You are Blessed

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“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

In my early days, I was taught that this Scripture told us to be humble. That humble people experience the Kingdom of God. But when one starts to study the Greek, one reads nothing about being humble. Instead, it speaks about those who are spiritually in poverty. Those who are in spiritual bankruptcy. They have the kingdom of the heavens at their disposal.

A slightly different meaning then being humble.

The human heart has difficulty in understanding the basis of the Kingdom of God. To recognize oneself as spiritually bankrupt in the western civilization is a rare occurrence. We are a people surrounded by wealth. We are overly stimulated by the media. We eat three meals a day with snacks between. We sleep in air-conditioning homes in the hot summer and heated abodes in the winter. Our lives are blanketed in material prosperity. How can anyone be spiritually poor?

In Revelation 3:17-20, Jesus is speaking to the Church in Laodicea. He warns them that they think they are rich and need nothing. They do not recognize their spiritual condition. They confuse the outer world as a picture of their interior heart. Instead of being spiritually rich, they are poor. What must they do to change? Repent. Accept Jesus into their home and build an intimate relationship with him. Break bread together. Become friends. HE will share his life with you. And you will share your life with HIM.

When you reach the point you are beaten, busted, and broken, you view the world slightly different. Where your identity has been shifted out of you, you feel empty. Where you have nowhere to go. No purpose. No meaning for living. Nothing to live for. Then you may have reached the point of spiritual bankruptcy. You are at the doorway of the Kingdom of God.

God’s Kingdom awaits you. HIS government rules the heavens and earth. Your acceptance of Jesus as your Lord opens HIS generous grace upon you. When you have nothing to offer HIM, but your surrender, you are in. You are then welcome to participate with HIM and HIS work. HIS favor is yours to experience. HIS wisdom. HIS discernment. HIS servants. All are at your disposal. Your life then becomes rich as you join HIM. HE shares HIS wealth with you. HE shares himself with you. He shares HIS entire Kingdom with you.

Yes, when you have reached the point you have nothing to give him, you then understand his love for you. You come to realize what his vicarious life has done for you. HE died for you before you even knew him. HE knew you before your parents were even born. And HE will give you a life more than you can even phantom. He covers your sins. He closes his eyes to your stupidity. He laughs at your incompetency. He cries in your pain.

HE knows more about you than you do. HE knows your potential. HE knows you.

You are blessed when you recognize your spiritual poverty before him. That is when HE and HIS Kingdom become more real in your life. When HIS Spirit has your approval to complete the work HE started in you. When you can participate with HIM under the umbrella of HIS Kingdom in your corner of the world. That is when you will truly know how blessed you really are.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

^{Faith-Integrator, Encourager, Scribbler}

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“We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,” (Colossians 1:9)

The Real Blessed Life

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“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8 ESV

What is the blessed life? There are those who say that being wealthy, healthy, and wise makes a blessed life. Other say it’s more than these three amigos.

In the same concept, is the blessed life something we cause to happen? Or simply a response for something that has happened to us? Who is our model for the blessed life?

Whenever this discussion arises, I like to point toward examples of the blessed life by the people found in Scripture. The best example, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Can we say if there is any one person that walked on the earth who exemplified the blessed life, wouldn’t it be him? God in the flesh. The Author and Maker of the Blessed Life. Yet for many of us, he may be a stumbling block of what the blessed life truly looks like.

As a carpenter prior to his public ministry, there is no record that he became wealthy. In fact, during his ministry he depended on the support of women. It would be safe to say that He was not a self-made billionaire.

During His ministry, his family thought Him to be crazy. His religious peers saw him a radical. He was betrayed by a friend. His students with the exception of John deserted him at his trial. He was condemned by the government as a traitor. He was buried in another person’s grave. Does this look like a person who lived the blessed life?

Often times we have a limited view of the truth. Seeing only a portion of reality, we erroneously build an entire doctrine around it. This is what happens in the narrative of the American Blessed Life. If you expounded this version of the gospel to your brothers and sisters in the Middle East or Africa, would they recognize it? Sorry, but they would wonder what you have been smoking.

The real blessed life is simply our response to the love of God. To know God and to be known by God places one in the center of an awesome life. As our relationship develops with the Triune God, we begin to experience His divine blessings. He is the great cause of everything that is good. We are simply the recipient of His goodness. And like Jesus who was blessed by His Father for good works, we likewise response to God’s love by living a sacrificial life for the sake of others.

We are not the initiator of the blessed life. God is. We simply respond to His love, truth, and grace. Our response glorifies Him, uplifts others, and allows us to experience the fruit of His divine nature. The measurement is not wealth, health, or wisdom. The real measurement of a blessed life is the character and attributes of the divine life flowing through you. This relationship with the Triune God and the process of walking with Him is the real blessed life.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Executive Director & Founder
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
* Great Business Emulates a Good God
* Be Radical…Follow Christ!
* Simply The Messenger
* Unequally Married

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Inherit The Earth

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“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 ESV

How in the world are the meek going to inherit the earth? In our current system of governments, isn’t it the strong and powerful that conquer other lands? If you put a meek person up against a strong man, what is our perception on who is going to win the fight? So how does the meek inherit the earth?

To better understand the how, one needs to know the goal of salvation. The objective of salvation isn’t just to receive a ticket for eternal life. It involves so much more. God’s objective now is to restore creation back to his original intent which eventually leads to the climatic achievement when heaven and earth is finally and totally merged together in one new creation (Revelation 21-22). All of this proposed before the foundation of the world and implemented through the new birth of Jesus Christ via a resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus began the new birth of a new humanity. This new creation involves the merging of the physical and spiritual. As Jesus was 100% human and 100% divine, he paved the way for others to follow him. When we accept His authority in our lives, he births us with a new Spirit. This spirit is the Holy Spirit that opens the way for us to have an adopted relationship with the living God.

Now as children of God, with our hearts being soften by the Spirit, the fruit of that Spirit becomes our DNA. Included within that DNA is the spirit of gentleness which is likewise translated in some Bible versions as meekness. So when Jesus said that those who are meek shall inherit the earth, he is casting the vision of the end time. He is highlighting the reward for those who follow him. For as we are now being trained as kings and priests of his domain (Rev 1:6, 5:10, 20:6), our inheritance is stored in heaven until the culmination of all things (Eph 1:10).

So yes the meek shall inherit the earth. Not because of our strength, smarts, or spirituality. But only because of Jesus Christ.

Rooting For You in Christ!