beyond earthbound dreams // A DEVOTIONAL AND EXPOSITIONAL STUDY OF THE BEATITUDES by MITCHELL W. DILLON, D. MIN. GROUNDED IN GRACE PUBLICATIONS WEST PALM BEACH, FL
beyond earthbound dreams //
A DEVOTIONAL AND EXPOSITIONAL STUDY OF THE BEATITUDES
by
MITCHELL W. DILLON, D. MIN.
GROUNDED IN GRACE PUBLICATIONS WEST PALM BEACH, FL
Copyright ©2010 by Mitchell W. Dillon, D. Min.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
A Devotional and Expositional Study of the Beatitudes
Published by Grounded In Grace
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-0-9788550-0-0
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Inter-
national Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Ver-
sion. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation. Copyright ©1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are taken from the Revised Standard Ver-
sion of the Bible, Copyright ©1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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This book is dedicated to all those who search for something more.
acknowledgements //
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I humbly acknowledge
the support, encouragement and input of a very special group
of people, without whom the writing of this book would not
have been possible. First, I would like to acknowledge and
thank my amazing wife, Faith—the real writer in the family. Her
influence is present in every line. Seth, I owe you a tremendous
debt of gratitude for your editorial input. It proved to be invalu-
able again and again as this project went through several stages
of development. Daniel, thank you for contributing so many
constructive editorial insights, and for being the creative force
behind the design and layout of the book. Finally, thank you,
Maurizio, Saira, Erin, Nancy, and Kathy for your thorough work
proofing the final manuscript. Your suggestions and corrections
proved to be extremely helpful.
table of contents //
introduction 1
CHAPTER 1 // let's make a deal 7
CHAPTER 2 // thin places 21
CHAPTER 3 // the writing is on the wall 35
CHAPTER 4 // satisfaction guaranteed 49
CHAPTER 5 // the dance of divine love 61
CHAPTER 6 // expanding souls 73
CHAPTER 7 // why can't we all just get along? 87
CHAPTER 8 // the everyday martyr 99
CHAPTER 9 // pass the salt 113
CHAPTER 10 // let there be light! 125
conclusion 135
Life has a way of flirting with us,
while never fully gratifying the
deeper longings of our souls.
introduction //
DREAMS are elusive things. How do we hang on to them
while the circumstances of life are constantly shifting, like so
much sand beneath our feet? We all long for a life that is
deeply satisfying, and we
search for it in the exper-
iences our world offers. On
certain occasions we may
even think that we’ve found what we’re looking for, only to dis-
cover that the satisfaction eventually melts away. Life has a
way of flirting with us, while never fully gratifying the deeper
longings of our souls.
In Eastern thought there is a belief that true contentment is
found, not in satisfying one’s desires, but in divesting oneself of
desire altogether. This is the principle of lowered expectations.
It suggests that if we learn to desire less, we are less likely to
experience disappointment. The goal of this philosophy is to
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arrive at a place where all desire is eventually eliminated. This,
we are told, is Nirvana.
The appeal of this approach is that it seems to place us back
in the driver’s seat. Rather than leaving us subject to the whims
of chance and disillusionment, it seems to offer us a choice—
even if that choice means letting go of all of our dreams. But
are these really our only options—to eventually resign ourselves
to disappointment, or worse, to abandon all of our dreams in
order to escape it? Why would God give us the capacity to
dream if He never intended for our dreams to be realized?
Does He really want us to desire less and less until we have died
to desire altogether?
In the most acclaimed sermon ever delivered, The Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus offered a surprising answer to this ques-
tion. In the opening section of His message, known today as
The Beatitudes, Christ zeroed in on this subject with the very
first word out of His mouth: blessed.1 Blessed is our translation
of the underlying Greek word makarios, a term the ancient
Greeks used to describe a divine state of blissfulness. To the
Greeks, to be blessed was to live above the cares and concerns
of this mortal life. As one writer described this concept, “The
blessed were those who luxuriated in the lifestyles of the
gods.”2
1Beatitude is a Latin term which means “to be blessed.” This term comes to us
through the influence of the Latin Vulgate, an important early translation of
the Bible.
2David S. Dockery and David E. Garland, Seeking The Kingdom: The Sermon on
the Mount Made Practical For Today (Harold Shaw Publishers: Wheaton, Illinois, 1992) pp. 15-16.
Introduction 3
Nothing could have been further from the experience of the
crowd that had gathered on the north shore of the Sea of Gali-
lee that day to hear Jesus preach. In Matthew 4:24 we read,
“His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all
sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and tor-
ments” (NKJV). The crowds that flocked to Christ in the early
days of His ministry grew not only in number, but in numbers of
the diseased, the dying and the despairing. Some of the af-
flicted needed to be carried, while others hobbled along, creat-
ing a tragic spectacle.
There’s no reason to believe that this hapless crowd came
looking for Jesus with expectations of luxuriating in anything,
much less the blissful lifestyle of God. These were people who
had been humbled by the harsh realities of life. They didn’t
need a lesson in the value of lowering one’s expectations; life
had already taught them that lesson. Nevertheless, like most of
us today, they lived with the hope that even a modest improve-
ment in their circumstances would allow them to live a more
contented existence.
It was this hope that drove the desperate and the dying to
endure the difficult journey to Jesus. If He would do for them
what He had done for others, their wildest expectations would
be completely fulfilled. They didn’t gather that day looking for a
blessed life; they were just hoping for one that didn’t hurt so
much. But Jesus understood that there are far deeper desires
lying dormant in every human heart, just waiting to be aroused.
When I was a boy, I always looked forward to our summer
trips from San Francisco to West Texas to spend vacation time
with extended family. My two younger brothers and I would
pile into our un-air-conditioned car, anxious to begin the long
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trek across the Southwest. At the end of each day’s journey,
the three of us would beeline our way to the hotel pool to re-
hydrate—something we really looked forward to after hours of
being blasted in the back seat by the hot desert air. These were
great adventures filled with the excitement of seeing new
places and the extravagance of eating out (something we never
did back home).
One year during our journey, my youngest brother did
something that was completely out of character for his normally
compliant nature. Despite a tight budget and strict instructions
to the contrary, James defiantly placed the same order every
time we stopped to eat. “I’ll have what Dad is having,” he
would insist. Apparently, my little brother had noticed that the
plate of food placed in front of our father always looked a lot
more appealing than the one typically placed in front of him.
That was all it took. From then on, all he wanted was what our
father was having. At five years of age, my little brother didn’t
know much, but he knew that anything Dad ordered would be
better than what he knew to order off the Kiddie Menu.
Genius!
If only we were that smart about what we desired in life. If
we were, we would stop setting our hearts on things that are
certain to disappoint us and start dreaming of things that
promise to bring lasting satisfaction. We would forget about
the Kiddie Menu, where the portions and satisfaction are
limited, and turn instead to God. We would ask our Heavenly
Father to do the ordering for us, trusting that His choices would
be bigger, better and more satisfying. We would order what He
was having—not mere happiness, but blessedness.
Introduction 5
To be happy, we must find the
right set of circumstances; to be
blessed, all we have to find is
God in any set of circumstances.
.
This is precisely the prescription we find in the Beatitudes.
Rather than calling us to desire less, Jesus calls us to desire
more. Rather than asking us to let go of our dreams, Jesus ex-
horts us to dream bigger.
Rather than expecting us to
be satisfied with mere hap-
piness, Jesus invites us to
experience what it is to be
blessed.
Perhaps you are like those in the crowd that gathered to
hear Jesus – hoping for a life that just doesn’t hurt so much.
The American Dream may be just a pipe dream as far as you’re
concerned, but that doesn’t exclude you from something far
greater.
To be happy, we must find the right set of circumstances; to
be blessed, all we have to find is God in any set of circum-
stances. While it is possible to be happy without being blessed,
to be blessed is to possess the greatest reason for happiness.
Happiness is what we order for ourselves, while blessedness is
what we get when we let God order for us.
So, close the Kiddie Menu. Open your heart and your mind
to bigger things. Order from our Father’s menu. In the chapters
to follow, Jesus will show us, through the precepts of the Beati-
tudes, that when our dreams are big enough, they can never be
disappointed. Genius!
CHAPTER 1 // let's make a deal
Grace humbles a man without devaluing him
and exalts a man without inflating him.
- Charles Hodge
MONTY Hall was the original host of the popular game show,
Let’s Make A Deal. Bartering and bantering his way through the
audience, he would offer contestants the option to trade their
personal trinkets for endless choices of mysterious, unidentified
prizes. Not knowing what was cloaked inside the brightly
wrapped packages, flowing curtains or locked doors, partici-
pants were tempted to keep trading up their booty in pursuit of
a glorious grand prize. The anxiety mounted as Monty would
press for a decision. “What will it be? Will you settle for what’s
behind Door Number One, or will you trade it all for what’s be-
hind Door Number Two?”
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Behind each door was a prize, but there was no way for the
contestant to know which door hid the grand prize. The right
choice would result in a fabulous reward. The wrong choice
would mean going home with nothing more than a consolation
prize.
We’re all faced with a continuum of choices as we dream of
trading up to the grand prize of life—our eternal destiny.
Whether we realize it or not, each of us is wending our way
toward that prize on one of two particular paths. Jesus referred
to the more popular path as the broad way. The less traveled
path, He referred to as the narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14).
These paths lead us to two very different prizes.
Traveling the broad way leads to Door Number One. Behind
it lies all that we deserve for all our best efforts. For those of us
who are confident that the scales of recompense will tilt in our
favor, Door Number One appears to be our safe choice. Waiting
just beyond the threshold is exactly what we deserve. And
that’s what we’ll receive—nothing more and nothing less. This
is the door of justice.
Traveling the narrow way leads to Door Number Two. This
appears to be a far riskier option, for behind it lays a prize not
based upon the value of our efforts, but based purely on the
generosity of the show’s producer. And that’s what we’ll
receive—nothing more and nothing less. This is the door of
grace. Could it possibly hold greater value than what awaits us
behind Door Number One?
The cameras are rolling, the applause signs are flashing, and
Monty is pressing for a decision. “What will it be? Will you set-
tle for what’s behind Door Number One, or will you trade it all
for what’s behind Door Number Two?”
Let’s Make A Deal 9
Most of us place our hope in the prize behind Door Number
One without even considering that there might be a better op-
tion. We feel that what we’ve done to please God outweighs
what we’ve done to disappoint Him, so we fully expect to be
rewarded accordingly. We’ve staked our claim in the Land of
Justice. Yet it is the second choice—the door of grace—that
Jesus declared blessed in this, the first beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:3, NKJV
___________________________________
1.1 \\ buried treasure
In the text of the Beatitudes are wonderful truths that
promise to bring real and lasting satisfaction to those who em-
brace them. At times in this study we will find these promises
to be somewhat obscured to us because they lay just beneath
the topsoil of an ancient language, only partially uncovered by
our modern translations. In order to unearth these buried trea-
sures, we must dig below the surface to bring to light the pre-
cise meaning and nuance of Jesus’ words.
For example, as Jesus discussed the subject of poverty in
this beatitude, He chose His words carefully.1 The Koine
1Some scholars have speculated that Jesus may have originally delivered this
message in Aramaic, the vernacular of the region, rather than in Greek, which was the trade language. What is made certain in the New Testament is that
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
(common) Greek of the day offered Him two distinctly different
options. In describing the “poor in spirit,” He could have used
the word penichros, which referred to “the needy poor.”2 This
was a term He used elsewhere in Scripture to describe the con-
dition of a poor widow who donated her last two mites (a very
small amount of money) out of her need, rather than out of her
prosperity (Luke 21:2). She didn’t have much, but what little
she had she was willing to give, so Jesus lauded her as an exam-
ple of faith and generosity.
But it was another word for the impoverished that Jesus
actually employed in this first beatitude. That word was
ptochos, which referred to “the beggarly poor.”3 In fact, this
word was often simply translated “beggar.” A compelling exam-
ple of ptochos poverty is found in Jesus’ story of Lazarus, a poor
man who camped at the front gate of a rich man’s house. Laza-
rus longed for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table,
but his desperate need was ignored. Unlike the widow who had
very little, Lazarus had nothing. His poverty was abject and life
threatening.
The root meaning of ptochos evokes a picture of a cowering
beggar, covering his face with one hand to conceal his shame,
the Apostles recorded this sermon in the Gospel accounts with the aid of the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing that the words that they chose perfectly represented that which was originally expressed by Christ Himself (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). 2W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 642. 3Ibid., p. 728.
Let’s Make A Deal 11
while extending the other hand in a plea for help.4 The ptochos
poor were those who lacked the means to sustain their own
lives, leaving them with no choice but to turn to others for
mercy. This was the strongest word in the ancient Koine Greek
to express the idea of utter destitution. The plight of Lazarus,
who actually starved to death, serves to illustrate the serious-
ness of ptochos poverty (Luke 16:22).
This was the perfect word for communicating Jesus’ point:
the blessed are those who are exactly that beggarly poor—not
in material wealth, but in spirit. In this passage, Christ lifted the
term from its typical application and transplanted it into a spiri-
tual context. Like Lazarus in his destitution, those who are poor
in spirit lack the means of helping themselves, so they are left
with no real choice but to humbly reach out to God for mercy.
According to one commentator, this involves “the personal
acknowledgment of spiritual bankruptcy.”5
But how is it possible for someone to be spiritually bank-
rupt, yet still be blessed? Doesn’t God reserve His favor for the
spiritually endowed? The explanation is startling. Jesus said
they are blessed because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”6
Despite the fact that they have no spiritual capital with which to
negotiate, the poor in spirit possess the promise of all the riches
4An example from ancient literature is Homer’s use of this word referring to a
cowering beggar (Homer, The Odyssey 17 227). 5D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1978) p.
17.
6The preposition “for” is a translation of the Greek conjunction hoti which
occurs in each of these beatitudes, denoting a causal relationship between the clauses. Thus, the translation “because” better represents the meaning here.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
of the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, they are actually given this
promise because they have acknowledged their spiritually bank-
ruptcy. Allow me to explain.
Natural to the human condition is the inclination to over-
estimate the goodness of man. Plagued with a severe case of
spiritual myopia, we see ourselves through the shortsighted
lens of human experience. We see good people doing good
things and we assume that they are wholly worthy. We see bad
people doing bad things and we assume that they are wholly
unworthy. But the Bible offers us a completely different esti-
mation of the deeds of men.
The Hebrew prophet Isaiah warns us of a grave danger
lurking around every blind corner on our path toward greater
spirituality. He informs us that “all our righteous acts are like
filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6, NIV). Notice he doesn’t even mention
the unrighteous things we’ve done. Instead, he goes right to
our blind spot. He tells us that even the best things we’ve ever
done, our righteous acts, are like an offering of soiled, stinking
rags when we rely on them as our basis of self-justification. This
is not quite the homage due a holy God. But this is just how
God esteems even our very best efforts when they are per-
formed in the spirit of religious pride.
This is why the Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, warned
us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
(Romans 3:23, NKJV). In other words, it’s not just those who
violate the moral will of God who prove themselves to be sin-
ners. Since all have sinned, even those who do good things are
indicted. Building his case, the Apostle used a very descriptive
Greek word for sin (harmartia), which meant “a missing of the
Let’s Make A Deal 13
Though we might seek to mask
our selfishness, jealousy or greed,
we make no apology for taking
pride in our own good deeds.
mark.”7 It was a term which was used of an archer who drew
back his bow, let his arrows fly, but missed his target. Some
arrows may have struck closer than others, but a miss is a miss.
That’s what it means to sin—to miss the mark of God’s moral
expectation.
It’s obvious that we’ve missed the mark of God’s moral will
when we blatantly disobey His commands. What is less obvious
is that we also miss the mark when we do the right things, but
with the wrong motives. The most dangerous among these
wrong motives is pride. Though we might seek to mask our
selfishness, jealousy or greed, we make no apology for taking
pride in our own good deeds. There is, in fact, nothing of which
we are more proud.
As far as God is concerned, it is this very thing that reduces
all our best efforts to
mere acts of arrogance
and conceit. Such pride
is as repulsive to God as
the stench of soiled rags
in a dirty bucket. Thus, the Apostle had both those who were
proud of their moral accomplishments, as well as those who
were ashamed of their moral failures, in mind when he wrote:
“No one is good—not even one … All have turned away from
God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one …
For all have sinned (harmartia); all fall short of God's glorious
standard” (Romans 3:10-12, 23, NLT).
7W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White, Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository
Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985) p. 576.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
The very sins that disqualify
us from earning a place in
heaven, qualify us for the
gift of God’s grace.
This provides the necessary theological context for Jesus’
words in this beatitude. The fact that “all have sinned,” means
that no one can boast before God. Therefore, the “poor in
spirit” could be anyone, good or bad, who is humble enough to
admit that he has nothing to offer a holy God but his spiritual
indebtedness. According to Jesus, that person gains the entire
Kingdom of Heaven!
No doubt you may have heard this beatitude a thousand
times, but have you ever really allowed these words to have
their intended impact? Please take note: Jesus didn’t just
promise entrance into heaven, although this would be an
incredible gift in itself; rather, He promised that the poor in
spirit would be granted possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Just think of it, God offers everything under the banner of hea-
ven to those who simply admit they deserve absolutely nothing.
This is ultimate exaltation in exchange for ultimate humility.
In this single statement, Jesus dismantles our understanding
of what it means to be religious. Just as He over-turned the
tables of the corrupt moneychangers outside the Temple, so He
turns our religious sensibilities
on their heads. Heaven is not a
commodity that can be bought
or sold, earned or merited. Be-
cause we are all sinners, none
of us are in a position to negotiate a place in heaven. But here’s
the good news: The very sins that disqualify us from earning a
place in heaven, qualify us for the gift of God’s grace.
Let’s Make A Deal 15
1.2 \\ spiritual bankruptcy
I once had an opportunity to go to Haiti on a short-term
mission trip. As a member of a construction team, it was our
objective to complete a phase of construction for a new facility
to be used for agricultural training of local farmers. As we flew
into Cap Haitian, I was struck by the contrast between the
beauty of a lush and majestic mountain range and the bay of
churning garbage into which those verdant slopes plunged. I
saw the visages of rotting ships submerged in the harbor, as
well as beaches soiled with mounds of debris that had lapped
ashore. I was absolutely stunned to see such a beautiful place
so spoiled.
Our approach to the airport brought into view a rudimen-
tary airstrip. On touchdown, I stared out the window in dumb
disbelief as we taxied by several untethered livestock grazing
just off the runway! Garbage was strewn everywhere, and
tenement housing outlined the airfield. As we disembarked, the
sights, sounds, and especially the smells, were all very foreign to
my senses.
As strange as this world was to me, I realized that I was no
less a spectacle to those who called this place home. There
were crowds of people who had been drawn by our arrival
staring intently at us. As we made our way to the plywood ter-
minal, children shouted for candy and money. I was quickly
bombarded with offers to carry my luggage from young men
hoping to receive some measure of compensation. Once our
equipment was loaded into trucks, we began to slowly make
our way through a city of potholes so deep that I had to brace
myself to keep the cab of the truck from pummeling me into
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
bruised submission. Many of the buildings were dilapidated,
and every block seemed to be punctuated by a heaping mound
of garbage.
Yet, even in the midst of such squalor, there were signs of
resourcefulness. I remember being impressed at the sight of
large hogs, whose owners were too poor to buy farm meal, tied
to posts at the foot of these public mounds of garbage. Haiti is
the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; however, most
Haitians are not ptochos poor, possessing nothing at all. Rather,
they are an example what it means to be penichros poor, for
they do at least have garbage to feed their hogs.
