To BE Attitudes: Blessed ARE the Meek...

Matthew 5:5. In the days we live, meekness is synonym of dumbness, brainlessness, stupidity, foolishness, etc. To me, one of the most amazing characters in the Bible is Moses. He was prince in Egypt and gave up on everything to become a meek servant: Numbers 12:3. Can we say that Moses was dumb or fool? Of course not! Another amazing character in the Bible is Jesus Christ, He left everything in heaven to become a meek servant man, just like Moses. Deuteronomy 18:15. Can we also call Jesus Christ dumb or fool? Of course not! Unfortunately, we are being taught by the world that we must be the best, we must win at all cost, we must be on the top of the pyramid, it doesn't matter how we get there, if we have to cheat, deceive, steal, ruin someone else's reputation, we must do it. The other day i was watching a documentary about Enron, what they did with the State of California, it was horrible, i couldn't believe the phone conversations and testimonies i heard, how those people could be so selfish and evil. Why is this generation so arrogant, prideful and selfish? Why is evil, the post-modern good? Paul addressed this issue in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. We are living in perilous times and more than ever we must follow Moses' example. Meekness is the path for greatness!

To BE Attitudes: Blessed ARE the Mourners...

Matthew 5:4. The definition of mourning is: To feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore; to grieve or lament over (the dead); to utter in a sorrowful manner. This is tough to reconcile, Blessing and Mourning, since to be blessed means: consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified; blissfully happy or contented. Honestly, when i started writing this post, i thought to be blessed was "all of the above" definition at once (combined), but that's not the case. How can someone be sorrowful or disconsolate and blissfully happy at the same time? Of course it's not possible! Sorrowful and Happiness are opposites and in this case, unlike the Law of Polarity that says the opposites attract, they repel each other. Besides, we have to consider Jesus Christ in the death of Lazarus, when He wept. Was He weeping because He was blissfully happy or because He groaned in the spirit and was troubled? John 11:32-35. As Solomon wrote: Ecclesiastes 3:1-4. Jesus not only understood the times and seasons, but He also expressed the fullness of His humanity and yet He never sinned. Our problem as believers, is that we try our best to be "better" than Jesus Christ, He wept, rejoiced, got angry, was troubled, was quiet, was outspoken, suffered, smiled, etc. It's ok to express our feelings, since they don't lead us to sin. Romans 12:15. So, there's no need for a Comforter (Holy Spirit) if we'll never mourn: John 14:26.

To BE Attitudes: Blessed ARE the Poor in Spirit...

Matthew 5:1-3. First of all, let's "try" to define the word blessed: consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified; blissfully happy or contented. Before, i had a hard time believing that a poor in spirit or broken hearted person could be blissfully happy or contented, to me it didn't make any sense, i always associated to be poor in spirit with unhappiness, sadness, depression, etc. It could be consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified, but never HAPPY or JOYFUL! Is it possible to be Happy or Joyful in the midst of a trial? Check what Paul and James spoke about it: 2 Corinthians 8:2; James 1:2-3. Jesus said that the person who has a contrite and humble spirit is a happy person, because it's the type of person who doesn't care about earthly things, that person cares about others more than he cares about himself, he has a wonderful attribute called unselfishness. Besides, the Lord is near to this kind of person. Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2; Psalm 34:18; Psalm 51:17. David was this type of person. God called him "a man after His own heart" because David had a broken heart, he was poor in spirit. He never "exalted" himself, he was never "prideful", he made mistakes, some bigger than others, but he always "humbled" himself before God and men. Jesus was poor in spirit, humble, broken hearted, he never "exalted" Himself, He was the most humble man ever, that's the reason why God the Father exalted Him above all, His humbleness led Him to become a servant. Why is this generation so arrogant and prideful? Why are we so far from God's standard? Is still possible to be humble and poor in spirit? Matthew 11:29; Philippians 2:5-8. Is still possible to have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had? I believe so!

The Trichotomy of the "Original" Sin.

1 John 2:16. In this text, John divides "sin" into three distinct categories: The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If we consider all the sins we know, we can fit them into one of those three categories. Going back to the beginning, literally speaking, we can see clearly what John is talking about in the first "human" sin, the so called "original" sin: Genesis 3:6, good for food (lust of the flesh), pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes), desirable to make one wise (pride of life). I had this question for a long time: Why does the Bible call the "original" sin, Adam's Sin? Shouldn't it be called Adam and Eve's Sin, since was Eve who took the first bite? Well, if Moses wrote Genesis chronologically, then Eve didn't exist when God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: Genesis 2:16-17. I have a question for you: Do you know what satan said when he was thrown out of heaven? "I'm gonna get EVEn Adam!". Just a joke. But even if Moses didn't describe the "creation" chronologically, meaning, Eve already existed when God gave Adam the commandment, still God gave to Adam the authority over everything, Adam was the "decision maker", he was to blame for eating the fruit, sin entered the world through him: Romans 5:12; Romans 5:19. We can associate the lust of the flesh with body, the lust of the eyes with soul and the pride of life with spirit, since we are made of body, soul and spirit, sin will always appeal to one of them! If we want to live a holy life (apart from sin), we must put on the whole armor of God: Ephesians 6:11. We must have the fruit of the Spirit: Galatians 5:22-24. We must be careful of what we see. Matthew 6:22. When i started writing this post, i thought trichotomy only meant: division into three parts or categories. But at the end, i was making sure that i was writing trichotomy correctly and found this: In theology and in philosophy related to it, trichotomy is the belief that man consists of three parts; a body, soul, and spirit.
Conclusion: 1 Corinthians 6:19; Psalm 23:3; Psalm 51:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

The Kingdom of God is Like...

