10/09/10

Woe unto you who are well fed! for you shall go hungry

Luke 6:25 - Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.


The easiest way to discourage a person from being a Christian is to give them the beatitudes.

The meaning of the word beatitude is 'Supreme blessedness or happiness'. That means the ultimate goal of being a Christian.

Yesterday a brother SMSed me a very nice message - a Christian is not a person who follows Christianity but the one who follows Christ.

To follow the beatitudes it will seem impossible. Imagine as a Christian if we fill our stomachs we will lose in Heaven! Or also if we try to live all our desires to enjoy life we will lose plenty in Heaven!

One will think is it that God wants us to suffer and always be sad? Does that please Him?

To understand this we need to understand how best grapes are grown. It is for this reason that in many scriptures the Lord uses grape vine as an example.

Good grapes are grown in places where the climate is a little extreme. If one put more water to the grape vine, the grapes will grow plump but tasteless; very, very less water and then grapes do not grow. To get the best grapes one needs to put a little less water than what is usually required by any other plant.

Also a grape vine does not stand by itself it needs to be supports and to grow fast it needs to be regularly stretched in all directions. Growing grapes required constant monitoring unlike other fruit trees.

A true Christian eats to live and not lives to eat. He keeps things which are necessary and not things to make life easy. His joy is not in worldly things for they make him sad. His joy is in things of the Kingdom of God which are eternal. He is a morning person existing due to the joy of the Lord in him; he is not of this world living in this world.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord God, You made us of spirit and put us in this flesh, but due to sin we are entrapped in this flesh. Due to sin we have lost your image in us and our sonship in You. To receive back our inheritance and to be free from this flesh we need to overcome this flesh. Lord, You knew that this task is impossible for man so You came as man to show us the way and gave us your Spirit to help us on this way. Holy Spirit it is by You alone that we can be like Jesus. Help us and take charge of us so that we do not loose in our inheritance in Heaven...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scripture ]
John 15:1-8
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Genesis 17:9-14
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Deuteronomy 10:16
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Deuteronomy 30:5-8
5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.


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