Monday, April 22, 2013

Cost of Discipleship Pt 42 - The meek shall inherit the earth- this is truth.


Chapter 6 - The Beatitudes

Mat_5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Bonhoeffer- 'This community of strangers possesses no inherent right of its own to protect its members in the world, nor do they claim such rights, for they are meek, they renounce every right of their own and live for the sake of Jesus Christ. When reproached they hold their peace; when treated with violence they endure it patiently; when men drive them from their presence they yield their ground. They will not go to law to defend their rights, or make a scene when they suffer injustice, nor do they insist on their legal rights. They are determined to leave their right to God alone-- non cupidi vindictae, as the ancient Church paraphrased it. Their right is in the will of their Lord--that and no more.

They show by every word and gesture they do not belong to this earth.

But Jesus says: "They shall inherit the earth."

Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who here have utterly renounced it, who were meek to the point of the cross, shall rule the new earth. '

My thoughts- Bonhoeffer said- 'They show by every word and gesture they do not belong to this earth.'  Is this true for you?

I've remarked before how difficult it is to tell a Christian from a non-Christian in our world today and how that HAS to be because of Satan. It's true, isn't it? Why isn't it VERY visible by actions alone? 

No, we don't mark ourselves as monks wearing robes and shaving our heads. We don't put on a nun's habit, we don't don a priest's collar, we aren't wrapped up in old fashioned clothes like Quakers and Amish, we wear every day clothing common to most.  Are we supposed to make ourselves look conspicuously like what we imagine our Savior wants us to look like? Were the disciples of Christ's day told to look a certain way so they stand out as being Christ's? I don't think so. Our ACTIONS speak for us, not our clothing, not our specific haircuts, not the special shoes we wear, not the buttons on our hats, or the logos on our shirts.  We can wear something special. We can put on a certain- 'I'm Christian' garb, but it means NOTHING. The priest behind the collar can call Himself Christian but if he's a drunkard, an abuser, he is FAR from being truly Christ's in his actions.  Clothing means little in the GRAND scheme of things. It truly is by our WORDS and our GESTURES we reveal ourselves to others.

All too often we fall far short from what we ourselves hope to be as we claim Christ as our Savior. This knowledge of our own shortcomings are GIFTS from God, allowing us to seek His forgiveness, His help in comprehending His plan for us, as HE changes us.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

By the Spirit of the Lord.

Our gestures, our every word matters.   We might think they don't, it's easy to think they don't but they do. 

If we belong to this world it'll show.

Mat_5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

This is God's truth.

The meek not necessarily the soft-spoken, mousy person people tend to immediately think of when they hear the word, meek.  The meek, the humble, those who recognize their existence as CREATURES, created, and do NOT even begin to take on the airs of one who owes their existence to mere chance.  The meek, understanding that our Savior has TOLD us, He has given us instructions on how He wants us to live in Him, through Him!  Those instructions aren't to be ignored. WE must live by Him and as we do, we will be meek, we will be humble as HE is.

All through His grace may we be HIS, and as HIS, meek.

In HIS LOVE, always in HIS LOVE.


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