy Spirit, dwells inside of us. This means the Kingdom of Heaven is currently among us.

Words are important, especially with Scripture. I want you to look at this verse again.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Notice Jesus doesn’t say, “Repent, for one day you will have an opportunity to go to the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus says to repent because the Kingdom is already here.

Still today, 2,000 years later, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. That being said, if you are not serving the King, you are not going to experience His Kingdom. To believe that the Kingdom of God is somewhere you are going to go eventually sounds too much like a work-based religion to me.

“Live your life and do it just right, keep all of the rules and do exactly as I say, and I’ll let you come here when this is all said and done.”

The only problem with this statement, it’s simply not what Jesus taught. He wants to be experienced by His people here and now while we are living daily life. This is one of the ways the Kingdom of God expands. People witness our lives bearing Kingdom fruit, and they want to begin serving our King.

Matthew 13:44

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

With all of the Kingdom of God Bible verses we have, I think this is one of my favorites. It definitely supports the idea that the Kingdom of God is to be experienced now, not after our earthly lives are over. Let’s look at this for a minute.

During these times, it was common for people to bury a treasure in a field like this. They didn’t have the banking systems we have today. This man finds the treasure and sells EVERYTHING he has to afford the field the treasure is in. This means the Kingdom of Heaven is to be greater than anything else we have in life. I like to look at this another way, though.

If the Kingdom of Heaven is a location on a map we go after our life is over, this man could have spent the rest of his life saving to buy this field. He could’ve taken on a little extra work every week for the next several years. The Kingdom would have always been there, waiting for the man to make the purchase whenever he was ready. Instead, he decides to sell everything to purchase and experience the treasure right now in his daily life.

This is precisely what the Kingdom of Heaven should be to us. Something we are willing to give up everything to make sure we can live for our King, here and now.

This blog kicks off a series called Dining in the Kingdom of God. Now that you know the Kingdom of God is for you, today, let’s explore together what it’s like to eat with Jesus in the Kingdom.

Blessings, Pastor Randy

Stepping into the Beatitudes

The beatitudes are found at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the mount. They are eight crucial steps Jesus teaches His believers for living out the Christian faith. I’m not saying it’s impossible to follow Jesus without living the beatitudes in daily life. I’m simply saying these eight points play a significant role in developing a more authentic faith.

I want to spend the next eight weeks breaking down the Beatitudes, one by one. The goal isn’t to make a biblical scholar or theologian out of anyone. These eight posts will just lay the groundwork for living the beatitudes in our daily lives. Being poor in spirit will take on a whole new meaning for you.

The beatitudes are not eight different steps you accomplish and then move on to the next in line. Instead, each of these points directly ties into one another. For instance, you can’t fully live out the second point without points one and three being involved. These aren’t eight steps to a better version of you. They are eight points that feed off of one another, guiding you closer to Jesus Christ.

Around the time these eight weeks have finished, I’ll be launching my new book, The Eight Points of Blessed Living, which will give much more detail than these blog posts. You will be filled in on the progress of the book’s publication with each of these posts. Enough about the book. Let’s dive into being poor in spirit, the blessings this brings, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Applying the Beatitudes

This verse is not telling us we need to give all of our money to the church. It has nothing to do with finances whatsoever. That is where someone’s mind will go when Jesus’ words here are read too quickly. This is why He uses “poor” and “spirit” together. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

We can’t be poor in spirit without realizing our own brokenness. We aren’t simply broken people needing to be fixed. We are in desperate need of God. Without Him, we are nothing. Regardless of what we do and how hard we try, we will never be enough without God. We aren’t just broke. We are spiritually bankrupt.

We not only believe in God, but we also see how much greater He is than we are. Because He is the Maker of this world and everything in it, we realize that His will is far greater than our own. It becomes our biggest desire to make God happy. ,We do this by surrendering our lives to His Son, Jesus Christ.

Being poor in spirit isn’t simply going to church every Sunday and mumbling a prayer every morning when we wake up. To be poor in Spirit, Jesus has to be what drives your life. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It means we wake up every day with the intent of growing closer to God than we were the day before. Yes, repentance and obedience are a part of this.

