{"id":6649,"date":"2015-06-26T00:05:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T07:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6649"},"modified":"2015-06-25T15:02:34","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T22:02:34","slug":"poor-and-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/06\/26\/poor-and-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor and Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 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. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil spirits were healed. Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.<\/p>\n

Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said,
\n\u201cGod blesses you who are poor,
\nfor the Kingdom of God is yours.
\nGod blesses you who are hungry now,
\nfor you will be satisfied.
\nGod blesses you who weep now,
\nfor in due time you will laugh.<\/p>\n

What 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. When 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. (Luke 6:17-23)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus often said things contrary to common sense. The last people in the world that anyone might think of as blessed were the very people Jesus addressed. The word translated as \u201cblessed\u201d simply means \u201chappy.\u201d Jesus said that the poor\u2014those who were hungry and weeping\u2014were happy. Certainly not the obvious conclusion.<\/p>\n

\tWhy did Jesus say such people were happy? Because they were the one\u2019s closest to God, that he paid the most attention to, and so the kingdom of God belonged to them.<\/p>\n

\tJesus spoke to crowds everywhere he went. And he taught much the same thing to everyone. The words that we find in the Sermon on the Mount got reused in other times and other places. So, in Luke\u2019s gospel, the words that were part of that Sermon on the Mount in the other gospels were repeated on a plain near the shores of the Sea of Galilee.<\/p>\n

\tIn a world that, like ours, defined happiness by how much wealth you had, how big your house was, and how much power you wielded, Jesus\u2019 words were a startling breath of fresh air. The kingdom of God was something the poor in spirit possessed by virtue of their relationship with God. We can experience God\u2019s kingdom now, thanks to God\u2019s presence in our lives. No matter our circumstances, the blessing of God exists for us now, because God is with us now. When we have God, Jesus said, we really have everything we need.<\/p>\n

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When 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6651,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions\/6651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}