Matthew 7:24-27
The Words of Jesus upon which Urban Design is built
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit—humility is our prized virtue. Humility is the understanding that God is God and that I am the creature He has made. Humble people want God's ways; not their own ways. There is nothing that God cannot ask a humble person to do.
2. Blessed are those who mourn—we should mourn for the sin and the darkness in the world and people who are not poor in spirit before God. All too often we are consumed with our own woes. Mature Christianity is being more concerned about what concerns God than we are concerned about our own concerns.
3. Blessed are the meek—meekness is the ability to let God only be our defender; the absence of having to justify ourselves. Meekness is security in what God has for us. Meek people entrust their reputations to God. Meek people know that God is both the creator and the defender of reputation. Meek people do not seek to enhance their own reputation.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—how desperate are we to see holiness in our own lives? In our struggle against sin, have we yet resisted to the point of shedding blood? Do we hunger for the righteousness of Jesus entering the world? Is getting people saved even on your radar?
5. Blessed are the merciful—I want our community to be known as a grace community. What does that mean? It means this—we never speak badly of others. Merciful people overlook other people's sins and faults. You know a merciful person by how they speak of other people when those people are not present. In honour of Simon Muller, I quote the great German poet Goethe: "Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent." That's mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart—Purity is such a desirous substance. This morning, let's make a rule for the guys and a rule for the girls: No porn; no gossip. Both are as terrible as the other.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers—we can make peace with our words when others are absent. When others are absent we have the chance to either foment war and division, or we have the chance to build peace and harmony.
8. Persecuted for righteousness—we don't necessarily have people throwing us in jail for our faith. But are we willing to make sacrifices for Jesus' kingdom? Sometimes I think that the devil is having so much success keeping Christians in a church away from prayer, Bible reading, Christian fellowship, prayer meetings, that He doesn't even need to shift a gear to throw in some persecution. It is an indictment not to have persecuted in some shape or form on a yearly basis!
9. Salt of the earth—do you stop the rot where you are? Or are you being 'trampled by men'? Who is having more of an impact on who? Are your colleagues having more of an impact on you, stomping all over your blend of salt and impurity, making a mockery of the salt properties of salt; or are you preventing further decay and godlessness in the workplace?
10. Light of the world—when the light shines God does not want to hide the city or hide the lamp. Are you the kind of Christian that God hides you away out of public view? Do you hide yourself out of public view? The test is this—do people observe you and then praise 'your Father in heaven'?
No comments:
Post a Comment