Ten days after the Ascension of Jesus Christ there was a miraculous event on Jerusalem during the Feast of Shavuot or ‘Weeks’, most commonly referred to as Pentecost.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:4)
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5.3)
Greek word translated: μακαριοι; makarioi (3107)
Jesus, during his Galilean ministry, sitting high on a hillside above the lake, describes as ‘blessed’ people who are suffering in one form or another; mourning, humbled, hungering, thirsting and persecuted. At first reading this sounds odd, if not ridiculous.
The sermon on the mount is the closest Jesus came to setting out a ‘manifesto’, if you will, a summary of his ministry. Controversial and counter-cultural, then and now, Read more
Another form of trial is temptation, but if God instigates tests, would he also tempt any to do evil? James makes clear that would violate his nature. So how does the follower of Christ distinguish between trials, by origin or motive?
When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:13-14)
πειρασμός peirasmos (G3986) translates trial but is also the word translated ‘temptation’.
Scripture tells everyone that God subjects the followers of Christ to trials and tests, so as to check faithfulness, and it is natural that no one enjoys this process. Nobody likes being checked and measured, yet it is God’s purpose for mortal life, it is the proving ground of the soul.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3)
Greek word: πειρασμός peirasmos (G3986) translates trial meaning test or a proving process. It can also mean adversity and calamity.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5:13)
The Greek word is ἅλας halas (Strong’s 217) and it means common table salt (sodium chloride).
Today tolerance is seen as a virtue. That it is so, is simply a product of a world view that excludes absolutes. Where truth can be individual, there is no Truth, therefore all is tolerable because all is fabricated and therefore of no value. It is the lot of humankind to be prone to deception. It was no different in the early church.
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. (Titus 2:11)
The word in Greek that is translated as ‘salvation’ is σωτηρία sótéria (Strong’s 4991). In Titus, Paul uses the adjectival form, and the sense is of deliverance; this begs the preposition, ‘from’. From what is anyone delivered or saved? God offers through Christ, His grace personified, to save individuals from a terrible judgment and ultimate expulsion from His communion.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. (2 Peter 1:10)
God is faithful and keeps his promises – even when humankind cannot. To save his creation, he had to make a covenant and populate both sides of the agreement. Jesus was God made flesh to ensure God the Father had no cause for default, but the cost was the separation, expressed in the Cry of Dereliction. To understand this process, it best to look to the previous biblical covenants, only then will the radical design of the ‘New Covenant’ emerge.
Is life a mere accident? Does human life have meaning, if so how and through whom? Science has answered many questions about the ‘how’ but not the ‘why’. But as beings that seek identity and purpose, failing to answer why there is life is more than unsatisfactory, for it leaves humankind in an existential vacuum that few can bear. Attempts to fill that vacuum include the accumulation of wealth or experiences, frenetic activity or developing addictive, destructive lifestyles. But nothing ultimately works – the gaping hole remains a chasm at our very core.
In this post, I attempt to explain that only when we face the fact that we are creatures and we have a creator, and moreover, wish to restore the relationship with our creator that life has meaning.
God Breathed Words 