Showing posts with label The Cure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Cure. Show all posts
Monday, April 7, 2014
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
Meek
or Weak?
Like the first two Beatitudes, Jesus’ words in
verse 5 are clearly designed to challenge conventional wisdom. “Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). If
you are like me, when you read this text your first thought is, “What in the
world is He talking about here? Since when is a meek person blessed?” Isn’t it
the meek kid who gets pushed around at school? Isn’t it the meek woman who
finds herself sitting alone at parties? Isn’t it the meek man who gets stuck
with all the worst assignments at the office? This is a prime example of where
the translation of Jesus’ words from Greek to English leaves us at a great
disadvantage. In order to fully understand the depth of what Jesus is saying in
this text, we have to recapture the original meaning of the word meek. Certainly, in our culture today,
this word does not have a positive connotation. According to Pastor Ray
Pritchard, “It suggests many things, none of which are very appealing. If you
tell someone you think they are meek, they probably won’t take it as a
compliment. In fact, they’ll probably assume you are saying something negative
about their character.”[1]
I believe he is absolutely correct in his
assessment. All you have to do is open a thesaurus and look up the word meek, and you will see why we hold it in
such low esteem. If you do, you’ll see words like humble, timid, submissive,
gentle, docile, modest, compliant, and mild. Not exactly a blockbuster list of
power words. And this illustrates our problem in trying to grasp Jesus’
meaning. Try rewording this Beatitude, using some of those words as a
substitute for meek. “Blessed are the
timid, for they will inherit the earth.” It doesn’t sound right, does it? How
about, “Blessed are the docile”? Nothing
about this statement points one in the direction of blessings.
I
think if we are honest, most of us read this text and confuse the word meek with the word weak. And if that’s the case, it’s no wonder we don’t want to be
called meek. However, because Jesus said that meekness would be a
characteristic found in His followers, we need to take the time to understand
what He meant.
Author Philip Keller gives us some helpful
insight through his childhood experience of growing up on a ranch in eastern
Africa. One of his favorite times of year was when his dad would buy the oxen
that were necessary for large-scale farming, before tractors were available.
These large animals, called Brahma bulls, would arrive as wild animals,
fighting and kicking and struggling against the powerful restraints that were
used to harness their great strength. Only after weeks of continual training,
where the animals fought and kicked and struggled to the point of exhaustion,
were these brute beasts finally tamed and ready to be trained for farming. But
once they stopped fighting and began submitting themselves to the work they
were bred to perform, the result was nothing short of miraculous. By harnessing
the power of these large animals to pull plows, to rip out stumps, and to move
large rocks, the farmers of East Africa were able to turn once barren and
useless ground into productive and profitable farmland. Over the years, vast
expanses of land were reclaimed, providing food to feed many thousands of
hungry people. When left to their own wild nature, the power these oxen
possessed made them dangerous and unpredictable. But once that power was under
control and put to good use, their owners could feed and care for the oxen
without any fear of personal harm.[2]
This story is a great illustration of what Jesus
was describing when He used the word meek
in Matthew 5:5. It is not by possessing immense strength and power that we
achieve great things for God’s Kingdom. It’s only when our strength and power
is brought under the control of our Heavenly Father that we become useful
vessels for the work to which God has called us. In the original Greek, the
word translated as meek carries the
idea of power that could be harnessed for good. If you owned a meek horse, it
was not a weak horse, but a powerful horse you were able to control. This has
led many Bible scholars to define meekness
as “power under control.”
Jesus’ Example
A perfect illustration of this principle is
found in Jesus’ behavior on the night in which He was betrayed. As He faced the
horror of death by crucifixion and the unspeakable pain of separation from His
Heavenly Father, Jesus declared, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup
from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus understood
that the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan was the very purpose for which He
came to earth. This meant that His short-term prospect of pain, as terrible as
it was going to be, would lead to immeasurable eternal glory, both for himself
and for His Heavenly Father. Jesus’ meekness in the face of Roman crucifixion
was the single most powerful act a human has ever accomplished. There is
nothing weak about the godly characteristic of meekness.
