I felt blessed to capture this Mandarin Duck with my camera earlier this month at the Honolulu Zoo as I had always wanted to see one and take photographs of it.
But this is not the sort of blessing I want to concentrate on in this post today. Instead I want to talk about spiritual blessings. One place to find out how to be blessed is to go to the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. Jesus in these verses, begins His Sermon on the Mount. In the Beatitudes He begins each one by saying, "Blessed are....." and ends each one by showing a reward. The Greek word for "blessed" means "happy or blissful." It literally means "to be enlarged." In the Beatitudes, blessed does not mean a superficial and shallow happiness but, rather, a state of spiritual well-being; a deep joy of the soul.
Let's just concentrate on only two of the Beatitudes right now. The first one is found at Matthew 5:3 and says,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Although Jesus preached most frequently to the poor, the above verse is not referring so much to monetary poverty as it is to spiritual poverty. To realize you are a sinner and in need of a Savior; to realize we have no righteousness of our own. Also to be willing to be in God's hands. It is the opposite of pride and vanity and ambition. And notice that the poor in spirit have as a reward the kingdom of heaven, which refers to salvation. The kingdom of heaven is, of course, referring primarily to eternity in heaven with the Lord. To sum it up, before we can enter heaven we need to recognize our inability to save ourselves by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and to recognize our own worthlessness and that only faith in Jesus can save us.
Let us now look at Matthew 5:8 which says,
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."
The Pharisees of Jesus' day were not pure in heart. Oh, they had an outward purity, but deep inside their hearts were full of corruption and wickedness and hypocrisy. A big part of the Jewish religion was the strict outward washings and cleansings , and this they believed would enable them to one day see God and to enjoy eternal glory. But the Lord is here saying that what is needed is a purification of the heart from all things wicked in order to enter into the kingdom of God. A person must be delivered from all sin by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ in order to have Scriptural hope of ever being with God.
And the reward for having a pure heart is that you will see God. Granted, in a sense we (particularly unbelievers) will all see God as a Judge and not as a Friend. (Revelation 1:7). But in Matthew 5:8 to see God is spoken of as a special favor. To see the face of someone, or to be in the presence of anyone, especially a king or a prince, was regarded by the Jews as a high favor and honor. To the Hebrew, those that saw the face of a king were his favorites and his friends. Therefore, in this verse, to see God means to be His friends and favorites, and to be with Him forever in His kingdom.
Since many Christians and others do not often read the Bible book of Revelation, they may not be familiar with this verse below:
"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." - Revelation 1:3
This is the only time in the Bible where it says you will be blessed by reading one of its books, meaning Revelation. But not only just reading Revelation, but by keeping those things written therein.
"We should keep in mind those things which relate to the future and obey those things which are required as truth and duty. The blessing results from the fact that the truth is properly regarded and exerts a strong and desirable influence over our lives."
The book of Revelation consists of prophecies of future events. It tells us about the antichrist, the New World Order, the one world religion to come during the tribulation period, the one world government, and the one world economy. All of which are in the beginning stages at the present time. How close then is the 7 year tribulation ! And, therefore, closer still the Rapture of the Church which occurs prior to the tribulation. The book of Revelation speaks of the new heavens and the new earth and of the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. It covers all the plagues and woes to happen to the wicked who are left behind after the Rapture to face God's wrath and judgments.
So the book of Revelation can bless you by making you aware of these judgments to come and to enable you to turn to Jesus in faith as your Savior. It gives you hope to realize that soon this wicked and chaotic world mess will be gone forever, and that Jesus will reign in a paradise on earth and true believers have something to look forward to for all eternity.
Notice that the end of Revelation 1:3 says that the time is at hand. If that was true in the apostle John's day, how much nearer are these soon to occur events in our day and age ! We are living in the end times; the last days.
Time is short.
Turn to Jesus as your Savior before it is too late !
Jesus loves you.
He is waiting for you to come to Him in complete trust and faith.
Read the book of Revelation and you will comprehend just how terrible the 7 year tribulation will be with all of its woes and catastrophes and plagues. You do not want to experience the great wrath of the Lord at that time.
Yes, the reading of Revelation can save your soul and enlighten you to the point of accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and surrendering your will and your life to Him.
So to be blessed, you need to be saved and then live as godly a life as possible. Read the Bible everyday and pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) in order to get to know the Lord better, and to have a close, intimate, and personal love relationship with Him.
It is all about Jesus !!
Be blessed !!
Have a Christ centered weekend !
"(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I seccoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" - 2 Corinthians 6:2
"Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." - Revelation 22:7
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." - Revelation 21:4
The book of Revelation consists of prophecies of future events. It tells us about the antichrist, the New World Order, the one world religion to come during the tribulation period, the one world government, and the one world economy. All of which are in the beginning stages at the present time. How close then is the 7 year tribulation ! And, therefore, closer still the Rapture of the Church which occurs prior to the tribulation. The book of Revelation speaks of the new heavens and the new earth and of the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth. It covers all the plagues and woes to happen to the wicked who are left behind after the Rapture to face God's wrath and judgments.
So the book of Revelation can bless you by making you aware of these judgments to come and to enable you to turn to Jesus in faith as your Savior. It gives you hope to realize that soon this wicked and chaotic world mess will be gone forever, and that Jesus will reign in a paradise on earth and true believers have something to look forward to for all eternity.
Notice that the end of Revelation 1:3 says that the time is at hand. If that was true in the apostle John's day, how much nearer are these soon to occur events in our day and age ! We are living in the end times; the last days.
Time is short.
Turn to Jesus as your Savior before it is too late !
Jesus loves you.
He is waiting for you to come to Him in complete trust and faith.
Read the book of Revelation and you will comprehend just how terrible the 7 year tribulation will be with all of its woes and catastrophes and plagues. You do not want to experience the great wrath of the Lord at that time.
Yes, the reading of Revelation can save your soul and enlighten you to the point of accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and surrendering your will and your life to Him.
So to be blessed, you need to be saved and then live as godly a life as possible. Read the Bible everyday and pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) in order to get to know the Lord better, and to have a close, intimate, and personal love relationship with Him.
It is all about Jesus !!
Be blessed !!
Have a Christ centered weekend !
"(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I seccoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" - 2 Corinthians 6:2
"Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." - Revelation 22:7
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." - Revelation 21:4
