Excerpts from my soon to be published book...
"Answering God's Call To Discipleship"
Available Soon
The Hunger For Righteousness
The Beatitudes (Blesseds) are not only a synopsis of the Sermon on the Mount, they are also a summary of the basics of all of Christ’s teachings; they are therefore a succinct blueprint of the principles of discipleship.
After you realized that you were poor, mourning and humbled spiritually with life having less meaning than that for which you were yearning, you began to look upward to The Lord for help.
Now comes the next stage of discipleship: prioritizing God’s will in your life in a real and committed way. Jesus describes this as hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Just as hunger and thirst of your physical body causes you to lay all else aside until you find food and water, Jesus teaches that seeking God’s will for you with that same intensity is holy, blessed and always rewarded.
Notice also that the fourth Beatitude is both a statement and a promise; when you hunger and thirst for His righteousness, you will receive it every time.
It is a direct promise from Jesus. And He always keeps His promises.
“I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts;….” Isaiah 65:2
Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart and wail for grief of spirit.” Isaiah 65:13-14
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6
The Radical Refinement Of Your Soul
At the heart of discipleship is the goal to become as much like Jesus as you can possibly be. Jesus spoke to this very point when He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” ( Matthew 5:8).
You are striving for that attainable hope and are seeing the results as you rise on the upward steps toward Him. But this process is a very radical refinement that leads to that required purity. Consider how many times Scripture refers to the melting of silver and gold under the testing of high heat to remove impurities. It is only after the radical refinements are complete that the precious metal is pure and thus valuable. Likewise, wheat being separated from its surrounding chaff is what makes it edible and of value.
You are on that similar path and your radical refinement is making you ever more useful and valuable to The Lord.
As you answer His call to discipleship, The Lord is testing and refining your soul.
For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:2-3
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 1 John 3:7
The Uncomfortable Idea Of Repentance
As human beings we are always eager to make our lives and even our thought processes as comfortable as possible. Things that threaten those comfortable feelings are thus instinctively avoided or ignored whenever possible. It is not surprising that the very idea of repentance falls into this category of avoidance. But repentance of sin is the very purifying requirement to be spiritually transformed into living in the very Presence or Atmosphere of The Lord. You know that it is true; you have read it in Scripture and heard it preached repeatedly.
Take care, then, that you do not use symbolism or ritual confession in church as a comfortable words-only substitute for the purifying, painful real thing. Remember, The Lord already knows the sinful things you have done or your omission of His righteous requirements. Therefore, one of His greatest disappointments may well be when you have not allowed or subconsciously avoided confronting them as the sins that they are.
No matter where you are on the path of spiritual growth and service of The Lord, there is likely more work to be done with the painful idea of repentance.
John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Matthew 1:4-5
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,….Acts 3:19