This is why Jesus was able to accurately
describe himself as meek in the Gospel of Matthew, “Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30 KJV; italics mine). After
demonstrating the power of meekness to overcome fear and doubt, Jesus now
invites us to share in His victory as we surrender control of our lives to Him.
The picture of taking up His yoke is that of two oxen pulling together to plow
a field. In this illustration, Jesus promises that if we will place our lives
in His yoke, trusting Him to pick the direction we need to go, He will do the
majority of the pulling along the way.
Supernatural
This reminds us that the Christian life is
supernatural in nature. You and I can never achieve meekness on our own. Jesus
makes this clear when he says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to
your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not
come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7 NKJV). He is
reminding us that one of the primary roles
of the Holy Spirit is to take up residence in the heart of believers, providing
the supernatural power we need to live a new life. When you and I finally reach this point in our Christian journey,
the point where we willingly surrender control to our Lord, we exchange the
shackles of self-control and the weight of failed expectations for the joy of
the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction. What a deal! This is the beauty of
meekness! When understood in this context, it is no wonder that Jesus describes
the person who lives this way as blessed.
For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life", available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites
For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life", available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
Believe it or not, one of the highlights of
my Christian life was attending the funeral of an African-American friend named
Julia. Before I became a pastor, I was a financial planner, and Julia was one
of my clients. She had a deep faith in Jesus Christ, which was reflected in
every area of her life. I loved meeting with Julia, because we talked more
about Jesus than we ever did about money and finances. Over the last six months
of her battle with cancer, I had the privilege of meeting and praying with her several
times. I was a new Christian and I had never seen this type of faith before.
Nothing that the doctors or the disease threw at her seemed to shake her faith
in God. Most of the time, Julia was the one doing the encouraging! After she
died, I was invited to her funeral, and was honored to attend. I was the only
Caucasian in a very large African-American church, and yet I never once felt
out of place. As the service began, I experienced a peace and joy that is
almost indescribable. For almost two hours, I sat there as her friends and
family celebrated both her life and her faith in God. I walked into that
funeral with a heavy heart of sorrow and grief, but I walked out of that
funeral with an unspeakable joy. On the way home I was overwhelmed by a sense
of the goodness and the grace of God! When I look back on that moment of time,
I can’t help but think about what Jesus said,
“Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).
Although it goes against everything we try
to convince ourselves of, as human beings we actually need times of mourning in
our lives. In order to truly appreciate all that we have been given in this
life by God, we actually need times of loss and pain, times when we wonder how
we’re going to be able to hang on. It is these deep feelings of sorrow which
lead to mourning, that force us to get serious about the situation we’re
facing. When we mourn, it reveals that we honestly and truly care in a deep
way. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.
I remember watching a Detroit Lions football
game when one of their offensive linemen got hurt. A hush fell over the crowd
when it became obvious that he wasn’t moving, and likely had no feeling in his
body. Suddenly, thousands of people realized that the person they were watching
being attended to by medical personnel might very well be paralyzed for the
rest of his life. Something changed as he was wheeled out on a cart with his
head fastened down so his neck wouldn’t move. All of a sudden, the outcome of
the game didn’t seem that important.
Here’s another example. Which is more
meaningful: if someone comes to a party celebrating your recent promotion at
work, or if they show up at a gathering to help comfort you because you’re
grieving the loss of a close family member? Although professional advancement
is exciting and provides a great opportunity to celebrate with your close
friends, it is during times of painful loss that you really discover those on
whom you can depend.
