Sermon on the Mount pt. 1bMeekness is the gentleness of an animal that has been tamed, it has had its wildness, its independence taken from it. Its spirit has been broken. It is to the Christian who continues slaving away in a gospelless church because he has no alternative that Christ promises an inheritance. It is to the ‘conservative’ who keeps working in the system because we feel ourselves dependent on it like tame livestock who can no longer live in the wild, that Christ promises an inheritance. To the one who goes with the flow, takes the shot, takes the shit because if he doesn’t he may lose his job, or lose his wife and kids, I say, ‘Christ has prepared a place for you.’ To the one who has compromised his principles over and over because he counted the cost of integrity, of bucking and couldn’t bear to pay it, ‘This is love. Not that you love Christ but that He loves you and gave Himself for you.’ Let us not seek to justify our meekness, our tameness, our brokenness but let us not despair under it either. He is kind to us not because there is anything noble
I am sorry to hear that you are in mourning. I don't know your situation but I asked the Lord to see to it that you have someone who can understand and give you some comfort in your loss. Mourning is miserable and nothing can or even should change that but the Great Physician does come and He has mourned Himself.
'For just as faith and hope without love are a sounding gong and clanging cymbal, so, too, is all the joy that is proclaimed in the world a sounding gong and clanging cymbal if sorrow is not heard along with it. It tickles the ears but repels the soul. But such a voice of comfort, this voice that shakes with pain and yet proclaims joy—the mourners’ears hear that, they keep what it says in their hearts, they are strengthened and guided by it to find for themselves the joy to be found in the depths of grief.' -S. Kierkegaard commenting on Job's words 'The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord'
That was lovely, and I thank you for bravely sharing your poetic meditations on the Beatitudes. The 4th one on mourning really spoke to my heart and current situation. The slough of despair, as John Bunyan called it, is a very hard part of the road, as it feels endless. I needed to read what you had to say tonight.
I am sorry to hear that you are in mourning. I don't know your situation but I asked the Lord to see to it that you have someone who can understand and give you some comfort in your loss. Mourning is miserable and nothing can or even should change that but the Great Physician does come and He has mourned Himself.
'For just as faith and hope without love are a sounding gong and clanging cymbal, so, too, is all the joy that is proclaimed in the world a sounding gong and clanging cymbal if sorrow is not heard along with it. It tickles the ears but repels the soul. But such a voice of comfort, this voice that shakes with pain and yet proclaims joy—the mourners’ears hear that, they keep what it says in their hearts, they are strengthened and guided by it to find for themselves the joy to be found in the depths of grief.' -S. Kierkegaard commenting on Job's words 'The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord'
That was lovely, and I thank you for bravely sharing your poetic meditations on the Beatitudes. The 4th one on mourning really spoke to my heart and current situation. The slough of despair, as John Bunyan called it, is a very hard part of the road, as it feels endless. I needed to read what you had to say tonight.