Here’s the thing. We are spiritually inferior. We’re never going to act our way into Heaven. This is impossible without the work of Jesus Christ. Our obedience isn’t out of fear. It is out of love for God. We become so aware of our need for Him that it changes how we live.

Being Blessed

After reading what I have just said, being poor in spirit might not sound so attractive. Who in their right mind would be willing to acknowledge that they are never going to be enough? How in the world could someone find peace knowing they will never be good enough on their own? We should keep our eye on the specific blessings found in the beatitudes through each of these eight posts.

Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” I want to make sure you pick up on something here. Nowhere in this verse do we read the word “happy.” There is a huge difference between being blessed and being happy. Joy comes with being blessed. ,Happiness is rooted in our happenings. Joy is rooted in Jesus.

There is no true peace with happiness. Being happy can be lost in a second. Happiness is based on the people, places, and things around you. Happiness is something you feel. It will never sustain who you are. Contentment is experienced with joy. It is part of a blessing that only God can provide. You will never manufacture it on your own.

Blessed are you when you finally realize without Jesus, you will never experience all that you were created for. Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Kingdom of Heaven

When we agree that Jesus is our King, we enter His Kingdom. Jesus ushered in the Kingdom 2000 years ago. As subjects to our King, we agree to have Him Lord over our lives. We have His Spirit working in and through us. We see God working in the lives of others. The more we get involved with His creation, the more aware we become of His presence.

With blessed living, the focus can not be on the here and now. We put our faith and trust in God and know that He has a plan. God doesn’t make mistakes. Regardless of what we are going through, no matter how difficult life may seem in the moment, we keep our focus on Him, asking Him to make His will ours.

God chooses to bless different people in different ways. Our first blessing, being poor in spirit, comes from trusting His wisdom as King. The pressure is off. We don’t have to pretend we are as wise as Him. We don’t have to prove our worthiness. We simply lay down our will, stay loyal no matter what, and our King will make certain everything works out to our good. Ahhh, now that’s a blessing!

Discovering Strength through Meekness

In our previous two posts, we have looked at recognizing our spiritual poverty and our sin, leading us successively to the kingdom of heaven and to mourn. We have taken a serious look at both who we are and our need for God. He’s not the one who abandons us. We walk away from Him through our spiritual apathy and sin.

Once we have identified the depravity of our own sin and it finally begins breaking our heart, what exactly do we do about it? How do we go about healing? Maybe, the more important question, how do we keep this from happening again?

This week’s post leads us to our third point, known in the Bible as one of The Beatitudes. We will be diving into Matthew 5:5.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Many Christians, especially those who are newer to the Christian faith, will confuse the word “meek” with “weak.” For one, the two words have a familiar sound. Also, those who are newer to following Jesus will commonly take His love and kindness as Him being weak. This couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when we are discussing what it means to be meek.

If you follow horse racing, you have probably heard the statement, “The meekest horse wins the race.” Think about this for a minute. A horse is a powerful animal, regardless of if it is racing or not. How crazy would this be to say the weakest competitor is going to win? With horse racing, there is a lot of betting at stake. I am not a gambler, but I cannot see someone putting a lot of money on the weakest animal competing!

What It Means to Be Meek

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek,” He is saying blessed are the people who have turned their will and their lives over to Him. If you think about our previous two posts, this will naturally make sense. We have realized how broken we are compared to God, and this finally begins breaking our hearts. If the way we have been living hurts this much, it makes sense to hand the reins of our lives to Him.

Back to our example of the horse race. The meekest horse is going to win. This isn’t because they charge off from the starting line doing whatever they think is necessary. This is because they allow the jockey to determine when they move and where they move to. The horse gives complete control to the one riding. Only by doing this, the horse becomes the swiftest animal in the competition.

The same can be said with our lives. The more control we give to God, the better things are going to be for us. This doesn’t translate to us always winning and coming out on top in every individual race. There will be difficulties. Still, when we are meek, we can always rely on the fact that we are exactly where God wants us to be.