The poverty of most Haitians can be likened to that of the
poor but generous widow who offered her last two mites. I
don’t mean to downplay the seriousness of such poverty. This
is real poverty. But even as I pen the pages of this book, a killer
earthquake of mammoth proportions has struck the capital city
of Port-Au-Prince, leaving thousands upon thousands dead, and
millions homeless, helpless and without any resources for sur-
vival. Without the aid of a watching world, those stricken by
the ravages of this tragedy will die. It is this kind of poverty,
akin to the abject poverty of Lazarus, with which we are to iden-
tify as we consider our own spiritual state before God. When
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” He was talking about
absolute poverty of spirit. This is a poverty that robs us of any
sense of self-sufficiency; that brings us to our knees. This is
poverty that doesn’t even have garbage to feed the hogs!
We must be very clear here: this isn’t fifty percent God’s
mercy and fifty percent our effort; this isn’t ninety percent
God’s mercy and ten percent our effort; this isn’t even ninety-
nine percent God’s mercy and one percent our effort. No, Jesus
Let’s Make A Deal 17
is speaking of a soul that has totally and completely abandoned
the idea of being worthy before God. This is zero percent re-
liance on our own efforts, and one hundred percent reliance on
the goodness and the promise of God.
Unlike the rich man who refused to show mercy to Lazarus,
God will respond to our humble plea for help. In Isaiah 66:2
(NIV), God tells us, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble
and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” All God is ask-
ing us to do is admit that our own effort will never make us wor-
thy of the Kingdom of Heaven. That’s what it means to be poor
in spirit. There are many things we can’t do, but this is some-
thing we can all do. In this lowly state we will meet a God who
responds to our humility with unrestrained generosity, shower-
ing us with riches that belie our state of spiritual destitution.
1.3 \\ super-size your dream
Have you ever refused to accept help when you really
needed it? Most of us find it difficult to admit that we need
help, don’t we? We would rather struggle along than admit
that we can’t do it on our own. Such hubris can make life more
difficult than it needs to be, especially if we’re fortunate enough
to have people in our lives who love us and would be there for
us if we’d only let them.
The seriousness of such pride is compounded many times
over when it is God’s assistance we are resisting. The Bible tells
us that we are all sinners in desperate need of God’s help. But
that isn’t our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is that we
are proud sinners, unwilling to admit our need. Self-reliant, self-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Don’t misunderstand God’s
objective here; He doesn’t
intend to hurt our spiritual
pride, He intends to kill it!
confident, and proud, we are sure that a vast treasure awaits us
in exchange for all we have to offer.
Let’s Make A Deal, indeed! We presumptuously come ready
to barter for our eternal destiny—only life is no game show. We
stand before a holy God, proudly holding forth our best
attempts at righteousness, forgetting (or perhaps utterly un-
aware) that God esteems them of no greater value than a fist
full of filthy rags. Unfortunately, filthy rags trade pretty low in
any market. In our self-righteous pride, we will be shocked to
find that no treasure awaits us behind Door Number One.
This is a serious problem, for God can help a humble sinner,
but proud sinners place them-
selves beyond the reach of
God’s love and mercy. Recog-
nizing the importance of ad-
dressing the problem of our
pride, Jesus dealt with it head-on in this first beatitude. Don’t
misunderstand God’s objective here; He doesn’t intend to hurt
our spiritual pride, He intends to kill it! And for good reason, for
nothing poses a greater threat to our souls.
The Bible tells us that no matter how hard we may try, all of
us continue to sin; we all continue to fall short of fulfilling God’s
perfect will. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we can
choose what type of sinner we will be. We can choose to be an
arrogant sinner, or we can choose to be a humble one. Those
are our only real choices. Jesus wants us to know that the en-
tire Kingdom of Heaven is freely given to humble sinners, and
only to humble sinners.
How about you? Have you realized that you have nothing
to offer a holy God but your spiritual need? Have you placed
Let’s Make A Deal 19
one hand over your face in shame, while reaching out to God
with the other hand for help? No excuses, no alibis, no list of
tainted deeds as your justification. Again, all it takes to gain the
blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven is the honest admission of
your complete unworthiness. That’s it. God can’t wait to give
the entire Kingdom of Heaven to the person who comes to Him
with this empty-handed, humble-heart attitude.
So, which door have you chosen? Are you standing in front
of Door Number One waiting to make a deal—your good deeds
in exchange for all that you think you deserve? Or are you
standing in front of Door Number Two, waiting to exchange
your spiritual poverty for God’s eternal riches? Before the first
door stand those who believe in their own goodness. Before
the second door stand those who believe in the goodness of
God. I challenge you: Dare to Super-Size your dream. Dare to
dream of grace. Dare to dream of everything that you don’t de-
serve. Dare to dream of possessing the entire Kingdom of Hea-
ven! Blessed are those who understand that it is through
poverty of spirit that true and everlasting riches are found.
1.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, I have one hand hiding my face in shame and the other
extended to You in a plea for Your mercy. I admit that I have
nothing to offer You but my need. You have judged me cor-
rectly. I only play at innocence and make a pretense of spiritual
wealth. But I thank You that You have reached down to me in
my lowly state to offer me the last thing I deserve—ownership of
Your Kingdom. I am a sinner who deserves nothing, yet You
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
have chosen to offer me everything. I am so grateful for that, so
I humbly accept Your generosity. And should I ever experience
doubts about my place in Your Kingdom, remind me that I did
nothing to deserve this gift in the first place, so I should never
fear being found unworthy of it. May I never doubt Your good-
ness or Your promise to me. Amen.
__________
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God
that He may exalt you in due time.
- The Apostle Peter
CHAPTER 2 // thin places
Is there any meaning in my life which will not be
annihilated by the inevitability of death, which awaits me?
- Leo Tolstoy
“I'M divorcing your father. I can’t take it anymore.”
She’d threatened many times before, but it was clear that
this time she was serious. After a quarter century of enduring
my father’s persistent alcoholism, my mother had had enough.
It wasn’t that I could blame her. I, too, had spent my whole
life subject to Dad’s drunken binges and outbursts. I knew how
hard it was to live with him. But as an adult child of an alco-
holic, I had come to realize how rewarding it was to enjoy a
healthy family of my own. I grieved all that my father had
missed in life. And now Mom was moving on with her own life,
leaving my dad to fend for himself.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Tragically, he had not yet recovered from the shocking loss
of his closest friend (and drinking buddy) who recently drank
himself to death in the back seat of my father’s car. Now this.
Dad was dazed and confused. And his confusion quickly turned
to fear when he learned that his ensuing and sudden loss of
energy was neither depression nor anxiety, but a critical heart
condition that would prove fatal if not swiftly addressed.
Desperate and dying, Dad showed up on my doorstep with
nothing but a suitcase and a prognosis of only a few months to
live. He looked more like a lost and frightened child than a
strong and sturdy construction worker. Too weak to work, Dad
was broke and alone with nowhere to go. My wife and I took
him in as we searched frantically for a cardiologist who might
accept his case pro bono.
Each night as I walked past his door, I could hear him crying
himself to sleep. I so badly wanted to say or do something to
bring him some measure of relief. I knew his heart needed
mending, but of a far deeper kind than any surgeon’s scalpel
could fashion. It occurred to me that my father was not unlike
the poor and needy souls who had clamored up the side of that
hill, where Jesus was preaching, in search of comfort and relief
from their own desperate struggles.
The average annual income in first century Palestine would
have been equivalent to about $600 in today’s currency (oddly,
more than my father was making at the time). But besides their
monetary poverty, most of the people who sought out Jesus
were, like my father, afflicted with “all kinds of sickness”
(Matthew 4:23, NKJV). Although disadvantaged in many ways,
the crowd that Christ addressed that day was highly sophisti-
cated when it came to the subject of grief. They knew what it
Thin Places 23
was to mourn life’s losses, to experience disappointments, to
endure hardships. What they couldn’t see was how close those
regrettable experiences brought them to the blessings of the
Kingdom of God.
In ancient Celtic mythology there was a belief that there are
certain places, called thin places, where the world of the seen
and the world of the unseen came into closest proximity. In
each of the beatitudes, Jesus points us to a kind of thin place, a
place on earth where we draw closer to heaven. Surprisingly,
these are lowly, humble places, each one of them repulsive in
some way to the ego of man. Not one of them is a place that
you or I would seek to visit in our search for a happy and
meaningful life. But Jesus proposes that the treasures of the
Kingdom of God are found in just such lowly places. Places like
the one my father had come to find himself. Notice Jesus’
assuring words in this, the second beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- Matthew 5:4, NKJV
___________________________________
2.1 \\ buried treasure
I wonder, how many words you can think of to describe the
range of emotions involved in human grief? From somber to
disconsolate, from disappointed to despondent, from melan-
choly to lugubrious; it is amazing how well equipped the English
language is for explaining our pain. This, of course, says some-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
thing about the human experience itself. Whatever else life
may hold for us, there is no escaping emotional and physical
suffering.
The ancient Greek language of the New Testament was also
generously endowed with terms for how the human heart
might ache, supplying nine distinct words intended to cover the
entire range of this dark emotion. In this beatitude, as in the
first, Jesus employed the strongest word available in the verna-
cular, the word pentheo, which meant “to wrench in agony.”1
This was the term most often employed to describe life’s most
painful experience—the death of a loved one.
For this reason, it was this same word that was chosen by
the translators of the Septuagint to describe Jacob’s reaction to
the news that his favorite son, Joseph, had been killed.2 The
grief that Jacob experienced was so deep that it left the
patriarch a broken man, a mere shadow of the person he had
been. Pentheo was also the word used in the Gospels to
describe the grief of the disciples at the crucifixion and death of
Christ. This is not a word that we would normally associate with
the idea of blessedness. After all, where is the blessing in the
experience of such grief?
Using such strong and seemingly incongruous language was
a tool Jesus would employ repeatedly to point to a deeper spiri-
tual issue. In the first beatitude, He chose the strongest word
1W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 642. 2The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, translated
in Alexandria, Egypt, by Jewish Scholars between approximately 300-200 B.C.
Thin Places 25
The grief that our transgressions
have caused God has been reflect-
ed back to us in the sorrow that
we experience due to death.
possible for earthly poverty in order to speak of an even deeper
deficiency in the human soul. Here again in this beatitude,
Jesus used the most intensely powerful word available for
earthly grief to turn our attention to the deepest form of spiri-
tual grief—a grief so severe that it causes God Himself to
wrench in agony.
What is this deeper sorrow, and what is the association be-
tween this deeper grief and the loss experienced at the death of
a loved one? The Apostle
Paul offered an answer to
both questions when he
wrote, “… the wages of
sin is death” (Romans
6:23, NIV). In this statement he helps us to see the important
connection between death and disobedience. From this we
learn that mortality exists as God’s direct reaction to the sin of
man, that disobedience is how man has broken God’s heart, and
that the grief that our transgressions have caused God has been
reflected back to us in the sorrow that we experience due to
death.
This reaction may seem too severe, but that is only because
we fail to appreciate the full gravity of the situation. The
prophet Isaiah wrote that our sins have actually caused “a sepa-
ration between *us+ and *our+ God” (Isaiah 52:9, NAS). Thus, as
bad as things are, in a world where everyone we love must die,
the Bible would have us to understand that things are, in fact,
even worse than they appear. More ominous than the pain that
we experience due to death is the rift that exists between man
and God due to our transgressions.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
If it takes death to draw our
attention to the fact that we are
estranged from God, then we
must learn to be grateful that
God has captured our attention,
even at so high a price.
As bad as things are, in a world
where everyone we love must
die, the Bible would have us to
understand that things are, in
fact, even worse than they
appear.
Those who gathered to hear Jesus preach this message
knew only too well how to grieve over their many afflictions.
What they may not have
understood was how this
pain was intended to point
them to something deeper.
As strange as it may sound,
the most ominous of life’s
experiences is meant to do
us a great service. Death is intended by our Creator to stir us
from our complacency and to warn us that something is terribly
wrong in the world. That being so, if it takes death to draw our
attention to the fact that we are estranged from God, then we
must learn to be grateful that God has captured our attention,
even at so high a price.
The moment we receive death’s warning—the moment that
we begin to mourn with God over our sin—God will respond to
us with what we need to be truly comforted. Reassuringly,
Jesus promised that those who experience this deeper grief
“will be comforted.” This
pledge comes to us as a
translation of the Greek
verb parakaleo, written in
this text in the aorist
tense, which characterizes
the action of the verb as a
fait accompli, as something as good as done. With this promise,
Jesus set forth the experience of deep spiritual grief over our
estrangement from God as a thin place, a place where it is
Thin Places 27
Those who race through their days
ignoring the presence of the
Creator … aren’t living real lives—
they are living "almost" lives.
possible to discover the comfort of God waiting for us on the
other side.
2.2 \\ the virtual life
Driving down a highway one day I noticed a large billboard
advertisement for an apartment complex. What piqued my
interest was the promise of a virtual tour of available apart-
ments simply by visiting a website. Cyberspace has opened a
whole new world of virtual experiences to the connected gener-
ation.
Of course, there is one significant drawback to a virtual ex-
perience. It isn’t real life. It’s almost life. The virtual house
hunter won’t be able to
meet the neighbors, or
smell the mold, or hear
the ambient sounds of
local traffic, or even be
sure of the hue of the granite counter tops. The virtual world
represents the real world, but only in a very superficial way.
Did you know that it is possible to live our lives as though
we’re on a virtual tour? We do this when we live as if there is
no deeper meaning or purpose to our lives. Sadly, people seem
to be completely unaware of the danger of living only on the
surface. Oblivious, they live a life void of the depth of ex-
perience intended by our Creator.
For example, when we experience an important event, like
the birth of a baby or landing a great job, we naturally cele-
brate. But if celebrating is all we do then we have missed the
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
real import of the moment; we have only reacted to life on the
surface. To go deeper with our joy we must consider its
source—we must share it with God. We must stop and
acknowledge the vital role that a loving Creator played in the
event. After all, as the Bible reminds us, “Every good and per-
fect gift is from above” (James. 1:17, NIV).
The Scriptures actually have a term for those who go
beyond the virtual to live according to this deeper reality; they
are called worshipers. Those who live without worship aren’t
living the full experience. Rather, they are passing through life
as if on a virtual tour, missing most of what’s really there. To
really experience the depth and breadth of life we must become
a worshiper of God; we must interact with the multi-
dimensional nature of the physical and metaphysical universe.
Those who race through their days ignoring the presence of the
Creator, never pausing to return thanks, or stopping to pray
over their concerns, or seeking God’s will in the pages of Scrip-
ture, aren’t living real lives—they are living almost lives.
Living as a worshiper changes the whole experience of one’s
life. It even changes how one grieves. A worshiper understands
that there is more to pain than first meets the eye; he under-
stands that suffering is merely a symptom of something far
more insidious. Instead of blaming God for suffering, a wor-
shiper goes deeper with his grief by redirecting his anger to the
root cause of his afflictions—the devastating repercussions of
living in a sin-plagued and sin-cursed world.
This is not to say that each time we suffer it is because God
is lashing out at us, or our loved ones, for our personal failures.
In fact, most of what we suffer in life has no apparent direct
cause. That’s because God’s response to sin has propelled all of
Thin Places 29
creation into a downward spiral—a death spiral, if you will. God
isn’t singling us out. The harsh realities of life, and even death
itself, are the ramifications we all face.
Rather, through suffering, God is luring us to a thin place—
like the place He lured my father in the midst of his grief. It
took the death of his best friend, the failure of his marriage, and
finally the impending threat of losing his own life before God
captured his attention, but get his attention He did. Through
great sorrow and despair, Dad became acutely aware that
something was not right in the world, that something was not
right in his life. He longed for a comfort and a consolation that
the virtual life he had been living could not provide. His heart
was ready to get real with life.
In that moment, God sent him just the right person. I affec-
tionately refer to her as Billy Graham in a skirt. One night, as
Dad was out drinking, Eleanor burst through the door and
marched straight to the bar. She slapped several bills down and
boldly proclaimed to all who would listen that she was there to
pay a delinquent bar tab. A recovering alcoholic, she was
working her program by setting right old wrongs. My dad had
already been there for hours, crying in his beer and ruing his
desperate circumstances. With the bar as her pulpit, and a
room full of imbibing patrons as her unwitting congregation, she
began preaching her sermon. Dad was in a thin place and Elea-
nor’s words of a loving, forgiving God were opening his eyes to
the reality of his own need.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
2.3 \\ super-size your dream
Inherent in the human condition is the tendency to live in
denial of the harsher realities of life. For instance, it is an indis-
putable fact of life that every good thing we now enjoy will one
day come to a disappointing end. This is the terrible reality that
we are confronted with daily. Every person who enjoys good
health today can rest assured that he will one day succumb to
sickness and eventually to death. Every good marriage will one
day end as one or the other partner dies. Every great fortune
must eventually be left behind. Every joy and every pleasure
will pass. Absolutely every good thing in this life comes to an
end. There is no refuting this eventuality.
But how many of us actually live in light of this reality? How
many people do you know with a philosophy of life that is con-
sistent with total futility? In a practical sense, in order to cope,
we are left with no choice but to avoid the implications of life.
After all, what possible benefit could there be to living in light of
our own sure and ultimate demise?
To avoid the pointlessness of our true condition, we live our
lives as though we will never really die. We choose to live in
denial rather than face a meaningless existence. But facing the
harsh realities of life and the inevitability of death is exactly
what this beatitude is all about. According to Jesus, being will-
ing to face life honestly is essential to the search for blessed-
ness. In fact, Christ tells us that only those who are willing to
mourn the deeper significance of these realities will ever find
God’s comfort. As backwards as it seems, we must be willing to
honestly face the bad news if we are ever to discover the great-
est news of all.
Thin Places 31
The refusal to hear the bad
news (we are all sinners) has
made [us] oblivious to the
great news (God forgives and
restores humble sinners).
Understanding this necessity, the worshiper turns to God
for an answer, and what he finds in the pages of Scripture is
more than assuring. There he reads that the time is coming
when God will restore and renew His Creation. The Apostle
John tells us that when that day comes God will “wipe away
every tear … there shall be no more death, nor sorrow … no
more pain” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV).
From that time on we will never again know the anguish of
being separated from a loved one; we will never again ex-
perience the frailties that accompany advancing years; we will
never again suffer the discomfort of disease; we will never again
fear being separated from our Creator. Unfortunately, these
amazing promises fall on
deaf ears for those who live
in denial of their need for
God’s comfort. With such
people, the refusal to hear
the bad news (we are all
sinners) has made them oblivious to the great news (God for-
gives and restores humble sinners).
In my ordeal with my father, I experienced a wide range of
emotions. I had faced with profound disappointment the pain
of watching his alcoholism drown his potential, lamenting all
that could have been. I had met the failure of his marriage with
a deep sadness as I saw him shrink under the weight of loneli-
ness and dejection. I reeled with anguish to learn of his des-
perate physical condition.
But I first experienced the depth of pentheo grief when my
father finally succumbed to his fatal heart condition in the
waning hours following the surgery that was intended to save
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Blessed are those who
understand that the com-
fort that matters most is
the comfort of God.
A blessing is anything
that draws us closer to
God, including our pain.
his life. With each wave of pentheo grief I felt as though I had
been gripped and squeezed by a large, invisible hand until there
was no air left in my lungs. You never forget the experience of
being seized by that kind of sorrow. If you have ever wrenched
in agony, then you know just what I mean.
Although the surgeons failed to help my father with his ail-
ing heart, God healed him of a far deeper ailment. In those de-
fining weeks of sadness and sorrow
that preceded his surgery, Dad had
confronted the possibility of death
itself and was thereby moved to a
deeper level of mourning. In the process, he learned to mourn
his estrangement from God, and in so doing he found ultimate
and eternal comfort in the promise of God’s forgiveness. As my
father discovered, a blessing is anything that draws us closer to
God, including our pain.
