Faith Birthing More Faith

Monday, August 21, 2023

The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.  At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid.  One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria.  He would heal him of his leprosy.”  

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house.  But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River.  Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”  But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me!  Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel?  Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.  But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it?  So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’”  So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him.  And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!  2 Kings 5:1-3, 9-14

This is one of those favorites in Scripture, because it has one of the most dramatic illustrations (on so many levels) of the purity and exceptional nature of faith. 

First, the servant girl, who expresses love for the master who owns her.  In compassion she wishes aloud her master would go to Elisha to be healed.  Naaman acts in faith that is clouded with expectations of a grand show of magical powers, but the prophet won’t even answer the door; he sends a servant to tell the sick man to exercise a more profound faith…go dip in the Jordan seven times! 

When Naaman’s expectations are ignored, he gets angry and, in his rage, wants to take his ball and go home.  But his servants convince him with logic…you wanted a grand show, and you got a simple request:  If it was some hard thing, you’d have done it…what’s a little dip in the muddy waters?  Naaman caves, and the healing evidence becomes history!

I love this account of Naaman’s healing because it is our story of faith in Christ.  Sin in the soul is immeasurably more damning than leprosy in the flesh.  Leprosy can kill only a temporary skin-and-bone body; sin in our immortal soul condemns our eternal being to a never-ending separation from God. 

We are all Naaman…confronted with our sinful ways, we’re faced with the decision to have faith in God by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins, or remain rotting in our chosen sinful ways. 

For You Today 

You have a choice to make, much like Naaman.  Apostle Matthew records the exact words of Jesus about this eternally-significant choice:

Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.  Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  

Matthew 10:28

Hardly any advice needed on this, simply an invitation:  trust Christ now, and be forever thankful for His gift of eternal life.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  via WikimediaCommons   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

A Treasure of Common Sense

Friday, May 20, 2022

For the Lord grants wisdom!  From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.   Proverbs 2:6-7a

Solomon would have known a thing-or-two about wisdom; Scripture informs us there was not a wiser man on planet Earth.  Following the reasoning of Proverbs here, the wisdom of God, granted an honest person, is a treasure of common sense.  Common sense is defined as:  sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.[1] 

A decision which is “sound and prudent” is my kind of joy.  Most of us have made more than enough of the other kind of decisions, the less-than-sound, and woefully-imprudent.  That kind of decision usually gets one in trouble. 

Now, having stated the (painfully) obvious, let’s unpack the source of common sense…how to move towards being a wise person.  It arguably begins with truth.  Solomon[2] tells us it is to the honest person that God grants a treasure of common sense.  So, that would be a starting point for developing into a person said to possess a treasure of common sense.  Sadly, in the 21^st century world that would be a sparsely-populated starting gate.  James Russell Lowell’s famous line, truth forever on the scaffold; wrong forever on the throne, has never more accurately described a culture that populates this world as now.

Whoever first said honesty is the best policy may have been a Solomon reader.  And she or he was right.  If not just because of some lofty aspiration to be noble or admired, but to rightly understand one can be neither without pure and discerning judgment.  And to be such a person requires an ongoing, absolutely intimate relationship with knowing truth, and speaking truth, all in the context of love.  Paul urged the believers at Ephesus to do just that:

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Ephesians 4:15

For You Today

You could go to graduate school at the most prestigious universities in the world for the next 20 years to study ethics and the workings of honesty.  You might come out with a PhD of this world’s approval, and high-sounding theoretical philosophy.  And the world would probably buy your books.

Or you could sit at the feet of the One who said:  I am the way the truth and the life[3], and begin to experience the common sense treasury’s flooding your soul with what really matters. 

Your call.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Merriam-Webster Dictionary

[2] Author of much of the Book of Proverbs, probably chapters 1-29

[3] John 14:6

Silence and Storm

 

I love the story of a man who stopped by his bank to cash a check.  Just as he got into the lobby, another man with a large bag came running past him, apparently heading for the exit.  Then the bank security guard came dashing by, followed by several bank employees.  The security guard tackled the man with the bag, handcuffed him and hauled him back into the bank.

