Matt 5:10-12; 19:23-30-

This is one of the toughest beatitude to follow. Mostly because we want the opposite to be true. Blessed are you whose religion comes easy for you, for yours is the Kingdom of heaven.

Yet Jesus turns easy religion on its ear and says “rejoice when you take your faith seriously enough to be persecuted for yours is the Kingdom of heaven”.

He is saying that taking a stand for the faith that you claim, it won’t always be easy, but for what lies in store for you, it is worth it, and even moreso, you will never have to endure alone. For no man is an island.

The burdens of life become easier when you have other people to share the load, and one by one, they help you see some of the burdens you carry, you don’t have to bear them at all.

The desire for wealth, the desire for power, the desire for respect by proving yourself better than everyone else.

In our second Scripture set, Christ invites those who follow him to give up a great deal, but He is not pointing a finger saying “how dare you have these things” for these are good things.

Rather he is saying, “that if you have given up those good things to follow me, you get them back a hundredfold. This is not an ethical sledgehammer, rather it is an invitation to take a deeper walk in discipleship.

If you take your Christianity seriously, then eventually one day you will have to make the choice when the choice puts you at odds with the world.

Now I am not saying that every one of you will have to endure physical pain, but you may have to do the unpopular thing, you have have to withstand social pressure and the temptations of the world.

There are many distinguishing marks of true Christian living, and sometimes that may put you and I at odds with how everyone else live. Yet that is why we need one another as body of believers, so that when one of us feels the difficulty of remaining faithful, the others of us can remind them, that it is not in vain, that there is hope, and they are not alone as they walk the journey.

We are not alone, but not only because we have each other, but because we are in good company with some of the biblical heroes. Many of those in the Bible had to endure hardship for doing the right thing. Even Jesus, for what do you think got him crucified.

Children of God uphold God’s truth and refuse to compromise with the ways of the world. That walk is not always an easy path, it calls us to swim upstream sometimes.

Yet, if you are being picked on because of your faith, remember a few things.

1. It keeps your eyes on what is important-heaven, not earth. The eternal rewards not the temporary.

2. It acts like a mighty wind, blasting away weak leaves and leaving behind sturdy trees. As you endure the hardships for being a Christian, allow it to help mold how you think about God. You who are youth, who crave something authentic, allow those times to show you what is real in your faith, and blast away the superficial.

3. If you endure, you get stronger. Many of you have worked hard, many of you have played sports. The more you practice the stronger you get. If you put something under strain, it gets stronger, same with your faith.

3. Through hardship, it serves as an example to others who follow.

Look at your life and ask who are the wise? Is it not the ones who have lived through the most? Learn from them.

I think every person wants to be remembered for something. And if you want to be remembered, well nobody remembers a person who just went with the crowd, nobody writes books about people who just floated and didn’t care.

If someone wrote a book about your life, would anyone want to read it?

Dear Friends, don’t forfeit the eternal for what is only earthly. If God offers you gold of eternal life, then don’t take fools gold of only being concerned about this life. And if you find that you are doing your best to serve God, and yet you feel as though you face an uphill battle…then be encouraged, you may just be doing something right.

Difficult times are not always the result of something we did wrong. Often is because we are doing what is right, and God is using it to draw us ever closer to Him. Jesus says that no servant is greater than the Master.

And if they went after the Master, then should we really be surprised when it happens to us too? In fact, Bible says, we ought to rejoice, for it means we are being like Jesus. He assured the disciples the same way he assures us now:

that anyone who gives up something valuable for His sake will be repaid many times in this life and the life to come.

Let me give you an example of this. We hear on the news often, of Christians suffering persecution in other countries.

I won’t mislead you: some of them were sold out by their own family members. Yet these Christians rejoice. Why? Because they have family members in every part of the globe praying for them, that they can walk into any church, just like this one, find fellow believers in Jesus, and call them brother or sister.

