'Blessed are the poor in spirit...'

'Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' Matthew 5:3

I have to be honest here, when I came to this verse despite the number of years I read this I actually TOTALLY didn't understand what it meant..."Poor in spirit?what, the Holy Spirit??surely not-we are blessed with the Holy Spirit-how can we be poor in spirit??Does it mean people who don't have the Holy Spirit but then how are they called blessed?" So what on earth does it mean?? From what I've been listening and reading (in particular reading 'The culture of The Kingdom' by Billy Humphries-you may be hearing a lot from that) I've realised it's much more about your realisation of being poor. In John 15:5 Jesus says,

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Without Jesus we are spiritually bankrupt. In our flesh we are in spiritual poverty, we are nothing without God.
But Jesus says that this is a blessed place to be...what??I'm thinking, 'are you serious Jesus?' Working as a debt counsellor I spend all my time telling people that they need to get out of poverty and now I've been told to embrace poverty...

But as I have prayed and spent more time with God I have begun to discover how spiritually poor I actually am without my Saviour. To be spiritually poor is to truly be blessed because you realise how much you need God than anything else in your life.

We see again how upside down this kingdom actually is to what our world has become...the more we receive of God and His Spirit, the more we see how spiritually poor we are. The deeper into spiritual poverty we sink...the more blessed we become...

Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Lets begin a journey together...'blessed'

Do you ever get the feeling that God is trying to get something through to you?? It's like wherever you turn a particular subject or topic or person is mentioned and it gets to the point where you cry, 'Ok God I get it...what do you want to teach me??' Well God's been trying to get my attention focused on the Matthew 5-7 or as it is commanly called The Sermon on the Mount. It seemed everywhere I listened and read and people I spoke to, it would come up.
This is Jesus's first ever 'sermon', lengthy teaching that is recorded in Bible-in Matt 4 it says Jesus began to teach but this is first sermon where its written to a full extent. So after 30years of living and preparation and time with the Father-I believe we should take this message very seriously. Billy Humphrey says in his book, 'The culture of The Kingdom'page 11- 12

"In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was establishing the value system for all who would be citizens of His kingdom. Some today believe the Sermon on the Mount is a 'high bar' of Christianity not attainable in 'real life.' They believe it simply serves as a standard of conviction for us. Yet the truth is that it is intended to be the norm for Christian living. The principles of the Sermon on the Mount are not simply good ideas or something to try for a season. They are the prescribed lifestyle for all who are subjects of the kingdom of God.Jesus' intent for expressing the values of His Kingdom was to set in place the culture for all believers should not only embrace with their minds as truth, but also walk out in their daily lives."

So I was wondering if you wanted to take a journey with me?A journey to learn the value systems of the kingdom of God which, if we call ourselves disciples of Christ, we are now part of...
The first thing that Jesus in this message is 'blessed'.What a beautiful Saviour. He is about to tell about the life that is offered in the Kingdom and yet from the first word we are told 'if you live out what I am about to tell you...You will be blessed.' wow. There is a danger here tho. We might think that 'blessing' means abundancey of possessions or easy times or constant smooth running of everything in our lives. Jesus never told us that's what blessing means...It can include that but if we think that is that exclusively then we are in danger of missing it.The true blessing is knowing and become more intimate with Jesus. That is a truly 'blessed' life.

So are you coming with me? Are you ready or prepared to become a 'blessed' one?

You ready?Here we go...

Thoughts from Passion...

2 blogs in a week...man I am spoiling you...or it means I have FAR too much time on my hands! Anyway, in case you weren't aware I have the privilege of working for a fantastic organisation called Christians Against Poverty (CAP) and at the beginning of march we had our staff conference so I just wanted to share a couple of things I learnt, experienced and share it with you. I hope it's helpful :)

So first thing I wanted to share was a revelation about the phrase ' Be still and know that I am God'. Its in Psalm 46 and it's a verse that I've often been given alot (particularly by my mum-that's such a blessing) but in some ways I was never entirely sure what it meant. Coming to staff conference is always hard as a centre manager (or for whatever team actually) as you have to leave behind things you know need doing, people that are in desperate in situations who are desperate for attention-who after not phoning them for 1 day think they are no longer cared for .Right at the beginning at the conference, we were brought to a place of stillness and God brought that verse back to mind and I realised for me, for the first time, what it actually meant. In the stillness I can only help but know that He is God...when I am still-the world still carries on, it hasn't fallen apart without me, life is still able to exist and no part of the universe has ceased to function whereas if God ever did that-EVERYTHING would fall apart...that's why He is God. Life will not fall apart if I take time to be still. That's why I can be still and know that He is God-because I know He is sustaining it all, maintaining it all, causing it all to be in existence-NOT ME...

Be still and KNOW that He is God

It brings such a deep contentment and peace...Praise God for that.

The other thing I realised and it's abit of a question...do you realise how blessed you are? We had Andy Flannagan lead our worship (really nice guy, check out his stuff-www.andyflan.com-he didn't pay me to say that) and He lead us in a song called Heaven to Earth and it's all about social justice and seeing God's kingdom come on earth. The first line- 'We are blessed to bless and world in pieces' and that's where my question comes in...do you know how blessed you are? Because if you do not know that you are blessed...then you will not be able to bless a world in pieces-is that fair to say?make sense? I just want to say publicly that over the course of those few days I realised just how blessed I was-I work for a world-class Christian charity, I am surrounded by passionate Christians who want to see the kingdom of God come into our nation, I am privileged to able to call some of them friends (not just in a facebook sense), I can laugh with them, I can be totally myself with them, they'll include me (a little aside to say-CAP people who read this-thanks for being you and allowing me to be me, you're all amazing-and I'm honoured that God has blessed me to have you in my life), I had clothes to wear each day, I had friends from home who were waiting for me to come back because they love me, a family that love me, a house and roof over my head to return home too-food in the fridge and freezer and cupboards to eat, breath in my lungs to be alive each day and on top of all this a relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ who died and set me free to be with Him in eternity but also life in all its fullness NOW....I am so blessed - how can I not be a blessing?

Are you blessed?