How about you? Are you living a virtual or a real-life ex-
perience? What causes you greater concern—the losses you
suffer in life or the loss of your
relationship with God? Have you
gone deeper with your grief? Are
you willing to heed the bad news
(we are all sinners), so that you
might discover the greatest news of all (God restores and com-
forts humble sinners)? Blessed are those who understand that
the comfort that matters most is the comfort of God.
Thin Places 33
2.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, my earthbound dreams are just like me; one day they
will return to the dust from which they were formed. Help me to
face the reality that every good thing I enjoy in this life will one
day come to a disappointing end. Though it’s difficult, I want to
accept the truth about my life. I don’t want to cling to temporal
things as if they are something more than what they really are.
Instead of only grieving over my pain, help me to wrench in
agony over my sin and the separation it brings between us.
Make sin so distasteful to me that I recoil at the mere thought of
it. Grant me the comfort of Your promise of complete forgive-
ness and perfect restoration. Amen.
__________
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
- The Psalmist
CHAPTER 3 // the writing is on the wall
Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln
DO you have control issues? Consider the following diag-
nostic questions:
• Does it anger you when others ignore your advice?
• Are you bothered when others fail to do it right?
• Do you do things for others with the expectation of getting
something in return?
• Would your friends and associates describe you as critical?
• Do you become emotionally aggressive with those who oppose
you?
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you, my
friend, just might be a control freak. The good news is that,
despite the negative connotation that comes with the title, con-
trol freaks tend to be very successful people. They usually rise
to the top of organizations for one obvious reason: control
freaks get things done, and they get them done well. But for all
that they accomplish, there can be a significant downside to
their need to be in control.
No doubt you’ve heard the expression, “The writing is on
the wall.” Interestingly, this idiom comes to us from the pages
of Scripture wherein God warned the ancient Babylonian ruler,
King Belshazzer, about the way he was wielding his power. In
this particular incident, the King had decided to throw an extra-
vagant party to celebrate the further expansion of his kingdom.
A thousand of Belshazzer’s closest friends were invited to par-
ticipate by toasting the King with golden goblets that had been
confiscated by force from the Jewish Temple.
In the midst of the celebration, a finger appeared in mid-air
and proceeded to write a message in the plaster. As the finger
crafted its message, the words mene mene tekel upharsin ap-
peared. Interpreted, the phrase means, “You have been
weighed in the balance and found wanting” (Daniel 5:25-27,
NKJV). King Belshazzer had been weighed on the scales of God’s
expectation, and despite his great power and many accom-
plishments, he came up short.
Belshazzer had been granted almost limitless power, but
according to the writing on the wall that day, he was judged to
be a poor steward of it. What the King failed to understand was
that it’s one thing to garner power and control, it’s quite
another thing to use it for the purpose for which it was in-
The Writing Is On The Wall 37
tended. By the misuse of his power, King Belshazzer proved to
be a poor steward of the authority that God had granted him.
You and I have also been given a stewardship of power.
While we may not be monarchs or heads of state, each of us
nonetheless exerts a certain measure of sway in our own per-
sonal spheres of influence—at home, at work, in our commun-
ities. And just like King Belshazzer, if we’re not careful, we can
misuse our power of influence and fail in our stewardship. The
key to avoiding this pitfall is the subject of Jesus’ words in this,
the third beatitude:
___________________________________
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
- Matthew 5:5, NKJV
___________________________________
3.1 \\ buried treasure
When most people think of meekness they can’t help but
think of weakness. In our modern vernacular the word conjures
up images of a Clark Kent personality who invites others to take
advantage of him, or a skinny guy at the beach who has sand
kicked in his face. But was this what Jesus meant when He
spoke of meekness? Was it His intent to draw a picture of a
sheepish chump with a passive, shrinking demeanor? To an-
swer this question we must once again dig a little deeper to un-
cover the nuance of the ancient term Jesus employed.
According to a standard lexicon, the New Testament word
translated meek (praos) can mean to be gentle, considerate, or
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
humble. This term was used in the secular literature of the first
century to describe a soothing medicine or a soft breeze. When
used to describe an attitude of the heart, it meant to be sub-
missive, quiet, or tenderhearted.1 But this doesn’t tell the
whole story behind this word. When we examine how praos
was used in the context of power, we discover a stark contrast
to our modern usage.
Rather than equating meekness with weakness, the ancient
Greeks understood meekness to connote the attribute of power
that was tempered by gentleness. For example, praos was their
term of choice to describe a powerful horse that had been
tamed. They considered a newly broken horse to be meek, not
because it had lost its power, but because its power had been
harnessed – literally. In this way, the ancient Greek concept of
meekness was broader than our own, marrying the ideas of
both power and constraint. In fact, they employed an expres-
sion that beautifully underscores this not-so-subtle difference.
While we speak of being as meek as a mouse, they spoke of
being as meek as a lion! In keeping with the Greek origin of the
word, the biblical concept likewise purports the idea of tem-
pered power.
But this is not the only gem of truth to be found in the text.
Jesus goes on to promise that the meek will one day inherit the
earth. These are words with which we’re both familiar and
comfortable, until we stop to really think about them. It’s not
at all surprising to read that the meek will one day be the bene-
1W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 698.
The Writing Is On The Wall 39
factors of a great and eternal spiritual inheritance. But the
description of the promised inheritance itself ought to take us
aback. Jesus spoke of the eternal inheritance of the meek in
terms of the most solid thing we know—good ol’ terra firma—
with all its sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.
We read in this verse the word earth, but somehow it
doesn’t really register. When anticipating our eternal inher-
itance, it’s images of a non-physical, non-material future state
that we envision—an ethereal existence of playing heavenly
harps upon celestial clouds, forever and ever and ever more.
Rocks and rivers, mountains and valleys, forests and fields—
these aren’t the trappings of eternity. Or are they?
Actually, contrary to our preconceived notion, this is exactly
what is taught in the pages of Scripture. There we find the
promise of a bodily resurrection and the return of the risen
Christ to the earth (Romans 6:5; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 22:20).
Further, the Apostle Paul explained, “And this is the plan: At the
right time he [God] will bring everything together under the
authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth” (Ephe-
sians 1:10, NLT).
So, our eternal inheritance is not a question of one or the
other, of heaven instead of earth. Rather, we are told that one
day the two will be merged, and the current separation be-
tween heaven (the abode of God) and earth (the abode of man)
will be mended. The Apostle John actually described this future
event when he wrote, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne
saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live
with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with
them and be their God … for the old order of things has passed
away’” (Revelation 21:3-4, NIV). The Apostle Peter added, “In
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new hea-
ven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13,
NIV).
Thus, consistent with the rest of Scripture, Jesus’ words in
this beatitude strongly suggest that the eternal inheritance of
the meek will be the very earth we currently occupy. There is
more than a measure of ironic justice in this fact. The same
earth that the powerful vie to possess will one day be renewed
and handed over as an inheritance to those who refused to
scratch or claw their way to the top—to those the Bible calls the
meek.
3.2 \\ how the meek wield power
The Scriptures offer many examples of believers who were
known for their meekness—Joseph being a prime example. The
favored son of his father, he was despised by his jealous older
brothers. Driven by disdain, they devised a plan to sell him into
slavery. But Joseph’s bondage eventually led him to the courts
of Pharaoh where he proved himself to be a valued and res-
pected servant.
Joseph would eventually be elevated to second in command
over all of Egypt. In this high post, he was granted authority
over the affairs of what was, at the time, the greatest nation on
earth. It was then that a famine gripped the land that was so
severe that it forced his siblings to travel from their homeland
to Egypt in the hopes of finding some relief. Left destitute by
their circumstances, the brothers were further humbled as they
found themselves bowing before their youngest brother—the
brother they had so contemptuously betrayed.
The Writing Is On The Wall 41
The exalted Joseph could not have asked for a better posi-
tion from which to exact revenge on those who had treated him
so despitefully. But it’s here that Joseph’s meekness was put on
display. Rather than dealing with his brothers according to their
treachery, Joseph wept over them and gave them the food they
so desperately needed. Joseph wielded great power, but he
demonstrated a meek spirit when he used that power to serve
rather than to retaliate.
And then there was the great Moses. The Scriptures dec-
lare, “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people
who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3, RSV). It’s
tempting to think that this is a reference to Moses’ initial fear of
confronting Pharaoh on behalf of his people. But if you go back
and re-read the biblical account, you’ll find that once Moses got
beyond his initial timidity he no longer needed his brother to
speak for him. After the butterflies had gone, Moses performed
courageously.
Actually, the meekness of Moses came into focus, not in his
dealings with Pharaoh, but later, after the Exodus, when God
threatened to wipe out the Israelites for their insolence. With
this threat, God offered to start over again, replacing the rebel-
lious Israelites with the progeny of Moses. What an honor this
must have been. In effect, this would have made Moses the
new Abraham, the father of God’s chosen people. But rather
than grasp for the glory of such an opportunity, Moses peti-
tioned God on behalf of his kinsmen, and even offered his own
life as a substitute. It is in this set of facts that we find the true
essence of biblical meekness. By his selfless stewardship of
power, Moses proved himself to be more than just a great
leader; he demonstrated that he possessed the heart of a great
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
What really matters isn’t
possessing great power,
but being possessed by
the greatest power of all.
servant leader. That’s why Moses was called the meekest man
on the face of the earth.
And what about the meek spirit manifested by the great
warrior-poet, David, in his dealings with King Saul? Crazed with
jealousy, the King had attempted to kill David on numerous
occasions. Then God turned the tables on Saul. Suddenly it was
David with the spear in his hand
and the opportunity to dispatch
his tormentor. But even though
David finally had the advantage—
the power—he refused to harm
Saul out of respect for his position as King of Israel. Now that’s
power under God’s control! No wonder David was called a man
after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
The personalities, callings, strengths and weaknesses of
godly men and women have varied throughout the ages.
Nevertheless, those who have accomplished great things for
God have all shared one essential character trait—they have all
been meek. Despite their many differences, they have all un-
derstood that what really matters isn’t possessing great power,
but being possessed by the greatest power of all.
3.3 \\ how the weak exercise meekness
A tongue-in-cheek organization claiming to represent the
meek of the world has this for their motto: “The meek shall in-
herit the earth, if that’s alright with everyone.” When I think of
that statement I can’t help but think of Stephanie, a mild-
The Writing Is On The Wall 43
mannered and gracious woman who taught those who knew
her that meekness is anything but weakness.
At the prime of her life, Stephanie was diagnosed with a
rare and deadly form of liver cancer. The prognosis was not
good—six months at the most. This would have been a devas-
tating blow to anyone, but the fact that Stephanie was a de-
voted wife and mother of four young children only made the
situation more tragic.
I’ll never forget my pastoral visit to Stephanie shortly after
the doctors had delivered the bad news. Looking a bit stunned
as she adjusted to her new reality, Stephanie composed herself
and asked me the last question I expected to hear at a moment
like that. She didn’t ask the usual, “Why me?” Instead, she
turned to me intently and asked, “How can I be faithful in this?”
Such a simple question, and yet it took me completely by sur-
prise.
The best I could come up with on the spot was an honest, “I
don’t know, but I’m confident that God will show you how, and
that you will in turn show the rest of us.”
Shortly after the diagnosis, the doctors encouraged Stepha-
nie to consider a particularly harsh course of treatment. They
could not guarantee even a measure of success, but some hope
was better than no hope at all. So Stephanie and her husband
decided to give it a try. After the first round of treatments, the
test results came back and they weren’t encouraging. The
chemotherapy had done nothing to stop the advance of this
aggressive disease. It was like experiencing the initial diagnosis
all over again, only this time all hope had dissipated.
One night, not long after receiving this demoralizing news,
Stephanie showed up to a Bible study I was leading. She walked
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Sometimes the greatest
demonstration of power
is seen not in exertion,
but in repose.
into the room that night moving more like a ninety-three year
old than someone just thirty-nine. But despite her frail appear-
ance, Stephanie came that night with a glow in her countenance
and a smile that defied her circumstances.
She lit up at the opportunity to share with the group some-
thing that God had taught her that day. Stephanie hesitated,
and then in characteristic humility said, “I know this is going to
sound kind of kindergartenish, but the Lord has taught me that
His strength was right there for me
all along. All I had to do was rest
in it.” It was clear by her words,
and by the peace in her face, that
a power greater than the cancer
had taken control of her. I realize now, looking back, that I have
never been in the presence of a more powerful person.
Stephanie’s frail state belied the fact that the power of God
rested upon her that night. She was dying, and yet she was
more alive in her relationship with God than anyone else in the
room. Her weakness had been swallowed up by God’s power.
Stephanie’s cancer had become a catalyst that had driven her
deeper into the arms of God. There, she had discovered the
meaning of the Apostle Paul’s curious statement, “When I am
weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NIV). Yes, meek-
ness is power placed under God’s control, but it is also God’s
power displayed during times of weakness. Sometimes the
greatest demonstration of power is seen not in exertion, but in
repose.
Most of us never learn to rest in God’s strength, even in the
minor challenges of day-to-day life. Stephanie, however, show-
ed us that it’s possible to find strength to face even the biggest
The Writing Is On The Wall 45
tests that life can throw at us. And not just face them, but to
actually turn defeat into victory. Stephanie was victorious in
her great trial because she never lost the focus of her initial
reaction to her challenging circumstances: “How can I be faith-
ful in this?”
Exactly six months after the preliminary diagnosis, Steph-
anie quietly slipped into the waiting arms of God’s angels, but
not before she whispered to those present, “I did it. I was
faithful.” There was writing on the wall that day. No, it didn’t
read, “You have been weighed in the balance and found want-
ing.” Rather, it read, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
3.4 \\ super-size your dream
God grants each of us a measure of power. That power ex-
ists in a variety of forms, not just in the inherent influence that
comes with money or position. For example, we all have con-
trol over the words we choose to speak at any given moment.
We all have the ability to determine what our attitude will be in
any given set of circumstances. We all have the freedom to
determine how we will invest our lives, either in service to our
own interests or in service to others.
And in every way that we are empowered, we also have the
opportunity to submit the use of that power back to God. It is
this choice that presents us all with the occasion to exercise
biblical meekness. For it is only as we yield ourselves to God’s
control that we apply the use of our power to its ultimate pur-
pose.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Blessed are those who un-
derstand that true power
can only be experienced in
submission to God’s will.
Many erroneously believe that the meek lack ambition be-
cause they fail to use their power for self-promotion. The truth
is, the meek give up selfish ambition for holy ambition—the
greatest ambition of all. No, there’s nothing milquetoast about
biblical meekness. Rather, it is the exertion of the strongest
moral character driven by the greatest of all ambitions.
For this reason, the authority and influence of the meek will
be celebrated forever as they
rule over a renewed and re-
furbished earth. By contrast,
the influence of those who
clamor for worldly power is
limited to this temporary, mortal existence. In this way God has
declared their power to be nothing. Being powerful in the King-
dom of Man is one dream, but being powerful in the Kingdom of
God is the far bigger dream to which Jesus calls us.
How about you? If weighed in the balance of God’s expec-
tation, what would the writing on the wall say about you? Are
you a good steward of the power that God has granted you?
Have you placed your power of influence under God’s control?
What about the words that you choose to speak and the atti-
tudes that you choose to possess? Blessed are those who un-
derstand that true power can only be experienced in submission
to God’s will.
3.5 \\ closing prayer
Lord, I place my power of influence under Your control. I
place the words that I choose to speak under Your control. I
The Writing Is On The Wall 47
place the attitudes I choose to possess under Your control. Do
with me as You will. And when I am weak and humbled by my
circumstances, help me to rest in the power of Your presence.
Grant me the dream of being a powerful person in the only
kingdom that really matters. Amen.
__________
For this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you,
and that My name may be declared in all the earth.
- The Lord God speaking to Moses
CHAPTER 4 // satisfaction guaranteed
What does not satisfy when we find it was not the thing we were desiring.
- C.S. Lewis
DO you ever find yourself yearning for beef? I do. Some-
times I long for a big juicy steak or a thick hamburger. When I
get this craving, I find that substitutes do nothing to satisfy it.
Seafood won’t do, poultry seems paltry, and a salad is the last
thing I want. It has to be beef. That hankering doesn’t go away
until I’ve consumed a hearty portion of red meat. It may be
weeks before that craving revisits me, but for the moment I am
completely satisfied.
You know that feeling, don’t you? If not with beef, then
certainly with some other favorite dish. We all experience it.
God designed us to crave what our bodies need. We’ve been
engineered to sense when vital proteins, starches or minerals
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Genuine spirituality is more than
an experience with Creation; it’s a
relationship with the Creator.
are depleted. When necessary nutrients run low, our brain be-
gins sending signals that register as cravings; we begin to hun-
ger and thirst.
Our bodies are also designed to register the satisfaction of
each of these yearnings. When I’ve satisfied my desire for beef,
there are protein enzymes in my stomach that send a message
to my brain that says, “Ahhhh, that’s just what I needed!” This
all happens by God’s design. Our Creator placed our appetites
inside of us with purpose and forethought. He also provided a
proper satisfaction for every one of these desires.
This is true of our spiritual cravings, as well. They are as
integral to the human condition as physical ones. Unfortun-
ately, many seek to fulfill the cravings of their soul without giv-
ing any thought to their relationship with God. Instead, they
pursue spirituality through such things as communion with the
wonders of creation or by means of mystical experiences. Cer-
tainly, these things can
make us feel closer to
God, but they are poor
substitutes for the real
thing. That’s because genuine spirituality is more than an expe-
rience with Creation; it’s a relationship with the Creator.
But establishing a proper relationship with God poses an
interesting conundrum. After all, God is holy, which means He
must require holiness from us, as well. Anything less would be a
violation of His very nature. As a professor of mine was fond of
saying, “The righteousness that God requires is the righteous-
ness that His righteousness requires that He require.” Try say-
ing that ten times! Better yet, try living up to it.
Satisfaction Guaranteed 51
We seem to understand the difficulty of this challenge intui-
tively. How else do we explain mankind’s long legacy of reli-
gious institutions and philosophies, all promising a formula for
making us worthy enough to please God? Whether we’re called
to walk down a noble eight-fold path, endure countless cycles of
reincarnation, lay sacrifices upon prescribed altars, or obey a
certain series of sacraments, the goal is the same—to strive
toward personal holiness in the hopes that God will be pleased
with the effort.
The inherent shortcoming of this approach is that it is any-
thing but satisfying. It is more akin to a formula for frustration.
After all, how hard must we strive for it to be hard enough?
How good must we be to be good enough? The shear uncer-
tainty of the whole endeavor leaves us feeling empty. Thank-
fully, it is the promise of finding genuine satisfaction for this
deep spiritual longing that serves as the focus of Jesus’ words in
this, the fourth beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be filled.
- Matthew 5:6, NKJV
___________________________________
4.1 \\ buried treasure
At first, this beatitude might sound like yet another formula
for frustration. But just below the surface, in the underlying
syntax of this passage, lies a very surprising promise. There we
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
discover that Jesus attached an unusual case ending, along with
the addition of a definite article, to the noun “righteousness.”1
The definite article tells us that Jesus had a specific righteous-
ness in mind, and the choice of the accusative case ending tells
us that we are to desire all of this particular righteousness.
Thus, a fuller exposition of this beatitude reveals a promise to
satisfy not just a desire to be more righteous, but an offer to
satisfy a desire for all of the righteousness of God.2
Concerning this unusual construction, commentator James
Montgomery Boice has written, “Christ intends us to hunger
and thirst … not after a partial or imperfect righteousness, but
after the whole thing. We must long for a perfect righteous-
ness, and this means, therefore, a righteousness equal to and
identical with God’s.”3
Indeed, “The righteousness that God requires is the right-
eousness that His righteousness requires that He require.”
