Blessed

I have been reading a new book by R.J. Rushdoony titled, "The Sermon on the Mount". It is basically a commentary of the Sermon on the Mount. At the beginning of Chapter 2 he makes the following comments:

"The Beatitudes again and again declare who are the blessed of the Lord. it is important, therefore, to know what this word means. The word used in the Sermon on the Mount is the Greek makarios; this word, however, is not used in a Greek sense, but in terms of its Old Testament and Hebrew meaning. Thus, in Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," our Lord echoes two verses from the Psalms:

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. (Ps. 37:11)

For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. (Ps. 37:22)

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 37:22 is barak, to kneel. To kneel is to adore and worship, so that, when man blesses God, as in Psalm 103, he is rendering to God all his life, service, and substance. He declares himself to be God's possession. When a serf knelt before a feudal lord, he acknowledged himself to be the lord's man. To bless God is an even more total commitment and surrender.

For God to bless man means that God bends down in His grace and mercy to aid man; it is sovereign condescension on God's part." (The Sermon on the Mount, R.J. Rushdoony, pg. 2)

I am reminded of Lamentations 3:22-23, "It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because is compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

Reformation Day

I have recently been reading Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and portions of his Explanations of the 95 and found the 4th a blessing. Thought I'd share:

4. The penalty of sin, therefore, continues so long as hatred of self, or true inward repentance, continues, and it continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

From 'Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses':
True sorrow must spring from the goodness and mercies of God, especially from the wounds of Christ, so that man comes first of all to a sense of his own ingratitude in view of divine goodness and thereupon to hatred of himself and love of the kindness of God. Then tears will flow and he will hate himself from the very depths of his heart, yet without despair. Then he will hate sin, not because of the punishment but because of his regard for the goodness of God; and when he has perceived this he will be preserved from despair and will despise himself most ardently, yet joyfully.

I'm Back

Oh, yeah. I'm back. New posts to follow. I have not had ready access to a computer that I could blog on for some time.

Quotes

Wanted to share the following quotes I heard this morning in church:

"Rather I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry." -D. A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 26.

"We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted. But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more prepartation needed by the ground than by the sower, by the hearer than by the preacher." - Charles Spurgeon