Hunger for Righteousness
Sep 12, 2014 02:13 PM
Good Afternoon,
I write this today just a couple miles from the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University. Heather and I are in San Diego for a wedding this evening. Wednesday night, we had the opportunity to have dinner with a couple we were on staff with while we served here. The restaurant they chose had tables of eight and since there was only four of us, we shared a table with four strangers.
About half way through dinner, the young lady sitting next to me tapped me on the arm and said, “I don’t want to admit I have been listening to your conversation, but I overheard you say the word ‘disciple’. What does that word mean?” As we spoke, she told me that she had lived a life of a typical secular college student. This life involved partying and everything that went with that lifestyle.
Recently, she started attending a church and she had accepted Christ. The problem she was facing was that she had questions about her new faith and didn’t know who to ask. This opened a beautiful conversation- I told her, “I will answer any question you have.” This led to questions like, “I thought the Kingdom of Heaven was after you die, but this church acts like the Kingdom is now” and “They keep stressing baptism, what really happens when you are baptized?”
As we talked, a verse kept coming back to me. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). We looked at this passage on Sunday as we talked about righteousness as ‘right-relatedness.’
What I saw in this young lady was a hunger for a right-relationship with God. She openly admitted her past life and the hole that was left in heart from that life. We as the church offer the gospel. We have the great news that our God can not just cleanse your sins, but heal your heart.
This Sunday, we look at our next passage (Matthew 5:21-26) in the Sermon on the Mount. These words are tough for us to deal with, but in the words of Christ reside the power to heal our hearts from sin.
We all carry wounds like this young lady, but we must open our hearts to the reign and rule of God. In opening our hearts, we allow the Spirit to truly heal our lives.
May God bless you as we prepare to worship Him!
Pastor John
I write this today just a couple miles from the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University. Heather and I are in San Diego for a wedding this evening. Wednesday night, we had the opportunity to have dinner with a couple we were on staff with while we served here. The restaurant they chose had tables of eight and since there was only four of us, we shared a table with four strangers.
About half way through dinner, the young lady sitting next to me tapped me on the arm and said, “I don’t want to admit I have been listening to your conversation, but I overheard you say the word ‘disciple’. What does that word mean?” As we spoke, she told me that she had lived a life of a typical secular college student. This life involved partying and everything that went with that lifestyle.
Recently, she started attending a church and she had accepted Christ. The problem she was facing was that she had questions about her new faith and didn’t know who to ask. This opened a beautiful conversation- I told her, “I will answer any question you have.” This led to questions like, “I thought the Kingdom of Heaven was after you die, but this church acts like the Kingdom is now” and “They keep stressing baptism, what really happens when you are baptized?”
As we talked, a verse kept coming back to me. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). We looked at this passage on Sunday as we talked about righteousness as ‘right-relatedness.’
What I saw in this young lady was a hunger for a right-relationship with God. She openly admitted her past life and the hole that was left in heart from that life. We as the church offer the gospel. We have the great news that our God can not just cleanse your sins, but heal your heart.
This Sunday, we look at our next passage (Matthew 5:21-26) in the Sermon on the Mount. These words are tough for us to deal with, but in the words of Christ reside the power to heal our hearts from sin.
We all carry wounds like this young lady, but we must open our hearts to the reign and rule of God. In opening our hearts, we allow the Spirit to truly heal our lives.
May God bless you as we prepare to worship Him!
Pastor John