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The Beatitudes Pt. 7

July 9, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  Matthew 5:9

Jesus said that He gives us His peace and leaves His peace with us.  One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is peace.  Paul encourages us that we should live peacefully with all men.  We are to be a people of peace.  We should reflect peace in our lives and try to bring peace in all situations.

It is not our job to judge people or bring about strife in any relationship.  We will be known as children of God based on how we bring peace into situations.  Jesus was a peacemaker.  He brought the ultimate peace between God and man.  Now that we are a part of Jesus and He is a part of us we are called peacemakers – the sons of God.

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The Beatitudes Pt. 6

July 7, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Matthew 5:8

Sin separates us from God.  Jesus died for our sins and we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.  It is our faith in Jesus that gives us a pure heart.  Those with a pure heart shall see God.

We are under a new covenant and we have direct access to God through Jesus.  So we can now seek the face of God.  The bible says if we diligently seek after God we will find Him.

God looks at the heart of a person.  If our heart is pure we will experience God and His blessings.  Whatever may corrupt our hearts we must repent and God is faithful to forgive us.  That is why Jesus talks about a person’s heart and how they can sin in their heart even though they may have not committed the physical act of sin.  So we must examine our hearts and keep them pure.  It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that our hearts remain pure.  In that purity we will see God.

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The Beatitudes Pt. 5

July 5, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

 7″Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  Matthew 5:7

God’s mercies are new every morning.  Each day we are guaranteed to experience the mercy of God.  Here Jesus is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy.  The bible teaches us that we reap what we sow.  So if we sow mercy we will reap mercy.  We always reap more than we sow, so we will always receive more mercy than we give.  That is why Jesus said merciful people are blessed.

When we show mercy we are actually an extension of God’s mercy towards mankind.  God shows mercy to others through us.  So we receive the blessing of God when we show mercy to others.

We should never hold grudges or be bitter toward one another.  Instead, as God has shown mercy to us, we should show mercy to one another.

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The Beatitudes Pt. 4

July 1, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:6

Have you ever wanted something so bad you would do almost anything to get it?  Well here Jesus is saying that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.  Many of us struggle with sin but if we go after righteousness we will be satisfied.  Imagine being completely satisfied.

So how do we hunger and thirst after righteousness?  We should seek God.  The more time we spend with God the more we want Him.  The more we are with Him the more we want to be like Him.  God is righteousness.  So in essence Jesus is saying if you hunger and thirst after God, you will be satisfied.

There is no reason to hunger for temporary things or things of this earth.  Let’s set our mind on eternal things and on God for that is where we will be filled and find the most satisfaction.

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The Beatitudes Pt. 3

June 30, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

 5″Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

Gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit.  It is a fruit a Christian bears in their life.  Here Jesus is telling us that those who are gentle will inherit the earth.  As Christians we do not have to accept the earth being given over to Satan.  The earth is the footstool for Jesus and it is our inheritance.

The earth is our responsibility.  We have been given the task to further the Kingdom of God on earth.  We are the gentle ones and we are blessed with the earth as our inheritance.

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The Beatitudes Pt. 2

June 28, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

 4″Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Matthew 5:4

When Jesus did the Sermon on the Mount He was addressing various people with various needs.  We are blessed in many situations.  Not all of our blessings come when times are great.  There are times when we are hurting that we are still blessed.  Jesus said that those who mourn are blessed.

The bible says we should mourn with those that mourn.  Mourning is part of life and God is full of love and compassion, so when we mourn we are comforted.  This scripture also shows us that we can be a blessing to those that mourn by offering comfort.  If you are mourning God has promised to comfort you.  Our greatest comforter is found in the Holy Spirit.

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A Wedding…

June 26, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

21Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

 3But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 1 Corinthians 14:3

Last week I was at a wedding and one of the pastors performing the ceremony gave a sermon on marriage.  I was surprised to hear the pastor telling the newly married couple how difficult marriage was and that some marriages end.  He was encouraging them to put God first but I began to think what a wonderful time to prophesy to a couple who are about to embark on a brand new life.