He is in complete control. Every decision we make, everything we do is based on God’s will for our lives. This doesn’t make us weak people. As a matter of fact, this makes us stronger than we ever could have been on our own. As frustrating as life can be at times, we find peace knowing God has led us exactly where He wants us to be. This allows us to keep our focus on Him instead of the situations and circumstances around us.

Trusting God

Obviously, a horse will go through a lot of training before it is ever put in a race. Time will be spent between the horse and jockey. A level of trust must be developed. An animal as strong and powerful as a horse isn’t just going to allow a rider to climb on and take control.

For us to become meek, we need to spend time developing trust with God. I’ll be honest, with as many decades as I spent studying other religions, this wasn’t exactly easy. It definitely didn’t happen overnight.

This is why God’s eight points of blessed living are in a specific order. Only through being poor in spirit can we admit He is right, and we are not. And only through that revelation are we able to mourn over our brokenness. When this mourning is authentic, it will lead to us trusting God. When we have finally exhausted ourselves trying on our own, we are going to see our need for Him.

The goal is to trust God more today than we did yesterday. Becoming meek is a process, not an event. When you put your heart into this and allow space in your day to be mindful of where you are in any given moment, you will get good at adjusting your thinking. In the most frustrating moments, it’s time to return to point one and seek His blessing through letting Him be your all powerful, accurate, always right, perfectly faithful, encouraging, wanting the best for you God (point 1). Which will lead us to mourn and be comforted (point 2), which will lead us to meekness and inheriting the earth (point 3)! Therefore, our eight points are not a one-and-done process. They become a fluid part of our daily lives. The Beatitudes, our eight points of blessed living, will become what we strive for every day.

Inheriting the Earth

As we become meek, the here and now becomes less and less important. Our focus is not what is going on around us. Instead, our priority becomes eternity. This is where both faith and trust play a huge role in what we are doing. This is how we inherit the earth. You and I are “interviewing” to rule and reign with Christ in the new heavens and new earth. I am praying we will both be there serving Him together!

As this begins to take shape in our lives, we will start experiencing God. We will become more aware of His presence in our daily lives. This happens through our thoughts and the way we live. We start seeing God interact in the lives of others and our own. Because God is in control and guiding us, He makes sure we are where we need to be to see Him at work.

Discovering Comfort When We Mourn

The beatitude we are looking at this week is the perfect example of our need for keeping the Bible in its proper context. In Matthew 5:4, Jesus tells us,

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Often, someone will read this, and their mind will take off racing in one of two directions. They either tell themselves that Jesus intends for them to be sad and gloomy, or they believe mourning over any situation will create a blessing.

With both misconceptions, our relationship with Jesus can suffer significant harm. When we're unable to understand what Jesus is saying, we can't obtain what He is promising. Be careful with that. I'm not saying there is something to do right or a prize to be won. I'm simply saying that if we wish to follow Jesus to the best of our ability, we want to make sure we fully comprehend what He said.

The blessing mentioned in this verse is not based on an individual circumstance. We aren't simply going to be blessed for mourning when we experience painful situations and circumstances. When reading this verse in the context of the eight beatitudes, mourning over life's difficulties simply wouldn't make sense.

The beatitudes are filled with words such as blessed, the Kingdom of Heaven, comforted, inheriting the earth, being satisfied, mercy, pure, seeing God, and being Sons of God. These are words and statements of joy and fulfillment. Not pain and sorrow.

Therefore, with Jesus' intention of blessing us, why in the world would Jesus want us to mourn? Answering this question will bring us more comfort than we have ever known.

With the rest of this week's post, we will look at why we mourn, precisely what we are grieving for, and how we should respond to this mourning. Each of these feeds off, and into, the other. Until we realize what we are mourning, we will never know our reasoning behind it. If we can't understand what we want our mourning to provide, we will never know how to respond. Let's look at this verse again in its entirety and then break down these three sections.

Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Why Do We Mourn?

As I mentioned earlier, this verse is not intended for individual circumstances. This mourning is specific. Mourning is not resolution and regret. The mourning Jesus uses here is the breaking of our hearts for our own sins.

