This past weekend at Coastal Church we started our series on the Beatitudes that beginsJesus’ Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7. In these chapters we read a collection of Jesus’s teachings that have greatly impacted, inspired and transformed people globally. In this blog, I will be mainly focusing on the first Beatitude found in Matt. 5:2: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In verse one we see Jesus observing the large crowds as he walked up the mountainside and then sitting down, which was the well-known posture of a teacher.

“Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.” How true was that statement in 1861 when Thomas Moore wrote them, and how true it is now 160 years later. Since Moore penned those words, there has been two world wars (with numerous intermittent regional wars in between), epidemics and pandemics, economic recessions and depressions, and countless environmental disasters.

Some of you may be familiar with the reality TV show “Undercover Boss” where each episode features a top executive of a large company posing as a trainee or recruit to experience working at the ground level. The show usually concludes with the boss having a greater appreciation for the employees and the workers’ improved morale because of the validation. As a student of leadership styles and principles, I have always gleaned great lessons from the various stories to apply both personally, as well as within the ministry context of the church.

If you’ve ever felt unsure of your own abilities or how far you can go with your life – look at Paul. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve made too many mistakes, missed too many opportunities and don’t deserve redemption – you must get to know Paul. Or maybe you’ve been under such intense stress and pressure that you’re not sure if you can take it. Again, we have this example in Paul.

I suppose this topic is not just for kids or parents, but for anyone who has ever felt scared or is feeling scared about something even now as you are reading this. The key to prayer against feelings of fear, is to first know the One you are praying to, know what He has promised you, speak the name of Jesus, feed your spirit, and move toward the things in your life that bring peace.

The first thing that your spiritual enemy wants to do is to cause you to doubt your identity. He wants you to question if what God says about you is true. That’s what happened for Jesus and that is what happens for us. The devil doesn’t like it when we move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. He will do anything in his power to erode the truth of God’s word in your life. That’s why it’s so important to follow Jesus’ example. Be rooted in prayer and in God’s word. And take hold of the authority that we have been given as God’s beloved children.

There are a lot of conversations in our world today dealing with the issue of freedom. But instead of getting distracted by issues of rights and people’s ideas of how freedom should be exercised in various places, let’s look at freedom from a Biblical perspective.

In my search for answers on how our church might not be such a statistic, I was brought back to an old book by Charles Finney called Revivals of Religion written in 1868. When Finney wrote this, the USA had experienced a revival with thousands coming to faith in Christ in a short time. In his book he listed several reasons a work of God can be stopped. This article outlines ten that stood out to me.

When we recognize that God’s grace is freely given to all that will accept it irrelevant of their status, seniority or standards, we can choose to be grateful for what God is doing in the lives of others instead of comparing it with what we have. When it comes time to receive the wage of eternal life, we can rejoice that God’s kindness surrounds those who have served him for decades and those who have served him for one year. Both receive the gift of eternal life. And it is that celebration of the grace of God in other’s lives that I believe can unlock the things that you are believing for and break you free from the trap of comparison.

Love! In English there is only one word for love. It’s a word we use a lot to express how we feel about food, fashion, friends and family. Love is something we want – and desire to experience. But the type of love we read about in John’s Gospel is different, in fact it’s divine. In the original language of the New Testament, the Greek used multiple words for love. In John 3:16, the author uses the word agape, which speaks of God’s selfless, undeserved and unconditional love towards a broken and fallen world. God loves a world that does not and cannot love Him back in return, unless He makes the move to change our hard hearts and renews a right spirit within us

God has already placed a sword and a trowel in your hand, and may He raise up in you the kind of knowledge and wisdom of God that Nehemiah had to build His Kingdom. Who knows? Some of you may start to enjoy building IKEA furniture as well.

So what is opportunity? Is it something everyone has? Is it something rare or is there an abundance of it? Is opportunity easy to recognize or hard to spot? If “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, is it possible that opportunity is also in the eyes of those who can see it?

When we read the story of the Prodigal Son, and look throughout scripture, we discover that how we view God and how we think He views us can be very different from who God actually is and what He actually thinks of us. What we need to remember, no matter what, is this: God wants for me to be close to Him, God wants for me to experience His blessings, and God wants for me to fulfill my purpose by the power of His Spirit at work inside me.

Transitions happen all the time and they take on many forms. Maybe you’ve started a new job, moved to a new home, country, or city. Perhaps you are one of the many who got married during the pandemic, or maybe you just got a puppy. You’ve had a baby, started school again, or your kids started having kids of their own. Maybe you were forced into early retirement. Transitions are an inevitable part of life, and it’s impossible to grow without them.

We were created on purpose for a purpose. Is this something we need to develop, search for or is it simpler than that? The definition of Purpose is ‘the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists’. Is your purpose found in being or doing? Or both?

In Mark 9:35 we read, “He (Jesus) sat down, called the twelve disciples over to Him, and said, ‘Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.’” Today, in our busy 2022 world, Jesus is calling us over to Himself and giving us the same message. Let’s be willing to serve as He taught us and this all begins with listening.

You may be in a place where you feel like you are in captivity to a career that is going nowhere, in bondage to a toxic relationship or stuck in a never-ending cycle of depression, fear and anxiety. But just as God had a plan for His people in bondage in Babylon, He has a plan for you. His plan is not to harm you but to prosper you and give you an expected end. You may be asking, “how do I discover that plan?” The answer is found in serving others.