The man who had gone in to cash his check was shaking like a leaf.  I've seen my first robbery, he said to himself.  As he approached the teller's window, he couldn't resist finding out more about what he had just witnessed.  Was that really a robbery? he queried.  Oh, no, sir, the teller replied calmly.  That was only our substantial penalty for early withdrawal.^[1]

We have seen thus far in our study of Revelation the beginning of the Great Tribulation, God's substantial penalty.  There have been six seals of judgment.  Suddenly the seventh seal is broken, and it unleashes a strange silence in heaven. 

The Meaning of the Silence

The previous six seals were opened with immediate and powerful judgments that came on the earth.  Why is it that now, at the opening of the seventh seal, there is a holy hush?

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
When the Lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour.  I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets. Revelation 8.1-2

In a church I served we used to sing  Habakkuk 2:20 out of an old hymnal^[2]:

But the Lord is in his holy Temple.  Let all the earth be silent before him.”  Habakkuk 2:20

In another church their updated hymnal^[3] quoted Zechariah:

Be silent before the Lord, all humanity, for he is springing into action from his holy dwelling.”  Zechariah 2:13

When Moses stood before the burning bush and realized God was speaking, he could do nothing but get on his face and listen.  When John the Baptist's father heard of his wife's conceiving, he became speechless for the whole pregnancy.  There is just something about silence that tells everyone God is holy.  In the middle of the night when you are alone, and if you get honest with yourself, you know God is there – and it's scary! 

Silence expresses the sovereignty of God.  Today's generation needs noise and activity to blot out the possibility of God.  Producers of TV programs don't allow scenes to drag on.  They change the picture every 2-3 seconds; they use snappy dialogue and bright contrasts in color, brightness, mood – all so the viewer won't have time to think – just be overwhelmed with emotions and infused with the desire to go buy the products advertised.  Silence isn't desired, because if you had time to think, you might ask yourself if you even needed the products they advertise.  The sovereignty of God thunders in silence.

THE SAINTS' PRAYERS
Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar.  And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne.  The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.  Revelation 8:3-4

Someone wrote the reason things got quiet in heaven was because God would rather hear the prayer of one believer than the sweetest singing of all the angels. 

Notwithstanding, here God is entertaining the prayers of the tribulation saints – those who have been martyred.  What kind of prayers are they?  They are the imprecatory prayers of God's people for the vengeance of God on the wicked persecutors.  They're asking God to take revenge on the heathen unbelievers. 

If you’re inclined to think God’s people never pray and beg for God to bring the bad guys to justice, you don’t understand human nature, or you’re just being dishonest.  Read Psalm 109 sometime.  David, the sweet, loving shepherd boy asks God to make the children of his enemies all orphans who go hungry continually, and have their entire family cut off from memory.[4]

This kind of prayer hardly seems appropriate for the Christian church to listen to let alone pray.  But it does speak of the kind of vindication we would like to see.  A wise man once said, if there was any justice in this world, people would occasionally be permitted to fly over pigeons.^[5]

Have you ever prayed that way?  Never underestimate the silence of God on the matter.

Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake.  Revelation 8.5

This is the warning of God that judgment is about to be meted-out for mistreating His own.  This is not the first shadow of hot coals of judgment.

Then the Lord spoke to the man in linen clothing and said, “Go between the whirling wheels beneath the cherubim, and take a handful of burning coals and scatter them over the city.” He did this as I watched.  Ezekiel 10:2

We ought never to wonder if God has the ability or stomach to judge righteously.  We aren't home yet!  The game has a few more innings.

The Storm

Trumpets placed in the hands of angels begin to blow the storm of judgment on the earth.  Trumpets, in the Bible, can stand for several things. 