As followers of Christ, yes, every one of us is forgiven for our sins. We have been washed clean by His blood on the cross. Still, our actions always have consequences. Sin always creates collateral damage in our lives. When this goes unaddressed for too long, we will be affected. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.

These consequences aren't limited to ourselves. Often, those closest to us will feel the repercussions of our actions just as much as we do. This realization is supposed to hurt! God is all for love, mercy, and forgiveness. Yes, and amen. He is also a holy and just God. He cannot be accepting of our sin. It separates us from Him.

The consequences of our sin should lead to mourning in our lives. Not because you were caught, and there's a punishment to face. We should mourn because our sin breaks God's heart. We get tired of hurting the One who loves us so much that He would give His only Son.

Blessed are you when you finally realize the depravity of your own sin.

You will be comforted.

For What Are We Mourning?

Our sin creates spiritual, emotional, and financial losses in our lives. It leaves us broken, spiritually bankrupt. We are not bad people who need to do better. We aren't in need of a life coach or motivational speaker. We are sinners, dead in our trespasses, in desperate need of a Savior.

When we finally become aware of our brokenness, when our hearts become broken because we are tired of breaking God's heart, we mourn. We aren't simply mourning because we need forgiveness. We mourn because we are in desperate need of healing we can only find through the Holy Spirit's work.

Furthermore, we may have exhausted ourselves trying to be better. Only to find it didn't work. On our own, we are never going to meet God's mark. We can try over and over again. Unless Jesus shows up and shows off, it is doom and gloom for us. We cannot fix ourselves. We mourn because we desperately need God to heal us.

Here's what you have to remember. It's not like God sees our sin and turns around, leaving us. Through our sin, we are the ones walking away from Him. We tell ourselves, "I got this. I can do what I want, when I want, with whoever I want to do it with." Next thing you know, we're in the garden with Adam and Eve sewing leaves together to cover up the mess we have made.

God's mercy, grace, and healing are what we mourn for. Not only for the sin we have already committed. We mourn because we don't want to sin anymore.

Blessed are you when you finally realize that you will never be able to fix yourself without God.

You will be comforted.

How Shall We Respond to Our Mourning?

If your mourning doesn't lead you to repentance—a change of mind, a remembrance of the previous verse that you are not God and He is, leading to a change of behavior—you'd want to ask if your heart is really involved? I'll be careful here. I've already made it clear that we cannot fix ourselves. Without what Jesus accomplished through the cross, we are never going to be enough.

Yet, when you finally get wrecked by the Gospel, when you experience the mercy of a resurrected Jesus Christ, lifestyles are going to change. You cannot experience a grace that saves without being changed by it. Not because of what you are doing. Because He loves you, and you let Him change you with His love.

Repentance is not a prayer you mumble before falling asleep. It is a way of life, that leads to joyful blessings. Repentance is only an option because while you were a sinner, God the Father loved you. He sent His Son on a rescue mission. When Jesus stood up on His nail-pierced feet and said, "Tetelestai," it is finished, that counted for you. That counted for your sin. So that what? So you could be blessed in your spiritual poverty by living in the Kingdom of Heaven, so you could mourn your transgressions against His better judgement and be magnificently comforted!

God looked at you, knowing your depravity, your spiritual brokenness, and said, "I want that person. They belong to me." He knew you would never be enough, and still, He wanted you. And He still wants you, every day.

Blessed are you when you become fully aware of your need for Him, and it leads you to mourn.

You will be comforted!

Blessings to you,

Pastor Randy

What Does it Mean to Be Poor in Spirit?

Why would someone want to be poor in spirit? I think we can get so caught up in the Sermon on the Mount that we skip over the Beatitudes too quickly. Maybe we don’t skip them over. We just fail to really comprehend and chew on Jesus’ words.

I want to spend the next eight weeks breaking down the Beatitudes, one by one. The goal isn’t to make a biblical scholar or theologian out of anyone. These eight posts will just lay the groundwork for living the beatitudes in our daily lives. Being poor in spirit will take on a whole new meaning for you.

