Happy New Year
January 8, 2009 by mark Filed under Mark's Blog
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Dear Oaks,
A very happy New Year to you all.
Over the holiday period in my own reading and praying I have once again been gripped by the radical teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7). It is so different from the wisdom of the world so much so that one writer dubbed it The Great Reversal. It is as if Christ takes the received wisdom of how things ought to be and stands it all on its head.
Just to give one example as we consider the horrors beamed in to our living rooms from the Gaza Strip, what would the world be like if we were to take Jesus teaching on loving our enemies seriously?
Over the next few weeks we shall look in detail at what was probably the most radical sermon ever preached. As we do so we shall really get in to the mind and soul of Christ and in so doing know The Father better.
As the writer Yancey jokingly puts it:
Happy are the pushers: for they get on in the world.
Happy are the hard boiled: for they never let life hurt them.
Happy are they who complain: for they get their own way in the end.
Happy are the blasé: for they never worry over their sins.
Happy are the slave drivers: for they get results.
Happy are the knowledgeable men of the world: for they know their way around.
Happy are the trouble makers: for they make people take notice of them.
Why not take a moment to compare and contrast that with what Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:3-12.
Over the next few weeks I look forward to teaching from these verses and from the rest of His sermon. I will work and pray hard to give you spiritual food that will nourish. My hope and prayer for you is that you will come equally prepared to listen deeply and to respond willingly to the word that God speaks to you either through me or despite me.
May Christs sermon to us all bring deep and lasting transformation in this 2009th year of grace.
Mark
