Luke 6:20-36

Luk 6:20 Then Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "How blessed are you who are destitute, for the kingdom of God is yours! 

Luk 6:21 How blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied! How blessed are you who are crying now, for you will laugh! 

Luk 6:22 How blessed are you whenever people hate you, avoid you, insult you, and slander you because of the Son of Man! 

Luk 6:23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for your reward in heaven is great! For that's the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. 

Luk 6:24 "But how terrible it will be for you who are rich, for you have had your comfort! 

Luk 6:25 How terrible it will be for you who are full now, for you will be hungry! How terrible it will be for you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and cry! 

Luk 6:26 How terrible it will be for you when everyone says nice things about you, for that's the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets!" 

Luk 6:27 "But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 

Luk 6:28 Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who insult you. 

Luk 6:29 If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one as well, and if someone takes your coat, don't keep back your shirt, either. 

Luk 6:30 Keep on giving to everyone who asks you for something, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not insist on getting it back. 

Luk 6:31 Whatever you want people to do for you, do the same for them. 

Luk 6:32 "If you love those who love you, what thanks do you deserve? Why, even sinners love those who love them. 

Luk 6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks do you deserve? Even sinners do that. 

Luk 6:34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to get something back, what thanks do you deserve? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back what they lend. 

Luk 6:35 Rather, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. 

Luk 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." 

An Appropriate Interest In God

There is something fundamentally flawed about a purely academic interest in God. God is not an appropriate object for cool, critical, detached, scientific observation and evaluation. No, the true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship…Our place is on our faces before Him in adoration.

- John Stott -

Christ is the Spring of Life

Christ is not a reservoir but a spring. His life is continual, active and ever passing on with an outflow as necessary as its inflow. If we do not perpetually draw the fresh supply from the living Fountain, we hall either grow stagnant or empty, It is, therefore, not so much a perpetual fullness as a perpetual filling.

- A. B. Simpson -

A Life of Prayer

Psa 32:6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.

Psa 32:7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.

Hebrews 12:1-3

12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The Full Reward

We may disagree about the timing of this event, but we all agree that it WILL happen.

1Th 4:16 -18

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
With a shout, with the voice of the archangel
And with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together
With them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
And so we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Maranatha

No longer ourselves

Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours.
So be it. Amen.

- John Wesley -