Jesus declared as blessed those who desire not a self-made
brand of morality, but one that matches the perfect righteous-
ness of God Himself.
1As the object of verbs such as to thirst or to hunger, a noun like “right-
eousness,” in the Koine Greek, would normally be given a genitive case ending to indicate a desire for some, as opposed to all righteousness. But Jesus employed the accusative case with a definite article, making it clear that He had all of a specific righteousness in mind. 2A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of
Historical Research (New York: Doran, 1923) p. 756. Contrary to the omission in our modern translations, Robertson affirms that, “whenever the Greek article occurs, the object is certainly definite.” 3James Montgomery Boice, The Sermon on the Mount: An Exposition by James
Montgomery Boice (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972) p. 46.
Satisfaction Guaranteed 53
We are performance driven
creatures whose tendency is
to measure ourselves by
ourselves, not by God.
Understandably, some may be hesitant to accept such an
unusual proposition based solely on the weight of the gram-
matical and syntactical construction of a phrase in another lan-
guage, and an ancient one at that. Fortunately, though, the
Scriptures are replete with less oblique texts that speak of the
possibility of acquiring God’s righteousness by faith. Both Test-
aments affirm that, “Abraham believed God and it was credited
to Him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3, NIV). Paul
likewise reminds us of the blessedness of “the undeserving sin-
ner who is declared to be righteous” (Romans 4:6, NLT). Simi-
larly, Jeremiah, in anticipation of the coming of Messiah, proph-
esied, “This will be his name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness,’”
(Jeremiah 23:6, NLT).
Again, this is not what we expect to hear. What we antic-
ipate is a pep talk about the importance of striving harder in the
pursuit of a more godly life. We are performance driven crea-
tures whose tendency is to measure ourselves by ourselves, not
by God. But by taking this approach we have redefined right-
eousness in terms that bear
little resemblance to the real
thing. It is pure delusion for us
to purport that our flawed ef-
forts to do the right things can,
in any way, be compared to the righteousness possessed by
God Himself. Of course, Jesus knows this about us. So, instead
of exhorting us to increase our effort, He exhorts us to increase
our desire.
But there is yet more treasure to be unearthed from this
text. The assurance that Jesus extends to those who desire the
righteousness of God is that they will be filled. This bold prom-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
ise is stated in the passive voice, suggesting that this filling (or
satisfaction) is something that is simply supplied. How else
could a desire for the perfect righteousness of God be satisfied,
except by God Himself? Thus, by a simple promise we are of-
fered the satisfaction we sought elsewhere but could not find.
In contrast to the frustration experienced in our vain attempts
to achieve holiness, here we are assured of complete and utter
satisfaction.
4.2 \\ the dress code of heaven
In the world of proper etiquette, knowing what to wear to
any given event can be a bit complicated. Just crack open a
book on wedding guest attire and you’ll encounter a dizzying
array of dos and don’ts. Choosing the appropriate outfit de-
pends on many variables, including the time of the wedding and
whether it’s an informal, semi-formal, or formal event.
Based on these and other criteria, the dress requirements
stated on your next invitation could be any of the following:
black-tie, white-tie, formal, ultra-formal, black tie optional,
black tie invited, creative black tie, semi-formal, cocktail attire,
dressy casual, casual or informal. Personally, I prefer Gilda
Radner’s dress code—wear whatever doesn’t itch!
As strange as it may sound, the Bible teaches that heaven
also has a dress code. Jesus spoke of it in a story wherein He
likened entrance into heaven to being invited to a royal wed-
ding (Matthew 22:8-14). The tension in the story builds as the
guests of honor rudely refuse to attend the wedding celebration
(a thinly veiled reference to the religious leaders of Israel who
Satisfaction Guaranteed 55
rejected Jesus’ claim of being Messiah). In response, the king
decides to send servants out to the “highways” to invite whom-
ever they could find. Soon the wedding hall is “filled with
guests” of varied repute, “both good and bad” (v. 10, NIV).
But when the king arrives to greet his guests, it isn’t their
character that concerns him. Rather, he is upset to see “a man
there who did not have on a wedding garment” (v. 11, NKJV).
So far as the king was concerned, everyone was welcome to the
wedding feast—including the lowly, the outcasts, and the
immoral—so long as they were willing to wear the appropriate
wedding attire (any man whose ever been turned away from a
trendy restaurant for not wearing a tie knows how this feels).
So, beyond the obvious lesson on ancient Hebrew wedding
etiquette, how does this story relate to gaining entrance into
heaven? Simply put, the point of the story is that we can’t ex-
pect to enter the presence of God clothed, so to speak, in our
own imperfect attempts to attain righteousness. Such an ex-
pectation is as preposterous as the notion of gaining entrance
to a royal wedding dressed only in rags.
The expression self-righteousness carries a negative conno-
tation for good reason. Most of us view it as nothing more than
arrogance or conceit. To avoid being perceived this way by our
fellow man, we’re careful not to appear to be too full of our-
selves. But when it comes to our relationship with God, we of-
ten take a different tack. Instead of approaching God with at
least as much humility as we do with one another, we don’t
think twice about parading ourselves before Him dressed only in
our own flawed attempts at worthiness.
The story of the wedding celebration serves to underscore
our great dilemma before God. How do we strive to be more
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Make no mistake about it;
heaven has a dress code and
nothing in your closet will do!
righteous without becoming more self-righteous along the way?
How do we find a way to satisfy God’s high standard of holiness,
while acknowledging that we can take no credit for the
achievement? The answer is that we must humbly seek to be
robed in the righteousness of God—a righteousness that is
utterly unmerited, utterly supplied.
In this way, the robe of God’s righteousness serves as a
perfect fit for you and me. On the one hand, it satisfies God’s
demand for a holiness that matches His own, something our
feeble attempts could never accomplish. And on the other
hand, although we are declared by God to be morally perfect in
His sight, we are not subject to the temptation to take personal
pride in the accomplishment. If anything, we are given even
greater cause for humility.
The religious leaders of Israel, for whom Jesus’ story was in-
tended to serve as a warning, should have understood their
need to be robed in the garment of God’s righteousness. One
of their greatest teachers, the prophet Isaiah, once proclaimed,
“I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has
dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a
robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10, NLT).
By ignoring their need to be robed in God’s righteousness,
these religious leaders were treading on dangerous ground, in-
deed. Jesus warned them of the seriousness of their actions at
the conclusion of the wedding
story, with the king’s rebuke
of the ill-clad man. “How did
you come in here without a
wedding garment?” he asked (Matthew 22:12, NKJV). Having
no answer for his behavior, the man was then quickly thrown
Satisfaction Guaranteed 57
God’s moral law … informs us
of our broken condition ... but
it does nothing to mend us.
out of the wedding celebration. His expulsion serves as a
warning to all who would attempt to gain entrance into heaven
dressed in garments of their own making. The dress code of
heaven requires that all who would enter be clothed, not in self-
righteousness, but in the righteousness of God. Make no mis-
take about it; heaven has a dress code and nothing in your
closet will do!
4.3 \\ super-size your dream
Many years ago, when my youngest child broke his arm, we
rushed him to an emergency room. Upon arrival, the first thing
the doctor did was to take an x-ray in order to determine the
extent of the damage. The x-ray confirmed what we already
suspected—this was a serious fracture. Both bones would need
to be re-set. The x-ray was very helpful, in that it provided us
with a much clearer understanding of the condition of the arm,
but it did nothing to mend it.
The same can be said of God’s moral law. In our inability to
perfectly uphold its precepts, it informs us of our broken condi-
tion before God, but it does
nothing to mend us. Cer-
tainly, His law serves to
guide us along the path of
moral living, and it assists us in avoiding various spiritual ha-
zards. But what the law can’t do is provide the means for satis-
fying our deep longing to be right in our relationship with God—
to be righteous just as God is righteous. The Apostle Paul made
this quite clear when he explained, “No one can ever be made
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
The pursuit of righteousness can
be as dangerous an endeavor as
the neglect of it.
Have you learned to repent,
not just of your sins, but of
your flawed attempts of self-
justification and righteous-
ness, as well?
right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the
more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't
obeying it” (Romans 3:19-20, NLT).
So we see that God’s moral rules were given, not as a
means of earning God’s approval, as many have assumed, but
to expose us to the truth of
our own disobedience. The
law of God may whet our
appetites for true right-
eousness, but even our best efforts to obey it do nothing to
satisfy our cravings. It’s like drinking seawater to satisfy dehy-
dration. It seems like it should help, but it only makes the situa-
tion more desperate. As tempting as an ocean may be to a man
dying of thirst, yielding to such a temptation only hastens his
demise. In this same way, the pursuit of righteousness can be
as dangerous an endeavor as the neglect of it. As tempting as
pursuing our own paths of self-justification may be, we must
learn to resist this temptation.
We must repent of this inclin-
ation in favor of accepting the
promise of God.
How about you? Have you
felt the weight of your own in-
adequacies? Have you wearied of the do better, do more
treadmill of life, never sure if you’re measuring up? Do you
hunger and thirst to be justified? Worthy? Approved? In this
quest, have you learned to repent, not just of your sins, but of
your flawed attempts of self-justification and righteousness, as
well?
Satisfaction Guaranteed 59
Blessed are those whose hunger
and thirst for righteousness is so
strong that only the perfect right-
eousness of God can satisfy it.
Go ahead—super-size your dream! Why settle for garments
of your own making
when you can be robed
with the righteousness of
God? Blessed are those
whose hunger and thirst
for righteousness is so strong that only the perfect righteous-
ness of God can satisfy it.
4.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, I confess that in the past I have paraded myself before
You, dressed in garments of my own making—in self-righteous-
ness. But I have come to realize that the very best things I have
ever done are flawed and imperfect and that it was foolish of
me to take pride in them. So, I repent not just of my sins but of
my righteousness, as well. Instead of being satisfied with
tainted deeds, I ask You to clothe me in Your righteousness. May
I never forget, not even for a moment, that You are my confi-
dence and my only cause for boasting. Amen.
__________
God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- The Apostle Paul
CHAPTER 5 // the dance of divine love
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
- Mahatma Gandhi
LOS Angeles. Monday, December 7, 1987. Thirty-five year
old David Burke left a goodbye message for his family and
friends, bypassed security, and boarded Pacific Air Flight 1771
bound for San Francisco. Carrying a borrowed .44 caliber
revolver, he calmly took his seat, jotted a brief note on an air-
sick bag, and waited for his moment. No doubt, the events of
the previous weeks played over in his head. David had been
terminated by his Pacific Air supervisor, Ray Thomson, for the
petty theft of $69. Unsuccessfully, he had pleaded to be reins-
tated. Shamed and embittered, he booked himself on a flight
for justice.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
On his daily commute home to San Francisco, Ray Thomson
sat just feet away, oblivious to the impending threat. Just past
4:00 p.m., the plane cruised comfortably at 22,000 feet above
the central California coastline. David rose from his seat and
walked up the aisle to where his former boss was seated. We
can only surmise that he handed Mr. Thomson the scribbled
note as he continued on his way to the cockpit. Bang! Bang!
The cockpit voice recorder registered the sound of two shots,
followed by the voice of a flight attendant warning the pilot,
“We have a problem!”
The captain asked for an explanation, but before a response
could be offered, Mr. Burke’s voice was heard bluntly uttering,
“I’m the problem.” Bang! Bang! Bang! Silence. Then came the
growing sound of wind as the plane began a steep and rapid
descent. One final task remained. Bang! Moments later, trav-
eling in excess of 700 mph, Flight 1771 crashed, nose first, into a
cattle ranch, vaporizing the remains of all 43 souls on board.
Investigators meticulously combed the wreckage looking for
clues. They found the borrowed gun with all six chambers dis-
charged. Had this been the only evidence uncovered at the
scene of the crime, the complete story behind the tragedy of
Flight 1771 would have remained a mystery. But, by a strange
twist of fortune, the most telling clue was uncovered amidst the
smoking debris—the charred remains of the air-sick bag, still
baring this ominous message:
Hi Ray. I think it’s sort of ironical [sic] that we
ended up like this. I asked for some leniency for
my family. Remember? Well, I got none and
you’ll get none.
The Dance Of Divine Love 63
Mercy. Give none, get none. That was David Burke’s take
on life. Clearly, Mr. Burke did not esteem Ray Thompson (nor
the forty-one other innocents on board that day) to have
merited mercy. Although few would take their quest for justice
as far as this disgruntled and vengeful man, most would agree
with the basic premise. The law of reciprocity (give some to get
some) is deeply ingrained in human nature. But we must resist
the temptation to impose our earthbound thinking on the mind
and heart of God. In fact, nothing could be further from the
human penchant for justice than what Jesus taught in this, the
fifth beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
- Matthew 5:7, NKJV
___________________________________
5.1 \\ buried treasure
Consistent with our natural proclivity for justice, some have
misconstrued Jesus’ words here to suggest that the practice of
mercy is a necessary prerequisite for receiving it, as though
God’s mercy must be earned in this way.1 This erroneous inter-
pretation has created considerable consternation for those left
to wonder whether or not they have acted mercifully enough to
merit the mercy of God in return. The irony of such a concern is
1Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1951) p. 29. Mr. Pink decries the perversion of this text by
what he calls the “merit-mongers.”
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
There is no reason to fear that
we might fall short of meriting
God’s mercy. This isn’t possible.
It’s like suggesting that some-
one is too poor for welfare.
Mercy deserved isn’t mercy at
all ... It is, by definition, justice—
the very antithesis of mercy.
that mercy deserved isn’t mercy at all. In fact, receiving what
we deserve is, by definition, called justice—the very antithesis
of mercy.
Thankfully, there is no
reason to fear that we
might fall short of meriting
God’s mercy. This isn’t possible. It’s like suggesting that some-
one is too poor for welfare. No, we can’t fall short of meriting
mercy; we can only fall short of seeking it. As the Apostle Paul
declared, “Everyone who
calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved” (Ro-
mans 10:13, NLT). With
these affirming words we
are assured that everyone
who sincerely seeks God’s mercy will receive it, regardless of
any other consideration.
As we dig deeper in a search for clarity, we discover in the
underlying Greek text that the phrase, “they shall obtain
mercy,” is stated in the passive voice, indicating that mercy is
somehow bestowed upon the merciful. According to a standard
lexicon, this lends the phrase the meaning “they shall find
mercy.”2 While this is still somewhat vague, what is evident is
that the practice of mercy promises to lead to the discovery of a
further experience of it. The nature of this additional exper-
2W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 249.
The Dance Of Divine Love 65
ience isn’t specified, other than the fact that it is a blessing that
results from adopting a merciful lifestyle.
The ambiguity of this text requires that we examine the
broader context in search of interpretive clues. A bird’s eye
view reveals a very significant arrangement of the text. Two
distinct sections emerge, exposing a notable shift of emphasis
between the first four and last four pronouncements of bless-
ing. The first four beatitudes are all promises of blessing to
those who possess certain humble attitudes (e.g., poverty of
spirit, mourning, meekness, and hungering for righteousness).
Notice that each one of these lowly spiritual attitudes involves
the acknowledgment of a point of personal, spiritual lack.
However, beginning here in verse seven (with the call to ex-
tend mercy), Jesus’ focus shifted to the blessedness of practic-
ing several celebrated actions, each flowing from a wellspring of
spiritual fullness. This transition suggests a fairly radical rever-
sal of fortune. Before this juncture in the text, the blessed were
defined as the spiritually bankrupt; now they are defined as the
spiritually endowed. Having received their promised blessings,
the poor, the sad, the powerless, and the hungry now luxuriate
in the spiritual prosperity, comfort, power, and righteousness of
God. Though they came to God in emptiness, they now over-
flow with His fullness.
In this light, it becomes clear that the first four beatitudes
call us to bring our spiritual emptiness to God so that He might
fill us to overflowing. Then, from a state of spiritual abundance,
the last four beatitudes call us to begin dispensing our newly
found spiritual wealth. From the vantage point of this broader
context, it is obvious that “the merciful” mentioned in this fifth
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
In the dance of divine love,
God always takes the lead.
beatitude are those who act in response to God’s mercy, rather
than in anticipation of receiving it.
The fact is, God extends His mercy to us not because we
have proven ourselves to be worthy of it, as many have pre-
sumed, and not even because our need is so desperate, but be-
cause it is His nature to do so. Regardless of our mistakes, our
foibles, our foolish behavior, or even our blatant acts of disobe-
dience, God reaches out His hand of mercy to us. He alone is
the initiator of divine grace. This was the Apostle John’s point
when he wrote, “This is real love—not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our
sins” (1 John 4:10, NLT). In the dance of divine love, God always
takes the lead.
Through the promise of the first beatitude, God invites us to
follow His lead by admitting our spiritual poverty and humbly
accepting His mercy. As we
respond to His invitation, we
find ourselves swept up into
the movements and motions of a great, divine dance—having
our need for mercy abundantly satisfied, we are transformed
into the “merciful” spoken of in this fifth beatitude.3 Divine
grace, once imparted, not only fills all void, but fills it to over-
flowing. Those who have been blessed become those who are
empowered to bless in return. Those who have been shown
3Each of the spiritual attitudes in the first section finds a corresponding call to
action in the second. For example, the first of the four spiritual attitudes—poverty of spirit—is clearly connected to the first of the four calls to spiritual action—to extend mercy to others. This pattern is repeated between the second beatitude and the sixth, the third and the seventh, and finally, between the fourth and the eighth.
The Dance Of Divine Love 67
mercy become those who are inspired and empowered to dem-
onstrate mercy to others. As the Psalmist declared, “I have
everything I need. … My cup overflows with blessings!” (Psalm
23:1b, 5b, NLT). By following the lead of God’s merciful heart,
“the merciful” find mercy as a whole new way of living and re-
lating to others—a blessed way.
5.2 \\ the boundaries of judgment
To the Romans who occupied Israel in Jesus’ day, offering
unearned or undeserved assistance or leniency was thought to
promote weakness. For this reason, mercy was considered a
disease to the soul, as well as to society. The Romans were
convinced that society’s ills could best be dealt with by the
meticulous administration and enforcement of justice.
Matching the Roman passion for justice was that of the
Pharisees, a hyper-zealous sect within ancient Judaism. In fact,
few have ever carried the mantel of harsh legalism with as
much pride and gusto as Saul (a Jewish Pharisee of the first cen-
tury), especially during the years that he mercilessly persecuted
the fledgling Christian church. Committed to defending his rigid
belief system, Saul was equally committed to squelching any
movement that threatened the doctrine and dogma of his faith.
But something happened to Saul while traveling on the road to
the city of Damascus where he planned to continue his ruthless
campaign. On that dusty trail, he met the risen Christ.
In that singular encounter, Saul experienced a one hundred
eighty degree change of heart. He repented of his sin against
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Christ and sought God’s mercy. Saul, the legalistic Pharisee,
became Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles.
But wait a minute—a Pharisee ministering to Gentiles? Yes,
a Pharisee, who would have considered it unclean to even eat
with non-Jews, was transformed into a minister to the very
people he once judged unworthy. Having been moved by the
mercy of God (and symbolic of his dramatic change of heart),
Saul went as far as to take on the Gentile version of his name to
better identify with those whom he now sought to reach—the
very Gentiles he once found insufferable. As a result, the most
zealous persecutor of the Church became her most ardent de-
fender. The man who had once stoned and imprisoned Chris-
tians became the man who would himself be sent to prison for
his faith in Christ.
