03/14/2022 – Day 015 – Matthew – Chapters 5 & 6 / Ch. 5-The Sermon on the Mount – The Beatitudes – “Let us follow God’s light, obliterating the darkness.”
Darkness is nothing in itself, it is just the absence of light. Real world analogy: We took prayer out of public school in order to “separate church and state”. That term is not in the constitution. And it presupposes an impossibility. You cannot remove a “worldview”, if you are breathing, you have a worldview. Take prayer out of the schools, and you have a new religion or worldview in the school called “paganism”. (a new god, but the absence of the God!) Welcome to the global pandemic of narcissism.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-5-3.html
Praise God for today’s reading as I am walking away resolved to get back on track with my 24 memory bible verses, one of which is Matthew 5: 3 -12, “The Beatitudes”. If the devil’s evil minions ever lock me up without a bible, I can recite these verses. I am leaving you with John Gill’s commentary on verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. I encourage y’all to follow through his commentary for each verse. (link above)
I made note of the following verses:
Matthew 5:48: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” One of those memory verses covers the same ground: “For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
Matthew 6: 21 – “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6: 32 – “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.” (Under the section: “The Cure for Anxiety” . In other words, work from a solid unshakable foundation that is not built on sand. Unshakable? Absolutely! , through prayer and by His grace! Our model prayer in our reading – “The Lord’s Prayer” – Matthew 6: 9 – 13) We are a mess but we are a “redeemed” mess…
Always connected by his grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Jimmy