Many times it is second nature for us to just warn people about the trouble ahead and the trials they may face.  I’m sure the pastor did not want to make marriage seem too easy or should be taken lightly.  There is life and death in the tongue, how I wish he spoke life to this couple.  Instead of focusing on the perils of marriage, he could have focused on their lives and the blessings that come in marriage.  Marriage between a man and woman is the prophetic picture of the marriage between Christ and His church.  Marriage is meant to help the body of Christ not burden it.

As Paul exhorts us to prophesy we do not need have some special ability to foresee the future.  There are many scriptures in the bible that are prophetic that we can use to exhort and edify the church.  There are many scriptures that could have been used to exhort and edify this newly married couple.

Many know that life is full of ups and downs.  We don’t always have to be the bearer of bad news.  We should desire to prophesy to others when we can through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We should seek to exhort and edify each other for that is what brings life.

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The Beatitudes 1

June 16, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

The Beatitudes make me think of attitudes we should have about the Kingdom of God.  Here Jesus blesses those that are poor in spirit.  Even if you are downtrodden know that yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.  I believe that Jesus is really encouraging us to look at the Kingdom and not at our life on earth.  We should set our eyes on things that are eternal and not on temporary things of the earth.  Think about it – we are part of the Kingdom of God.  We are not of this world.  We are a new creation and we are being perfected like Jesus.

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Dominion Over the Land

June 12, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 28God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

 29Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

 30and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.  Genesis 1: 27-30

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  God also created man and gave man dominion over all the earth.  As much as we have dominion over the earth including all the land and creatures, we have responsibilities in caring for the land and its creatures.  That is why it is so sad to see what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil spill.

For decades we have talked about relying less on oil and finding ways to better conserve energy and find more efficient means in powering our automobiles and other means of transportation.  There is technology available but we have chosen to continue to rely on oil as our main source.

So now when we see the lives that were lost with this oil rig explosion and the millions of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf – was it worth it?  We will now take responsibility of our land and living creatures and make better choices in how we use nature’s resources?

The spill in the Gulf is so overwhelming; we can only guess the damage that this spill will cause to the ecosystem and the livelihood of those who live along the Gulf Coast.  Maybe the best thing to do is to acknowledge our weaknesses and pray that God will intervene on our behalf.  Hopefully, this will serve as a wakeup call that we have bigger responsibilities in subduing the earth and caring for its creatures.  We cannot allow money to continue to be our sole focus.  The oil companies do have a responsibility, but we have a greater one in keeping them accountable and finding other ways to conserve energy.

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God Exists

June 9, 2010 by Anna Mangeni

20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

 21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

 22Professing to be wise, they became fools,

 23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Romans 1: 20-23

I was reading an article of an interview Diane Sawyer did with Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist who knows more about the universe than anyone else.  He made this statement about God: “What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God,” Hawking told Sawyer. “They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible.” – Interview with Diane Sawyer ABC News “Stephen Hawking on Religion: ‘Science Will Win.’

I think Paul puts it best in regards to someone who claims to have a lot of knowledge about the universe.  Men are without excuse.  God has made His existence known to man.  When you look at the vastness of the universe it is foolish to claim that all of creation came out of nothing.  Also, men did not create God in their image; we are created in the image of God.  Instead many have denied the existence of the one true God and made gods for themselves.

My heart breaks for people like Stephen Hawking.  He is a brilliant man and God has given him great insight and wisdom concerning science but apart from God all that knowledge is just foolishness.  The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.  I would hope that as one sees the vastness and wonderment of the universe the more glorious God would appear.

Here is the best thing.  God created us so that He could have a personal relationship with each one of us.  God does not simply look at us as creatures but when He created us He looked to Himself and made us in His image.  God is our Father, and He is worthy of all the praise and glory.

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