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God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Whether God has decreed all things that ever come to pass or not, all that own the being of a God, own that He knows all things beforehand. Now, it is self-evident that if He knows all things beforehand, He either doth approve of them or doth not approve of them; that is, He either is willing they should be, or He is not willing they should be. But to will that they should be is to decree them.
Jonathan Edwards

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.
John Bunyan

    • 31 RADICAL TEACHING

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    31 RADICAL TEACHING F O O T ================================

    • H O L D

    READING

    31 RADICAL TEACHING

    PRAY Help me to learn what you want to teach me today, my Lord and my Father. —————————————————————- READ Matthew 5:1-16. —————————————————————- THINK Try to match the following verses with verses from today’s reading: Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 37:11; Isaiah 55:1,2; Psalm 24:3,4. —————————————————————- FOCUS TRUE JOY (1-12). What do you think would make you really happy? Good health? Lots of money? Plenty of friends? A secure job? In the time of Jesus, people made a mistake that is still common. They believed that obeying God was sure to bring wealth and success. In this passage Jesus turns upside down these conventional ideas about the conditions for happiness. ‘Blessed’, sometimes translated ‘happy’, describes a joy that is not influenced by our outward circumstances. This joy comes from recognising our own spiritual inadequacy and depending completely upon God (3). All the other qualities that Jesus mentions here follow from this (eg. sorrow for our own sinfulness and the sins of the world (4), humility (5), a deep desire for righteousness (6), etc.) SALT AND LIGHT (13-16). Salt is different from the food that it is mixed with. Today we use it chiefly for flavouring, to enhance the taste. In the time of Jesus, salt was used (as it sometimes is even today) to stop meat and fish from decaying. Think about that for a moment: how may a Christian be like salt in the world? Light contrasts with darkness. The purpose of lighting a lamp is that it should be clearly seen in the dark. Only a fool would cover a lamp with a bowl (15). Being ‘salt’ and ‘light’ isn’t easy. Most of us feel safer if we are just like other people. But Jesus makes it quite clear. He wants us to be different. Like salt and light. Why? (See verse 16).

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