There’s something about the mourning process
that cuts through the trivial things of life and focuses our hearts and minds
on what is really important. Although my friend Julia suffered physically in
her final days, she soared in her spirit as she turned to God for strength. The
way she found such deep comfort in Christ under such painful circumstances was
a profound reminder to those of us who knew her, that, no matter how difficult
our physical circumstances might be, they don’t change God’s ability to keep
His promises to His children. Promises like these:
"Never will I
leave you; never will I forsake you."– Heb. 13:5
"He gives strength
to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and
weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will
renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and
not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." – Isa. 40:29–31
Sometimes it is when we are the most weary,
the most tired, and the most heartbroken that God becomes the most real! And as
hard as it is for those of us who are obsessed with personal comfort to
comprehend, at Julia’s funeral it was the painful loss of a beloved sister in
Christ that provided the opportunity to experience God’s faithfulness in such a
meaningful way. It was literally as we mourned our loss, that we began to
experience God’s blessings in a deeper way. And this leads us back to one of
the most profound and important paradoxes in the Bible. It is when we mourn and
face death that we find the true blessings and joy of life.
For a more in-depth treatment of this
topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life",
available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com - Also available on Amazon
and Barnes and Nobles websites
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Every
year in the US, 1.4 million people are given the news that they have cancer. Of
that number, over five hundred thousand of them are told that it is terminal.
Think about the impact of this diagnosis: one day you are living your life
under the illusion that you are invincible; the next day you find out that you
have cancer and that you are likely going to die. I have never been diagnosed
with cancer. I’ve never had to sit in a doctor’s office and have the doctor
tell me that my tumor is malignant. But from talking with people who have, I
know a process takes place in the human heart and mind that forces us to begin
dealing with our own mortality.
Although not always exactly in this
order, the process looks something like this:
1)
denial:
cancer is something that happens to other people;
2)
what
are my options: how can I take care of this problem and make it better?
3)
re-evaluating
priorities: if my time is limited, I want to start focusing on what’s important;
4)
acceptance
and treatment: okay, I admit I can’t handle this on my own, so I’m going to
accept the treatments that are being offered.
Most
of the time this means a complete life change: a new diet, a new set of habits,
and ruthlessly getting rid of anything that might have contributed to the
disease. A transformation takes place in how your priorities shape the way you
live your life. When you boil it all down, you realize an important truth: you
don’t want to die, you want to live! At this point you are now ready and
willing to do whatever takes to find the cure!
As a matter of fact, billions of dollars are
raised every year by all sorts of organizations attempting to find the cure for
cancer and other terminal diseases. The sad reality is that what we can see so
clearly when it comes to our physical health, we reject when it comes to our
spiritual health! We’ll do almost anything to find a cure when we are sick.
We’ll get rid of food. We’ll get rid of products that contain dangerous
chemicals. We’ll stay out of the sun. We’ll submit our bodies to chemotherapy
(actually shooting poison into your body to kill the cancer so that the rest of
the body can live). We’ll do whatever it takes to avoid the things that lead to
cancer and physical death, and yet never give a second thought to the things
all around us that lead to spiritual cancer and spiritual death.
What is very interesting to note is that while
Jesus did much to help people who suffered physically, when it came right down
to it, His main focus was spiritual life. Every time He healed a person, every
time He cast out a demon, every time He provided food, it was always to open the
person’s eyes to their deeper need for God. Let’s look at a couple of examples
from the Bible:
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this
water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will
never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:13–14
Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi,
eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing
about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him
food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to
finish his work.” John
4:31–36
In these verses, Jesus makes it clear that God
knows we have physical needs, and that He is more than willing to meet those
needs on our behalf. But His concern is that we spend so much of our time and
energy trying to meet our physical needs, assuming that once we have met them,
we’ll then be happy and satisfied. We somehow convince ourselves that if we
meet our physical appetites, we will also satisfy our spiritual hunger. But
this just doesn’t match up with reality. We live in one of the most wealthy and
affluent cultures to ever exist on earth. A small minority of people in America
are without access to everything they need to meet their basic physical needs.
But satisfying physical needs can never take the place of satisfying our deeper
spiritual hunger. If you don’t believe me, watch one episode of True Hollywood Story. Do a little research
on the average life expectancy of a childhood star. Even scarier, simply take a
look at the deterioration of the families in your own community. Everywhere we
look we see brokenness and despair. The rate of suicide among teenagers is
skyrocketing. Drug and alcohol abuse are rampant. Traditional families are
disintegrating. And large numbers of people are simply checking out of life! As
one person described to me recently, concerning her attempts to minister to
some of the broken people who frequent the bank where she works, “Sometimes it
feels like being in a movie, surrounded by zombies.”