Years later, in a letter to Timothy, his understudy, Paul de-
scribed what happened to affect his dramatic conversion. He
wrote, “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor
and a violent man, I was shown mercy … so that in me, the
worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited pa-
tience as an example for those who would believe on him and
receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:13,16, NIV).
As a law-obsessed Pharisee, Saul’s sphere of influence was
restricted to a small sect of Jews within the boundaries of Pales-
tine. His demand for religious justice against those he held in
violation of his legalistic and moralistic standards boxed him
into the confined borders of judgment. But as the compassion-
driven Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul’s sphere of influence would
extend to the entire Western World. Paul’s life and ministry
serve as an amazing example of how mercy, first received and
then extended to others, can expand a heart and a territory. By
The Dance Of Divine Love 69
The truth is it’s much easier to judge
others than it is to show them God’s
love ... because judgment bears little
responsibility, while love shares the
burdens of others.
extending the mercy he had received from God to those he
once deemed untouchable, Paul found mercy as a whole new
way of living—one without boundaries.
Of course, religious zealots aren’t the only ones subject to
the limitations imposed by legalistic or moralistic thinking.
We’ve all engaged in
judging those who
don’t measure up to
our particular criteria
of worthiness. We’ve
all succumbed to the
temptation to see ourselves as superior. We’ve all made the
choice to abdicate the responsibility that comes with exercising
compassion. The truth is it’s much easier to judge others than it
is to show them God’s love. That’s because judgment bears
little responsibility, while love shares the burdens of others.
Even Moses, the great liberator of the poor and oppressed,
had to warn the very people he had delivered, “Do not be hard-
hearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother” (Deuteronomy
15:7, NIV). How quickly they had forgotten God’s generous
hand of mercy. If we are to find mercy as a new way of living,
we must draw close in compassion rather than pull back in
judgment. Our world becomes so small when we shut out those
who don’t measure up to our own criteria of worthiness—and
in shutting others out, we box ourselves in. It’s only as we are
moved by compassion that our realm of influence is expanded
to include all those who need to be touched by God’s love. Like
the Apostle Paul, God will expand our hearts and, along with it,
our territory. As Jesus promised, we will find mercy.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
To seriously limit our positive
influence in the world ... we
need only turn a blind eye or a
nose up to the needs around us.
We have all clamored for
justice, but God offers to
fill our lives with mercy.
5.3 \\ super-size your dream
Deep down inside each of us there is a dream of making a
difference in our world. Innately, we share a strong sense that
our lives should be lived
with a higher purpose.
This inner witness calls us
to leave the world a better
place than we found it.
Unfortunately, we often limit the parameters of our contribu-
tion with contrived conditions. The moment we do this we
assume the position of both judge and jury. We weigh others’
worthiness, deeming some deserving of our mercy, compassion,
and benevolence, while others we find wanting. Yet we don’t
have to carry our quest for what seems right and just nearly so
far as David Burke did to end up seriously limiting our positive
influence in the world. We need only turn a blind eye or a nose
up to the needs around us.
Fortunately, God has something better in mind for us.
God’s super-sized dream is that we expand our borders of influ-
ence through the simple practice of mercy. It is compassion
that will move us to cross the
boundaries of judgment and em-
power us to reach out to all who
are in need of God’s mercy—the
broken, the weak, the lowly, the rejected, even the self-destruc-
tive and the offensive. And just as the powerless outnumber
the powerful and the disenfranchised eclipse the vested, our
realm of influence will grow to defy all limitations.
The Dance Of Divine Love 71
Blessed are those who discover
that mercy is meant to be a
whole new way of living.
The merciful may hold little sway with the movers and
shakers of the world, but that won’t prevent them from wield-
ing a far more significant kind of influence. Jesus demonstrated
this by impacting the world without any help from the rich, the
powerful or the successful. Instead, He sought out and served
the seemingly insignificant.
How about you? Will you allow God to expand your heart,
and with it, your territory? There is a world of opportunity
waiting to be found just
beyond the boundaries set
by the human heart. Would
you allow God’s love for all
people to become your only boundary? Would you allow Him to
take the lead of your life?
We have all clamored for justice, but God offers to fill our
lives with mercy. Go ahead, allow yourself to be caught up in
the motions and movements of God’s compassionate heart.
Blessed are those who discover that mercy is meant to be a
whole new way of living.
5.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord Jesus, the world that You came to save showed You no
mercy. Nevertheless, You endured the cross in order to show the
whole world the greatness of Your love. By the power of Your
love, I ask You to expand my heart and enlarge my territory.
Give me a love for mercy that includes all those I once found it
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
easier to disdain, to dismiss, or to judge. May I show others the
same love and acceptance I have found in You. Amen.
__________
What does the LORD require of you but to do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- The Prophet Micah
CHAPTER 6 // expanding souls
Anything can make us look; only love can make us see.
- Archibald MacLeish
IN a scene from C. S. Lewis’ spiritual allegory, The Chronicles
of Narnia, a young girl named Lucy is sent on a great mission by
the Christ figure, Aslan the lion. As she travels by night, she
notices the great beast sitting on a hill, illumined by a full moon.
Excitedly, Lucy runs to him and throws herself into his soft, silky
mane. Aslan rolls over, and Lucy finds herself laying between
his paws, looking up into his large face.
“Aslan, you’re bigger,” says Lucy.
The majestic creature answers, “That is because you are
older, little one.”
Lucy, confused by this remark, asks, “Not because you are?”
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Expanding souls encounter
an expanding Christ.
Aslan assures her, “I am not. But every year you grow, you
will find me bigger.”1
What was Lewis getting at here? Don’t objects usually ap-
pear smaller to us as we grow? Remember revisiting the house
of your youth, only to find the backyard you once thought ex-
pansive to be little more than a fenced patch of grass? Or
looking eye level at the basketball hoops at your old elementary
school, which once seemed tall as towers? If you’ve ever revi-
sited your childhood, you know that everything looks smaller
than what you remember. As grown-ups, we see our childhood
from a new and expanded perspective.
Our perception of God works in a similar way, but with the
opposite effect. With intentional irony, Lewis was suggesting
that as we mature in our faith, the object of our devotion ap-
pears to grow along with us.
This happens not because Christ
has changed, but because our
consciousness of Him has expanded. As R. Kent Hughes sug-
gests, “Expanding souls encounter an expanding Christ.”2 Thus,
Aslan only appeared to be bigger to Lucy. The real change had
taken place within her.
So it is with every devoted follower of Christ. Just like Lucy,
we all live with a disparity between the way we see God and the
way He really is. This gap begins to narrow over time as we
practice the appropriate devotion. The more we learn of God
1C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (New York: Macmillan
Publishing Company, 1951) p. 136. 2R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, Volume One: An Anchor for the Soul (Wheaton:
Crossway Books, 1993) p. 17.
Expanding Souls 75
on this journey, the bigger He becomes to us. The quest for an
ever-expanding vision of God is the subject of Jesus’ words in
this, the sixth beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
- Matthew 5:8, NKJV
___________________________________
6.1 \\ buried treasure
Many of the words we use on a daily basis contain a range
of possible meanings that can only be narrowed by the context
in which we use them. For example, the adjective “hard” can
mean impenetrable, resistant to change, curious, or unyielding,
depending on whether it is referring to something that is hard
as nails, someone who is hard-hearted, something that is hard
to figure out, or someone who is hard-nosed. Thus, the context
is often as important as the word itself in determining the in-
tended meaning.
Such is the case with the adjective translated “pure”
(katharos) in this beatitude. The root meaning is “to be of one
substance.” When used of inanimate objects, this term means
“to be unalloyed,” “unmixed,” or “free from contamination.”
But when used of people, as it is here with the human heart as
the object, it means “to be single-minded or uncompromising,”
or “to have one unwavering purpose.” And when that un-
wavering purpose refers to a spiritual objective, as it does in this
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
passage, katharos means “to possess a singular devotion,” or
“to be free of competing devotions.”3
In our own vernacular, the expression “pure in heart” con-
jures up a different image. We think of the innocent, of those
who are untouched by worldly influences. But we must set this
thought aside if we are to grasp the meaning of this beatitude.
Here the “pure in heart” are not the naive, but the determined.
They are not the unblemished, but those who are single-minded
in their devotion to God.
As we continue to dig deeper, we uncover another word
with a unique nuance of meaning. The Greek word orao, trans-
lated “see” in the phrase “they shall see God,” was one of six
words in the biblical Greek that could be translated this way. All
six carried the basic meaning of observing something, but each
with its own unique range of application. The particular empha-
sis of orao was “to see with understanding,” or “to observe with
an informed knowledge.”4
This was a word that took into account the fact that things
in life are not always as they seem. Take, for example the
common crocus. To the casual observer, the blooming of this
pretty garden prop heralds the coming of spring. However, few
who drink in its beauty are aware that actually ingesting this
flower can cause nausea, shock, or even death. To the un-
trained eye, the crocus is just another beautiful flower. But to a
horticulturist, this particular blossom presents a toxic threat to
3W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 388. 4Ibid., p. 577.
Expanding Souls 77
The single-minded see God actively
at work in their lives for one very
important reason: they desire to
have God at work in their lives!
the children and pets playing nearby. The horticulturist sees the
crocus with an informed knowledge of its hidden danger.
Likewise, this beatitude suggests that the pure in heart
(those who possess an unwavering devotion) will “see” God at
work in their lives where others miss Him. When life is going
well, the devoted are able to “see” their favorable circum-
stances for what they really are—a gift from God’s hand of pro-
vision. And even when life is challenging, the unwavering soul
finds consolation and reason to hope in the promise that “all
things [even difficult things] work together for good for those
who love God” (Romans 8:28, NKJV). So, whether in good times
or challenging times, the fully devoted are granted the capacity
to see life with a more informed understanding of what they
observe and experience.
Finally, we find that a subtle choice of syntax serves to em-
phasize this point even further. In the original text, Jesus stated
the verb “see” in the middle voice, indicating that the pure in
heart will “see” God “for themselves,” or “by their own initia-
tive.”5 This tells us that
the single-minded see
God actively at work in
their lives for one very
important reason: they
desire to have God at work in their lives. Cured from the cata-
racts of mixed devotion which cloud spiritual perception, the
5According to Dana and Mantey, “The middle voice is that use of the verb
which describes the subject as participating in the results of the action.” H. E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Toronto: The Macmillan Company, 1955) p. 157.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
fully devoted are enabled to see the ubiquitous presence of a
loving Creator intimately involved in the details of their every-
day experiences. Their single-minded devotion grants them the
power of a spiritual sixth sense—the ability to trace the very
hand of God.
6.2 \\ the atheistic century
At the dawn of the 20th century, less than 1 percent of the
world’s population would have identified themselves as athe-
istic, agnostic, or non-religious.6 But with the rise of the mod-
ern scientific era, the broader acceptance of Darwinism, as well
as the proliferation of such philosophical and political platforms
as existentialism, secular humanism, nihilism, Marxism and
communism, that number began to rise sharply. So different
was the religious landscape of the world by mid-century that
Time Magazine, on its cover of April 8, 1966, was prompted to
ask the question, “Is God Dead?” Now, in the early years of the
21st century, we live in a time when as many as 1.1 billion
people (some 16% of the world’s population) consider them-
6According to a leading source of religious demographics, World Christian
Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in The Modern World (David B. Barrett, et al., Oxford University Press, 2001), the number of persons considering themselves “non-religious” at the beginning of the 20
th
century was just 3.2 million (approximately 0.2 percent of the world’s then population), rising to nearly 1 billion by 2000.
Expanding Souls 79
selves non-religious.7 This represents the most dramatic shift of
religious opinion in recorded history, leading some to dub the
20th century the Atheistic Century.
What makes this shift of opinion so surprising is the context
in which it took place. Undeniably, the past hundred years has
been a period of dramatic advancements in both science and
technology. Through these developments, we have been given
the power to peer into the very fabric of God’s creation, to see
His brilliance in even greater detail. For this reason, the latter
half of the 20th century has also been declared the Information
Age.
One of the most significant of these advancements came in
1952 when scientists discovered the existence of DNA—the de-
tailed, coded, genetic blueprint of man. As a result of this dis-
covery, teams of scientists the world over were organized in an
effort to coordinate the huge task of translating the entire code.
This cooperative effort has resulted in many awe-inspiring re-
velations.
One such revelation concerned the sequencing for the pro-
tein hemoglobin, as highlighted in an issue of the Saturday
Evening Post in December, 1999.8 The article explained that this
singular protein has a specific sequence involving some 574
amino acids. This represents an extraordinarily long and spe-
7As per Adherents.com: National and World Religion Statistics – Church
Statistics – World Religions, 2005 (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_ Adherents.html#Nonreligious). Statistics from various reporting agencies and institutions generally agree. 8David Foster, “Proving God Exists,” Saturday Evening Post, 271, No. 4
(Nov/Dec 1999) pp. 59-61.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
cific sequence of information, so much so that it raises serious
questions about the probability of such information ever com-
ing together by mere chance. In an attempt to help the reader
understand the remote likelihood of such detailed information
converging unintentionally, the article offered the following
analogy:
First, in order to establish a scale for comparison, we are
challenged to envision all of the atoms in the Universe as white
golf balls. This represents an unimaginably large number of golf
balls. In fact, to count the atoms in a single drop of water would
require the help of every human being alive, counting at the
rate of one atom per second, day and night, for twenty-thou-
sand years!9
Next we must visualize just one red golf ball thoroughly
mixed into this innumerable mass. Finally, we must picture a
blind-folded man sent out into this universe of golf balls and
given just one chance to randomly pick the odd, red ball. The
likelihood of this lone man picking the solitary red golf ball with
just one blind-folded attempt would be one in ten to the eight-
ieth power (1080). That’s ten with eighty zeros after it! Serving
as our point of reference, this number obviously indicates an
extremely unlikely event.
As staggering an improbability as 1 in 1080 might be, how-
ever, the likelihood of the sequence of information found in the
protein hemoglobin coming together in just the right order
would be one in ten to the six hundred fifty-fourth power
(10654). That’s ten followed by six hundred fifty-four zeros—an
9Richard A. Swenson, More Than Meets The Eye (Colorado Springs: NavPress,
2000) p. 103.
Expanding Souls 81
More than any of the genera-
tions that have preceded us,
we should see God.
We have mistakenly assumed
that it is possible to be intel-
lectually objective outside of
moral principle.
even far more unlikely occurrence! In the face of such astound-
ing statistics, the chief biochemist involved in the research ad-
mitted that the chance existence of this protein was virtually
impossible.
The information gleaned by such scientific research gives
the modern mind a tremendous advantage. Indeed, we live in a
unique and privileged time in human history. Previous genera-
tions knew nothing of quantum mechanics, the theory of rela-
tivity, supernovas, subatomic particles, or DNA. More than any
of the generations that have
preceded us, we should see
God. The generations who
came before us didn’t have
the advantage of knowing such things, yet they had more faith
in a purposeful and loving Creator than we do today.
Why the remarkable disparity between our ever-increasing
knowledge and our ever-diminishing faith? Why should belief in
God decline even as science provides us with a fuller revelation
of His creative genius? If what we needed to see God was more
proof, shouldn’t this generation have more faith than any other
in history? Whatever the cause of our spiritual blindness, it cer-
tainly can’t be blamed on a lack of information.
In this beatitude, Jesus points us to the real problem. We
fail to see God not because
we lack proof, but because
we lack purity in our search
for Him. Here Jesus exposes
one of the greatest fallacies
of modern academia—the notion that we can separate the pur-
suits of our minds from the condition of our hearts. We have
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
We don’t need more evidence of
God’s existence to see God; what
we need is more purity in our
pursuit of Him.
We hold the unenviable distinction of
seeing more than all the generations
that have preceded us, yet with less
understanding of what we observe.
mistakenly assumed that it is possible to be intellectually objec-
tive outside of moral principle. But try as we may, we can’t es-
cape the fact that there are moral implications to truth.
The blindness of the modern mind serves to illustrate the
fact that we are only able to believe with our minds what our
hearts allow us to be-
lieve. Facts can be
made to mean any-
thing we want them
to mean. In the end,
the one thing the Information Age has proven is that, when the
well of the human heart is contaminated, nothing drawn from it
can be trusted. The duplicity that exists in the modern pursuit
of knowledge has produced uncertainty of mind, in general, and
spiritual blindness, in particular.
As a result of this modern duplicity, we hold the unenviable
distinction of seeing more than all the generations that have
preceded us, yet with less understanding of what we observe.
We peer into the very fabric of God’s creation, but fail to see
any evidence of our Creator there. We are like the man who is
privileged to have a panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains
from his living room, but
fails to enjoy it because
his windows need clean-
ing. We don’t need more
evidence of God’s exist-
ence to see God; what we need is more purity in our pursuit of
Him.
Expanding Souls 83
6.3 \\ super-size your dream
Are there times when your life seems like nothing more
than a bunch of stuff that happens, with no rhyme or reason to
any of it? During these times, does God seem distant to you?
The biblical character, Job, had this experience. Just like most
of us, Job felt God’s nearness in times of blessing, but had a
more difficult time seeing God when his circumstances became
difficult.
It wasn’t that Job lacked a vision or a dream of seeing God.
We are told that the dream he clung to in his difficult circums-
tances was that he would see God—someday (Job 19:26, NIV).
But as wonderful a dream as it was, it wasn’t enough to relieve
Job of that sinking feeling that God had abandoned him in his
hour of need. In the midst of his tribulations, Job looked
around, but he couldn’t see any evidence of a caring and com-
passionate Creator anywhere.
Just like Job, we may dream of seeing God—someday. But
if we are to see the hand of God in a sin-cursed world where
bad things can and do happen to everyone, then we must have
a bigger dream. We need a dream of God that sees Him as
near, regardless of our circumstances. We need a dream that
believes there is a purpose in all things, so long as we walk
closely with Him. We need a dream that looks for the good
even in the bad, because God is always good. We need a dream
that imparts vision.
When we dream such a dream, we will see God. Our con-
sciousness of Him will become more encompassing, more per-
vasive. Like Lucy’s vision of Aslan, our vision of God will be-
come larger. This process will continue incrementally through-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Blessed are those who understand
that all it takes to see God at work in
their lives is the unwavering desire to
have God at work in their lives.
Find more joy in serving Jesus
than in earthly satisfactions,
and your Christ will tower!
out our lives, so long as we continue to look to God in the chal-
lenges of our spiritual journey.
How about you? Are you on a great adventure, an assign-
ment from your Creator? Are you taking His orders and imple-
menting them daily with the same sense of mission, wonder,
and awe as Lucy? Are you able to interpret the events of your
life as an important part of
that assignment? The ad-
venture that you have been
sent on today will expand
your soul and your vision of God, if only you will embrace it.
Yield more of your will to the will of Christ, and He will be-
come bigger to you. Believe that all things (yes, all things) in
your life have a divine purpose, and Jesus will grow larger. Find
more joy in serving Jesus than in earthly satisfactions, and your
Christ will tower! Blessed are those who understand that all it
takes to see God at
work in their lives is
the unwavering de-
sire to have God at
work in their lives.
6.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, I confess that at times I have allowed competing affec-
tions a place in my heart. As a result, I don’t see You at work in
my life the way I should. Enlarge my dream. Grant me the ability
to see You intimately involved in all the details of my life. Help
Expanding Souls 85
me to see Your hand in the wonderful things I experience, so
that I might celebrate Your goodness. And help me to discern
Your presence and purpose in the hard things I must face, so
that I may grow as a person of faith. Expand my soul, and with
it, my capacity to see You. Amen.
__________
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
- The Apostle James
CHAPTER 7 // why can't we all just get along?
Faith enables persons to be persons because it lets God be God.
