BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” It sounds good but peacemaking is costly work. A story from Japan illustrates the point.
Most westerners are unaware of it but Asian cultures suffer as much from racism as any conflict between blacks and whites or Jews and Arabs. For fifty years the Japanese and the Koreans hated each other. Japanese atrocities during World War II are still vivid in the Korean conscience. And the Japanese had nothing but disdain for Koreans.
On January 26, 2001 a plasterer working in a Tokyo subway station, fell into the path of an oncoming train. A Korean College student leaped down on the tracks to save him. But he was too late. The train killed both him and the craftsman.
The emotional response to the student’s sacrifice was unprecedented in Japan. The Prime Minister openly confessed his regret for racial bigotry against Koreans. The late radio commentator Paul Harvey said, “In seven seconds that one act of sacrificial love broke down more barriers than 50 years of negotiations.”
Which brings us to the real difficulty in peacemaking: Words are rarely enough, deeds make the difference. It is acts of kindness and love that take time, effort and sacrifice that are the most powerful peacemakers.
Are there some old barriers between you and people of another race that need to come down? Or what about you and members of your own Church? It won’t cost you your life. But it may cost you your pride. That’s a small price to pay. For “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Blessed Are the Pure In Heart
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” But what exactly does it mean to have a pure heart? And how will they see God?
In the Bible the heart is the center of one’s being. It is the intersection of mind, will and emotion, the place where life’s most important decisions are made and carried out. No wonder wise Solomon warns us to “Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow all the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). His warning also tells us that the heart is prone to wantonness. We have to actively engage in managing the heart, taming it and training it to right habits of thought and action lest it run us headlong into hedonism or deceive us into slavery.
Thus, to be pure in heart is to have an attitude of complete sincerity. It is to be the same in the dark as we are in the light, without hypocrisy, free from all deceit. To have a pure heart is also to care more about God and the things of God than we care for this world.
The model for this of course is Jesus, of whom the Bible says “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” (1Pet. 2:22.) He was the same in the dark as he was in the light.
Yet you and I know people who, as John Stott says, “weave round themselves such a tissue of lies that they can no longer tell which part of them is real and which is make-believe.” You see, sometimes we are so afraid of the truth about ourselves that we pretend to be something other than what we really are. It is a great shame to live like that. We fear the opinion of others more than we fear God. Worse, we expect that if we were to be honest with God he would treat us with the same disdain that the world would treat us with. What a tragic deception!
Jesus is doing more than making a pithy saying about spirituality. He is making a promise: “Get real with God and He will get real with you. He will reveal himself to you in ways you cannot imagine.”
If you have been afraid of letting God see the real you take courage from Isaiah’s prophecy: For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isa 57:15 NIV). When that happens, when contrition comes, we go from impurity to purity in a brief moment. Then the promise of Jesus comes true.
Proverbs 3:32 says God “takes the upright into his confidence.” He shares his thoughts with the pure. So blessed are the pure. God talks to them. And they can hear.
In the Bible the heart is the center of one’s being. It is the intersection of mind, will and emotion, the place where life’s most important decisions are made and carried out. No wonder wise Solomon warns us to “Keep your heart with all diligence, for from it flow all the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). His warning also tells us that the heart is prone to wantonness. We have to actively engage in managing the heart, taming it and training it to right habits of thought and action lest it run us headlong into hedonism or deceive us into slavery.
Thus, to be pure in heart is to have an attitude of complete sincerity. It is to be the same in the dark as we are in the light, without hypocrisy, free from all deceit. To have a pure heart is also to care more about God and the things of God than we care for this world.
The model for this of course is Jesus, of whom the Bible says “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” (1Pet. 2:22.) He was the same in the dark as he was in the light.
Yet you and I know people who, as John Stott says, “weave round themselves such a tissue of lies that they can no longer tell which part of them is real and which is make-believe.” You see, sometimes we are so afraid of the truth about ourselves that we pretend to be something other than what we really are. It is a great shame to live like that. We fear the opinion of others more than we fear God. Worse, we expect that if we were to be honest with God he would treat us with the same disdain that the world would treat us with. What a tragic deception!
Jesus is doing more than making a pithy saying about spirituality. He is making a promise: “Get real with God and He will get real with you. He will reveal himself to you in ways you cannot imagine.”
If you have been afraid of letting God see the real you take courage from Isaiah’s prophecy: For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isa 57:15 NIV). When that happens, when contrition comes, we go from impurity to purity in a brief moment. Then the promise of Jesus comes true.
Proverbs 3:32 says God “takes the upright into his confidence.” He shares his thoughts with the pure. So blessed are the pure. God talks to them. And they can hear.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Ten Secrets of...
What if I told you that you could sharpen your mind, deepen your peace, strengthen your confidence in all things spiritual and enhance your prayers with one simple secret? You’d probably think I was trying to sell you a new herbal supplement! I’m not. No herb can do for you what I’m recommending. In fact, you can’t buy what I’m selling. It will cost you some time and effort. But it is one of the best investments you will ever make.
