The Sermon on the Mont.

[lonnienord]

Lets use Lent to discuss this great sermon here in the Chapel!

Last Sunday my pastor gave a good short overview i want to share:

According to Fr. Joseph, the sermon on the mount is JESUS blueprint for becoming a saint. The Beatitudes are the first page. They are the floor plan.
The rest of the sermon gives specifics on how to build (become) a saint.

What do you all think?

all for JESUS!!:clap:
lonnie:wave:
__________________
I give my life to JESUS who gave HIS life for me

[Jamza]

(Hope you don't mind me joining in if I'm not Catholic :))

1.'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God'.

I feel this does't mean the literally poor, nor the cowardly, nor the unfaithful. My opinion is it refers to those who are wise enough to know the 'poorness' or their own 'spirit', or in other words, people who realize how useless they are in themselves, and depend on God for everything, thus making them strong, and able to build up the Kingdom with God's guidence :D

God Bless

[lonnienord]

I certainly don't mind if you join. I enjoy worshipping with all Christians :groupray: and i especially like it when they want to join me in worshipping in a Catholic area. In fact i plan to quote several protestant Bibles in this discussion. First i will present the orginal English Catholic translation.

Here is the Douay-Rheims translation of the beautitudes:
1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. 2. And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying: 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4. Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 5. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. 7. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8. Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. 9. Blesses are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God. 10. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: 12. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

all for JESUS!!:clap:
lonnie:wave:

[Jamza]

See how each of these is seen as a week virtue in secular society. I believe that without exception, these values are contary to those that might allow someone to achieve worldly success, perhaps even more in Jesus' society. Those that succeed in business (save by the grace of God) are strong, aggressively assertive, selfish, unethical and ruthless. Jesus is turning the world's values on their head.

A self help book about getting on in life would probably despair at these values, but God doesn't call us to do well in the world's eyes. To be blessed is far better than any material things. The 'material' rewards for these values will come in eternity anyway, so maybe you could regard these values as the ultimate investment plan!

In my understanding, we will be blessed in this life too; filled with God's Spirit and a deep sense of peace. When people are blessed they sin less too. Also, if we stick to heavenly values, God will see to our needs materially too, and if we do get a bit strapped for cash, persecuted, or insulted, we should first rejoice because God counts us worthy to suffer for His sake, and we must always remember than He will make us content with what we have. I don't say that in a vauge way - I actually mean that if we're in a close and personal relationship with Our Lord and Savior, (whether we're Catholic or otherwise) material things won't seem as important, because with the power and peace of God in your life, you won't want to be amazingly rich by worldy standards.

In Christ, we've got infiinite blessings better than anything money can buy or comfort or decadence can offer.

[lonnienord]

LORD GOD, this Lent help us to do our best to keep our mind fixed on YOU and Your Kingdom.

Today begins lent.

I hope you all enjoy Lent as a time to get closer to GOD. by the way do you know what Lent means. (a hint it is a time to do spring cleaning)

all for JESUS!!
lonnie

[lonnienord]

Jamza, You made some excellent points about the beautitudes!! Thank you for sharing them with us and thank you for participating in this discussion.

What does being meek mean?

[Jamza]

Meek - 1.Humble in spirit or manner
2.Piously gentle in nature

NRSV - Mat. 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth"

When the world talks about meekness its a negative term; such as the meek, but hard working, office worker who gets overlooked in promotion. As with the other beautitudes, it seems to contradict the usual means to success. In this life, if you want success you shamelessly assert yourself and don't look back at the people you trample on along the way; think of a CV or Resume :D

God calls Christians to be meek; and it may sometimes cost us a little pride, and maybe sometimes we will lose out a little bit by putting others first. But look at God's promise: the end result of our meekness will not be to end up at the bottom of the pile, nor will we be slightly better of than others we will inherit the Earth!

Its sort of hard to see how we can marry the concept of being meek to being resolute and zealous; but Jesus did it, so we should look at his example.

Here's something: U can't help noticing the division on the forums between the denominations. Maybe the biggest is between Catholics and Evangelicals and other Protestants. This is one situation where neither side is meek; and is of course reflected in real life. What would Jesus do? Well, if you look in the Bible, when Jesus is faced with clever and technical disagreements, he astounds people by getting right to the heart of the matter and showing love. For example, accepting the anointing of his feet in worship by a sinful woman, or healing someone on the Sabbath.

The next time another denomination says you're wrong; don't come back with a fistful of arguements and accusations of the other denominations being abominations; gently tell them you disagree, and try to show them love and geniuinly look at their side of the argument.

To look at things at a more general level; try to treat everyone with love and respect, even those that you unconciously judge as worse than you. For example, show love and kindness to the homeless man down your road; to your angry neighbour, to teen 'thugs' who walk around 'always looking for trouble', to homosexuals, to people of other religions, to the people at work nobody likes; and especially to anyone who hates you.

Try, for a day, to treat everyone u meet in the same way u'd treat Jesus, by humbling yourself and thinking of them first. See what a difference it makes.
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That's my two cents, sorry if it sounds really preachy hehe, I'm sure lots of it is wrong, but I meekly post it ;) haha

[lonnienord]

do i need to work at being meek, a peacemaker, merciful, pure etc?

on my way here this morning i was talking with JESUS about these things and one of the things i seemed to hear HIM tell me was that there is only one thing i need to work on and that is my relationship with HIM and when i truely know HIM and talk with HIM these things will naturally be a part of my life. Does that ring true to you?

all for JESUS!!
lonnie

__________________
I give my life to JESUS who gave HIS life for me