Blessed Are They Who Mourn

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matt. 5:4

Those who allow themselves to be distracted by things, as stated last week, are rarely as in touch  with their need for God, as those who suffer or mourn. Jesus, addressing the crowd of disciples, knows they can relate to poverty and mourning, it surrounded them every day. Yet Jesus promises that they will indeed be comforted.

What should we mourn about?  I believe it is sin. Personal and social.

First, if we can’t grieve over our own personal sin and repent, turning back to God, then mourning over social sins will be impossible! When was the last time we prayed for the conversion of an abortion doctor, a homosexual, a drug addict?  When was the last time we prayed or displayed God’s love to any of these people ? And yet, every above mentioned sin has an effect on each one of us.

I had a huge disconnect with this, until recently. I used to think my personal sin, effected no one but myself. But I was wrong. My personal sin effects my family, friends and faith community all, at one level or another. We are the people of God, His family, if I suffer we all suffer, if I am honored we all rejoice (1 Cor. 12:26).

If I cannot mourn over social sins and pray for God’s grace, and actively offer God’s grace to this fallen world, then I need to go back  to the first beatitude and recognize who I am before God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

The 9 beatitudes  are an introduction to the sermon on the mount.  The sermon then goes into greater detail of living out the beatitudes in everyday life.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of God.  Matt. 5:3

The definition of blessed is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, enjoying the eternal happiness of heaven. Jesus pronounces this blessing first and foremost,to those who are poor in spirit.

Most people in Jesus’ day were poor, they knew what it was like to have nothing. Jesus himself knew this, but he went a little deeper in his teaching than just saying “those without money or possessions,” he said “poor in spirit.”

Most of us are certainly not poor. We may be broke, but we’re not like Jews in first century Palestine. We have food in our fridge, two things they didn’t have at all. But we have plenty of things, and if we are not careful, “things” can distract, impede or sever our reliance upon God.

I believe this is the key point  to this beatitude, and if we miss it, we will lose the rest of the entire sermon .

Our dependence is to be placed entirely on God, physically and spiritually !

If we don’t, can’t or won’t do this, we’ll simply go about living our lives the way we want  and not the way God intends . Missing the blessing that he wants to give to His children, who love and obey Him.

New Again: The Passion Of The Christ

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. John 3:16

Who God is; How We Ought To Be

As we finish up the study on “His image , His likeness” I wanted to give us a few more things to think on. I wanted us to go beyond the trying to define what image is, and what likeness is, to acting in God’s image and likeness. In other words, doing things like God would!

In Old Testament times, even through the first centuries after Christ, names meant something, more so than today. Some of us may not even know what our own names mean.

 Listed here are some names of God, names that reveal a part of His character, His nature, His attributes. These names can also help us in our quest to be more like Jesus. Remember, we are made in His image and likeness and we need to act as such. The world is watching.

1. Elohim- God the strong one, Gen. 1:1
2. El Elyon- most high God, Gen. 14:22
3. El Olam- everlasting God, Gen. 21:33
4. El Shaddai- almighty God who is sufficient for the needs of His people, Gen. 17:1
5. El Roi- the God who sees, Gen. 16:13
6. Adonai- lord or master, Jos. 5:14
7. Yahweh- I AM the One who is, Gen. 2:4, Ex.3:14
8. Yahweh Jireh- the Lord provides, Gen. 22:14
9. Yahweh Nissi- the Lord my banner, Ex. 17:1
10. Yahweh Shalom- the Lord is peace, Jud. 6:24
11. Yahweh Sabbaoth- Lord of Hosts, 1 Sam. 1:3
12. Yahweh Maccaddeshcem- the Lord your sanctifier, Ex.31:13
13. Yahweh Raah- the Lord is my shepherd, Ps. 23:1
14. Yahweh Tsidkenu- the Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23:6
15. Yahweh Shammah- the Lord is there, Ezk.48:3
16. Emmanuel- God with us, Matt. 1:23
17. Jesus- the Lord saves, Matt.1:21

And by the way, my name Timothy is from the Greek language and it means honoring God.

