@MarielB22 22 August 2021 more from that month

Conducting an Attitude Check

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Yesterday I planned on writing about the Pacquiao/Ugas fight but life had other plans. One of my good friends was feeling depressed because it was the first anniversary of her husband's death. A bunch of us gals sat at her beach resort and kept her company. Additionally, I had a graduate level class to complete, not to mention taking care of my son, who, by his very nature, is curious and ever eating my patience to see what he is able to get away with. The lecture was about the Sermon on the Mount, primarily properly interpreting the Beatitudes, which are difficult to understand without proper exegesis (extracting the intended meaning). During and after the lengthy class I found it necessary to check my attitude to determine whether my lifestyle lined up with the ethical requirements Jesus spoke of in chapters 5 through 7. Like anybody who confesses to be a true follower of Christ, **I came up short**. This is what Christ expected His disciples to observe. He wants believers to be "poor in spirit," which is not to say discouraged and downcast without hope. Rather, He wants us disciples to realize that apart from Him, we can do absolutely nothing to please Him.

When preaching the **Sermon on the Mount**, also referred to as the **Olivet Discourse**, Jesus was forceful in His deliverance of the message, laying out what it took to get to heaven. A simple reading of the Beatitudes will not suffice. We have to understand what Jesus meant and how we can apply His teachings to our lives. As such, understanding the context and biblical meanings is necessary. The already but not yet The professor spoke about this at length. This phrase provided the context for the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Without quoting him, it means that the Kingdom of God came when Jesus did, but it has not been *fully* realized yet. For example, though we are referred to as saints, **we do not live as saints** because we continue to sin. But, when the Kingdom is realized at His **Second Coming**, we will no longer sin. Meanwhile, we disciples live in the balance, and over the due course of time, the ethical requirements preached by Jesus are manifested in the life of a true disciple, as she/he strives to live with a proper heart attitude. Attitude If you read the sermon, Jesus speaks in absolutes. He makes no attempt to soften the blows His words inflict upon the discerning person. He is interested in our attitude and our willingness to be 100% committed to Him, not half-hearted. There is no other way. The key to the entire sermon occurs in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (NIV). Many people wrongly interpret "blessed" as happy. In the Greek, it actually means to have been found fully approved by God - in a right relationship with Him. This is what disciples strive for in their daily lives, and it is not a burden to desire to live according to His commands. To be "poor in spirit" means that, as disciples, we have an innate inability to be approved by God in and of ourselves. This is the most profound expression of repentance, turning from our will and desiring to do His will, to be fully committed. It does not mean we have to be poor, however, nor discouraged. Instead, Jesus wants us to be in a proper relationship with Him. After all, we are not justified by our works, sitting in church, giving money, praying, tooting our own horn so people will see our good deeds, et cetera. Instead, we are justified by God by **faith** **alone.** Nothing else will suffice, not the reading of theology, or even knowing what the Bible teaches. Indeed, even demons know this! The first beatitude charts the course for the rest of the beatitudes and the entirety of the sermon. More of the beatitudes in a future post.