·       They may sound an alarm, a wake-up call to the dangers of forsaking God. 

·       They can be an alert to worship. 

·       They can also sound an assembly, as when the enemy is coming. 

What kind of storm do these trumpets invoke?

SEVERE JUDGMENTS IN ANSWER TO THE SAINTS' PRAYERS
Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts.  The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth.  One-third of the earth was set on fire, one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass was burned.  Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and a great mountain of fire was thrown into the sea.  One-third of the water in the sea became blood, one-third of all things living in the sea died, and one-third of all the ships on the sea were destroyed.  Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch.  It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water.  The name of the star was Bitterness.  It made one-third of the water bitter, and many people died from drinking the bitter water.  Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one-third of the sun was struck, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, and they became dark.  And one-third of the day was dark, and also one-third of the night.  Revelation 8:6-12

Trumpets of judgment fill our songs.  Julia Ward Howe wrote our Battle Hymn of the Republic,

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.

He is sifting-out the hearts of men before his judgment seat.^[6]

Another 17th century poet, John Dryden wrote:

The trumpet shall be heard on high,

The dead shall live, the living die,

And music shall untune the sky!^[7]

The question is always asked:  Are these literal or symbolic judgments?  We want to know:

·       will blood really mix with fire and hail? 

·       Will a literal mountain be picked up and thrown into San Francisco Bay? 

I hope so!  That would be quite a site when I'm watching from the sky, sitting next to Jesus.  But other interpretations are possible. 

·       The literal judgment says the land will be scorched; symbolism says it means the masses of people (numerous as the grass) will die in a plague. 

·       Literal judgment says the seas will be polluted; symbolism takes the seas of people through a new Hitler-like holocaust. 

·       Literal interpretation says the rivers will be affected; symbolic thought measures the length and breadth of Satan's influence. 

·       Literalists see the heaven's orbit tossed about; and the symbolic look talks of overthrown governments.

Either interpretation is scary!  Either interpretation needs to be remembered in the context as God's response to the prayers of His people for vindication.  We know God is love, and prefers to forgive, rather than judge.  However, He did say,

Dear friends, never take revenge.  Leave that to the righteous anger of God.  For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19

Anything God promises – good or bad – will happen! 

There is also a warning for the inhabitants of the earth to prepare, or brace themselves for the next three trumpets.

A WARNING THAT THE WORST HASN'T BEEN SEEN
Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”  Revelation 8:13

Although some of the ancient texts says an "angel" is flying, most translations say it is an "eagle."  This is consistent with Jesus' warning in his last sermon from Mount Olivet[8].  An eagle is an omen of danger.  This is a bird with a terrible word for the world.  The foul-mouthed eagle warns that the inhabitants of the earth had better look-out – they hadn't seen anything yet!

There is a silence even today, as God is patiently calling and allowing the lost to come into the safety of His family in Christ.  Friends do not mistake the stillness of silence for the absence of a storm.  God may appear to be silent, but He is not absent-minded.

The mighty Niagara River plummets some 180 feet at the American and Horseshoe Falls.  Before the falls, there are violent, turbulent rapids.  Farther upstream, however, where the river's current flows more gently, boats can navigate. Just before the Weiland River empties into the Niagara, a pedestrian walkway spans the river. Posted on this bridge's pylons is a warning sign for all boaters:

There is a point on the Niagara River that is the point of no return.^[9]  There is a time when the anchor will be necessary to keep you from going over the falls.

For now we are in life's quiet waters upstream.  God is silent, and the turbulence is minor.  But the signs are on the horizon.  There will come a time when an anchor will be needed.  That anchor is Jesus Christ. 

Remember, there is always a silence before the storm! 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture from The New Living Translation 

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[1]Ed Warren in Reader's Digest

[2]The Broadman Hymnal, (Nashville, Broadman Press, 1940), 483

[3]The Baptist Hymnal, (Nashville, Convention Press, 1991), 80

[4] Read Psalm 109 here

[5]Gene Brown, News-Times (Danbury, Conn)

[6]Julia Ward Howe, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World, (Wheaton, Tyndale        House Publishers, Inc., 1992)

[7]John Dryden, Ibid

[8] Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.  