I hope you all have enjoyed this study. I sure have. May God continue to bless each and every one of you, as we all seek to grow in His image and His likeness.

God is Relational

The Lord God said,” It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for Him.” So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that He had taken out of man. When He brought her to the man, the man said,” This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called woman, for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.  Gen.2:18,21-23  (NAB)

God is perfectly relational within the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and even though we are created in His image, He has limited our ability to be just like Him to being like Him. It is in this way He has called us to community. Man was incomplete without woman and is acknowledged  as such when, the man states,  bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called woman, for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken. As the end of chapter 2 clearly states, this is why man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one body. They need each other. Man needs woman and woman needs man and without this oneness the family, the culture, the world would not exist. Much like God Himself would not exist with one member of the Holy Trinity missing.

This is the beauty and sanctity of the sacrament of marriage! A living witness of the love that exist in the Triune God. God is love. Perfected love within the oneness of community.   We are created separately, to become one. Though we won’t be perfect, it is the witness of two becoming one, the unity it symbolizes, the dependence we have upon one another that reflects His image and His likeness.

Paragraph 357 in The Catechism of The Catholic Church states: “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer Him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.”

God Rules

And the Lord God commanded the man saying,”Of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”    Gen. 2:16-17 (NASB)

As stated last time, God allows us to rule over creation. Yet we cannot rule over Him, God is the ultimate ruler. Also, as stated last time, we must submit to His rules, His authority or suffer the consequences.

When I was younger, I tended to look at church, with all it’s rules and regulations as “the no fun zone.” I didn’t understand that God’s rules, His commandments, were given to us to keep us safe, to keep us healthy and happy and in total communion with Himself. Just as I tell my children,”Look both ways before crossing the street,”or “Brush your teeth after every meal,” to keep them safe and healthy.

Our hedge of protection is built first with obedience (1 Sam. 15:22). If all we do is “praise” God or “worship” God, but have no “fruit” to show with it, then guess what, it ain’t real! As James would say, that’s a “dead faith”. Obedience to God is not optional, if we are His child. We must not look at sin as the “fun” thing. That’s a very hard thing to do in today’s society, but we must trust God and the rules He’s given us, to keep us from the danger and destruction of sin.

Secondly, our hedge of protection, is built with faith. We can say we have faith all day long but how is that faith manifested? I must act upon God’s promises, believe He is who He says He is, and act like it. It’s a life-style. This is how we co-operate with His grace; we choose to! Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, before the “Fall”; before the inclination to sin was present in them. Once they sinned, their hedge of protection was gone (in the fullest sense). Their protection now was in the form of a restoration process, through obedience. Today it’s still the same.

If I think I can live, do, say, think or act any old way I want to and be a Christian, then I am a fool! As Paul would ask,”Who has bewitched you?” (Gal.3:1). Ever wonder why people won’t go to church with you? Could it be they do not see the power of the gospel, lived out in your life?

So in His image and likeness we know good and evil (Gen. 3:22). Let us choose God in obedience and faith, bringing glory and honor to our Father in heaven and being a light to this dark world.

God Allows

And God blessed them; and God said to them,”Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.  Gen. 1:28 (NASB)

God gave us the command to subdue (conquer) the earth and rule over it. We have that God-given authority. Not a king of the world mentality, but rather a priest of my family mentality.

As the priest did in the Old Testament, and still do today, we need to submit in service to God and take care (rule over) what He has entrusted to us. In our study of the domestic church, we learned how the husband and wife were to submit to God and to each other in leading their family. That’s a prerequisite, submission to God, whether or not you’re a husband, wife or single adult. We must do this and in our obedience He gives us the authority to subdue and rule what He has entrusted to us.

If we are not submissive to God, then we will have the tendency to let our circumstances rule us instead. We will also tend to let others dictate to us our worth, our priorities and even our spirituality. We must remember that God has given this command and we will be blessed by Him if we, in His image and likeness, obey Him. To not rule over our lives in Godly submission is to reject what God has ordained, and that rejection leads to chaos. Just look at today’s culture.

