{"id":16424,"date":"2018-02-08T09:26:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T14:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16424"},"modified":"2018-02-08T09:29:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T14:29:33","slug":"blessed-are-the-persecuted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16424","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Are the Persecuted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/blessed-are-the-persecuted-2018-02-08\/\"><strong>Blessed Are the Persecuted<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Thursday, February 8, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/InsifiZxVXU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. <\/em>\u2014Matthew 5:10<\/p>\n<p>I guess we should not be surprised that this Beatitude follows the previous ones. The first and last Beatitudes are present tense: Theirs <em>is <\/em>the kingdom of Heaven. Until this statement, Jesus has said \u201chappy are <em>the <\/em>. . .,\u201d speaking generally. Now he says happy are \u201cthose of you. . . .\u201d Very likely Matthew is conveying that this scene is happening directly in front of Jesus. His small community is being persecuted, and Jesus tells them to \u201crejoice and be glad\u201d! Persecution for the cause of justice is inevitable. Instead of seeking to blame someone for their well-earned scars, he is telling them two clear things: You can be <em>happy\u2014<\/em>and you can be happy <em>now<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>Matthew 5:11-12 could really be called the ninth Beatitude, although it more likely is an explanation of the eighth:<\/p>\n<p><em>Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of things against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The disciples\u2019 response is a<em> prophetic <\/em>action itself. To live joyfully amid misunderstanding and slander points beyond \u201cmy kingdom\u201d to the Kingdom of God. Goodness can never be attacked directly; the messengers or the motivation must be discredited.<\/p>\n<p>Luke\u2019s Gospel presents the same message in the opposite form: \u201cAlas for you when the world speaks <em>well<\/em> of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the <em>false <\/em>prophets\u201d (Luke 6:26). Too much praise is probably an indication that it is <em>not <\/em>the full Gospel. In either case, Jesus himself clearly knew that his teaching would turn conventional values on their head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBad\u201d people didn\u2019t kill Jesus; conventional wisdom crucified him. Jesus taught an alternative wisdom instead of the maintenance of social order. Prophets and wisdom teachers like Jesus have passed through a major death to their ego. This is the core meaning of transformation. Yet most of Christian history tried to understand Jesus inside the earlier stage of law and order. Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount is anything but maintaining the status quo!<\/p>\n<p>Theologian Marcus Borg (1942-2015) wrote:<\/p>\n<p>The gospel of Jesus\u2014the good news of Jesus\u2019 own message\u2014is that there is a way of being that moves beyond both secular and religious conventional wisdom. The path of transformation of which Jesus spoke leads from a life of requirements and measuring up (whether to culture or to God) to a life of relationship with God. It leads from a life of anxiety to a life of peace and trust. It leads from the bondage of self-preoccupation to the freedom of self-forgetfulness. It leads from life centered in culture to life centered in God. [1]<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">The Cost of Sanctification<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=1+Thessalonians+5%3A23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1 Thessalonians 5:23<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word <em>sanctification<\/em> much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God\u2019s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God\u2019s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? \u201cFor their sakes I sanctify Myself\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+17:19\">John 17:19<\/a>). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God\u2019s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul\u2019s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, \u201cLord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can\u201d? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+17:21-23\">John 17:21-23<\/a>). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person\u2019s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit\u2019s work in us?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blessed Are the Persecuted Thursday, February 8, 2018 Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. \u2014Matthew 5:10 I guess we should not be surprised that this Beatitude follows the previous ones. The first and last Beatitudes are present tense: Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16427,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions\/16427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}