    Matthew 24:28

[9]"To Illustrate", Leadership, Summer, 1992, vol. XIII NO.3, 47. 

His Answer is STILL His Answer

Friday, January 23, 2015

Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

Matthew 11:4-5 (NRSV)

John the Baptist is in prison and has one simple question for Jesus:  Just answer this one thing and I can die a happy man; Are YOU the Messiah? 

And what does Jesus say? 

He tells the condemned man to figure it out for himself! 

Really great, eh? 

I used to wonder why Jesus just couldn’t give his poor imprisoned cousin John a straight answer; just tell him “yes” or “no,” Jesus! 

But we serve a God who never wastes an opportunity to increase our faith.  Had Jesus just given a simple “yes” John would have been in the same spot, and still wondering to this day! 

But, by pointing to the evidence, Jesus kept the issue of faith and personal decision in the forefront.  John had to exercise his faith in Jesus, or be content with his unbelief.

Jesus’ indirect answer to John helps us understand the very same answer today, because Jesus asks us to consider for ourselves the same question he had asked the disciples….Who do YOU say that I am?

In other words, Jesus tells us mortals, prisoners of our own sinful nature and this lost world, that our task here on earth is to consider the evidence…which is:

Jesus has done it all – healed the deaf, gave sight to the blind, enabled the disabled, and even raised the dead…and by Easter morning an empty tomb would be the final proof that a dead man really would live again.  His sacrifice would make it possible for us to be saved from our sins, and know God…personally. 

The evidence tells us our task is to come close to God and experience his love just as certainly as the blind, deaf and dead felt the compassionate touch of Jesus two thousand years ago.  The Psalmist gave us the same advice:

O taste and see that the LORD is good;  Psalm 34:8a (KJV)

Jesus isn’t hiding, but if you want to find out how good he really is, you’ve got to taste that goodness personally…nobody else can use your taste buds!

For You Today

How “personal” is your relationship with Jesus Christ?

Church can be overly-corporate with our spoken confessions of faith, unison readings of Scripture and Denominational identity. 

But when it comes down to your soul, it is YOUR will, your “spiritual taste buds” that are deciding whose side you’re on; YOU decide who He is!

[Title image:  By Shakko (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons]

Blessed Believing

1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.  2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:  3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.  8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:1 - 12 (NRSV)

This will be the last series of messages I will have the opportunity to share with you, so for these last 7 weeks I have chosen the Sermon on the Mount.  Contained in this most famous of Jesus’ discourses are seven of the most important patterns for living the Christian life.              
In beginning a new series it’s important to open the road map about where we are going.  So, over these next two months we will look at these vital areas of concern for living life in the Kingdom of God:

