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Psalms
123:1-4 A Song of
Ascents. Unto You I
lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of
servants look to the hand of
their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He
has mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us! For we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled With the scorn
of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud.
Psalms
124:1-8 A Song of
Ascents. Of David. "If it
had not been the LORD who was on our side," Let Israel now say—"If it
had not been the LORD who was on our side, When men rose up against us, Then
they would have swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our
soul; Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul." Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has
escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; The snare is broken, and we
have escaped. Our help is in
the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
Father God, give us the strength to
stand tall in times of persecution. Let persecution lift our spirits knowing
that persecution is a sign of being one of your children. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!
Matthew 5:10-12 NKJV
This lesson
will wrap up the Beatitudes. I don’t know about you, but they have been most
enlightening to me. I have come away with a different perspective in there
meaning compared to what I thought they meant. Each of the Beatitudes causes
one to examine their conscience, or what I call do a Christianity check. As
human beings we can drift from the truth very easily. Many things in today’s
society have an impact on our thinking and rationalization on how we are to
live and what we believe. The thing of it is we need to stay focused on Jesus
and His word to guide us through each day. If we don’t pick up the word of God
each day and spent some time in it, we will be influence by the world and
follow a fleshly path instead of a spiritual path. So keep these Beatitudes in
mind and you will have happiness deep inside knowing the reward of Heaven is in
hand.
With this being the last lesson in
this volume, I’m not going to have a lesson next week in order to get
everything in order for volume 9 which will be the book of Hebrews.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you
when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you
falsely for My sake.
12 Rejoice and be
exceedingly glad, for great is
your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
These three verses go
together, therefore I will address them as if they are one. As mentioned in
previous lessons many times the idea is presented to us three times in a
different manner. Why? Well as the old saying goes when I was back in school I
was always told when studying for an exam to read and study the material three
times for it to make sense and sink in. As human beings I think we need to hear
things more than one time in order for it to make an impact in our lives. I
believe this is very true when it comes to the teachings of the Bible and that
is why the idea is repeated several times so that we can grasp what God is
telling us.
Blessed are those who
are persecuted; To
persecute means literally to pursue; follow after, as one does a fleeing enemy.
Here it means to vex, or oppress one, on account of his religion. They
persecute others who injure their names, reputation, property, or who endanger
or take their life, on account of their religious opinions.
Persecution
is something we as humans do not want in our lives, because our human nature
desires that we be liked and accepted by fellow human beings. We want to fit in
with the crowd, not look or act differently, not be criticized for what we say
or how we say it. This tendency is very prevalent with children and probably each
of us when growing up, have experienced rejection for something during our
school years. These early year rejections and fitting in have caused us to be
the person we are today when it comes to life here on earth. We tend to seek
out others that we can relate to and therefore be accepted. This type of
persecution is a worldly/fleshly persecution, but what this
Beatitude is referring to is a Godly righteousness, our belief, what we live by and will stand up for.
Beatitude is referring to is a Godly righteousness, our belief, what we live by and will stand up for.
Have
you ever been persecuted at work for the way you work? I have, in my working
life time I worked in two different Union shops for a short period of time. I
have always believed in giving an honest day’s work for the place of business
and the wages. I was told to slow down I was making others look bad, or that I
couldn’t do that. I was doing what was morally right, but persecuted for it.
Being a Christian will bring persecution in many ways. What experience do you
have being persecuted?
For righteousness’ sake; Righteous,
meaning attempting to live a Godly life. One that is based on His word and also
sharing the gospel with fellow human beings, which some people find offensive. These
righteous individuals are
children of God and are not seeking persecution, but due to the love they have
found in Jesus, they want to share that love with all so that none will perish
in Hell. They do this out of love in an honest
effort to be Christians, and to live the life of Christians, but others don’t
see it this way and therefore persecute and revile Gods child. God’s child considers
this as a blessing just like Peter and the other apostles rejoiced when they
were persecuted for Christ. Acts
5:40-41 And they agreed with him, and when they had
called for the apostles and beaten them,
they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them
go. 41
So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Persecution is evidence that one is the child of God,
and that He will defend us. “All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution,” 2
Timothy 3:12 Yes, and
all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Blessed
are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
you falsely for My sake;
Revile, meaning criticize; call you by evil and contemptuous names; ridicule
you because you are a Christian. Have you ever thought about those that do the
persecuting? Why do they do it? It is because they are of the world and are
self-righteous; they feel they have all the answers; they live by man’s
standards; they justify their lifestyle based on worldly values. They can be
the nicest person you know, but when Jesus is brought up in conversation they
have all the answers based on their views of what good is. They think they know
what is in the Bible, even though they have never read the Bible. Here is just
a few insults Jesus received from His Jewish brethren that were self-righteous,
they believed in their heritage, customs, and religious rules and regulations
that they devised; they said Jesus was a Samaritan and had a devil John 8:48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do
we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"; that he was mad John 10:20 And many of them said, "He has a demon and
is mad. Why do you listen to Him?; and
they reviled and mocked him on the cross, Matthew 27:39-44 And those
who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and
saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come
down from the cross." 41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the
scribes and elders, said, 42 "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If
He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe Him. 43
He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, “I
am the Son of God.” 44 Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled
Him with the same thing.
