Bloggers note: Carla Newton is on my friends list at facebook. I have talked to her extensively and I believe she has a heart to please Yah. She told me that in this article she is trying to place herself right there at the time and hear what Messiah is saying to her. This is a thought provoking article I think you will enjoy. Please leave your comments below. Timothy
How much time do we spend looking at everyone else instead of ourselves? When something happens around us, even within our friends, our congregations, or gathering of brothers and sisters do we focus more on what the other person did or what we did? What could I have done? What should I have done? What can I learn? What did I miss? What do I do now? How should I show the fruits of the spirit in any situation? How do I love and help my neighbor?
What has been heavy on my heart as it should be for all of us, is examining myself in every single thing. Am I behaving as my Messiah would? Am I walking in the character of Him? How did He say we should be?
This has led me to study the Sermon on the Mount in a way I never had. I will share my studies with you as I go. Please search the scriptures yourself, don’t just take my words on any of it. We should all learn a lot or grown immensely in Him and His ways as we look at this.
This is my first installment:
My journey to the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
First I had to take a look at each word. What did it mean? Is it different than we would think? One word can mean multiple things especially in a different language.
The word blessed is pretty straight forward. It means fortunate; well off, happy, happier.
Now poor this is the one I really wanted to look at. Is it different than we think now about poor? The definition of poor does talk about a beggar but not like we think. Poor is a beggar in attitude, to crouch, fall, as cringing, absolute or public mendicancy, which I had to look up. Mendicancy defined as the state of being a beggar, straightened circumstances in private.
So then I looked at spirit. Which is pretty much what we would think, human, the rational soul, mental disposition, it also includes angel, demon, God , Messiah.
The kingdom includes a lot we think of royalty, rule or a realm, heaven (as the abode of God) by implication. Then comes the part I didn’t think, it also means happiness, power, and eternity.
This put a whole new light on this.
So what if this read "Blessed are those who are always in a state of humility to others, thinking themselves lower than all, because they will be happier now and eternally."
I feel like it is easy for us to lower ourselves in humility beneath others if we feel they are in authority above us. But what about those who aren’t? What about the person who according to the world’s standards is beneath you? Do you “lower yourself” beneath them? What about the person who according to the world’s standard you should stand up against? Do you? How about the person who just literally or figuratively just smacked you in the face? Do you stand up against them or do you remain humble and lower yourself to them? What about the person who believes different than you? What about the person not walking in truth as you know it? Do we remain humble to them? Do we stay in a pauper’s stance? Are we thankful we are not like “them” or do we know we are nothing and deserve nothing? ( Luke 18:9-14)
This is what I see in these verses and I will be examining myself! Do I stand tall and proud to the world, to some, to any? Or do I stay crouched in humility at all times?
Please take a look at this scripture yourself, don’t take my word on it. I pray my studies will help you on your search into the words of our Messiah, who He was and how He told us to be. Blessings to all! Carla Newton
What has been heavy on my heart as it should be for all of us, is examining myself in every single thing. Am I behaving as my Messiah would? Am I walking in the character of Him? How did He say we should be?
This has led me to study the Sermon on the Mount in a way I never had. I will share my studies with you as I go. Please search the scriptures yourself, don’t just take my words on any of it. We should all learn a lot or grown immensely in Him and His ways as we look at this.
This is my first installment:
My journey to the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
First I had to take a look at each word. What did it mean? Is it different than we would think? One word can mean multiple things especially in a different language.
The word blessed is pretty straight forward. It means fortunate; well off, happy, happier.
Now poor this is the one I really wanted to look at. Is it different than we think now about poor? The definition of poor does talk about a beggar but not like we think. Poor is a beggar in attitude, to crouch, fall, as cringing, absolute or public mendicancy, which I had to look up. Mendicancy defined as the state of being a beggar, straightened circumstances in private.
So then I looked at spirit. Which is pretty much what we would think, human, the rational soul, mental disposition, it also includes angel, demon, God , Messiah.
The kingdom includes a lot we think of royalty, rule or a realm, heaven (as the abode of God) by implication. Then comes the part I didn’t think, it also means happiness, power, and eternity.
This put a whole new light on this.
So what if this read "Blessed are those who are always in a state of humility to others, thinking themselves lower than all, because they will be happier now and eternally."
I feel like it is easy for us to lower ourselves in humility beneath others if we feel they are in authority above us. But what about those who aren’t? What about the person who according to the world’s standards is beneath you? Do you “lower yourself” beneath them? What about the person who according to the world’s standard you should stand up against? Do you? How about the person who just literally or figuratively just smacked you in the face? Do you stand up against them or do you remain humble and lower yourself to them? What about the person who believes different than you? What about the person not walking in truth as you know it? Do we remain humble to them? Do we stay in a pauper’s stance? Are we thankful we are not like “them” or do we know we are nothing and deserve nothing? ( Luke 18:9-14)
This is what I see in these verses and I will be examining myself! Do I stand tall and proud to the world, to some, to any? Or do I stay crouched in humility at all times?
Please take a look at this scripture yourself, don’t take my word on it. I pray my studies will help you on your search into the words of our Messiah, who He was and how He told us to be. Blessings to all! Carla Newton
I believe the Matt 5:7 scripture should actually be Matt 5:3.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Christi. You are very observant. Carla submitted this article and I read it and we both missed it. It had been corrected. Once again, thank you.
Deleteyes thank you Christi, oops! I am glad it is all corrected now. Thank you so much for pointing it out! Blessings!
Delete