- Carter Lindberg
MANY years ago, when the Fiji Islands were first civilized,
there was great interest in bringing commerce to this primitive
society. This was a daunting prospect, considering that the na-
tives had a particularly harrowing reputation for brutality. Yet
seeking to take advantage of the opportunity, a young mer-
chant visited the Islands in the hopes of getting in on the ground
floor. It just so happened, as he visited the home of a certain
chief, that he noticed a Bible prominently displayed, which he
took to be evidence of missionary influence. This prompted the
young man to comment, “What a shame that you have listened
to the foolish nonsense of the missionaries.”
The chief, taken aback by this remark, responded saying,
“Do you see the large white stone over there? That is a stone
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
that just a few years ago we used to smash the heads of our vic-
tims.” Then, pointing toward the center of the village, he asked,
“Do you see that large oven over there? That is the oven where
just a few years ago we used to bake the bodies of our victims
before we feasted on them.” The chief then leaned into the
face of the young man and added, “Had we not listened to what
you call the nonsense of the missionaries, I assure you that your
head would have already been smashed on that rock and your
body would already be baking in that oven.”1
The message of the cross is one of love and reconciliation.
Wherever it has been genuinely heeded, peace has replaced
animosity, kindness has replaced brutality, and acceptance has
replaced hostility. Its transforming power dismantles old ways
of life and replaces them with the peacemaking ways of God.
That’s because God has given each and every believer the
task of bringing peace to our world. 2 Corinthians 5:18 tells us
that through the message of the cross, God “has given us the
ministry of reconciliation” (NKJV). Having been reconciled to
God ourselves, we are now commissioned members of God’s
peacemaking task force. The blessing that comes to us as a re-
sult of fulfilling our commission is the focus of Jesus’ words in
this, the seventh beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
- Matthew 5:9, NKJV
___________________________________
1K. P. Yohannan, Revolution In World Missions (Carrollton, Texas: GFA Books,
2004) p. 114.
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along 89
7.1 \\ buried treasure
Politicians pursue peace through negotiation, while generals
pursue peace through military engagement. The peace won of
diplomacy is imperfect, having been born of compromise, with
both sides losing something in the process. The peace wrought
of war is also flawed, having been garnered by intimidation or
domination. The peace of God, however, as set forth in this
beatitude, is of an entirely different nature, being neither the
product of compromise, nor of intimidation.
Digging just below the surface of our English translation, we
find a couple of important clues as to the nature of beatific
peace. The first is found in the compound noun, eirenopoios,
which is translated “peacemaker.” Combining the words
“peace” and “doer,” it speaks of one who is a “producer of
peace.”2 But this is more than a descriptive noun—it is used
here as a title of honor. And as with any title deservedly bes-
towed, it refers to both the character, as well as the activity of
the bearer.
The second clue is found in the broader context. As dis-
cussed previously, each of the last four beatitudes are calls to
action that spring forth from a correlating attitude found in one
of the first four statements of blessing. By tracing this pattern,
we find that the action in this passage is the practical outwork-
ing of the attitude of meekness extolled in the third beatitude.
This connection is affirmed in Psalm 37:11, where we read, “The
meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the
2Arndt, W. F., and Gingrich, F. W., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 228.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Apparently, we never look more like
our heavenly Father than when we, in
meekness, are about the important
business of peace making.
abundance of peace” (NKJV). According to the Psalmist, peace
will finally come to our embattled world when the reigns of con-
trol have been turned over, neither to the politicians, nor the
military leaders, but to the meek. The character and quality of
the peace they forge will be one bearing the very imprint of
God—so much so that these meek believers will gain the high
honor and distinction of being called “sons [and daughters] of
God.”
To characterize this special relationship, the Koine Greek
offered Jesus the
choice of two words.
The first was teknon,
which referred to a
biological son. The
other word—the one that Jesus actually employed—was huios,
which was used to describe someone who possessed certain
marked qualities that resembled those of a parent.3 By choos-
ing this word, Jesus was suggesting that, through the practice of
meekness, the peacemaker actually offers the world a glimpse
of God’s likeness.
In the annals of human history, men like Genghis Kahn and
Adolf Hitler made reputations for themselves by the way they
made war. By contrast, the children of God will distinguish
themselves by the way they make peace. Apparently, we never
look more like our heavenly Father than when we, in meekness,
are about the important business of peace making.
3Ibid., p. 833.
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along 91
7.2 \\ steps to universal peace
“Why can’t we all just get along?”
This question, raised by Rodney King in the wake of the
violent L.A. race riots, remains a relevant question and a point
of frustration for many.
Peace. It’s the stereotypical wish of every beauty pageant
contestant. We adorn our cars with bumper stickers that en-
courage us to “Visualize Peace.” We emblazon protest placards
with admonitions to “Make Love, Not War.” We grope for racial
harmony, social harmony, religious harmony, and harmony in
our homes. We all desire to live in peace, but find it an elusive
and difficult goal to attain. Where do we turn to find an answer
to this universal problem?
Over the centuries, there have been a variety of solutions
set forth by the optimistic among us. One particularly creative
example appeared several years ago as a two-page ad in the
book review section of the New York Times. It was titled, “Four
Steps to Absolute Peace.”4 In this unusual proposal, Dr. Hisatoki
Komaki laid out four objectives that, if realized, promised to
usher in an age of universal peace.
Step one, he proposed, is to achieve peace among all the
peoples of the world. To accomplish this objective and elimi-
nate all human conflict, Dr. Komaki suggests that mankind must
completely disarm. This means the total eradication of all wea-
4This is one of several related ads credited to Dr. Hisatoki Komaki which
appeared in the New York Times book review section. This one ran on March 19, 1995. The ad stated that its content (along with other works by Dr. Komaki published by The International Earth Environment University Press) is available in booklet form from the Hisatoki Komaki Peace foundation, SAKAMOTO 2-CHOME, OTSU, SHIGA-KEN, Japan.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
ponry, from handguns to the world’s nuclear arsenals. The time
frame suggested for this objective is immediate.
While this sounds like an enviable goal, how realistic is it,
really? Think about it—to disarm the entire world, someone
would have to convince every man, monarch and militia to
simultaneously lay down their arms. In today’s political climate,
can you imagine this happening without enforcement? And
doesn’t enforcement of this nature usually necessitate the use
(or at least the threatened use) of weaponry?
Step two is to achieve peace between man and animals. In
order to beget such harmony, the author suggests that we must
place a universal ban on the practice of eating meat. Addition-
ally, animal experimentation must cease, along with the use of
all insecticides. Dr. Komaki suggests that this could be accom-
plished within the next fifty years. Great news for PETA! And
for the meat eaters among us, this allows ample time to adjust
to our new diet!
Step three is to achieve peace among all animals (including
fishes and insects). To eliminate animal conflict, the author
suggests that we must prevent the members of the animal
kingdom from eating or attacking each other. To accomplish
this rather monumental undertaking, a modest time frame of
one hundred years is suggested. I imagine a hundred years was
deemed necessary, at a minimum, to allow for the advance-
ments in genetic engineering required to re-wire all animal spe-
cies into docile herbivores. How else could we eliminate this
undesirable behavior?
Step four is to achieve peace between mankind and all
other beings in the Universe. No time frame is suggested for
the accomplishment of this goal. It’s probably a good idea to
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along 93
A modicum of humility is all we need
to realize that bringing in a universal
age of absolute peace will require
nothing less than the power and
wisdom of God Himself.
leave this one open-ended since we’ve yet to encounter any
hostile extra-terrestrials.
As implausible as each of these suggested steps may be, Dr.
Komaki’s proposals do at least offer us a hint of the magnitude
of the task. Attaining
universal peace is not
simply a question of
ending all war. When
all things are consid-
ered, it is clear that
the dream of achieving such peace is a far greater challenge
than mankind has the resources or ability to accomplish. A
modicum of humility is all we need to realize that bringing in a
universal age of absolute peace will require nothing less than
the power and wisdom of God Himself.
7.3 \\ producing peace in your world
Universal peace will one day visit our planet, but not in the
time of our own choosing, or by the might of our own effort.
Rather, it will come at the time of God’s choosing and by the
power of His might. The Prophets of old spoke eloquently of
this as a time when men would “beat their swords into plow-
shares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Micah 4:3, NKJV).
They spoke of the coming Messiah as the One who would be
called the “Prince of Peace,” and promised that “the increase of
his government and peace” would never end (Isaiah. 9:7, NKJV).
They predicted that He would overcome all obstacles to univer-
sal peace, even suggesting (as Komaki had hoped) that, “In that
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Our faith response to the
promises of God must be
to let God be God.
day the wolf and the lamb will live together [and] the leopard
will lie down with the baby goat” (Isaiah 11:6, NLT). What man
cannot do through diplomacy, political prowess, or military
might, God will do for us. This may not be the solution which
our world desires, but it is the only sure hope for the peace our
world most desperately needs.
Sadly, this is a truth that has been lost even to the Church at
certain points in her history. Whether referencing the cruelties
of the Crusades or the tyrannical attempts of certain Reformers
to impose Christian rule upon the people of Geneva, a quick
survey of church history yields numerous examples of Christians
attempting to bring in God’s Kingdom of Peace by force—all
with disastrous results. That’s because God never intended the
Church to force God’s peace on this world. Tragically, at these
times, Christians bore a closer resemblance to the oppressors of
this world than to their heavenly Father.
Our faith response to the promises of God must be to let
God be God. We must resist the power trip involved in joining
campaigns to conquer the world for the Kingdom, and choose
instead to patiently wait on the Creator to do what He has
promised to do. For it’s only as
we let God be God that we are
freed to focus on the task that He
has actually assigned to us—
bringing peace to our own little corner of the world through the
practice of meekness.
The way we are to carry God’s message of reconciliation to
the world is by sowing seeds of peace at home, at work, and in
all of our day-to-day relationships. To do this we must lay down
our crusader spears and declare a truce with our brothers and
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along 95
By adopting an attitude of
meekness … the natural tug
of war for power and control
in our personal relationships
will come to an abrupt end.
sisters; our fathers and mothers; our husbands and wives; our
friends and neighbors; our bosses and subordinates.
By adopting an attitude of
meekness and placing our
power under God’s control,
the natural tug of war for
power and control in our per-
sonal relationships will come
to an abrupt end. That’s because God calls each of us to “give
preference to one another” (Romans 12:10, NKJV). Practically
speaking, this means that we are to serve others first, and to
consider the needs of others above our own. The Bible tells us
that even those who lead among us are to demonstrate a ser-
vant-like attitude toward subordinates. This is the example of
the ultimate servant-leader, Jesus Himself. In Mark 10:45 we
read, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but
to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (NKJV). But
how often do we really see this scenario played out in our
boardrooms or bedrooms?
I have counseled many couples over the years, and I’ve seen
and heard just about every type of familial conflict. But there is
one argument I have never witnessed in a single counseling ses-
sion. I’ve never had a married woman come to me and com-
plain, “I don’t know what I’m going to do about my husband.
Every decision he makes is made with my best interest in mind.
This man never insists that his needs be met first. When is he
going to let me be the one who makes a sacrifice? Pastor, can
you tell me what to do with him?”
Nor have I ever heard a husband protest, “Pastor, I think we
need counseling. My wife always insists on serving my needs
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Where is the wind to fan the
flames of conflict when all par-
ties are focusing their power
on meeting the needs, ad-
dressing the concerns, or as-
suaging the fears of others?
before her own. Whenever we have conflicting interests, she
always insists on adjusting her plans to accommodate mine. I
never get a chance to put her first. It’s just not fair! What
should I do?”
Just once, I would love to counsel a couple like this. But it’s
unlikely to ever happen because meek people seldom have
need for a mediator. Why would they, when even their disa-
greements are turned into opportunities for showing defer-
ence? By possessing a servant-like attitude, the meek sow
peace into all of their relationships.
Pause for a moment to imagine having this kind of relation-
ship with your spouse, your significant other, your sibling or
your subordinate. Where is the wind to fan the flames of con-
flict when all parties are focusing their power on meeting the
needs, addressing the concerns, or assuaging the fears of oth-
ers? This may sound like
pure fantasy, but this is, in
fact, the blessed peace-
fulness that is experienced
by those whose actions flow
from an attitude of meek-
ness.
7.4 \\ super-size your dream
Years ago, Mother Teresa said that when she looked into
the face of the beggars of Calcutta she would pray to see the
face of Christ instead. In this way she would serve them just as
she would serve Christ Himself. I wonder, what do you suppose
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along 97
There is more joy to be found in
serving others in Jesus’ name
than in being served in our own.
More joy and a lot less conflict!
Blessed are those
who understand that
real peace is the by-
product of meekness.
those desperate beggars saw when they looked back into the
face of Mother Teresa? Most certainly they saw a woman who
bore a striking resemblance to her heavenly Father.
The call of Christ on our lives is to give up the fight for hav-
ing it our way and follow His example by becoming a servant to
all. When we do, we make an amazing discovery—there is
more joy to be found in serving others in Jesus’ name than in
being served in our own. More joy and a lot less conflict!
Instead of battling for control, we are called to bring peace
to our world by the practice of meekness. This approach may
not be very appealing to
our Rambo impulses, but it
is the way that God has
chosen to bring peace to
our little corner of the pla-
net. In a world bereft of peace, the attitude of meekness, dem-
onstrated by a lifestyle of service, marks the “blessed” as a spe-
cial people. This lifestyle, foreign as it is to our world, will
spawn rumors. These peacemakers will enjoy a sort of celebrity
status. They will become known as the “children of God.”
How about you? Will you ask God to make you a son or a
daughter, not just by spiritual birth, but by spiritual resem-
blance, as well? Will you shift the focus of your life from one of
self-promotion to one of promoting
God’s agenda? Will you learn to pre-
fer others above yourself? Will you
say yes to the peacemaking ways of
God? Will you place your power un-
der God’s control? Blessed are those who understand that real
peace is the by-product of meekness.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
7.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, I repent of my earthbound dream for more power and
control. Instead, it’s my desire to become a peacemaker by
yielding my power of influence to Your control. Teach me to see
opportunities to serve others as opportunities to serve You. Re-
move from my life the unnecessary drama created by the selfish
pursuit of power and influence. Grant me the ability to find
more joy in serving others in Your name than in being served in
my own. Teach me to prefer others just as You preferred me.
Use me as an agent of peace in this embattled world. May a
watching world gain a glimpse of You in me. Amen.
__________
Pursue peace with all people.
- The Author of Hebrews
CHAPTER 8 // the everyday martyr
Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace.
- John Wesley
ONE of my favorite ways to unwind at the end of a long day
is to plop down in front of the television for a little channel
surfing. One night, as I was clicking away, I came across a pop-
ular talk-news program featuring an interview with a religious
leader for whom I have a great deal of respect. The exchange
was largely positive until viewers were invited to call in with
comments. That’s when a rancorous frenzy ensued as one
caller after another took strong objection to the guest’s views
about salvation.
As I listened to the vitriolic bantering, I marveled at the
scathing retorts to the Gospel message. In the minds of many
today, Christianity is deemed as nothing more than a narrow-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
The cross of Christ … happens to be the
most comprehensive and inclusive
gesture of acceptance and love the
world has ever, or will ever, know.
The accusation of intolerance
leveled against the Gospel is really
nothing more than a smoke screen
born of our culture’s over-inflated
sense of political correctness.
minded world view espoused by fanatical, right-wing bigots. So
strong is the negative public reaction that many of today’s
Christian leaders are choosing to downplay the biblical message
for fear of the adverse response it incites.
But the Gospel (which, by the way, means Good News!) is
God’s offer of salvation as a gift to everyone who will receive it–
Jew and Gentile,
black and white, rich
and poor, gay and
straight, moral and
immoral alike. Does
that sound narrow-minded to you? There is nothing intolerant
or bigoted about the Good News of God’s love. In fact, at the
heart of this message is the cross of Christ, which happens to be
the most comprehensive and inclusive gesture of acceptance
and love the world has ever, or will ever, know. The Apostle
John explained the all-encompassing nature of this message
when he wrote that, “God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, NKJV).
The accusation of intolerance leveled against the Gospel is
really nothing more than a smoke screen born of our culture’s
over-inflated sense of political correctness. The real clash here
is between two distinct ideologies—salvation by man’s efforts
and salvation by God’s
grace. Convinced of our
own ability to earn
God’s favor, our strong
inclination is to reject
God’s charity in favor of
The Everyday Martyr 101
our own formula for worthiness. The modern reaction decrying
intolerance is just another battle in this long war—one that has
been waged since the dawn of man.
For example, did you know that the first murder recorded in
the Bible came about as a direct result of animosities over this
very debate? The Bible tells us that Cain, the second son of
Adam, was the first person to strongly object to the idea that
there should be a single, prescribed way to find acceptance with
God. He did so by insisting that his own choice of offering (veg-
etables from his field) should be just as acceptable as the animal
sacrifice that God demanded.
Cain didn’t feel the need to come to God in the way that
was stipulated. Instead, he insisted on coming to God on his
own terms and in his own way. Cain’s vegetables represented a
proud spirit of self-justification. Instead of being grateful that
there was a way, he chose to resent it—he deemed it too nar-
row. Without realizing it, Cain became the father of alternative
religion.
By contrast, Abel, the eldest son of Adam, responded posi-
tively to the instructions, and thus to the promise of God. Abel
understood that the approved offering was symbolic of God’s
promise of grace—a promise that would find its ultimate fulfill-
ment through the sacrifice of Christ. Rather than resent this
single, specific way to salvation, Abel was glad to submit to
God’s instruction; he was grateful that there was a way at all.
The fact that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God, while
Cain’s was rejected, caused a serious rift between the brothers.
Cain’s resentment eventually boiled over, and he murdered his
brother out of jealousy. It is this same spirit, the spirit of Cain,
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
which we see operating today in those who respond so nega-
tively to the Gospel message.
This dynamic bares implications for every outspoken fol-
lower of Jesus. In a world that finds the Gospel so objectiona-
ble, we shouldn’t be surprised when those who attest to it are
despised and disparaged—it has been this way from the begin-
ning. Rather, we must be prepared for such persecution, accept-
ing it as confirmation of our witness to the message of grace.
Consider Jesus’ sobering words in this, the final beatitude:
___________________________________
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My
sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Matthew 5:10-12, NKJV
___________________________________
8.1 \\ buried treasure
How do the words of this beatitude line up with your expec-
tation of the Christian experience? Do you envision the blessed
life as one of harmony and peace? Are you under the impres-
sion that, by practicing the principles of mercy, purity, and
peacemaking, you will somehow elicit the affection of a grateful
world?
Contrary to any such expectation, Jesus used a harsh term
to describe how those who live by these principles would ac-
The Everyday Martyr 103
God’s promise trumps
man’s threats!
tually be treated. The word He chose was dioko, which meant
to be “harassed” or physically “abused.”1 As illogical as such a
response may seem, the bleak prospect of such treatment is
reiterated repeatedly in the pages of Scripture. In Matthew
24:9, Jesus predicted that His followers would “be hated by all
nations” (NIV). In 2 Timothy 3:12, the Apostle Paul warned, “In
fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will
be persecuted” (NIV).
In anticipation of this inevitability, Jesus sought to allay the
fears of those who would endure such hostility by reminding
them of the promise of the first beatitude, that “theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.” By stating the verb in both the present
tense (here and now) and the indicative mood (an assured real-
ity), Jesus was affirming to his audience that their possession of
the Kingdom of Heaven is not some iffy, future possibility, but a
very present certainty. Therefore, no manner of maligning or
maltreatment can strip them of their promised possession.
God’s promise trumps man’s threats!
