Category: devotional

Blessed?

 

“Blessed … Blessed … Blessed … Blessed …”

Matthew 5:3-10

Extract all the blessings from Scripture, and you would be left with very little.  Remove the promises and it would become a poison to the souls of men.  We are in such a feeble state that we would be desperate for anything that would ease our pain.  Being crushed on the wheels of life without any hope is a grim prospect.

That is why He gives us the promises and blessings embedded in the Bible.  They are like diamonds in the clay, which must be released in order to make them ours.  The blessings of the Word await those desperate enough to abandon lethargy and to dig.  One time a treasure chest was buried in a field, and a poor man who knew went and sold everything.  He scraped all he had and purchased that property to gain access to the wealth within.

Some will never make the effort.  The blessings of scripture are never gripped and seized with any real alacrity or desperation.  Those vital promises swirl by their hearts, but are never comprehended.  They are so close to glory, but they will not reach for it.  The issue is not with the Bible, it is the folly and darkness of the human heart.

Having God’s blessing is a state of grace that elevates us to reality.  If you are “poor in spirit”. or if you mourn, you are in that state of blessed truth.  You might say that the Beatitudes are keys that will open the doors of truth.  They are not optional, we must receive them and the richness they give us.

There are those who will harden their heart.  That is a given.  They have a calloused mind and a stiff neck.  But the promises and blessings of God continue to call out, but if they are spurned they will become the property of a more receptive and eager heart.

 

ybic, Bryan

 

Related articles

Seeing Our Size

Comparisons of Planets/Stars

“Is not God high in the heavens?
    See the highest stars, how lofty they are!”

Job 22:12

“He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.”

Psalm 147:4

Mongrel Poetry

A mongrelized poet.

I have been inspired (perhaps foolishly) by others who have stepped up and shared poems they have written.  They are great!

Shortly after being diagnosed as mentally ill, I started to write (or scawl) verses.  I could never get the rhyme down, but I did start to grasp the imagery.  I filled up a “composition book.”  I sincerely hope you will look kindly on these “mongrelized verses,” not judging too harshly.

*****

Spring

Young grass, a ferocious green that an artist could hardly grasp, dewy freshness and I resist a severe temptation to shed my shoes and walk into a place where I absorb a spring life into my being.

**********

Manic

Encountering a revved up edition of myself, I’m always moving in sky.  Just like superman or a jaded circus performer shot out of his cannon.  Gravity simply has lost its grip on me.  I am a law breaker of the worst sort as I flit and flash about in this blue limen that I now rule.

*********

Wife

She captured me with her 5000 kilowatt smile big enough and bright enough to blaze my black and white world with just her glance.  Her laugh takes me apart and I discover I have been completely dismantled.  (After all, I have just beheld the eighth wonder of the world.)  With feminine technicolor and an infrared awareness she sweeps me up into this place and my ears pop with a fresh sense of grace given to me.

***********

Ungrace Me

Ungrace me and then stand back as I implode, a million pieces of waste and ruin. All with a 20/200 vision of a heart that has suddenly lost its way into the hateful darkness.  It is at this that an epiphany pushes on me– Jesus, with pierced hands He draws me home.

ybic, Bryan