I have been criticized for
being truthful in these “Food For The Spirit” lessons. The Word of God has some
pretty convicting messages that our humanness does not like to hear. When I
come to things that I know will not be receive well I have to ask, “Lord, do I
have to say this? I’d rather not.” But I do, since the Bible is God’s
revelation to us. When I do say these hard things, from time to time I will get
comments from those that don’t want to believe what the Word says. What choices
do I have being called to write these lessons? I could compromise and say all
the nice and wonderful things to make people happy, but that wouldn’t be
obedient to God, therefore I present the whole truth. I consider the comments
by people a form of persecution and that I have struck a nerve in a person’s
life and pray they will give the situation thought and change their opinion or lifestyle.
God’s word is like a double edge sword that will cut our heart from time to
time with conviction. The question we have to ask ourselves is, do we heed what
the Bible says or ignore it?
The Bible says that when
we suffer for righteousness, we experience growth. Many times we learn best
from our mistakes, in fact some of us may learn more from our mistakes than from
good things that happen in our lives. In trials and persecutions we have hope
and Paul tells us that. Romans
5:1-5 Therefore, having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through
whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not
only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that
tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character,
hope. 5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Spiritual thought: When
was the last time you were persecuted for Jesus name? Have you ever been
persecuted? If you have never been persecuted, do you have the right
relationship with Jesus? Are you righteous or self-righteous? If we claim to be
Christians, true Born Again Christians, then we shall be persecuted. Jesus and
the Apostles tell us that many times. Philippians 1:29 For to you
it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also
to suffer for His sake.
Rejoice
and be exceedingly glad, for great is
your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you; Persecution identifies us with Jesus
and is the standard for blessings here on earth and in eternity. In the process
of being God‘s child, we start to find persecution happening to us. Remember
that the persecuted are happy because they are being prepared for Heaven. If we
endure, we shall also reign with Him. 2 Timothy 2:12 If we
endure, We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will
deny us. If we
receive persecution because we love Jesus and share His commands with others,
then we should rejoice and not walk away with hurt feelings. We can hold our
head high in the name of Jesus and give testimony of our persecution to other
Christians to build them up and give them confidence and boldness. Think of persecution
as criteria for being a soldier for Jesus. It makes you a more mature Christian
and your life more Christ-like. Consider persecution as a gold star, a reward
for being a child of God, after all, those of God have suffered persecution
forever even the prophets of the OT suffered persecution. Here in America our
persecution is being called names for the most part, but in other parts of the
world God’s children are being put to death for proclaiming and not denying
Jesus name. Would you die for Jesus like He died for you?
These Beatitudes teach us
what it takes for eternal happiness starting with the first one being, “Poor in
Spirit”. If we get the first one right and give our heart and life to Jesus,
then the rest of the Beatitudes will all fall into place. The reward of Heaven,
and what these Beatitudes teach, is totally contrary to the ways of the world,
and in many cases contrary to the modern day church.
See ya in two weeks, God
Bless!
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All
things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill
Wiesbrock https://www.facebook.com/bill.wiesbrock?ref=tn_tnmn
The Lighthouse
Full Gospel Church
Sinners Prayer; Pray this, and if you believe
it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord Jesus
I know I am a sinner. I confess my sins
to you; I am sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a
sinful lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness of all
of my sins. I believe that only you can
forgive sin. I commit my life to you and
ask you to come into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my Savior.” I believe this and have faith you will make a
new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my heart and lead
me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.”
(John 3:16,17; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1
John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom.
1:22-32; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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