poor – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

For you know…

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Take some time to meditate on those words. Memorize them. Think about them.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Really? Do you know the grace of Jesus in your life?

What does the grace of Jesus mean to you?

We were once poor. Wretched. Lost in our sin. We had nothing to offer God to make him accept us.

As the old hymn goes:

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace.

And yet Jesus left heaven, left glory, and became a man. Not a king. A simple carpenter. Not a handsome prince. An ordinary-looking man.

He suffered poverty. He suffered hardship. He suffered betrayal. He suffered the cross.

And because he did so, we are now rich.

Do you realize how rich you are? Do you feel rich?

Do you understand the grace of God in your life? The forgiveness you have received? The mercy?

Do you stand in awe at the love he pours into your life?

Or are you…cold?

Are these just empty words to you?

Lord, let me know your grace. Make it real to me. So real, that it transforms me. That it changes how I see you. How I see me. How I see everything around me. Help me to truly understand how rich I am in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Good news

There seems to be some dispute as to whether the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew and the teachings from the Sermon on the Plain in Luke were actually the same message or not.

Some think they are, stating that the “level place” in Luke could very well have been on that mountain mentioned in Matthew.

I would guess, however, that these are two different messages, although with repeated themes that at times were altered because of the audiences Jesus was speaking to.

I strongly doubt that Jesus taught completely unique messages wherever he went. As he traveled from place to place, he probably taught variants of the same message.

In this passage, I get the impression that he was speaking to a lot of poor people. Literally poor. People who had little money, and little hope for the future.

Perhaps they were widows. Or disabled. Or immigrants from another land. And as such, Jesus tailored his message a bit for them. In doing so, he fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy which said,

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor. (Isaiah 61:1-2)

So Jesus said to them,

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:20-21)

This of course is not a blanket statement that all who are poor and depressed will enter his kingdom and be blessed.

The underlying caveat behind all this is that they are people who pursue God. That if Jesus is your Lord, though you may be poor, though you may be hungry, though you may be weeping, there are better times coming.

And in a world that’s less than perfect, that’s good news.

How about you? Is your life hard? Are you struggling because of your circumstances? There is hope. There will be better times. But only if you make Jesus your Lord. Paul wrote,

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Are you in love with Jesus Christ? And are you living for his purposes or for yours? Who are you living for?