Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matthew 5:8 NRSV What comes to your mind when you think about the word pure – the face of a newborn baby? Unexpected snow blanketing the ground? Jesus looked across the hillside and spoke the sixth Beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Without […]
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7 CSB Merciful is easy to define but even more easy to identify. Mercy can be defined as sympathetic, compassionate, pardoning, refusing to punish, or forgiving. However, seeing mercy in action brings life to the definition. What does mercy look like? Over the […]
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 Keep your fork, the best is coming! This illustration has been told and re-told countless times by preachers in their sermons. Without a doubt, in my mind, the master teller of this illustration would have to be Glenn Boyd. […]
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 NIV What makes a successful entrepreneur? Process-oriented, empathetic, self-motivated, persuasive, confident, risk-taker, and resilient are just a few of the characteristics and personality traits according to leading management experts. We tend to think of success-oriented personalities as bold, brash, bigger-than-life personalities that dominate […]
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 “We lost just about everything we owned, and that included vehicles. But we have the most important thing: our lives. And we are forever and always going to be thankful for that.” (Joe Dancy telling CNN’s Laura Coates) “I feel like I just […]
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? James 2:5 CSB I can’t help but imagine that Jesus had people like Lalta in his thoughts when he began the first […]
Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 CSB Nothing says “autumn” better than weekend football. Since Rutgers and Princeton played the first college football game in 1869, football has […]
He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in […]
It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with […]
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV Happy Labor Day! One day a year the United […]