The Beatitudes

 

Matthew 5:1-13

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,

² and he began to teach them.

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

⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

This Is Impressive

 

President of Uganda Repents to Christ and Calls for National Repentance.

Giving Thanks Just Isn’t For Thanksgiving. It’s For Everyday.

 

Giving Thanks When Thanksgiving Is Over by Jay Lowder, Charisma

There wasn’t a glistening turkey, fresh homemade rolls, dressing or even a pumpkin pie. The kitchen had no burning candle emitting the intoxicating fragrance of cinnamon spice or pomegranate. There wasn’t one single fall decoration adorning the house. No bulging pumpkins on both sides of the front door, pictures of pilgrims made by the children hanging on the refrigerator or clusters of wheat wrapped in string. Extended family was not gathered around the table. By anyone’s account Thanksgiving Day was nowhere close to sight or mind since we were still experiencing the scathing heat of late August. However, this day would be a day of thanksgiving carved into the most sacred places of my heart.

The year 2012 had already provided plenty of memories for which to be grateful. Like the protection provided one summer day when my 8-year-old son and I were walking in the country and narrowly missed the poisonous fangs of a five-foot rattlesnake; the pride felt when my oldest son received his High School diploma; and the awe-inspiring first trip with my youngest son to see the eagles soar over the majestic snowcaps of Alaska. In addition, I experienced a moment at the bedside of a lifelong friend as he spoke his last coherent words before angels escorted him to heaven. My list of blessings this year was long. Many of the memories were stored in photos but most have been forever filed in the bank of my memory. With this I was satisfied because they were the ones most unexpected and fulfilling.

All of these experiences and many others are worthy of gratitude but there is one apex of time that stands above them all. Eighteen months ago I was honored to sign a contract with a major publisher to write a book. It was the consummation of a lifelong dream. Of all the projects I have ever pursued, none were more difficult or rewarding. When the book edits were finally completed, I anxiously waited to see it in print. Scheduled to release in September, I received the final copy as they were being shipped to the stores in late August. When I first saw it, I wanted to hurry home to show my wife and kids. All of them were home when I walked in the door except my oldest son. They were excited and gave hearty congratulations.

I once attended a conference for troubled marriages. While there, I was encouraged to write a letter to myself as though it were written from my son [he was my only child at the time]. The goal was to help define what you wanted to be for your family. I found it in a dusty old box stored in my mother’s home in early July. One particular sentence I wrote struck me like lightning. It read, “Dad, I am so proud of you and the man you are.”

Like most men, I don’t like to admit how much I crave to be admired by those whom I love but this desire within me is undeniable. As I read my own words, words written 13 years ago, I felt a pang that my ears had never heard my son actually say such things. He has often told me he loved me and voiced other terms of endearment but he had never said he was proud of me. Was it something he never felt toward me? Was I unworthy of the comment? I could only guess the answer to the riddle as I read the long-lost letter.

Two hours after I had walked in the back door to reveal my new book, my son arrived home. I was standing in the kitchen when I heard him come through the front door. I had the book sitting on the middle of the counter but he didn’t immediately notice it. I motioned toward the book, and he picked it up and perused the front cover before flipping it over to study the back. Thirty or so seconds passed without him saying a word. I stood watching. He was still not looking my direction but slightly nodding his head up and down as if he emphatically approved. He then turned my direction, raised both eyebrows, smiled and spoke in a tone that seemed borrowed. “Dad……… I’m really proud of you. It’s awesome!”

I replied with a simple thank you but as I reached to hug him I noted, “Wow, this is the first time you have ever said anything like that before and it made my day.” I quickly turned away and said I needed to step outside to take out the garbage.

The garbage didn’t need to go out at that precise moment but I felt emotion about to seep out. I went in the garage astonished and blessed by words that were 18 years in the making. I thought to myself, “If the book was a total failure and never sold one single copy, it was worth every one of the countless hours invested just to hear those confirming words.”

Few individuals will have difficulty understanding why the words, “I’m really proud of you,” spoken by a loved one, brought me to tears. It is human nature to want to feel the approval of those closest to us. But respect is not something that can be commanded by our families; it is something that must be given. To me, on that day, it was the best gift my son has ever granted me.

This year I have personally experienced sorrow, pain, failure and accomplishment. Life lessons, both good and bad are often best understood under the panorama of reflection. As I meditate over the past 12 months, I understand the power affirmation holds when given or received. I feel determination to pour it upon others even when they seem unworthy of praise. I understand life’s greatest moments are seldom scripted, providing hope and expectation of a better tomorrow. I’m reminded that faith, family and friends are my most precious commodity and should provide the fuel for a grateful heart all year long - not just on the fourth Thursday of November.