When our God-given spiritual needs go unmet, the result is a spiritual cancer—a disease of the soul that is just as fatal and just as deadly as any form of physical cancer. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” We may not want to admit it, but we are all spiritually sick. There is a cancer spreading rapidly through our culture and we’re all being directly affected!
People
were no different two thousand years ago in the Middle East. Jesus walked into
a culture full of people who suffered from the same problems we face in our
culture; the people of Israel were just as broken and empty as we are today. Just
like us, they had seen the failure of education, economics, government, and
science to bring peace to broken human hearts. They had witnessed some of the
greatest advances in human history (made by the Babylonians, the Greeks, and
the Romans), yet their everyday lives still seemed meaningless and empty. They
were trapped under the iron fist of Rome, a ruthless enemy who didn’t believe
in their God. And so the first century Jews became convinced that if they could
just get a new king, a king who believed in the God of Israel, everything would
get better. All they needed was a king who would punish Rome and restore Israel
to her rightful place as God’s Kingdom here on earth. In human terms it makes
sense, doesn’t it? We usually look for physical answers to our spiritual
problems. But Jesus came with a very different message—a message that included the
cure. But in order to embrace this cure we have to first understand the nature
of our disease.
The Beatitudes
In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus begins what is
known as the Sermon on the Mount (which is, without a doubt, the greatest
sermon ever given) with a group of sayings that have become known as the
Beatitudes, a phrase that means “the Blessings.” Throughout the remainder of
this series of blogs on the Beatitudes we will carefully study our Lord’s words, that include His cure for
what ails the human heart. Jesus is going to teach us some unexpected and life-changing
truths. For example, He will reveal to us that:
1) Often, the way up can only be found when we’re willing to bow down.
2) We have to deal with our sorrow before we can find true joy.
3) We will probably have to endure persecution, if we want to experience
God’s power.
4) Dying
to self is actually the way to feel the most alive.
When we finish this amazing section of Scripture,
we’ll see that Jesus wants us to understand an essential truth—because our
problem isn’t physical, the cure won’t be physical either. Until we understand
the depth and nature of our disease, we will never understand the nature of the
cure. It wasn’t a new king the people of Israel needed in order to get right
with God. It was a new understanding of their brokenness and sin, that
separated them from their Heavenly Father. They felt empty and alone because
they were not in proper relationship to the One who had created them.
What they needed most of all was the humility
to recognize their sin and to accept God’s grace (instead of their own efforts)
as the solution to overcoming their problems. As much as I might want to see a
change in the leadership of this my country, true spiritual revival won’t come
from our political leaders. As much as I would love to see science solve all of
our medical problems, true health won’t come from research. As much as I would
love to see every child receive a great education, true knowledge and wisdom
won’t come from our schools.
As we will learn from the words of Jesus in
Matthew chapter 5, transformation must start in the hearts of God’s people—a
people who humbly bow down and receive God’s grace; a people who surrender
control and stop trying to be God; a people who are willing to accept what God
has to offer. Only then will we find healing for our broken hearts, forgiveness
to bind up our wounds, and unrelenting love to give our lives meaning and
purpose.
Jesus describes the people who are transformed
by God in this manner as salt and light. “You are the salt of the earth
. . . You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put
it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way,
let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise
your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:13a,
14–16).
For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, see my book entitled "The Cure-prescription for life", available on my website: www.stevebyrens.com - Also available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles websites
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
Information
Categories
- Blessed are the Meek
- Encountering Jesus
- Jesus healing of the Ten Lepers
- John 11:38-46
- John 3
- John 4
- Luke 17:11-19
- Matthew 5:1-16
- Matthew 5:3
- Matthew 5:4
- Matthew 5:5
- Mourning
- Poor in Spirit
- The Beatitudes
- The Cure
- The Cure-prescription for life
- The Gospel of grace
- The Resurrection and the Life
- The Sermon on the Mount
Archives
Powered by Blogger.