This is a powerful promise, offering assurance to all who
believe, whether they’re persecuted or not. But to the hassled,
the hated, and the harassed, Jesus offered an additional prom-
ise, saying, “... great is your reward in heaven.” Not only does
persecution fail to rob the threat-
ened of God’s promise of grace, but
bearing it actually serves to com-
pound the reward waiting for them in their Father’s presence.
1Arndt, W. F., and Gingrich, F. W., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Second Edition. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) p. 201.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Our faithfulness arouses an
even more magnanimous re-
sponse from [God] when it’s
faithfulness under fire.
To this point, Jesus could not have been more emphatic.
The persecuted are not only promised reward, but great
reward—so great, in fact, that it should cause them to be “ex-
ceedingly glad” (a term evoking the image of jumping for joy).2
To drive this point home even more forcefully, Jesus repeated
His declaration of blessedness a second time—something we
only find here in this final beatitude. Those who not only re-
ceive the promise of God in humility, but defend it in the face of
adversity are, in the strongest sense, doubly blessed.
Above all else, God’s grace is reassuring. It comforts the
poor in spirit by promising them that the entire Kingdom of
Heaven is their certain possession. Then, during times of severe
religious opposition, grace reminds them that the tighter they
cling to the promise of God, the more generous will be the re-
ward waiting for them in heaven. This is supreme assurance,
indeed, dispelling all the doubts that those who oppose the
message of grace would seek to instill.
When we consider the magnitude of the previous seven
promises of blessing, we are left to marvel at the strong lan-
guage used here. Of all of the declarations and promises of
blessedness, this one is stated most forcefully. Interestingly,
Jesus did not reveal any of
the details of this great re-
ward. Perhaps our current
frame of reference is just too
limited for words to begin to
describe it. But one thing this
emphatic pronouncement reveals is that the character trait God
2Ibid., p. 4.
The Everyday Martyr 105
cherishes most in us (our faithfulness) arouses an even more
magnanimous response from Him when it’s faithfulness under
fire.
8.2 \\ faithfulness under fire
In the spring of 1997, Brad and Misty Bernall had their
hands full with their daughter. Cassie was a young, energetic
teenager who had gotten involved with the wrong crowd. Her
clothes suddenly became darker, her music became darker, and
her mood became darker, as well. The deep pool of friends that
she once enjoyed had drained to just a few, and their clothes
and music were even darker than her own.
Discouragement gave way to despair as Brad and Misty dis-
covered a letter written to their daughter from her new best
friend. In it they read of a plot to kill a teacher who had given
this new acquaintance an “F” on one of her assignments. It
went on to express hatred for both sets of their parents and
contained allusions to self-mutilation, satanic meetings, and
adoration of Marilyn Manson and his music. But what startled
them most was the suggestion that the best solution to all of
Cassie’s problems was to kill her mom and dad. There were
even diagrams for how the murder should be carried out.
Not knowing what else to do, these frightened parents
called the police. Then they secured a court order that prohi-
bited Cassie’s girlfriend from having any future contact with her.
It would be a severe understatement to say that Cassie did not
respond well to her parents’ actions. She began to freely ex-
press her disdain for them, and even threatened suicide. Ulti-
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
mately, Brad and Misty felt they had no choice but to restrict
their daughter to the confines of their home in order to shield
her from these negative influences.
Though some well intentioned friends thought the Bernalls
were overreacting, they refused to compromise their convic-
tions. But their commitment to practice tough love would come
with a high price. Late at night their house became the target of
rock and egg throwing attacks. The situation became so intol-
erable that they eventually decided to sell their house and
move out of the neighborhood and out of the school district.
The only place these desperate parents felt they could
safely allow Cassie to go was the last place she wanted to be—
church. Yet it was at church that she met another teenage girl
with whom she could relate. This new friend invited Cassie to
attend a youth retreat. It proved to be a turning point in her
life. Brad would later use these words to describe his daughter
upon her return:
It was as if she had been in a dark room and
somebody had turned the light on and she
could suddenly see the beauty surrounding
her.3
Cassie came back from the event transformed by the ex-
perience. She began to attend church of her own accord. She
became involved in youth group activities. She even began to
invite others, and eventually became a student leader. The
3 Misty Bernall, She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall. (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1999) pp. 93-94.
The Everyday Martyr 107
acrimony between her and her parents was replaced by a
growing love and trust. The Bernall family, once fractured, had
been restored by the life-changing power of God’s grace. On
April 19, 1999, Cassie penned these words in a note to a friend:
“P.S. Honestly, I want to live completely for God. It’s hard and
scary, but totally worth it.”4
Then came April 20th. Cassie was in her school library at
about 11:00 a.m. on a day that seemed like any other day. Little
could she have known that the dark lifestyle she had left behind
was about to pay her another visit in the form of two heavily
armed young men making their way down the hallway in long,
black trench coats.
Shots were fired and screams were heard as students
streamed through the library, panicked and scattering in every
direction. Cassie suddenly found herself confronted by these
two young men with no means of escape. Josh, a young soph-
omore, ducked under a table just twenty feet from where
Cassie stood. He gave this account of what followed:
I couldn’t see anything when these guys came
up to Cassie, but I could recognize her voice. I
could hear everything like it was right next to
me. One of them asked her if she believed in
God. She paused, like she didn’t know what she
was going to answer. And then she said, ‘Yes.’
She must have been scared, but her voice didn’t
sound shaky. It was strong. Then they asked
4Ibid., front matter
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Martyrdom, for the Christian,
is much more than a way of
dying; it’s also intended to be
a way of living.
her why, though they didn’t give her a chance
to respond, they just blew her away.”5
You’ve heard the story of that tragic day at Columbine High
School. Cassie showed up to school that morning with no clue
of how her faith would be tested. But she heard the gunshots.
She saw the look of terror on
the faces of those running
for cover. She knew, only
too well, the lifestyle and
mindset of these two young
men. And she was well aware of what would happen if she was
truthful in answering the question that was posed to her.
It is difficult for most people to understand Cassie’s choice
that day. How could anything be more important than preserv-
ing one’s own life? Yet, in that moment’s pause, as she took
stock, she concluded that one thing was.
Cassie became a martyr for simply saying, “Yes.” But we
must be careful not to parse Cassie’s life, separating the way
she died from the way she lived. Martyrdom, for the Christian,
is much more than a way of dying; it’s also intended to be a way
of living. The Apostle Paul expressed it this way when he wrote,
“I die daily” (1Corinthians 15:31, NKJV). He made a conscious
decision, every single day, to “die” to self and live for God.
Christian martyrdom is about giving God the place of priority in
our lives. It’s about standing up for our faith, even though, as
Cassie put it, it may be “hard and scary.”
5Ibid., p. 14.
The Everyday Martyr 109
The school of the Christian
martyr is the classroom of
everyday life, and the cur-
riculum is mastered through
small acts of devotion.
We disrespect eternity when
we act like living in the moment
is all that really matters.
Cassie’s mother later wrote a book to honor the life and
sacrifice of her daughter, which she titled, She Said Yes.6 What
a great summary of a life! Cassie was prepared to say yes be-
cause, like Paul, she had already given God first place in her life.
She died just the way she lived, by preferring to please God ra-
ther than men. Her courage in the face of death was simply an
extension of the conviction with which she lived each day.
And so it is for every devoted believer. We don’t have to
literally face death to live the
life of a martyr. All that we
have to do is put God first—in
all that we do. And when we
say yes to God in the small
things of today, He prepares us
to say yes to Him in the bigger things of tomorrow. The school
of the Christian martyr is the classroom of everyday life, and the
curriculum is mastered through small acts of devotion.
8.3 \\ super-size your dream
In every way that God wishes to bless us, there stands an
earthbound dream compet-
ing for our attention. We
cling to these dreams as
though we will never have
to let them go. But we disrespect eternity when we act like
living in the moment is all that really matters. These
earthbound dreams are nothing more than passing fancies,
6Ibid.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Persecution, rather than praise,
became the crowning feature of
Jesus’ earthly life.
Blessed are those who
understand that it is more
important to please God
than men, no matter the
cost.
unworthy of the devotion we tend to give to them. God has
much bigger things in mind for each of us.
One of the most alluring of our earthbound dreams is the
desire to be loved and admired by a watching world—to have
the world’s crown of ap-
proval placed upon our
heads. But the only crown
the world placed on Jesus’
head was a crown of thorns. Persecution, rather than praise,
became the crowning feature of Jesus’ earthly life.
According to this final beatitude, abasement and abuse will
likewise become the crowning feature of the lives of those who
choose to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. In fact, we know that we
are exemplifying the blessed character qualities of the Beati-
tudes when we are maligned or mistreated for those very quali-
ties. This is the blessed life in full bloom. We might prefer to be
loved by both God and man, but just like Jesus, we must choose
the approval of one or the other.
Which choice have you made? Do you seek the approval of
God above the praise of men? If someone were to write a book
about your life, what would the
title be? Would it reflect a life of
devotion? Are you living the life
of a martyr by saying yes to God
in the small things of daily life? Is
it your desire to be found faithful
to Him above all others? Are you willing to share in the suffer-
ings of Christ? Blessed are those who understand that it is more
important to please God than men, no matter the cost.
The Everyday Martyr 111
8.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, You and You alone deserve my full devotion. When I’m
lured away by the promise of the world’s approval, grant me the
resolve to remain true to You. Through acts of faithfulness in
small things today, prepare me to be faithful to You in even big-
ger things tomorrow. And when I am maligned or mistreated
for my faith, grant me the courage to endure whatever abuse
the world might dole out to me. Bestow on me the crown of
Your approval, even when it becomes a crown of thorns. May I
be found faithful to You—no matter the cost. Amen.
__________
You will indeed drink from my cup.
- Jesus Christ
CHAPTER 9 // pass the salt
Pride is the perverse desire of height.
- Augustine
THERE was once a flock of pelicans that happily fished off the
coast of California. One day, a fishing company began cleaning
their catch at a nearby dock, where it was convenient for them
to cast the discarded fish scraps into the water. The pelicans,
drawn to the daily ritual, soon gave up fishing for themselves
and settled into a more domesticated existence. Life was pretty
good for these pelicans, at least until the fishermen discovered
that there was a market for fish scraps. Abruptly, the free
meals ceased.
Despite this regrettable change of fortune, the pelicans con-
tinued to show up every day at meal-time, only to go away with
empty stomachs. It wasn’t long before the lack of sustenance
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
began to take its toll. The unsightly appearance of the ema-
ciated birds eventually drew the public’s attention, and experts
were called in to investigate the cause of their plight. For some
unknown reason, the pelicans no longer seemed able to access
the abundance of food that teemed just below them in the sea.
After a thorough investigation, it was concluded that the peli-
cans were starving to death because they’d forgotten how to
fish!
Have you ever heard of anything so absurd? Pelicans were
made to fish. But they had forgotten who they were and what
they were made to do. Sadly, there is a spiritual parallel to this,
and it’s just as puzzling. It’s when a child of God forgets who
they are and how they are to access the profound blessings
teeming just below the surface of their everyday life. Spiritual
amnesia is the subject of this, the first of two metaphors meant
to illustrate the blessed life:
___________________________________
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor,
how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be
thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
- Matthew 5:13, NKJV
___________________________________
9.1 \\ buried treasure
Like all great teachers, Jesus turns our ears into eyes by us-
ing the brush of metaphor to paint a picture of what it means to
be blessed. At first glance, the portrait seems common and
Pass The Salt 115
Like all great teachers, Jesus turns
our ears into eyes by using the brush
of metaphor to paint a picture of
what it means to be blessed.
uninspiring. After all, what is more familiar and less inspiring
than salt? Upon closer observation, however, we see the bril-
liance of the artist.
Most of us think of salt as a mere table condiment, but
there are many subtle ways that our lives are affected by this
amazing compound. If you’ve ever been on a low salt diet, you
realize that it’s the salt that allows the full flavor of food to
come to the fore. If you’ve ever had dental surgery, you know
how helpful those warm, saltwater rinses are. If you enjoy
home-made ice cream, you understand that salt makes the ice
even colder, allowing old-fashioned ice cream machines to pro-
duce a frozen product. If you’ve ever lived in a home that de-
pends on well water, you grasp the importance of maintaining
the proper level of salt in your water softening system—too
soft, and you can wash all day and never get the soap off your
body—too hard, and
the soap loses its la-
ther.
In certain parts of
the world, salt is even
used to preserve dung as a source of fuel (and you thought the
smell of gasoline was noxious!). What’s more, when used for
this purpose, the salt causes this primitive fuel source to burn
even hotter. So, the chemical properties of sodium chloride
make ice colder and dung burn hotter! Now that’s versatility.
In fact, the salt industry claims over 14,000 practical uses for
this remarkable product.
Salt enjoyed a wide range of applications in ancient Pales-
tine, as well, where it was employed as a condiment, an anti-
septic, and even as a primitive weed killer. Lacking the benefit
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Their desperation and destitution …
actually made them the perfect
couriers of God’s love and grace.
of refrigeration, the ancients relied on salt as their primary
means for preserving meats. And because of its use in their
ritual sacrifices, the Jews of the day associated salt with their
covenant with God (Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19).
The combination of these useful applications made this
compound so valuable that Roman soldiers were glad to receive
their wages in salt rations, giving rise to the expression “worth
his salt.” When these rations were later substituted with
money, the Latin term for salt (sal) lingered in the vernacular.
Consequently, one’s stipend was labeled salarium, a precursor
to our word “salary.”
So, when Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “You are the
salt of the earth,” He was proclaiming their intrinsic value to
God’s purposes in this world. Of course, Jesus spoke these
words to the poor, the mournful, the meek, and the hungry—
unlikely candidates, by the estimation of most, for such a
weighty designation.
Nevertheless, hidden
to the English reader,
Jesus placed extra em-
phasis on the word “you” by employing repetition. Thus, a lit-
eral translation would read, “You, you are the salt of the earth!”
Clearly, Jesus saw something in these lowly souls that oth-
ers could not see. Their desperation and destitution, which
only served to discredit them in the eyes of men, actually made
them the perfect couriers of God’s love and grace. But as
affirming and hopeful as these words must have been to those
who first received them, Jesus was quick to express one very
serious misgiving—the possibility that these humble followers
Pass The Salt 117
might lose the very quality that made them so valuable in the
world.
As with any spiritual character quality, there looms the dan-
ger that it might become corrupted. Thus, Jesus drew their at-
tention to the analogy of salt that had lost its saltiness. It was
admittedly a curious illustration, given the fact that sodium
chloride is one of the most stable of all compounds. Indeed, the
salt in your saltshaker will remain salty ad infinitum. Left to it-
self, salt does not degrade. There is, however, one thing that
can diminish its chemical property—the presence of a contam-
inant.
As it happens, there existed a notable example of this phe-
nomenon in the salt that was mined from the nearby flats
surrounding the Dead Sea. Salt harvested from this region was
often corrupted with gypsum or other mineral deposits. The
presence of these deposits caused the salt to leach out,
effectively neutralizing it. The unwitting buyer of contaminated
salt was left with a worthless product, good for little else than
to be dumped onto the pathways and dirt roads of ancient
Palestine as nothing more than a weed killer. Such discarded
salt served as a startling picture of the humble follower who had
become corrupted by the prideful attitudes of this world.
9.2 \\ where's the salt?
Did you know that there are, by conservative estimates,
more than twenty-five times the number of churches in America
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
than there are McDonald’s restaurants?1 Despite this fact,
there are more Americans who can recite the contents of a Big
Mac from the old commercial jingle than can explain the terms
of the New Covenant. “Two all beef patties, special sauce, let-
tuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” Why isn’t
the Christian message as clearly understood? One has to ask,
where’s the salt? Please, don’t say it’s on the french fries!
The reason for this disparity is hinted at in the results of an
enlightening study that was conducted by the Fuller Theological
Seminary. The project revealed that churches that were three
years old or younger were able to influence one new person
with the Gospel for every three members in attendance. But as
these newly formed churches began to age an interesting trend
emerged. Congregations that were four to seven years old re-
quired seven members to influence one new person toward
faith, while churches that were ten years old or older needed as
many as eighty-five people to influence just one other person!2
This was Jesus' concern. He knew that, with the passing of
time, exposure to the corrupting influences of this world would
tend to degrade the spiritual character traits set forth in the
beatitudes. These contrastive qualities, enumerated in the first
four beatitudes (poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, meekness,
and hungering for righteousness) must be kept pure of the cor-
1Based on estimates of 350,000 churches vs. approximately 13,000 Mc-
Donald’s restaurants in the U.S. as of the date of this publication. 2From Into the Future: Turning Today’s Church Trends Into Tomorrow’s Oppor-
tunities by Elmer Towns and Warren Bird (Revell: Grand Rapids) p.85, as
referenced by H. B. London, Jr., “The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing,” Focus on the
Family, vol. 7, no. 27, 2 July 1999.
Pass The Salt 119
Sadly, many who have received
the free gift of God’s grace have
gone on to drift from the humility
that such an act required.
rupting influences of the world if the believer is to maintain a
contrastive presence.
For example, if being “salt” (according to the first beatitude)
means recognizing that
we’re all spiritually bank-
rupt before a holy God,
then we lose our salti-
ness the moment we be-
gin to take pride in our own good deeds. Such contaminated
thinking reduces all our best efforts to mere acts of arrogance
and conceit. This is the antithesis of what it means to be poor in
spirit.
If being “salt” (according to the second beatitude) means
recognizing sin as the root cause of all that ails our troubled
world, then we begin to lose our saltiness when we rationalize,
excuse, or make occasion for disobedience to the revealed will
of God. Such contaminated thinking, if allowed to persist,
threatens to cause our salty savor to leach out, having been
compromised by the permissive attitudes of the world. This is
the antithesis of what it means to mourn over sin.
If being “salt” (according to the third beatitude) means re-
cognizing that we must submit our power of influence to God’s
control, then we begin to lose our saltiness whenever we use
our influence for self-serving interests. Our thinking has be-
come contaminated when we are driven by power and preoc-
cupied with position. This is the antithesis of what it means to
be meek.
And finally, if being “salt” (according to the fourth beati-
tude) means recognizing that we should hunger and thirst for
the righteousness of God, then we lose our saltiness when we
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
If there’s one thing even more
challenging than being humble,
it’s remaining humble.
begin to think that we are held in God’s good graces by our own
merit. Our thinking has become contaminated when we seek to
don ourselves in garments of good deeds, forgetting that we
need no other robe of justification then that which has been
imparted to us by faith. This is the antithesis of what it means
to hunger and thirst for the one, true, and perfect righteousness
of God.
Sadly, many who have received the free gift of God’s grace
have gone on to drift from
the humility that such an
act required. This is the
trap that ensnares us the
moment we forget how we have been blessed. Like the
absentminded pelicans off the coast of California, we tend to
forget the true source of our spiritual sustenance and security.
To avoid this danger, every believer must remember that it was
only by a pure humility that he first received the blessings of
God. Thus, it can only be by a pure humility—fostered and
maintained—that he can continue to thrive on His blessings.
This is easier said than done. For, if there’s one thing even
more challenging than being humble, it’s remaining humble.
But this is exactly what we must do if we are to be the “salt of
the earth.” Self-exalting, self-righteous Christians have lost their
saltiness. It has leached out, having been contaminated by the
prideful attitudes of the world.
Pass The Salt 121
9.3 \\ keep your salt pure!
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Jesus had said that we were to
be the sugar of the world? Everyone likes sugar. If we were the
sugar of the world, the world would rave about us—we would
be the most popular people on the planet. But if we were the
sugar of the world, we would fall short of our purpose. Rather
than helping others to see their need to be reconciled with God,
we would soothe their guilt. Instead of pricking their con-
science with conviction, we would placate and appease it.