Around the time these eight weeks have finished, I’ll be launching my new book, The Eight Points of Blessed Living, which will give much more detail than these blog posts. You will be filled in on the progress of the book’s publication with each of these posts. Enough about the book. Let’s dive into being poor in spirit, the blessings this brings, and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Being Poor in Spirit

This verse is not telling us we need to give all of our money to the church. It has nothing to do with finances whatsoever. That is where someone’s mind will go when Jesus’ words here are read too quickly. This is why He uses “poor” and “spirit” together. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

We can’t be poor in spirit without realizing our own brokenness. We aren’t simply broken people needing to be fixed. We are in desperate need of God. Without Him, we are nothing. Regardless of what we do and how hard we try, we will never be enough without God. We aren’t just broke. We are spiritually bankrupt.

We not only believe in God, but we also see how much greater He is than we are. Because He is the Maker of this world and everything in it, we realize that His will is far greater than our own. It becomes our biggest desire to make God happy. We do this by surrendering our lives to His Son, Jesus Christ.

Being poor in spirit isn’t simply going to church every Sunday and mumbling a prayer every morning when we wake up. To be poor in Spirit, Jesus has to be what drives your life. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It means we wake up every day with the intent of growing closer to God than we were the day before. Yes, repentance and obedience are a part of this.

Here’s the thing. We are spiritually inferior. We’re never going to act our way into Heaven. This is impossible without the work of Jesus Christ. Our obedience isn’t out of fear. It is out of love for God. We become so aware of our need for Him that it changes how we live.

Being Blessed

After reading what I have just said, being poor in spirit might not sound so attractive. Who in their right mind would be willing to acknowledge that they are never going to be enough? How in the world could someone find peace knowing they will never be good enough on their own?

Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” I want to make sure you pick up on something here. Nowhere in this verse do we read the word “happy.” There is a huge difference between being blessed and being happy. Joy comes with being blessed. Happiness is rooted in our happenings. Joy is rooted in Jesus.

There is no true peace with happiness. Being happy can be lost in a second. Happiness is based on the people, places, and things around you. Happiness is something you feel. It will never sustain who you are. Contentment is experienced with joy. It is part of a blessing that only God can provide. You will never manufacture it on your own.

Blessed are you when you finally realize without Jesus, you will never experience all that you were created for. Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Kingdom of Heaven

When we agree that Jesus is our King, we enter His Kingdom. Jesus ushered in the Kingdom 2000 years ago. As subjects to our King, we agree to have Him Lord over our lives. We have His Spirit working in and through us. We see God working in the lives of others. The more we get involved with His creation, the more aware we become of His presence.

With blessed living, the focus can not be on the here and now. We put our faith and trust in God and know that He has a plan. God doesn’t make mistakes. Regardless of what we are going through, no matter how difficult life may seem in the moment, we keep our focus on Him, asking Him to make His will ours.

God chooses to bless different people in different ways. Our first blessing, being poor in spirit, comes from trusting His wisdom as King. The pressure is off. We don’t have to pretend we are as wise as Him. We don’t have to prove our worthiness. We simply lay down our will, stay loyal no matter what, and our King will make certain everything works out to our good. Ahhh, now that’s a blessing!

Remember Joe from Slow Brewing Tea?

People ask me if Slow Brewing Tea is autobiographical. My answer is “loosely.” The attitude and personality of Isaiah is mine.

And some of the characters and scenes are real.

Remember Joe? Real.

Joe was an MP up on the roof of the elephant cage—the spy station (see pic below that, by the way, Joe was never supposed to take!) where we were listening in on coded messages from Russia. The Cold War was at a peak. Real.

Joe opens the novel by coming home to the barracks excited that the Russians were up to ”something big.” Real.

Joe stayed behind while I went to the festival in Hirosaki because he had to find out about what Russia was up to. Fiction about Joe missing the festival. Real about both of us being excited to find out what the Russians were up to.

The Russians invaded Afghanistan and we were the first Americans to know it was about to happen. Real.

Amazon Best Seller, Slow Brewing Tea, link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0976075792/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_bIjjFbSJ4A8D4