Love for Enemies27“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. 29If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. 30Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away …
Sorrows Foretold24“What sorrow awaits you who are rich, for you have your only happiness now.
25What sorrow awaits you who are fat and prosperous now, for a time of awful hunger awaits you.
What sorrow awaits you who laugh now, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow.
26What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets.…
22What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. 23When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way.
It is tempting to think these things never really happen to us. I think …
God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.
Life is hard. I don’t think God intends for it to be any other way. Sometimes we cry, and cry a lot, and that can be very good.
Some years ago I was blessed to go on a vacation to Banff Canada. It is a gorgeous place in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. God taught me a …
21God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied.
I have no doubt Jesus intends to bless those who are physically hungry in this life. I also have no doubt that he means something much more here, though I have a hard time imagining something more than being physically hungry all the time.
I’m quite confident he’s talking about spiritual hunger. Every single person on the …
The Beatitudes20Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said,
“God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.
So if God blesses the poor, I guess we should know exactly what poor means. Many times people try to sugar coat this in some way. They read this as poor in spirit which it could mean that, But a simple reading of a text …
Crowds Follow Jesus17When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled …
Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles12One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. 13At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:
14Simon (whom he named Peter),
Andrew (Peter’s brother),
James,
John,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
15Matthew,
Thomas,
James (son of Alphaeus),
Simon (who was …
Jesus Heals on the Sabbath6On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. 7The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.
8But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and …
1One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. 2But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”
3Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?…