Sure, a spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down,
but sugar itself does nothing to promote health. No, we are the
salt of the world. Salt is sharp and it stings, but it also enhances,
heals, and preserves as it exerts a contrastive presence in a
bland and decaying world. Each one of the salty beatitudes is a
call to be different. Each one defies a fundamental tenet of our
world. Each one challenges a belief that is popularly considered
to be incontrovertible. Each one calls us to possess an attitude
that is truly contrastive to the prideful, self-centered spirit of
this world.
The poor in spirit are those who have forsaken their spiri-
tual pride in favor of embracing their spiritual indebtedness.
The mournful are those who have traded in their shallow sor-
rows for a soul wrenching grief over sin. The meek are those
who have forfeited the selfish grasp for power so prevalent in
our world, yielding themselves instead to God’s power and con-
trol. The hungry and thirsty are those who have fasted from
vain religiosity, cultivating instead an appetite for the one, true
righteousness of God.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
No one feels saltier
than a legalist.
The person who is filled with
religious pride doesn’t possess
a contrastive spirit to that of
the world, so much as an ex-
aggerated version of the same
spirit.
On the other hand, the person who is filled with religious
pride doesn’t possess a contrastive spirit to that of the world, so
much as an exaggerated ver-
sion of the same spirit. They
boast that they give more, or
pray more, or witness more
than others; or they drink
less, or swear less, or sin less
than others. They devise
standards of spiritual superiority by which they measure them-
selves against others, and then they point to those very things
as the proof of their saltiness.
No one feels saltier than a legalist. But in their quest to dis-
tinguish themselves as more righteous than others, they suc-
ceed only in becoming more self-right-
eous. Instead of contrasting the flavor
of worldly pride and arrogance, they
simply add more of the same flavor to the pot.
Rather than blending in with the flavor of the world, or
sugar-coating over all that ails it, the blessed believer is called to
demonstrate the contrast of God’s grace. They are to live in a
manner that is juxtaposed to the spirit of self-righteousness and
self-promotion. The danger of which Jesus warns us in this
metaphor is that we might lose sight of our heavenly purpose;
that we might forget who we are; that we might revert back to
our old ways of thinking; that we might become contaminated
by the pervasive attitudes of the masses; that we might lose the
salty savor of grace.
Pass The Salt 123
9.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, the world around me is constantly calling me back to
my old ways of thinking, to my old prideful attitudes. When this
happens, remind me that to be the salt this world so desperately
needs, I must forsake the corruption of spiritual pride. Remind
me to grieve over sin as the root cause of all that is regrettable
in this world. Remind me to yield my power of influence to Your
control. Remind me to repent, not just of my sins, but of my
proud acts of self-righteousness, as well. May I never forget
that it was by a pure humility that I was birthed into the King-
dom of Heaven. Amen.
__________
As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
- Solomon
CHAPTER 10 // let there be light!
There is not enough darkness in all the world to
put out the light of even one small candle.
- Robert Alden
DURING the 1980s, one television show captured the imagi-
nation of a generation. The program was titled Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous because it showcased the conspicuous con-
sumption of the world’s richest celebrities. Each week, Robin
Leach would lead his audience on a tour of the most palatial
mansions imaginable, appointed with everything from rare art
collections to gold-plated bathroom fixtures. Like most viewers,
I found myself drawn to those “champagne dreams and caviar
wishes.”
In the precepts of the Beatitudes, Jesus guides us on a tour
of the lifestyles of the spiritually rich and eternally Influential.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Those who have been
granted the extraordinary
privileges spelled out in the
first four beatitudes bear
their own noble obligation.
The journey begins with a description of God’s lavish generosity
to the poor, the sad, the meek and the hungry. Included in their
highly diversified portfolio is the deed to joint ownership of the
entire Kingdom of Heaven. As if that weren’t enough, they also
boast of infinite shares of God’s consolation, an irrevocable
trust of an earthly inheritance, and a defined benefit plan for
the satisfaction of their deepest spiritual longing. We are left to
marvel at the extravagance and privilege of such unimaginable
spiritual wealth.
But there’s more. Jesus’ pronouncements of blessing con-
tinued, albeit with a shift of focus. Between the fourth and fifth
beatitudes, Jesus turned His attention from the high privilege of
the blessed life to the high responsibility inherent in it. The
French have a term for the chord Jesus struck in the second half
of the Beatitudes—they call it the noblesse oblige. This term
referred to the noble obligation borne by the more fortunate to
assist the less fortunate. In the nautical world, the idea is ex-
pressed in terms of a vessel of
burden—a reference to the
duty of a more powerful, more
maneuverable ship to show
deference to a slower, less ma-
neuverable vessel.
Likewise, those who have been granted the extraordinary
privileges spelled out in the first four beatitudes bear their own
noble obligation. As vessels of burden, it becomes their respon-
sibility to accommodate those who are less privileged. This duty
is illustrated for us in this, the second metaphor:
Let There Be Light! 127
___________________________________
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be
hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father in heaven.
- Matthew 5:14-16, NKJV
___________________________________
10.1 \\ buried treasure
As with the salt metaphor, this declaration must have come
as a great surprise to those who first received it. Such an as-
sembly of sad souls would have never thought of themselves as
“the light of the world.” Once again, Jesus is emphatic here,
employing repetition to place added stress on the word “you.”
A more literal translation of His charge would read, “You, you
are the light of the world.”
This remarkable pronouncement was clearly intended to
challenge our preconceived notions. Who, besides Jesus, would
look out into such a dismal, dreary crowd and make such a
statement? “The light of the world” was indeed a strange de-
piction to attribute to this gloomy gathering.
Moments earlier, Jesus had challenged these same listeners
to think of themselves as the “salt of the earth.” This statement
would have surely drawn their thoughts to the great salt flats
that sprawled across the shores of the Dead Sea, just a short
journey to the south. Likewise, when He declared them to be
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
“the light of the world,” their thoughts would have just as cer-
tainly been drawn to the hills and caves that rose above those
salt flats—the dwelling place of a devout sect of Jews who ac-
tually referred to themselves as The Sons of Light.1
This monastic community, also known as the Essenes, hid
themselves in the caves and grottos of Qumran in an effort to
escape worldly influences. Among the various religious move-
ments in first century Israel, the Essenes were the most zealous
in their desire to be set apart and dedicated to the things of
God. Compelled by their religious devotion, they sequestered
themselves not only from a pagan world, but from all of the
other sects of Israel, judging them all to be too worldly.
There, in the caves of Qumran, this pious band of devotees
practiced celibacy, ate only vegetables, transcribed religious
literature, and spent their days secluded in contemplative ser-
vice to God. Believing they were enlightened, they failed to see
the contradiction between their self-perception and their own
actions. How, after all, is it possible to bear the light of God
from a cave?
It seems apparent that Jesus intended to draw a direct con-
trast between the humble estate of those seated before Him
and the lofty, prideful posture of those self-proclaimed Sons of
Light. Although the Essenes boasted of being the light, their
influence had become as dark as the caves they called their
sanctuary and as lifeless as the Dead Sea upon whose salty
shores they dwelled. Despite their great zeal to serve God, the
spirituality practiced by this exclusive community served as the
perfect anti-type to the blessed life.
1As documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Section 1QS 1:3, 11.
Let There Be Light! 129
The Essenes were salt that had
been contaminated by religious
pride; they were a light that
had been hidden by spiritual
separatism.
The Essenes were salt that had been contaminated by reli-
gious pride; they were a light that had been hidden by spiritual
separatism.2 Instead of being humble before God, they were
proud. Instead of seeking God’s righteousness, they were satis-
fied with their own. Spiritually speaking, they had veered the
wrong direction at every turn. In their eagerness to be set apart
from the world, they be-
came a characterization of
worldly pride. Dedicated to
winning the religious ver-
sion of the childhood game
King of the Hill, they failed
to realize that all their efforts actually accomplished was to set
them atop the wrong hill.
But while the Essenes were busy working on their spiritual
resumé, Jesus turned His attention to a disheveled group of
misfits and said the last thing they ever expected to hear. Con-
trary to public opinion, they were the pure “salt” and the visible
“light” of the world. Although set apart from the rest of society
by their desperation, Jesus looked them right in the eye and de-
clared, in so many words: The self-righteous aren’t God’s salt –
you, you are! The spiritually proud aren’t God’s light – you, you
are!
2By removing themselves from the corrupting influences of society, the
Essenes also removed themselves from having any influence on society. In fact, the community of the Essenes eventually died out, and for two thousand years they were lost to history. They are only known to us today by the chance discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls—the religious and biblical transcripts they left behind in the caves of Qumran.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Salt works secretly, while
light … makes a public
display of itself.
10.2 \\ who turned out the lights?
Salt works secretly, while light works openly. Salt per-
meates internally, while light shines externally. The influence of
salt is subtle, while light makes a
public display of itself. Whereas
Jesus employed the salt metaphor
to illustrate the internal heart atti-
tudes commended in the first four beatitudes (e.g., poverty of
spirit, spiritual mourning, meekness, and hungering for true
righteousness), He invoked the light metaphor as a picture of
the external actions extolled in the remaining four beatitudes
(e.g., acts of mercy, and the practices of purity, peacemaking,
and perseverance).
And just as it is possible for the saltiness of a believer to be-
come contaminated, the danger also exists that his light might
become obscured. If letting our light shine, according to the
fifth beatitude, means extending God’s mercy to others, then
we effectively hide our lamp when we forgo the opportunity to
extend God’s love to the unworthy, the broken, the weak, the
self-destructive, the lowly, the rejected, and the offensive. Who
will see our light if we fail to demonstrate compassion as oppor-
tunities arise? This is the antithesis of the blessed lifestyle, the
opposite of what it means to be counted among the merciful.
If letting our light shine, according to the sixth beatitude,
means possessing a single-minded devotion to God, then we
effectively hide our lamp whenever we waver in our commit-
ment to Him. Who will see our light if we falter in our devo-
tion? This is the antithesis of the blessed lifestyle, the opposite
of what it means to be pure in heart.
Let There Be Light! 131
If letting our light shine, according to the seventh beatitude,
means cultivating peace, then we effectively hide our lamp
whenever we engage our world in a battle for power and con-
trol. Who will see our light if we are scratching and clawing to
come out on top? This is the antithesis of the blessed lifestyle,
the opposite of what it means to be a peacemaker.
If letting our light shine, according to the eighth beatitude,
means enduring persecution for our faith, then our lamp is hid-
den whenever we seek the approval of the world before the
approval of God. We might wish to live a life that is applauded
by both God and man, but no such lifestyle exists. Who will see
our light if we conform to the expectations of the world? This is
the antithesis of the blessed lifestyle, the opposite of what it
means to be persecuted for Jesus’ sake.
10.3 \\ let your light shine!
At the one hundred year anniversary of the arrival of mis-
sionaries to the Congo, a large celebration was planned. In
commemoration of the lasting impact of the work of the origi-
nal missionaries, speakers were invited to address the gather-
ing. Special music, a festive meal, and other activities were
planned as a memorial to this important occasion.
As the story goes, an aged native came forward and intro-
duced himself to the crowd as the last person alive who was
privy to a terrible secret. The old man confessed that one hun-
dred years earlier, when the missionaries first came, the natives
didn’t know whether to believe the message they carried. So, in
order to test their sincerity, they devised a plan.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
By living out the lifestyles
of the spiritually rich and
eternally influential, we
put God’s extravagant love
and grace on display.
As we fulfill the responsibilities of
the blessed life ... some will reject
us, some will be intrigued by us,
some may even believe because
of us, but all will see God’s light!
Slowly, secretly, systematically, they began to poison the
missionaries. Then they watched intently as mothers said
goodbye to children, as husbands said good-bye to wives, as
friends and colleagues said good-bye to one another. The old
man explained that it was only as they saw how these missiona-
ries died, that the truth of their message was confirmed. As a
result, many of the people believed and embraced the Gospel
message.
In what manner must these men and women have died to
have so convincingly confirmed
the message they brought to
the Congo? No doubt, they died
just as they had lived—as those
who clung tenaciously to eternal
promises. They died as those
who were blessed, despite losing every earthly reason for hap-
piness. They died as those who had traded in their earthbound
dreams for heaven bound certainties.
As privileged children of God, we have been given the re-
sponsibility to shine forth the truth of God’s love to a spiritually
dark and impoverished
world. By living out the
lifestyles of the spiritually
rich and eternally influen-
tial, we put God’s extra-
vagant love and grace on
display. This happens as our hearts grow softer through the
practice of mercy, as our eyes grow more perceptive through
the practice of purity, as our character grows more Christ-like
through the practice of peacemaking, and as our status in the
Let There Be Light! 133
Kingdom of God is increased through the practice of persever-
ance. As we fulfill the responsibilities of the blessed life before
a watching world, some will reject us, some will be intrigued by
us, some may even believe because of us, but all will see God’s
light!
10.4 \\ closing prayer
Lord, use my life as a display case for Your extravagant love.
Through acts of compassion, allow me to expose the world to
Your caring heart. Through a singular devotion, allow me to
show the world Your true worth. Through the peace producing
ways of a meek life, allow me to give the world a glimpse of
Your likeness. And grant me the crown of Your approval, even
when it becomes a crown of thorns. Soften my heart, sharpen
my perception, and illumine my countenance as I learn to walk
in the ways of grace. Help me to live in genuine contrast to the
ways of this world. Amen.
__________
I am the light of the world.
- Jesus Christ
Just like us … these earthbound
dreams … must eventually
return to the dust from which
they were formed.
conclusion //
THE highly influential Church Father, St. Augustine, once
wrote, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in every man that only
Christ can fill.”1 A God-shaped vacuum is no small hole. Until
this cavity is filled, so vast a void exists in each of us that the
whole world isn’t enough
to fill it. That’s because we
were created for something
more than a brief existence
in a fallen world. We were
meant for more than a life filled with things we either can’t
have or can’t keep. The pursuit of dreams that fix their focus on
such temporal things can never be anything more than a vain
exercise. These are earthbound dreams. Just like us, they must
eventually return to the dust from which they were formed.
1St. Augustine, as quoted by Albert M. Wells, Jr., Inspiring Quotations
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1988), p. 121.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
In the hit movie, Bruce Almighty, the main character—mild-
mannered, good-natured Bruce—is continually confounded and
stymied in his quest for success by ill-fated happenstance. Con-
vinced that God has treated him unfairly, Bruce challenges the
way the Almighty doles out His blessings. God is only too willing
to give Bruce a shot at driving the winds of fortune, so He im-
bues him with all His mighty powers. Bruce immediately sets
out to fill the emptiness in his life by satisfying his every earthly
desire, only to discover that he’s even emptier than before. All
the while a song plays wistfully in the background:
Does the world seem grey with empty longing,
Wearing every shade of cynical?
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching.
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it’s a void only He can fill.
- Plum, Candycoatedwaterdrops, ©1999
Bruce gets everything he wants, yet nothing he really wants;
everything he thinks he needs, yet nothing he really needs. Like
Bruce, we pursue material things in search of something that
prosperity was never really meant to provide. Truth be known,
some of the most miserable people who’ve ever lived have
lacked nothing of what this world could offer them. But neither
money, nor power, nor recognition proves adequate to satisfy a
God-shaped hole.
Conclusion 137
By measuring success in terms of
worldly advancement … we have
become blind to the vastness of
our own spiritual bankruptcy.
Neither money, nor power, nor
recognition proves adequate to
satisfy a God-shaped hole.
In the quest to fill this void, man has declared: Blessed are
the assertive, the proud, the elevated, the strong, the rich, the
advantaged, the glamorous, the popular, and the famous.
However, by measuring success in terms of worldly advance-
ment, we have become blind to the vastness of our own spiri-
tual bankruptcy. Trapped in this alternate reality, the best thing
would be for us to expe-
rience utter disillusion-
ment—to find ourselves
like the crowds that ga-
thered to hear Jesus—
hopeless and helpless. Then, in our desperation, the possibility
exists that we might be awakened to our need for something
more.
So, how about you? Have you experienced enough disillu-
sionment in life to look beyond the vanity of your earthbound
dreams? Have you been disappointed enough to look for more
than what this world can
offer? Have you come to
realize that the problem
isn’t that your dreams and
aspirations are too big, but that they aren’t big enough?
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that it is through poverty of spirit that true and
everlasting riches are found.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that the comfort that matters most is the comfort
of God.
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that true power can only be experienced in submis-
sion to God’s will.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that their desire for righteousness must be so
strong that only the perfect righteousness of God can satisfy it.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that mercy is meant to be a whole new way of life.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that all it takes to see God at work in one’s life is the
unwavering desire to have God at work in one’s life.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that real peace is the by-product of meekness.
Not just happy, but blessed are those who have come to
understand that it is more important to please God than men,
no matter the cost.
A story is told of a missionary who once ministered to a re-
mote tribe. One day he was approached by the chief who was
concerned with the Christian teaching that he should give a por-
tion of what he produced to God. To answer the chief’s objec-
tion the missionary explained, “God doesn’t need your posses-
sions; what He really wants is your heart.”
The chief thought about this for a moment and then, with a
look of illumination, said, “I see. God is very wise, for He knows
that if He has the chief’s heart then He will have all that the
chief possesses!”
Conclusion 139
It’s in this exchange—all of us
for all of God—that we find
true blessedness. For it’s here,
just beyond our earthbound
dreams, that we find Jesus.
The chief couldn’t have been more right. Once God has our
hearts, He has everything
else. But the reverse is also
true. Once we give our
hearts to God, we gain all of
God in the exchange. All
that we have for all that
God possesses. Not a bad a deal, huh? If a man is considered
prosperous for gaining all that this transient world has to offer,
then how much more prosperous is he when he gains every-
thing that God has to offer? It’s in this exchange—all of us for
all of God—that we find true blessedness. For it’s here, just
beyond our earthbound dreams, that we find Jesus.
We’ve all hoped to be rewarded for what we think we de-
serve, but Jesus offers to reward us with everything we don’t
deserve!
We’ve all yearned for a life without suffering, but Jesus
offers us a world absent of the root cause of all suffering!
We’ve all grasped for power in the kingdom of man, but
Jesus offers us power in the Kingdom of God!
We’ve all striven to lead a life that is deemed righteous
enough, but Jesus offers us the perfect righteousness of God!
We’ve all clamored for justice, but Jesus offers to fill our
lives with mercy!
We’ve all aspired to see God—one day, but Jesus offers to
show us God—today!
Beyond Earthbound Dreams
When our dreams are pure
enough, and perfect enough,
and big enough, they will be
dreams of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
Jesus isn’t just a guide on
the treasure hunt of life;
He is our treasure.
We’ve all dreamed of world peace, but Jesus offers to
transform each one of us into peacemakers!
We’ve all endeavored to earn the approval of others, but
Jesus offers us the applause of heaven!
Jesus isn’t just a guide on the treasure hunt of life; He is our
treasure. Jesus isn’t just a meal ticket to those who hunger and
thirst; He is the meal. Jesus isn’t just the means to another end;
He is the end. When our dreams
are pure enough, and perfect
enough, and big enough, they
will be dreams of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. They will be dreams of all that He is and all
that He has done for us; they will be dreams of all that we can
possess in Him; they will be dreams that completely and per-
fectly fill our God-shaped hole; they will be dreams that can
never be disappointed!
So, instead of going through life wishing and reaching for
things you either can’t have
or can’t keep (the old adage
is still true, there are no lug-
gage racks on hearses), why
not take hold of the only
thing you can both have and
keep? That one thing is God Himself, offered to each of us in
the person of Jesus Christ. We can both have and keep Jesus in
a way that is true of nothing else in this life. For He is our best
wish and the answer to all of our heaven bound dreams.