In the sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel chapters 5-7 Jesus used illustration after illustration to send home the message of how profoundly God loves and cares about us. “Oh yeah, Oh yeah, I know that”, says you, “but it is a message with a price tag that I don’t hear anymore.” You might not even be sure it matters because, perhaps, you are in a world of hurt and nothing seems to be getting better. But I am here to tell you God is not a cosmic killjoy or some lawgiver that is ready to rap your knuckles if you don’t toe the line. I am here not to defend God because God is God and doesn’t need me to stick up for Him. But I want you to take a close look and what I saw yesterday in His garden. I saw life. He is the Giver of Life. I saw beauty. He created it all and said it was VERY good! Look closer. Really look. God is an artist. He is a scientist. He is a chemist. He is a poet. For He inspires songs and poems and dance and joy with all He puts His hands to. We love our gardens. We look out for pest and weeds and promptly dispose of them. We love our gardens for their fruit. We love their fragrance. We love their looks and how they transport us to our happy place when we are there. We love their shade. We love and tenderly feed and water them. We watch them grow and agonize when they fail to thrive. Jesus said if God cares so much for His garden that is so temporary: gorgeous today and withered tomorrow, how much more does He care about your needs?! Cheer up! You are vastly more important and treasured in God’s thinking. With each picture will you please say out loud: God loves me more than this! God loves ME more than this! GOD LOVES ME! Take a deep breath a begin the tour! Enjoy!
Sermon on the Mount
Trash collector: musings from the sermon on the mount
StandardSoon after we moved into our present home my husband decided we needed storage. We had 25 years of accumulated living from our marriage and child rearing we couldn’t part with: bikes, a sassy seat, camping gear, lawn mower, tools, and the huge preserved marlin my dad caught on a fishing trip. So on the back of our large yard we cut a foundation, put up a COSTCO metal storage unit and packed it full. 15 years later it was like opening a defective time capsule when we discovered, much to our chagrin, most of it was rusted and now worthless. And the marlin looked like it had seen better days. This disappointment called to mind Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount found in the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. Jesus said “Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth were moths and rust corrupts and thieves can break in and steal. Rather lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moths and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasures are your heart will be also.” I’d say if Jesus needed a good word picture to prove His point I had a few I could offer. The fact is everything this side of the grave is, with time, going to be worthless and useless. Everything we work so hard to attain or achieve will eventually slip through our fingers like sand. The Bible says God put eternity into the hearts of man. He has put into mankind a spirit and soul that will never cease to exist. This spirit and soul is the real you and is precious, and dear and, to God, worth dying for. Jesus is saying if we really want fulfillment, true wealth, status, peace then find out how God defines wealth and how we cam earn points with God. If God holds the key to true wealth then it stands to reason to bank with Him. Jesus said “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”
Consider the flowers of the field
ImageWe feel, at times, small, insignificant, unworthy. But Jesus dispels the myth of a distant relationship to God. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says God’s care and concern raises us above nature (the flowers of the field) and animals (the birds of the air) and declares He cares enough to even number the very hairs on your head! God invites us to come to Him with all our needs and worries. I Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.” Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things!” Seek. Ask. Knock.