Matthew 13:44-46. It's incredible how easy it is, just by reading Matthew 13, to identify if we belong to God's kingdom or not. Even if Jesus is speaking in parables and comparing the kingdom of heaven to something else, He makes it very clear that there's the "before and after", there's the "sold all and bought it", there's the "lose my life to gain the eternal one". I remember when this happened to me, about 11 years ago, i found this treasure called "the kingdom of God", literally speaking, i gave up on everything to follow Jesus Christ. We can see through this parable that the people will only be willing to "sell everything" (lose their lives) if they consider the kingdom of God to be more valuable than what they have. Through these parables Jesus makes it very clear who will enter in the kingdom of God and who won't, just confirming what He said in Matthew 16:25. In the parable of the sower Jesus compares the ground with the heart, the seed with the Word of God, the birds with demons and says that the condition of the ground will determine if there will be a crop and the amount of it. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus explains that along with the wheat (children of God) it will grow the tare (children of the devil) and it's not up to us to "uproot" them, because we can "uproot" the wheat also, meaning, in the church there are the children of God and the children of the devil and only God knows who's who, because they "look" the same! In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus talks about the "growth" of the "seed", saying that even if it is the smallest seed, in the "proper" ground it will grow so much that it will became a tree. In the parable of the leaven, Jesus is saying that the "purpose" of the kingdom is to grow or to expand, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:6. In the parable of the dragnet, Jesus is saying that at the end of the age, the angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. I know it's not "politically" correct, even inside the church, to say that there are wicked people in the church, because it might offend some (the wicked ones). Of course we have to draw the line between "being politically correct" and "speaking the truth" (in love), since it was Jesus who said that the wicked and the just are growing together and one day God will separate them. Jesus point in these parables is to show us the condition of our hearts, if we consider God's Kingdom to be more valuable than ours, if God's Kingdom is "growing" in our hearts and if we are God's children or the children of the devil.

A Dog Returns to His Own Vomit.

This might sound disgusting to you, but this is actually taken from the Bible. In 2 Peter 2, Peter is talking about the false teachers and their false doctrines, check these verses: 2 Peter 2:1-3. See that Peter makes it very clear that there will be false teachers among God's people, that's inevitable. But Peter is saying that they will bring their heresies secretly. If we're not careful, if we don't "test the spirits", we will be deceived. What's very interesting is that Peter says that they will exploit you with deceptive words. It doesn't take too long to realize how many false teachers are out there, among God's people, if you just turn you tv on and pay attention, you'll see clearly that Peter was right. You will hear extremely deceptive words with the intent to exploit you, to take money from you! Question: Is God's Kingdom for sale? Didn't Jesus Christ say that we might give for free what we freely received? Matthew 10:8. Why there's almost always money involved in the "great commission"? Is it because they associate the word "commission" with the one used in business deals? See how many synonyms Peter gives in this chapter to false teachers: Natural brute beasts, exploiters, unjusts, lustful, depraved, spots and blemishes, adulterous, etc. The problem in accepting false teachings is that when the tribulation comes, and it will come because Jesus said so, it's just a matter of time, the ones who accepted it will fall away, will abandon their faith. That's what Peter meant when he quoted that proverb: 2 Peter 2:22. Peter is saying that the "ex-believers" would return to their sinful lifestyle as the dog returns to his own vomit or the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire. In fact, as Peter says in 2 Peter 2:20, it's better never been washed than to be washed and go back to the mire, meaning, it's better to keep living the sinful life than after experiencing holiness turning away from God. Revelation 22:11.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is SERVANT!

Of course you remember that the old saying states that "the one-eyed man is king", but since i'm writing from a christian perspective and christians are called to be servants (slaves) just as Jesus Christ became (Philippians 2:5-11). Instead of ruling over (lordship) the "spiritually blind" people, we suppose to serve them. This early morning, i was meditating about this "blind" thing, and remembered John Newton's Song "Amazing Grace". It goes like this:
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see. I never thought about his lyrics, but this Bible verse came to my mind when thinking about it: 1 Corinthians 13:12. Paul is saying that even if our eyes were opened, we still see dimly, the mirror he's talking about is the "greek mirror" which was made of highly polished brass and had a weak and imperfect mirror-image, not like our mirrors, but even ours, they reflect only the "reverse" image. Paul is also speaking about "reflecting" Jesus Christ, that we won't be able to "reflect" the "full image of Christ", since we are "sinners". The problem with this "was blind, but now i see" mentality, is that many "leaders" set God's people free from satan just to rule over them, instead of doing what Jesus did: John 8:36; Galatians 5:1. We maybe see better than the "spiritually blind" ones, but our best vision will be 20/20, 20 is used as it's the distance that vision is usually measured at - 20ft, it means that we can't see that far and in our best days we are "short sighted". The only person who had a perfect "spiritual vision" was Jesus Christ. That's probably the reason why we don't have all the answers, why we can't solve all the problems, We are not finished yet! God is restoring us, molding us, perfecting us, to make us conformed to the image of His Son. Romans 8:29. So, how much do we really see? From being "slaves" of the devil have we become "lords" of other people? are we using our freedom to indulge our sinful nature? Galatians 5:13.