I’m talking about Scripture memory. I’ve been in a project since February to memorize Matthew chapters five through seven, the three chapters that make up Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. It has done all of what I mentioned above and more (about which I will blog on later).
Memorizing large segments of anything can be difficult. But many years ago I was playing the roll of Luke in a musical called THE APOSTLE produced by our college group at First Baptist Church of Atlanta. The musical was based on the book of Acts, which Luke wrote, so as the narrator I had a lot to memorize. I developed a system for doing it.
Here are my secrets for memorizing large portions of scripture:
1. A Good Translation - Use a readable translation—NIV will work for most, but use the one you are most familiar with.
2. Quiet Space—Make sure you will not be interrupted. Turn off the TV, Radio, Computer, etc.
3. A Fresh Mind - Set aside time—Morning is best, when your mind is fresh, or take a nap before you start so your mind will be sharp. Plan on spending at least fifteen minutes but no more than thirty.
4. Read it Out Loud—the whole chapter, two or three times, like you were reading it to a group of children to get the feel of what the writer emphasized and the flow of his thoughts.
5. Memorize Whole Thoughts - Read the paragraph you plan to memorize—again out loud. Don’t try to remember the verse numbers. They aren’t inspired anyway. The more you say it the better it will stick. Don't try to do one verse at a time. You want the whole thought, the whole paragraph.
6. Use Your Imagination - Focus on the scene. Pick a spot on the wall or close your eyes and see yourself in the scene. Imagine that you are the speaker or writer. You are Jesus on the hillside or Paul at his desk. See what they saw and feel what they felt and their words become yours.
7. Repeat The Last Paragraph Before You Start the Next — This is the real key: Repeat what you memorized last time before you start the next paragraph. That’s how you get your cues from one topic to the next and how you build up a long passage.
8. Listen for Patterns— Jesus and the authors of the New Testament used literary forms and patterns. “You have heard that it was said...But I tell you” repeats six times in the Sermon on the Mount. Watch for them. They save time in the process.
9. Meditate on the Text - Integrate your memory work with your devotions. Talk to God about what you see in the text. As you repeat the thoughts new thoughts come to mind, links with other scriptures emerge, deeper understanding of spiritual things develops. Now you are really cooking!
10. Incentivize — All of us need motivational help. Set a goal and give yourself a reward when you achieve it!
Congratulations! You are now on the way to thinking God's thoughts like never before.
I’m talking about Scripture memory. I’ve been in a project since February to memorize Matthew chapters five through seven, the three chapters that make up Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. It has done all of what I mentioned above and more (about which I will blog on later).
Memorizing large segments of anything can be difficult. But many years ago I was playing the roll of Luke in a musical called THE APOSTLE produced by our college group at First Baptist Church of Atlanta. The musical was based on the book of Acts, which Luke wrote, so as the narrator I had a lot to memorize. I developed a system for doing it.
Here are my secrets for memorizing large portions of scripture:
1. A Good Translation - Use a readable translation—NIV will work for most, but use the one you are most familiar with.
2. Quiet Space—Make sure you will not be interrupted. Turn off the TV, Radio, Computer, etc.
3. A Fresh Mind - Set aside time—Morning is best, when your mind is fresh, or take a nap before you start so your mind will be sharp. Plan on spending at least fifteen minutes but no more than thirty.
4. Read it Out Loud—the whole chapter, two or three times, like you were reading it to a group of children to get the feel of what the writer emphasized and the flow of his thoughts.
5. Memorize Whole Thoughts - Read the paragraph you plan to memorize—again out loud. Don’t try to remember the verse numbers. They aren’t inspired anyway. The more you say it the better it will stick. Don't try to do one verse at a time. You want the whole thought, the whole paragraph.
6. Use Your Imagination - Focus on the scene. Pick a spot on the wall or close your eyes and see yourself in the scene. Imagine that you are the speaker or writer. You are Jesus on the hillside or Paul at his desk. See what they saw and feel what they felt and their words become yours.
7. Repeat The Last Paragraph Before You Start the Next — This is the real key: Repeat what you memorized last time before you start the next paragraph. That’s how you get your cues from one topic to the next and how you build up a long passage.
8. Listen for Patterns— Jesus and the authors of the New Testament used literary forms and patterns. “You have heard that it was said...But I tell you” repeats six times in the Sermon on the Mount. Watch for them. They save time in the process.
9. Meditate on the Text - Integrate your memory work with your devotions. Talk to God about what you see in the text. As you repeat the thoughts new thoughts come to mind, links with other scriptures emerge, deeper understanding of spiritual things develops. Now you are really cooking!
10. Incentivize — All of us need motivational help. Set a goal and give yourself a reward when you achieve it!
Congratulations! You are now on the way to thinking God's thoughts like never before.
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