In the name of the father, The Son and the Holy spirit
Blessed are those who mourn for they will comforted.
As a nation of people how does the death of someone affect us, On Thursday the world changed in mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Press release:
The 96-year-old British monarch passed away “peacefully” at her Balmoral estate on Thursday, September 8, 2022, in the afternoon, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
Since the news broke world leaders and global figures have been remembering Her Majesty and have shared their condolences as well as their special memories of a special woman… The internet was alive with pictures, and stories of a woman’s whole life, not just any woman, but Our Queen, our head of state, people gathered out side various Palaces, she has throughout our country and paid Homage to a Great lady, A woman for all ages.. even there were folks singing the national anthem outside Buckingham Palace
But our Queen was a Mother, Grandmother, Great grandmother, Sister, Aunt, some see her as the backbone of everyday life a great comforter, when our nation has loss, or disaster strikes, a Comforter for all her people. A patron of many charities, close to her heart, Someone who has had to live with Loss of a loved one, and deal with many family issues, not really any different for anyone else, except that everything they do is followed by the Press, Tv reporters etc
yet how do we come to terms with this, Is it oh well Charles is now king Charles the Third Camilla is Queen Consort, and long may they live, and life goes back to normal ?, WHO listens to our inner most feelings, who supports US in our loss? As if life is just a simple as that. The Queen quoted earlier this year at The Lambeth Conference saying: Throughout my life the message and teachings of Christ have been my guide and in there I have found HOPE!
Todays reading from Matthew Chapter 5 v 4 NIV
Blessed are those who mourn for they will comforted.
Matt 5, records the part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. known as the Beatitudes. Verse 4 says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” It is important to remember that this portion of Jesus’ teaching was directed toward His closest friends, not the general population (verse 2). We cannot pull one or two verses from the whole and build a theology around them. This sermon was a collection of truths designed to prepare His followers for His kingdom, which involved a lifestyle radically different from the world’s.
In the Bible, blessed usually means “happy.” But in the context of Matthew Chapter 5, blessed most likely indicates “an enviable state.” When a person has acquired good fortune, we call him “blessed.” In the Beatitudes , Jesus calls some people “blessed” who appear to be quite the opposite. People who “mourn” don’t seem to be “blessed,” according to most other people. Jesus is contrasting the world’s idea of happiness with true blessedness—spiritual prosperity—which comes from a right relationship with God.
The term mourn means “to experience deep grief.” In keeping with His theme of spiritual blessedness, Jesus seems to indicate that this mourning is due to grief over sin. The people who agree with God about the evil of their own hearts can attain an “enviable state of blessedness,” due to the comfort they receive from communion with the Holy Spirit. Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Comforter. The Spirit comforts those who are honest about their own sin and humble enough to ask for forgiveness and healing. Those who hide their sin or try to justify it before God can never know the comfort that comes from a pure heart, as Jesus talks about in Matthew 5 V8.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus reminds His disciples that they cannot seek happiness the way the world does. True joy is not found in selfish ambition, excuses, or self-justification. An enviable state of blessedness comes to those who mourn over their own sin. Is,66 V2 “These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word” When we agree with God about how bad our sin is, repent of it, and seek His power to walk away from it, Jesus promises comfort from the Holy Spirit. The kind of “mourning” that leads to repentance is truly blessedness. Repentance results in forgiveness and cleansing from God When we have trusted in Jesus as our personal substitute for sin, we no longer stand condemn. Rather than wallow in guilt and shame, we realize that we stand justified before God. Those who learn to mourn over their own sin find the heart of God. And intimate fellowship with God is the very foundation of true happiness. A Hope for all,
It’s no secret that those of us who say we follow Jesus Christ sometimes SAYING is not Living, consistently fall short of living up to the way of life of our Saviour,
Being a disciple of Jesus is a lifelong journey towards conforming ourselves to the image and way of life that Jesus taught. However, so often, SOME followers of Jesus chose to blatantly ignore some of the clearest instruction of our Lords and obscure it with vague theology, sort of bending rules to suit themselves, I’ve done it a few times over the years, so that we can get off the hook. Other times, followers of Jesus are taught something explicitly contradictory to the plain words of Jesus and then spend their lives obeying the instruction they received instead of the commands of Jesus.
However we end up at the place of disobedience, all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus struggle to obey the commands of our Lord. One of the most transformative periods in my faith was when I took time to re-read the Gospels of the New Testament and get reacquainted with Jesus’ himself, in his own words. As I studied the words of Jesus, I discovered that so much of what he asks of us as his disciples is incredibly clear and yet so much of it was new to me. I had never heard it in church or Sunday school or actually heard someone teach the exact opposite of the words of Christ. It was during that season of my life where I took inventory of how I lived And I looked into my life style and it was shady to a point, I needed to reform a lot and I was led to the word again
and what I believed and aligned to the person and teachings of Christ that my faith was radically transformed for the better.
The teachings of Jesus that most of us who exist within Evangelicalism have either never heard, refuse to acknowledge, or believe the exact opposite of. It’s my hope that by rereading these teachings of Christ, you will be also be inspired, like I have been, to return to the Gospels and begin to reshape your faith and life around the way and teachings of our Lord and savour, Jesus. Get ready and buckle up, because most of what Jesus says is pretty bold and potent. It’ll shake up your faith! My friends a Christian life is one that is fundamentally rooted in the reality that Jesus Christ is living and active. He interacts with us on a day to day basis and desires that we cultivate an intimate relationship with him. The more we commune with the Spirit of Christ, the more life and truth we are exposed to and are able to comprehend. However, for many Evangelicals, we rely more on the Bible than we do on the living and active Spirit of God within us. We fear that following the Spirit could lead to confusion and subjectivity and so we root our faith in the Bible. The problem is that a faith that is rooted in the Scripture alone is not sustainable. It will dry up and wither on the vine. While the Bible is an important and authoritative guide for Christian faith and practice, it isn’t the foundation or center of our faith- Jesus is. And if we truly believe that he is alive, we should also have faith that communing with him will produce spiritual life within us. He is the living Word that we can ask anything to and expect, in faith, to receive and answer. Sometimes he will speak through Scripture. Other times he will speak through our friends and family. Other times he will find unique and special ways to reveal himself to us. But in order to maintain a vibrant and living faith, we must not make the Bible our substitute for communion with the living Word of God. Studying Scripture is valuable, but nowhere near as valuable as cultivating a day to day relationship with the God and as Our Queen said:
Throughout my life the message and teachings of Christ have been my guide and in there I have found HOPE! I have and I am sure we all will, and by this learning, we learn to be there for one and another, to support, to be that shoulder cry on, to listen, to have joyous times, during times of great celebration equally when life is going down the swanny, this my friends is the teachings of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, to quote Matthews passage again: Blessed are those who mourn for they will comforted. And we are, Supported by our friends, families, church families Each and every day, May Queen Elizabeth the second Rest in peace and rise in Glory, Long live the King Amen.
waverley710, The Ramblings of a Wannabe theologian. 