• Believing in Jesus Christ
• Praying
• Forgiving others
• Giving
• Ministering
• Being spiritually and morally healthy
• Persevering in the faith
All of these are contained in Matthew Chapters 5-7.  Of course there is a whole lot more than just these.  Entire libraries have been devoted to the Sermon on the Mount.  But these 7 issues form a pretty comprehensive framework for walking in the life of faith as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A WORD ABOUT “THE SERMON”
I approach preaching from THE Sermon with a great deal of personal caution…this is, after all, not MY sermon….it’s HIS!  These few chapters from Matthew (and the other Gospels) are the words the disciples had stuck in their minds.  Over the course of three years as they walked together and shared with the multitudes of people who followed – this body of teaching is what they remembered and wrote down after Jesus was crucified.  This is what Jesus wanted us to remember…and give attention to how the words impact our lives.
Before we begin exposition of THE Sermon, consider how humbly the preacher has to come to this passage.  I am about to give a sermon that proclaims THE Sermon.  I am about to “stand-in” for Jesus today (How’s that working for you, Russell?).
But lest we forget, this particular text is what Jesus wanted us to remember, and to live-into and pass-on to others.  It would be a catastrophe for any preacher to not preach this Sermon.
Now, if the Sermon is that important, how has the church throughout the last two millennia dealt with it?  What do we say about what the Sermon means, and what we’re to do with it?
There are many volumes of interpretive thought written over the centuries about Jesus’ sermon.  Here are a few:
• In Medieval times the general consensus was that the ethical standard Jesus gave in his Sermon was simply a higher level of obedience that clergy and monastics had to observe.  The laity, I suppose, could be forgiven more.  They figured this was a private sermon to the apostles.
But that’s not what John Wesley thought.  Wesley pointed-out in his sermon  on this text that when the sermon was over the multitudes were astonished….  Multitudes!  This was no private sermon, it was for everyone.  It’s still that way!
• Martin Luther held that the Sermon’s ethics were like the Ten Commandments (what Moses called “the law”).  “…the law, was to Paul,…God’s impossible moral demands [which] disclose the depths of our sinfulness; and drive us to our knees in repentance.”   They are like schoolbooks, teaching us what’s good and what’s not good.
• Other modern day liberal views have seen this as Jesus’ ethical and moral encouragement to humans to “bring-in” the kingdom of God on this earth by civil policies.  This is what’s called the “Social Gospel”.
• Another modern day scholar (Craig Blomberg) with whom I agree, suggests the Sermon is characteristic of an “already now/not yet” “inaugurated eschatology”.                                          
(Aren’t you glad you asked?)
In short, that means the kingdom ethic of everybody at peace with everybody else will never be fully-realized until the consummation of the kingdom at the return of Christ.  We’re bad people on this planet, and there will be bad stuff done until Jesus returns.
But, while that’s so, on the other hand, the Sermon’s ethic is still our goal and standard; we are to strive to live as Jesus taught, now, here in this life.  We are given strength to do this by His Spirit.  So, it (the Kingdom) is already now, but not yet!
Today’s text (particularly 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.) is instrumental and foundational to understanding this already now – not yet nature of the Sermon.
And we must not forget that these words of Jesus’ are a sermon…not just a list of clergy rules from the Book of Discipline, or a political manifesto – the sermon is an arrow to our hearts.
A sermon functions on many levels; a sermon:
• is a word of healing to the human heart where needs live.
• is a word of holiness requiring repentance of the sinner.
• speaks words of strength to the timid.
• speaks words of enlightenment to the tired, dull soul.
• utters words of motivation to listless lazy servants
• words of warning to the arrogant selfish child of God
• words of hope to the discouraged and oppressed
• words of challenge to the petulant

