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.

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 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.

In His Image: God Spoke

Then God said “Let there be light;” and there was light.  Gen. 1:3  (NASB)

God saw the emptiness, the darkness, the formlessness and He spoke to it. There was change. Our circumstances will never change if we put our heads in the sand and not address what is going on around us. God spoke and there was a reaction. When we speak, there will be a reaction. We must speak in a positive manner to achieve positive results. Isn’t that the image, and the likeness of God?

Our words have the ability to build up, but if we are not careful (to act in God’s image) our words can tear down and destroy. We also need to understand that not addressing difficult situations is denying the image and likeness of God. You can look at Gen. 3:6 as well as Gen. 16:2 and see the results of not addressing some difficult situations.

When God saw a problem (our sin) He didn’t bury His head in the sand and say,”Oh, they really didn’t mean it.” He didn’t excuse it away. He took action; first in the old covenant and now in the new. God, which is the very essence of love, saw a problem and addressed it with love, with His son Jesus Christ.

So when I speak, I must speak in love with wisdom and courage seeking justice. When I do that, I can be assured that I am acting in His image and in His likeness.