Matthew 5:1-16

Have you ever imagined being one of Jesus’ committed disciples and sitting near him as he talks about living. Here, he speaks to his closest followers about attitudes that flow from a pure heart. Jesus’ words are very exciting to read and yet very difficult to apply!

Jesus paints a picture of happiness in verses 3-10, and then he gives us a strong image of how followers are to “look” to the world. Basically, he says, “this is why you’re here…to be different.” (my paraphrase of verses 13-16)

Yesterday we read about a higher calling that affects what you do—fish for people. Today’s reading impacts who we are to be—different. Not “weird” different…but “different” different.

Different so you stand out in a crowd…not because you’re crude but you stand out because you’re a person with character. You are different because of whose you are.
Jesus uses the images of salt and light to help us see that we are to counteract decay (salt) and darkness (light) which are symbols of living the world’s way.

I love the how the message bible outs it; “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth…and you’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”

Are you living a life that’s different from the world’s way? Not a life that brings attention to itself, but a life that counteracts the decay of hatred and brings light to the darkness of evil? How can you be different today?

Thought: “Effective sustainable leadership requires a commitment to replenishment.”
Ask yourself this question, what is my replenishment plan? As leaders we are constantly giving out and as we carry such a large emotional load, without the input we just cannot expect to last. This year it is our family’s 24th Hillsong, 24 years of committing to be refreshed in this environment on an annual basis. I had to learn this the hard way years ago but replenishment is not a luxury, it’s a mandatory part of my planning schedule.

I would say if you are constantly giving out, you need at least three times a year where you place yourself in an environment of major input. Consider this, if we constantly give out of our emotional world and do not replace what we have been giving out, we will end up leading dry. Input needs to match output for us to remain balanced.

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It reminds me of a film I watched the other day called Short Circuit, a classic, Jonny Five is alive. Ever since I became a Christian I have hungered after input. I use the covenant seminary website called worldwide classroom. I download Abundant life messages, I listen to Mark Driscoll at Marshill Bible church, I have just downloaded all of Paul De Jong’s messages and am working through them. I read at least a book a month. I read my bible.

I believe we have a responsibility to grow. We do this to allow God to shape us and mold us into the people we are meant to be. So we can either be a couch potatoes or a go getter.

May you seek input, may you allow God to grow you and may you become a go getter not a couch potato.

Now it’s not the word fool that’s the issue but the intention behind it. How many of us have got angry in the last month. Someone pulled out in front of us or said something to us that we didn’t like. Jesus then goes on to talk about grudges. he says that before we bring our offering gift to the altar. Another way of putting it “Before you come to God in worship” Sort out the differences you have.

Often in anger, name calling and disagreements we give room for grudges to build. Anger and grudges can consume us, take our focus off of God and onto revenge, offence or much worse. It’s not a place that God wants us to be in. Our freedom from this is so key that God says you need to be free from it before we come to Him in worship. This involves speaking face to face and talking things through.

Sometimes its a matter of settling things on your side even if the other person doesn’t accept and holds onto their grudge you can move on in God. I have found it to be much better to be completely free before God in worship. I have also found it easy to lose my peace and become angry or offended. Giving ourself an anger/offence MOT regularly will help us to be totally free before God.

Jesus example is the greatest example of forgiveness we will ever see, as he was nailed to the cross he cried out ‘Father forgive them they know not what they do’ Whilst reading the scripture this morning I was reminded how I had not dealt with a situation well and that I needed to apologise and put things right. Which I have done. My life policy is to apologise when I get it wrong. And I will get it wrong. So who is it that you need to speak to? What is it that you need to let go of? God can help you do this, if you let Him and today you can live free. I will post another post I made from our church blog a while ago which was a prophetic time I had with God to do with forgiveness.

May God bless you and move you forward

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I read Matthew 5:13-16 this morning. It talks about us being the salt of the earth.

Salt adds flavor, we as individuals are called to add flavor to the world around us. We are not meant to be bland but tasty. As a church we are to add value to the world around us. Salt is used as a preservative, in other words it lenghtens the life of our food. All known life needs salt to live. As individuals and as churches we bring life to the world around us. Salt regulates the water content in our bodies. As individuals and as churches we should regulate the world around us. We should shape the world around us. We are not meant to be bystanders watching the world go by, we are to set the pace and lead the way.

Jesus warns us that if salt loses its saltiness it is good for nothing. We are called to be a people of flavor. Lets be who we are called to be. In the words of Craig David an R&B artist ‘Whats your flava?’

I read an article about the worlds most powerful torch. It is the world’s brightest and most powerful flashlight. This flashlight is easily capable of melting plastic, lighting paper on fire within seconds, and if you want, frying an egg or a marshmallow on a stick! At 4100 lumens, The Torch is 100 lumens more powerful than The Polarion Helios, the former most powerful flashlight. This torch shines big time!

Jesus refers to us as the light of the world. Light provides heat to cold rooms, it transforms darkness, it provides life to plants. Light truly is a powerful life giving and transforming part of the universe. as individuals and as churches we are called to bring light to the darkness, life to the lifeless, to be transformers of situations and shapers of cultures.

Have you ever placed a mug or bowl over a tea light it goes out and becomes useless until you re-light it. Have you noticed that if you take the light shade off in your room how it gets so much brighter! Well Jesus doesn’t want us to snuff out the light we have been given, he doesn’t want us to be ashamed of the good news. He doesn’t want us to form little communities within communities and do church and christianity where no-one can see us. He wants us to be public to stand on the hill and shine, shine, shine. Imagine going to the highest part of your town or city and shining the worlds most powerful flashlight and seeing what attention you get.

