“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” – Colossians 4:2
The purpose of celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday was to remind us to be thankful today and every day. What was worth being thankful for yesterday is still with you today!
If Christianity is true, this is not “being a Pollyanna” or seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Live like it is true by making thanksgiving a habit, not a holiday.
Often the writers of the Psalms aren’t just trying to teach us about God, but they are trying to share their experience of Him. As in Psalm 96 and 100, included in earlier posts, Psalm 136 opens with encouragement, or even instructions, to join the Psalmist in thanksgiving:
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever” – Psalm 136:1-3
All 26 verses of this Psalm end with the phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever,” following something about God that is worthy of praise and thanksgiving. This constant repetition is a reminder that it is “his steadfast love” for His people that drives His acts of creation, His works in history, and ultimately His death on the cross. His works are all done by a person, for a people. What God really desires is relationship with us. We are not alone in the universe.
Giving thanks only makes sense if someone exists to thank, who is good, and has the power to provide what we are thankful for. If creation is a mere accident, if wicked acts are never corrected and righteous acts are never rewarded, and if mankind can only hope in themselves, there is no reason to give thanks to someone, or something, else. Many religions seem to acknowledge this, giving personality and reverence to created things – trees, the sun, the harvest, and so on – but in Christ we can know the Person who is behind it all, and who actually is a Person that loves us.
Therefore, today give thanks to the Lord who is good, and is above any god or lord of this world. As we celebrate Thanksgiving today in the United States, be thankful above all else that Someone exists to thank, that He is good, and that He has the power, and love, needed to care for His people. Now and forever.
Amen.
Earlier posts on Participating in the Psalms are here, here, and here.
Dear fellow travelers,
Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection, five quotes on the theme of good vs evil:
“The majority of us begin with the bigger problems outside and forget the one inside. A man has to learn ‘the plague of his own heart’ before his own problems can be solved” – Oswald Chambers
“I think the battle between good and evil is fought largely within the individual human heart, by the decisions that we make. It’s not like evil dresses up in black clothing and you know, they’re really ugly” – Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin
“When people do bad things in the name of religion people say religion is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of profit people say profit is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of science people say science is inherently bad; When people do bad things in the name of government people say government is inherently bad; but have you noticed that every one of these is ‘people do bad things’ but when you say people do bad things because people are inherently bad, people say you are a mean person and out of your mind.” – Anonymous internet comment
“The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between political parties either, but right through all human hearts.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” – the apostle Paul, in Romans 7:21-25
Today is the last post in a 5-part series on the first Beatitude from Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Today’s thought begins with how the Apostle Paul, who met Jesus on the road to Damascus[1], emphasized how being “poor in spirit” is universal across all demographic characteristics:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:28
“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” – Colossians 3:11
Paul wrote two different lists, meaning they are not comprehensive. He simply couldn’t include every possible example of the ways Christ eliminates barriers, but provided examples of the main point, which is “all.” Prior to these verses, he writes that “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Galatians 3:27) and that we “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Colossians 3:10) This “new self” is the new identity, which is the only one that matters, that we are “sons of God”.
What does this have to do with “Blessed are the poor in spirit”?
Paul knows that Jesus provides – in full – the only way for salvation, on the cross and through His resurrection. What we think are accomplishments “in the flesh” do not make us “rich” in spirit, and in fact may make us worse off. Paul expands on this in Philippians 3:4-7, discarding any confidence he has in the flesh as “loss”:
“Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
In other words, Paul is saying that his obedience to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament, his genealogy, his denomination, his nationality, and his recognition as a religious expert provided no value, in fact negative value (“loss”), toward his salvation in Christ. From the earlier verses we can add gender and economic status to the list. His identity in earthly terms is a negative whenever it gets in the way of his identity in Christ. When he counted on these things for salvation, they only clouded his view of what was really needed and were in the way of accepting it. They were a distraction, a waste of time. This applies not just to Paul, but to anyone: religious pedigree, ethnicity, nationality, or any other accomplishment is a negative contribution if it causes us to refuse His free offer of His righteousness.
