May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan

Showing posts with label the meek shall inherit the earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the meek shall inherit the earth. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Using Jesus Christ as a Political Pawn

I’m fed up with the What Would Jesus Do question, or who would Jesus support politically. Christ’s message was not political. We don’t know what Jesus would do; it’s all projection of modern intellect on a simple message. Applying Christ to politics is especially grievous when applied by anti-Christian bigots, atheists, and Marxists.

The Washington Post has a column “On Faith”, which isn’t often on Faith, but pokes holes Christian thought, and demeans Christians. Occasionally they get something right, but not often. Lisa Miller asks the question "Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: 'I feel like I've been here before." As she walks through the park where the “Occupy” protesters have “camped out”, she describes tents, scruffy people, a communal kitchen and the generally dirty, nasty condition these people have chosen to live in; voluntary squalor.

Miller suggests Jesus would side with these people against successful producers.
“Jesus gave preferential treatment to society’s outcasts. Lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes — all would attain heaven before the ordained elites. Jesus believed that God was about to right the world’s wrongs with a great upheaval — soon — and at that time, a radical reversal of the social order would occur. As he says in the gospels, the meek will inherit the earth.”
Equating suffering people that are sick, poor, dying, suffering from any maladies, to mostly middle class protesters with high end electronics and clothes is not even a comprehensible comparison. As for the “meek” part, these people are aggressive and want to overthrow the economic system and government, violently if they can. Miller doesn’t understand what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of the meek. The Hebrew word for “meek” means “to be molded”. Jesus was saying this referring back to the psalmist who wrote in the 37th Psalm, “Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness, delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him.” Being meek means committing and submitting to God and letting Him mold you. Let God guide your purpose in life. Psalms 24 tells us “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. When you are full of God, and submitted to Him, then you are meek, and then you inherit the earth; God's earth.

This has nothing to do with the materialistic Marxist view Miller and the protesters have, and what they are demanding. They are demanding the material things the producers have gotten as a result of risk and hard work. Watching and listening to them and their supporters, there is no call for salvation or submitting to God’s will; only the demand for the “things” of this world those others have.   

These people reject God, don’t recognized Christ as Savior, attack and demean Christians regularly. Using Him as a political prop is vile and revolting, dishonest and hypocritical. Jesus said render under Caesar what is Caesar’s, and God what is God’s. These people want God out of the equation and have all rendered to Caesar; then have Caesar to provide for them. They don’t want to submit to God, be meek to His will, they want others to be meek and submit to them.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

'The Meek Shall Inhereit the Earth' Is Not What You Think

Most people think this beatitude means that Christians are, or should be, weak and submissive. On the contrary it takes a lot of strength and discipline to be meek.

Actually, Jesus was quoting the Psalm 37:11, "But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance or peace." In Hebrew, the translation of 'meek' is 'to be molded'. The following verses in Psalms talks about the characteristics of the wicked, what they inherit, and what eventually happens to them. The Psalmist goes on talking about the characteristics of the good man, and what eventually happens to him.

In the Beatitudes, meek is translated as 'praos', meaning submission to the will of God. There is a natural order of things in God's creation, and we can be aware and act within that order; or we can, through God given free will, reject it. You can read all of Psalm 37, and see the distinctions. These verses are the foundation of what Jesus said in the Beatitudes.

You can put money, power, sex, try and control and dominate, and put yourself first; or love and care about God, family, and friends first.

We can submit to the will of God, and even though we don't understand what's going on, know that it's the very best thing for us and our loved ones, and do good. Be meek, be the clay that God forms.

Psalm 24 says "The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters."

This is the Lord's earth Jesus talks about that we inherit. Let me be the clay in the Potter's hands.