jr4624

We can see, know, and discern God if we have given our lives to Jesus. When we are saved, we are filled with the power of ths Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised His disciples in John 14:16-18. People who are slaves to sin are prevented from seeing the Truth. The things of God are hidden from them, as Jesus told His followers in Mark 4:11-12. The only way to do it is to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Romans 3:10 says "There is none righteous, no, not one." John 14:6 says "No man comes unto the Father but by me (Jesus)."

People who want to try to be right with God, and who want to keep sin out of their lives will always be at odds with most of the rest of the world. The world will tell you that sin is an outdated concept, that you can run your own life, that you can do pretty much what you want to, as long as you don't hurt anyone else, or interfere with their doing what they want to do. The desire to be like Christ as much as possible. The removal of the curse of sin from our lives. the righteousness that will allow us to begin to experience the blessings of the Kingdom now, in this life. Jesus promises us that if we seek righteousness through Him we will be filled with it. The Holy Spirit will fill us with the power we need to overcome sin, fill ourselves and our lives with godliness, and defeat the power of Satan.

Like everything in the gospel message, the world only sees foolishness. If the Holy Spirit isn't working in your life, you aren't going to get it. The world. and conventional wisdom, value ambition, self-reliance, pride, greed, selfishness, etc, all as evidence of how they control their own lives. They think they should go out and take what they want, and invent themselves, and run their own lives, according to worldly definitions of success. The kindness, gentleness and humility modeled by Christ will lead us to seek God's will, and to put others before ourselves. Humility is important to Christlikeness because Christ calls us to submit to doing God's will, not our own. After loving God before all others, we are called to love others as we love ourselves, to love each other as Christ loves us, and to serve each other and the people of the world who need it most. We can not love and serve in these ways by ourselves. We need God to point the way, and the Holy Spirit to give us the power and ability to do all these things.

The two parts of each beatitude are the category of person discussed and the blessings to be conferred upon them in the Kingdom of Heaven. Mostly, I think it is classic Hebrew parallelism. They both describe the things that should be characterized by followers of Jesus. When people look at us, these are the things they should see.

We need the realization that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God", "There is none righteous, no not one", "The wages of sin is death", and "I am the way,and the truth,and the life, no man comes unto the father but by me", all apply to us personally. If we don't know how broken we are, we can't know how badly we need to be fixed, or by whom we can be fixed. There are many things to mourn such as the state of the world, the number of lost people who aren't being reached, loved ones and acquaintances who seem to be on the wrong side of the spiritual battle lines, etc. One thing I mourn a lot is the role of my own sin and my personal responsibilty for Jesus' death on the cross. Mourning for the lost and the judgment that will come upon them seems to me to be the type of mourning most common to all Christians.

[font=Palatino Linoty pe][/font][/size]Hi, my name is John. I'm from Michigan. I am studying to become a preacher. I've never participated in any thing like this before, but I thought it might be a good way to learn some things and pick up a few pointers as I begin to formulate my own studies to use in my own ministry. I also think it will be great to meet people from all over and discuss the insights God gives us into His Word and Himself.