It also affects how we present Christ to others. If our own definition of “poor in spirit” includes a complete lack of faith in our “flesh”, it becomes easier to offer the gospel to “all” others, to approach them in love, and therefore to reflect the kingdom of heaven. To love our neighbor includes not limiting who our neighbor is. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the person beaten and abandoned on the side of the road is only identified as “a man.”[2] If we know that our identity also did not matter in our salvation, that it may have made us even poorer in spirit, the identity of our neighbor will not matter either. The unity and outreach of the church depend on the idea that all are equally “poor in spirit.”
Pray for Christ to enable you to embrace your new identity, your new spirit, and provide new motivation to be a more faithful subject in His kingdom.
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Matthew 6:14-15
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3
Today is part 4 of a series on the first Beatitude from Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
In this post, we begin later in the same chapter as the Beatitudes, where Jesus includes as sin matters of the soul’s inclination, which are entirely internal:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” – Matthew 5:21-22
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Matthew 5:27-28
Some people say that what is done in private, either alone or with other “consenting” people, is none of our business. “Who does it hurt?” they say. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells everyone that He cares about what they do, in public and in private. Even within themselves. He is not saying this to embarrass anyone, but to break down their spiritual pride and lead them to depend on Him. To Jesus, intent makes us spiritually poor as much as action does. Sin is not a matter of consequence; it is a matter of conscience. It includes not only the action, but the inclination to the action.
But who does it hurt; some might ask? When excluding from our definition of sin things that other people don’t see, we may be tempted to turn faith into performance art, like the scribes and Pharisees, who “do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.”[1] Those “ashamed” from Monday’s post who come to church looking for compassion will only feel alienated unless they join in the performance.
If only public righteousness matters, the pressure of keeping up appearances can mean that internal sins – though just as important as external sins that have obvious consequences – remain private and un-dealt with, keeping us from relying on Jesus to restore the joy of our salvation! Compensating for guilt, and the pressure of managing expectations, become primary drivers of action rather than the guidance of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is nowhere to be found. When we know we are not really changed and are failing, we may try to hide it to keep up appearances. We harbor guilt and bitterness and become unable to accept ourselves and love others.
Instead, testimony of our brokenness is an essential part of Christian witness. In his letters, the Apostle Paul repeatedly mentions his own past because it highlights the grace of God and power of Christ in redeeming him. Likewise, those connected to Christ must confess their brokenness openly and ask His help. Hiding our brokenness – keeping it private (sometimes even trying to keep it from Him) – obscures the power and necessity of the gospel from those who need to hear and understand it, and also keeps us from experiencing its power in our souls. If we do not count as brokenness things where we do not see the consequence, we keep Jesus at a distance and the kingdom of heaven will not rule us. Who does it hurt? Well, us to begin, but also those around us who we love less as a result of hidden, secret sin.
Humanity’s need is spiritual, and our brokenness comes from the inside, not the outside. From conscience, not consequence. When humanity denies that brokenness is an internal, sometimes hidden, problem, it will face only the symptoms of the problem, and with the wrong prescriptions. External forces cannot fix our internal inclinations and will tend toward the original sin of Adam and Eve, seeking the tree of wisdom in the garden that seems to offer an alternate way of governing ourselves. Any laws, including some forms of religion, or systems of coercion will not fundamentally change us, but may provide an appearance of doing so, or worse, an incentive for a harsher system of coercion. When coercion isn’t working, and spiritual solutions are denied, greater coercion often follows. Unless we know we are broken, and how we are broken, we refuse the solution offered by the kingdom of heaven and remain lost looking for an alternative that does not exist[2].
We must not accept anything less than Christ’s righteousness. But we must accept Christ’s righteousness at our very core. Only the power of the gospel – the good news of the kingdom of God – can make straight what is crooked at its very internal, often secret, root[3].
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3
[1] Matthew 23:5-7
[2] I’m not advocating for anarchy or libertarianism or any particular form of government but pointing out that what a society thinks its government can, and should, do reflects that society’s view on what it expects government to solve.
[3] Ecclesiastes 1:15 and 7:13
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 