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Post by Pastor Michelle on Sept 1, 2012 10:14:00 GMT -5
The Beatitudes (5:1-12) are sometimes seen as a list of instructions on how to live, but Jesus intends for us to see them as a proclamation of the Kingdom. This list isn’t good advice about what to do, its good news about what already is! What would be ‘good news’ for you?
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Post by pmerrill on Sept 3, 2012 12:48:10 GMT -5
I think they are a list of behaviors we Christians should use as a guide for lives. When I read them, I become more aware than ever, of my need for Christ in my life. I look at the Beattitudes as a supplmental guide to the law of Moses. Perhaps God felt a need for these and what better way to deliver them to us, than through teachings of Jesus. Certainly, these changes to the Law, startled the Jewish leadership.
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Post by csobell on Sept 7, 2012 14:06:47 GMT -5
It's comforting to see Jesus reaching out to us in those more "passive" times - when we are broken, feel unheard, or persecuted - and when we reach out to others to comfort, listen or uplift them. I think its interesting that the message has no conditions associated with any of the statements - Jesus doesn't say the meek will inherit, IF... I attribute ALL the ability I have to resist certain kinds of sin to God - the ones I am weak to actually draw me closer to Jesus because I see that I am not as pure an perfect as He - and He gives me the Faith and desire to want to improve.
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Post by Pastor Michelle on Sept 8, 2012 13:31:27 GMT -5
While the beatitudes do help us learn how to live in the kingdom, I'm aware that Jesus really intended them as a description of the kingdom. I'm wondering if the rest of the sermon might be the instructions on how to live - and maybe the beatitudes are what it will be like when we fully live in the kingdom here and now? Just a different way to look at it...
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