The Spiritual Discipline of Giving
June 2, 2016
Jesus has taught His disciples to consider the blessed attitudes that must be in their hearts, and He has taught them to apply those beatitudes in their relationships. Now in Matthew chapter 6, He urges His disciples to look in another direction toward their relationship with God. They are to live their commitment as disciples by following certain spiritual, or vertical, disciplines and values.
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If we follow Jesus and have His attitudes, we will be changed. We will become the salt of the earth and like lights that shine in the world. That means that we will not live the same way that others live. We will do more because we have Jesus living in our hearts. We will have a greater love than the world knows and show greater grace and mercy than the world understands. In so doing, we will become like our Father in heaven.
May 30, 2016
These verses are perhaps the most difficult in the teachings of Jesus to interpret and apply. They teach the highest ethic this world has ever heard. The religious leaders had been teaching that the Law says to love your neighbor (which it does) and to hate your enemy (which it does not). Jesus corrects the misunderstanding and calls for total commitment from His disciples. Loving our neighbors and even our enemies according to God'’s standards is impossible, except for one thing: we have Jesus living in us.
May 26, 2016
The religious leaders in Jesus’' day had an elaborate system in which some oaths were binding and others were not. It was an absurd, complicated system that did not honor God’'s command not to bear false witness. Jesus insisted that His disciples be people of the Word and people who keep their word.
May 23, 2016
We live in a competitive world. Sometimes our relationship with “competitors,” or adversaries, becomes hostile, and they are determined to sue us or even put us in prison. Disciples who are peacemakers do not get angry or try to get even with their enemies. Instead, they determine never to be the source of conflict with adversarial people. Jesus also taught us how to relate to the opposite sex. As with other sins, Jesus goes to the source: our hearts. If we really want to be part of the solution as salt and light, we must learn how to control our sexual desires.
May 19, 2016
Jesus taught that it is critical for believers to cultivate and maintain strong, loving relationships. The religious leaders in the time of Jesus taught that as long as you did not murder or injure your brother, your relationship with him was acceptable to God. But those who have Jesus’ attitude of mercy are to show it; not to do so will affect our private worship. We must make sure we are not alienated from anyone who Jesus calls our “brother.” Anger and feelings of disgust toward our brothers and sisters must be addressed if we want to have a relationship with them that is pleasing to God.
May 16, 2016
Many people think Jesus was contradicting the Old Testament in these verses, but He was only confronting the teaching of the religious leaders. He was telling His disciples: “Everything I am teaching you is found in the Word of God, but what I am teaching is in direct conflict with what your religious leaders have been teaching you.”
May 12, 2016
Salt is a preservative that keeps meat from spoiling, and Christians with the attitudes of Jesus are like salt to the world. When disciples with Christ-like attitudes are “rubbed into” the people of the world as salt is rubbed into meat, their influence will keep the world from total corruption. They become a valuable commodity Jesus uses to revolutionize the culture. The second metaphor indicates that Christians are the only source of light for multitudes living in darkness. As with the first metaphor, Jesus’' words literally mean that “you and you alone” are salt and light. If His disciples do not fulfill their role as salt and light, no one else is left to fulfill it. The people who have Jesus’' attitudes are sent into the world as God'’s solution in order to shine for all to see.
May 9, 2016
The Beatitudes were the essence and central part of Jesus’' Sermon on the Mount. With these eight attitudes, He has described a godly character that can change the world. In this next section, He provides commentary and application on His sermon.
May 5, 2016
There is a reason the beatitude about peacemakers is followed by a beatitude about persecution. Those who become ministers of reconciliation often suffer painful consequences because they have identified themselves with Jesus Christ. Being a peacemaker may put Jesus'’ disciples in the middle of dangerous fighting. Sometimes they even lose their lives. The disciple who has the“ beautiful attitudes” confronts people with a model of what they should be. When people in the world are confronted with a true disciple, they can acknowledge that this is how they should live, or they can attack the disciple who is like Jesus. Very often, they do the latter.
May 2, 2016
Mankind is alienated from God. That'’s why those who are disciples of Christ —have been to the top of the mountain and —must come back down with a purpose. If we have been reconciled with God— – made right in our relationship with Him – —it makes sense that God would use us to help others be reconciled with Him. He will also help us find reconciliation in our own relationships and use us to help others find reconciliation in theirs. The seventh beatitude speaks to the mission of those who are part of God'’s solution.
April 28, 2016
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Featured Offer
Read how God gives hope in the face of persecution!
Read about courageous men and women whose faith is flourishing in the face of ISIS and other terrorists. You’ll weep at believers’ suffering and losses . . . and laugh at the creative audacity of indigenous church planters who just won’t take “no” for an answer, whether in the former Soviet Union, in corners of India where Hindu extremists are burning churches, in communist holdouts in other parts of Asia, or in challenging places in Africa and Latin America.