Living in God’s image and likeness isn’t an easy thing to do. We must develop a spiritual discipline to say “Yes” to God, more than we say “Yes” to sin. Like I said, it’s not easy but it can be done, for we have this promise in scripture, ” Greater is He that is in you, than he who is in the world.” 1 Jn. 4:4

Amen.

God Unites

God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.   Gen 1:27  (NAB)

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (soul). Gen. 2:7 (NASB)

God takes dust, dirt and creates a human (man). Well, didn’t He do the same thing when He created the animals? In chapter 1 verse 24, Then God said,”Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures…” That’s a different description than the one we get in chapter 2:7. Which is God forming, as a potter would, the man. A personal, intimate molding of this special creation, in His image and His likeness, the crown of all His work, to which he found it to be “very good”. We also see that He did not breathe the breath of life into the animals, which means they would have no soul, or inner being.

What is united, I believe, is very important. The physical world is united with the spiritual world. God brought the two together, and we must live out the two in our own experiences. So how do we, in our own experience, unite the material and physical worlds? When we are born from above (Jn. 3:3) and baptized (Tit. 3:5), we are a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). We receive the Holy Spirit of God and He is united with our bodies. Technically, this is something that we can not control, as if controlling God, but it is in the decision we make to choose God’s plan for us that we are allowed this control. Acting in His image and likeness.

Paul also tells us in Romans 12:1 that as we present our bodies to God a living sacrifice, this is our spiritual act of worship. See how the two connect here? Living out our faith in the body, is spiritual worship!

And as I have discovered since my conversion to the Catholic Church, the greatest of this uniting is in the Mass. Where heaven and earth meet in the renewal of the new and everlasting covenant. Where again, the physical and the spiritual meet in the Eucharist, a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when we will be in heaven with Him. Again, these things are not things that we can control, except in our decision to participate.

As we decide to act in His image and likeness, we can unite the spiritual and physical worlds. A pure life, prayer, studying scripture, going to church and receiving the Lord in the Eucharist, all things we can do to achieve this.

God blessed

And God blessed them; and God said to them “Be fruitful and multiply…” Gen. 1:28 (NASB)

In God’s image and likeness, He has given us the responsibility of blessing. Just as God has bestowed His blessings on humanity, so we must do, and it must start at home. Husbands with wives, wives with husbands, parents with children and even children with parents.

To bless means to confer well-being or praise. To praise our family members when goals are accomplished, good grades are earned, chores are done. When dinner is especially delicious, dry cleaning is picked up and laundry put away. All these things are things that need to be done and we expect them to be done. But if we will take a minute and praise those who do these things, maybe it won’t seem so bothersome to begin with.

I think we can all realize the potential danger in not praising our family.  Our children, even our spouses, will seek and possibly find others who will praise them for the things they do or say or for the work they do or even their appearance.   

God blesses us every day and likewise in His image and likeness we should bless our family everyday.

In His Image: God Seperates

And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  Gen. 1:4 (NASB)

In the image and likeness of God we have the ability or power (if you will) to separate. Hearkening back to our last study, we were talking about speaking in a positive manner to achieve positive results. Separating doesn’t sound like a positive action, in fact it sounds really negative. Well, that would all depend on what we separate from. If we separate ourselves from sin, that is a positive action. If we separate ourselves from God however, that is a negative action.

The idea is that we, as humanity, are set apart from the rest of creation. We are different! For we are all created in the image and likeness of God.

There is also a particular verse, quoted by St. Peter from the book of Leviticus that says,” You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Lev.11:45, 1 Pet. 1:16). Does God mean we are to be sinless like He is? No; what He means is for us to be separate from, like He is. What is God separate from? Everything He created; He is above all, there is nothing like Him, He is totally separate from everything. And yet, in His image and likeness, He calls us to imitate Him.

Just as He called Israel to be the light to the Gentiles, so He calls His Church to be the light of the world. We must first separate the light from the darkness in our own lives, confessing and turning from our sins to seek unity with God. We must then separate ourselves from the rest of the world, if we want to truly participate in the kingdom life we’ve been called to.

It’s not popular, it’s not convenient and it’s not easy, but to act in the image and likeness of God, it is necessary.