Where No One Stands Alone-Gaither Vocal Band

 

Romans 4

 

Romans 4

1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?

² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.

³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.

⁸ Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.

¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!

¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.

¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

¹⁴ For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless,

¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone,

²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness— for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Ezekiel 16

 

Ezekiel 16

1 The word of the Lord came to me:

² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices

³ and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

⁴ On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

⁵ No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

⁶ “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”

⁷ I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

⁸ “‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

⁹ “‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.

¹⁰ I clothed you with an embroidereddress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.

¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklacearound your neck,

¹² and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.

¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the SovereignLord.

¹⁵ “‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.

¹⁶ You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.

¹⁷ You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.

¹⁸ And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.

¹⁹ Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.

²⁰ “‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?

²¹ You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

²² In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

²³ “‘Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness,

²⁴ you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square.

²⁵ At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.

²⁶ You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity.

²⁷ So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct.

²⁸ You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.

²⁹ Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “‘I am filled with fury against you, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!

³¹ When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

³² “‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!

³³ All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

³⁴ So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

³⁵ “‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord!

³⁶ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood,

³⁷ therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked.

³⁸ I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.

³⁹ Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked.

⁴⁰ They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.

⁴¹ They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers.

⁴² Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.

⁴³ “‘Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?

⁴⁴ “‘Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.”

⁴⁵ You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶ Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.

⁴⁷ You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.

⁴⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.

⁴⁹ “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

⁵⁰ They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

⁵¹ Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done.

⁵² Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁵³ “‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them,

⁵⁴ so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort.

⁵⁵ And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to what they were before; and you and your daughters will return to what you were before.

⁵⁶ You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the day of your pride,

⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered. Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors and the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.

⁵⁸ You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord.

⁵⁹ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.

⁶⁰ Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you.

⁶² So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁶³ Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

Genesis 12

 

Genesis 12

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan,and they arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹ Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are.

¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.

¹³ Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.

¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.

¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?

¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!”

²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Rejoice In The Lord’s Promises

 

Psalm 119:161-163

¹⁶¹ Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word.

¹⁶² I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil.

¹⁶³ I hate and detest falsehood but I love your law.

Link Roundup Sunday

 

1. Ezekiel 14:13-19

2. Daily Read – November 18

3. Remember the Poor

4. A Gift Indescribable

5. The Good Doctor

6. Sunday Morning Meditation: Think On These Things

7. Wade Taylor: A New Song: Welcome and Respond to His Manifested Presence

8. One of the most invasive and blatant displays of God’s power that I have ever seen.

9. Staten Island Damage from Sandy

10. Daily Read – November 19

11. Face the Giants

12. 7 Prayer Tactics to Engage Heaven

13. Four Fronts in a Church’s Ministry

14. Open Mic: How Should We View Israel?

15. Realignment Brings New Assignments

16. Returning to Portland Oregon with a vengeance.

17. Connecting the Prophetic Dots of Your Destiny – ...

18. Choose Goodness - Ronald Coleman

19. Who Am I to You?

20. Where Are the Apostles and Prophets?

21. 10 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Prayer Life

22. Evangelist Steve Hill Calls Christians to Rise Up and Fight

23. A Place for Second Chances

24. Funeral Service - Preparing in advance

25. Classic iMonk: Magic Books, Grocery Lists And Silent Messiahs: How Rightly Approaching The Bible Shapes The Entire Christian Life

26. Beholding and Birthing the New

27. The whole world turns on Israel.

28. Santa Monica Bans Nativity Scene.

29. Glimpses of Heaven

30. Seven Reasons the Prophetic Voice of American Pastors Has Been Silent - Joseph Mattera

31. Expect a Great Outpouring of Mercy

32. We Are In Decisive Days

33. Guide Directs Shoppers To More Faith-Friendly Companies

34. Impossible Mountains Bow to Grace!

35. The Grace Of The Feast

36. Acquire an Attitude of Gratitude

37. The fire of God on Portland Oregon

38. The God of the Here and Now

39. The Voyage of the Ship of State - a Look into the ...

40. Bring the Children

41. Thanksgiving Brings Breakthrough

42. Thanksgiving Prayer

43. Happy Thanksgiving to you!

44. Steve Shultz: It's Thanksgiving

45. I Take It Back: Why I’m Journaling Again

46. A Thanksgiving Prayer of Gratitude

47. Gather Together

48. Standing with the Ukrainians Today

49. Saturday Ramblings 11.24.12

50. Bill Yount: In All Things Behold the Blessings

51. How Christmas was designed to destroy fear.

52. Portland Oregon: The grand prize for the anti-Christian movement or for a revival.

Taking The Day Off

 

Spending it with my clan. When I say clan, I mean clan. You know brother, sisters, cousins, second cousins, nieces, nephews, great niece, great nephews, uncle, and mother. We have four generations here.