We don’t do this so that people will praise us, we are not saying look how good we are and how bad you are, we are not saying we are perfect. We do it so that people will see our good deeds and glorify God in heaven. We are motivated by Gods love for us. Its not a matter of trying to persuade you, we are confident and certain of the love God has for us and this flows through our very being. Just like when you buy a torch from the shop it wont work until you put the battery in and then the battery cause power to flow through the torch until it cant help but shine. We are like the torch that was on the shop shelf, before we met with God we had no light, no power. But now that Jesus is a part of our life we have been given the power to shine.

Folks the kingdom of heaven is here. We see lives transformed, we see people getting healed and theres more to come.

Will you play your part, will you allow your light to shine, will you shake your saltiness all over the place. Like every human you have a choice.

May God bless you and move you forward

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A few months a go I was at a regional pray meeting. I was not in a great place and was struggling to get into the meeting as can sometimes happen. I felt God lead me to lie down on the floor as many worshiped and prayed. It was at this point that God revealed to me a picture of a white flag. I often get pictures from God and I respond every time with ‘What are you saying God’. It was at that point that I heard the following:

“Lead a life fully surrendered to Christ”

In a battle the last thing you do is surrender. However it is exactly what God calls us to do. There is nothing we can do to win the battle but surrender. As we surrender everything to Christ He can then work through and in us. Its completely unnatural, it goes completely against all logic, it doesn’t make sense.

Christ and how He lived His life on this earth is the ultimate example of surrender! Surrendering His life all the way to the cross. We can often think ‘yep I did this, I have said the prayer. I’m surrendered’ however this is not a one off moment. Its a life style.

I’m not there yet, God continues to move me forward and bit by bit I am surrendering. I can take back what I surrendered and end up back where I started.

But I am convinced as I surrender God will move, shape and guide me. Its white flag living. Its not easy. We can let pride pull us in the direction of trying to win a battle with our own action. The truth is the battles already won! We have our work cut out in just surrendering!

I pray God that you will help us to decrease so you can increase. Oh Lord break through into our lives.

The boy had never seen his dad study a map so carefully. He asked his dad “why he was studying the map so long?” His dad replied “This map is of where we are going today, it has all of the roads mark to which we need to take” It was at this point that his dad sighed and said ” I used to never need a map, I always knew where I was going, but the world has changed so much. Today we are going somewhere we have never been before. And because of that we need a map”.

Driving the journey the young boy reminded his dad that it was his birthday soon. He doesn’t usually ask for much but today he asked that his dad would give him one thing. The map!

His dad said “Of course but why the map? The boy replied ” Because I am growing older and the world is constantly changing. I will be going places I have never been before and because of that I will need the map”.

This story is not far from the truth/reality, we will all at many times within our lives be going where we have never been before. Each and every day we face new choices and challenges. How do we navigate through life? You could pop down the local map shop and find a map for just about everywhere. But there is only one map to life itself!

James 4:14 says : “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Life goes by so quickly, taking the wrong road is not an option. Because of this how can we make sure that we make the right choices? By finding the map to life, the bible. It makes some radical claims.

It tells us over and over again that it is our makers words, inspired by God. Mose in Exodus (Chapter 31:18) said the 10 Commandments were written by the finger of God. In 33:11 that he spoke with God face to face as we would shat with our mates. King David said that God’s spirit spoke through him in 2 Samuel 23:2-3. Jeremiah 1:5-9 says that Gods word came to Jeremiah and God reached out and touched his mouth saying “I have put my words in your mouth” That is incredible, its true God uses people to get his message across.

Whether you are a follower of Christ or not. The bible is the map of life. It will lead you in the direction you need to take in your life and I promise you will change your life forever. Will you pick it up and follow its direction or will you wonder around not knowing where you are going?

Colossians 3:12-13 says ^‘Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Since then there have been times where the peace that God has given me could have been taken away. But I have been faced with a choice do I allow God or my circumstances to shape my response to life? So many times in the past I have allowed my circumstances shape my response. But with Gods help I want Him to shape my response.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

For me God reminded me of the importance of reading His word. Just like the rain and the snow bring nourishment to the earth causing it to bring forth food that keeps us alive.How much more nourishment is the word of God. Its easy as Christians to allow life to distract us from the word of God, we can serve the church and our community and neglect our relationship with God through His word. For us the word of God is more than just a book it brings nourishment to our bodies. It causes us to change, it corrects us when we are wrong and guides us in how we should do life on this earth. Gods word started creation off many people say it was the ‘big bang’ but it was ‘the big guy’ that spoke it into creation.

I felt challenged not condemned when God reminded me of this. I was reminded of a recent story about a girl back in my home town. The headline read ‘the girl that can’t eat’ She was born with a hole in her esophagus linking her mouth to her stomach. She had an operation to close the gap. But she never began to eat or drink even though there was no physical reason stopping her. She had to have vitamins pumped into her to keep her alive.

How many of us are starved from the vitamins that God wants to put into our lives. How many of us have gone days, weeks, months or even years without picking up the word of God and reading it. Unlike the girl from my home town there is no pipe pumping the vitamins we need! We just walk around undernourished in the things of God and this eventual leads to spiritual death.

Romans 10:17 says ‘So  faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.’ If we don’t hear then surely our faith remains stagnant.

It says in 1 Peter 2:1-3 ‘So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.’ ‘Spiritual milk’ in this verse is referring to the word of God. We need it to grow!

Each person will respond in a different way to the challenge set before us. But a response is needed. May you begin to feed on the word of God, may your faith grow as you hear the word of God and as you do you will find that God will accomplish that which he purposed in your life and He shall succeed in the thing which He sent it.