A friend and I were talking recently, and he said to me that Jesus’ Sermon was just “slam-full” of grace.  This is so true, because, just like the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, the New Testament Sermon of Jesus points to the incredibly overwhelming standard of holiness God requires of his creation.  The Sermon essentially reminds us every moment that we are unable to meet this standard.  The Sermon loudly proclaims that it is by grace alone that we are saved, not of [our] works, lest there be any boasting!  (Eph 2:8-9)
I mentioned to you a few weeks ago that I was going to preach this series as a legacy – I want to leave you with (what I consider) the most important things I have learned in the past 50+ years of following Jesus Christ.  If there is one thing that tops the list it is the whole concept of God’s grace as the answer to everything.
Of all the doctrines of the Christian faith, there is none which makes any sense without grace:
• The grace of God is what gave us the cross.
• The grace of God is what gives us a hope of heaven.
• The grace of God forgives my sin.
• The grace of God gave me my first breath, and it is only by the grace of God I’ll draw another.
• All I do is by the unseen hand of God loving and guiding me.  Without his grace I am nothing.
When I retire as your pastor in two months, my fondest hope is that when someone asks you what your pastor preached on for the seven years he was here – that your answer will be framed by grace, and not anything of Russell.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT                                        
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
Here are two critically-important phrases for understanding how to live the Christian life, “blessed are” and “poor in spirit”.  Blessed simply means “to be happy”.  It is a condition of contentedness, a sense that all is well.
“Poor in spirit” has nothing to do with financial poverty…to be “poor” means humble.  The “in spirit” part of the phrase is “spiritually” or our attitude towards God.  To paraphrase it then is:
O how happy are those who have a humble attitude towards God.
Every word Jesus ever uttered is virtually useless to a person who is not humble towards God, ready to obey, serve and give.  It’s what the Sermon means; it’s how we will spend the next seven weeks.
WHAT HE SAID THAT DAY
As Jesus looked out over the crowd there on the hillside, he saw in the faces of, perhaps thousands, the one common, expectant hope of all individuals:  every one of them, no matter their station in life, wanted happiness.
They wanted that blessed state of knowing all was well.  It was just that they weren’t interested in having what Jesus said about being “blessed” as having humility towards God.  The sense of contentment they were hoping for centered in seeing the circumstances of their lives improve:
• The affluent were craving some kind of fulfillment their money couldn’t buy; the poor were looking to get rich
• The blind wondered why God hadn’t given them sight; the sighted were unhappy with all their eyes could see
• The old longed for the days when young bones didn’t ache so much; the young were fighting the “system” they figured was designed and run by the old
Every age and arena of life has its dissatisfactions.  The preacher of Ecclesiastes had nailed it – all is vanity!
Is it any different today?  Some roles may have switched:
• the old now fight the “system”.
• the affluent begrudge social assistance to the single parent who can’t seem to stay afloat financially.
• the activists of every race, color, creed or gender-specific movement cry out for a larger share of the power.
We are no different than the crowd that gathered to listen to Jesus on that hillside; they wanted a little share of the happiness he talked about.

Today we seem to push from day to day, event to event, seeking a better balance or just the right experience or new way to legislate fairness in government, in the hopes that, just around the corner, over the next hilltop, there will be The Emerald City in the Land of Oz, and just like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion we’ll live happily ever after.
Only it doesn’t work that way, does it?  With all our searching, striving, planning and diligence, the yellow-brick road just goes on and on; it’s the treadmill to nowhere.
DOES HAPPINESS REALLY EXIST?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explained that happiness does indeed exist.  He even when so far as to clearly show us where it is to be found; and how to get there.  Of course there’s no person beside Jesus who is better-qualified to draw the map.
Why is that so?  If you recall the children that surrounded Jesus, and the crowds that flocked to him, and the parties and weddings – Jesus always seemed to be in the center of things.  People don’t flock to people who want to talk about their operations and lumbago.  And you don’t read in Scripture of any times when Jesus did that kind of complaining.  His words were of vital concern to all; his words were of blessing, because he was an entirely blessed man.  This brings us to the main thrust of the Sermon – blessedness…happiness!  It really does exist!
TWO QUESTIONS
There are two questions that will lead you to genuine happiness – that wonderful state of blessedness, contentment that all is well with your life and your soul.
#1.  WHAT KIND OF MAN WAS JESUS?
Sit with Matthew 5:1-12 and run through those “blesseds” – ask yourself if this was the kind of man Jesus was – merciful, seeking the righteousness of God, pure in heart, reviled and persecuted by men.  If your answer is “yes he was” all the way through, proceed to question #2:
#2. DO I WANT TO BE THAT KIND OF PERSON?
If you want to be blessed, then you must humble yourself before God…a servant of God who is poor in spirit.
A servant lives to please his master.  That is what Jesus meant when he talked about being poor in spirit – people who are willing to live for God’s rule in their heart and life.
If your answer here is also “yes, I do” then blessedness, genuine contentment is not far off…it will come as you surrender all you are to Him.
This is what we call believing in Jesus, and it is blessed believing!