The story of the Sabbath again. When I think about not working on the Sabbath, I always think of the movie "Fiddler on the Roof". That beginning scene in which the Jewish family is trying to get it all done before sundown...
In Mark, we meet the 12 apostles. The amount of people following him is out of control. I just try to imagine if this all happened today. Look at the way society treats celebrities! What if just one of them could cure a dieses or two. OMG.
LOVE Beelzebub, its always my choice of name for Satan.
I wonder why He named Simon, Peter? I think I might name Jamie, Frank.
I must say that so far Luke is my favorite version. It just seems smoother and easier to read.
Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be filled and completely satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep and sob now (me), for you shall laugh. (For the record, I do A LOT more crying because I'm happy, than because I'm sad, so I don't know if I can technically be included with this bunch)
BUTT if you have material wealth, you've already got your reward. Sooooo, tough luck. I feel like this must be where the Amish get their ideas about humility and living so plainly and simply.
And Jamie and I are really out of luck and may have problems in regards to laughing now. Because we indeed do laugh quite a bit....
Man, there's SO much in this chapter! I think if everyone in the world, I'm not even going to go that far...if everyone who claims to be a Christian would just follow what is taught in the one chapter, the world would be a mighty fine place.
We have the golden rule in 6:31. I absolutely live by this rule, no matter who I am dealing with, and no matter how they treat me. From the checker at wal-mart, to my co-worker, to my student. I think there is NO more important lesson a child can learn.
We get the turn the other cheek thing...
Kill them with kindness...another favorite of mine
And of course, judging people before you've checked your own eye for that plank. LOVE that one.
I've probably left something out, sorry if I have. Those are the high points.
Really.... This is such a good chapter.
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Although I think I touched on this before. I wanted to say again that this shows that Jesus is a common sense kind of fella. Are we supposed to remember/keep the Sabbath day? Yes. But in this text, and in Jesus' own words we see, that neither He or the Father expect us to go hungry in lieu of keeping the Sabbath. If you have to work Sundays in order to keep your job or feed your family, then that's ok. But you have to be honest with yourself (because God will know your true intentions), and decide is this something I really HAVE to do, or is this really something I want to do (to further my career, to make money, to just "get things done", etc.)
I'm a little confused over the "inheritance" issue. The reason being, the reading says that those who are hungry, sad, crying, poor, etc. is in spirit, but when it refers to the wealthy it says it is in material things. So, I'd have to study that some more, and think about it in context with the rest of the Bible to get a better understanding of what that means exactly.
As much as I love the Amish (A-mish), I think they have some of it wrong. They live/dress plainly because of this and what we'll read later about dress. They isolate themselves to be set apart. But as we've just read, if you do that you aren't evangelizing. That is, you aren't actively seeking to bring people into the Kingdom of God, afterall Jesus said it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. How can you do that if you isolate yourself. I think thee knows of what I speak.
Love the golden rule, and turning the other cheek. Just remember, Christians aren't made to be door mats; in fact, we are children of the Most High God. God gave us two cheeks. Ever hear of three strikes and you're out? I would say, if someone strikes you, turn the other cheek, if they strike you on the other cheek, let that go, too; but if they go for a third, let 'em have it. Because of human nature, I don't believe this is an open ended ticked to let people walk all over you. You have to draw a line somewhere.
And judging people, again, is not pointing out that they are doing something in clear violation of the Bible, it is declaring sentence upon them for that, or making judgment upon their person for those actions. And it applies from Christians to non-Christians. We'll clearly read in a bit that Christians have an obligation to confront/rebuke fellow Christians who are consistently and purposefully sinning in spite of the fact that they are supposed to be Christian. This will come from the new wine into old wine skins thing, again. Even so, this still isn't quite the same as judging.
The last thing I wanted to point out was the, building your house upon the rock (of Jesus (God's righteousness, strength, trust, morality)) instead upon the sand (morality, strength of man). I think that metaphor is obvious, but one I think many people overlook (me too, for years) is that the storms that this verse speaks of are the storms in life - addiction, sickness, financial trouble, oppression, accident, tragedy, etc. If your "house" is built upon the Rock you can withstand those things when (not, if) they come, but if your "house" is built upon the sand, then you cannot stand (whether sooner or later).
Lastly, a comic side note. I George divided against itself cannot stand. Independent George, movie George, coffee shop George, liar George, bawdy George....the one you know and love; cannot come into contact with relationship George. World's will collide.
Tomorrow (today) is
Matt.5-7
Almost forgot, I think people don't realise that there were more disciples than the 12 apostles. There were at least 500 disciples (as we'll see at the end of these books), but as we just read Jesus appointed 12 as His apostles. I think many people think there were just 12 all together.
BTW, if Crystal calls me Frank (not that there's anything wrong with that name, I like it), I'm going to call her Bertha (long story).
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