Blessed are you, when being a Christian is not easy, for you are becoming more like Jesus. Worry about His opinion, none other. It may not be an easy life, but as young as I am I think I have learned this:

I would rather have a hard life, knowing I stood on my convictions, that have an easy life knowing it was because I stood on nothing at all.

Remember, you don’t have to do it alone, you have each other. And it is not in vain for whatever you lost in this world, you get back all of it, with interest, in a reward that will never go away.

Blessed are you, for it shows your loyalty to Jesus, and for that, your reward is the kingdom of heaven.

Stand your ground.

Passion & Purity-Matt. 5:8; 15:1-20

For the following blog entry, I am drawing heavily upon information I found in A Spiritual Formation Workbook by James Bryan Smith and Linda Graybeal

Jesus remained true to his mission throughout his testing and emerged pure at its end. His responses tell us much about the nature of sin and importance of purity.

The Bible makes it clear the people of God can be free from the power of sin!!!! Hallelujah!

Every time the commands of God were rejected in the Bible, disaster followed. Disaster still trails the heels of sin.

Why follow God’s commands? Because God knows the consequences of sin.

God’s commands are not rules that stifle our happiness or make us feel guilty. Commands are given to us that we might live abundantly.

Sin does not bring freedom, obedience to God does.

Holiness is something God wishes for us simply because it is the best way to live. The commandments of God are not meant to make our lives a dull drudgery, but to make them whole and full.

God’s plan completes and integrates our lives; sin disrupts and fragments our lives. While sin seems appealing on the surface—the fulfillment of all of our desires—beneath the surface lurks poison that will ultimately destroy us.

Sin is slop, it stains and ruins our souls. Living a holy life is not limited to the “super saints” rather it is healthy and functional for everyone

Jesus turns our attention away from ritual purity and points to the purity of heart from which flows unshakable obedience to God.

Not keeping God’s commandments is not an option for a serious believer.

Obedience is the natural outgrown of a life that is bound to God. If we are in love with God, we will obey his laws. Why? Because we love and trust God as a child loves and trusts a parent.

To trust and obey is at the heart of holiness for a disciple of Jesus.

Do the following and you will be able to keep the commands you were once unable to keep and do the things you were once unable to do.

HERE ARE SOME PRACTIAL HOLY THINGS TO DO DAILY!!!!!!

Tounge-if I tell myself to simply stop saying negative things, I will likely fail. But if I begin with the “inside”-praying for a pure heart and the committing to watch my words, then I open the door to the Spirit to begin helping me.

When I am about to say something negative, the Spirit speaks a word of caution to me, and that blessed split second change in my behavior possible.

Result is not “wow look at me”, but rather “God is beginning to shape and mold my life”.

-Pray for the Holy Spirit to purify your heart and mind; then listen. Set aside some time, where everything else can wait and you spend with God. Ask God to purify your heart and mind through the Holy Spirit, and surrender your life to Him.

-Respond to temptation with the word of God-Memorize the words of Scripture and when you are tempted by the enemy to 1 gratify selfish desires, 2 doubt God’s power, or 3 seek wealth, power, or fame, respond to the temptation the corresponding verse of Scripture. Jesus used the power of God through Scripture to defeat the devil, and so can we.

-Try a 24 hour partial fast-Jesus fasted in the wilderness to gain spiritual strength. The practice of fasting also reveals hidden traits-anger, selfishness, inability to delay gratification, laziness, and so on which can become areas for growth.

Only fast so you can “feast” upon God, realizing that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

-practice these two disciplines for “taming the tongue”-it is what comes out of our mouth that makes us unclean. Our words, like fire, can refine or destroy

-go a day without saying negative. In the morning ask the Holy Spirit to “set a guard over [your] mouth” (Ps. 141:3) to keep you from saying anything negative. Be ruthless about this!

Do not let even the slightest hint of criticism or judgment come out of your mouth. Be honest, not critical. Search for ways to positive about everything around you and be ready to give compliments as often as you can.