The Reality Is

Weathering Life's Storms with Unseen Blessings

• Crossroads Community Church • Season 1 • Episode 18

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Join us as we talk about what it means to be blessed through the eyes of faith, and not through the lens of material things. As Easter approaches, we ponder the transformative power of the resurrection and how it reshapes our view of trials and tribulations. Tune in for an episode that promises to elevate your understanding of blessings and equip you with a perspective that can weather any storm.

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Speaker 1:

Now you're ready to go, but we don't want to go through the fire. Nobody wants to feel that pressure, that intensity. But because of that pressure and because of that intensity you know the jewelry makers as they're putting the jewelry in the pot and bringing out all that dirt, skimming it off, and now they see their reflection they go wonderful. Well, when the Lord sees his reflection in you because he's put you through the fire, it's a blessing to go through the fire because of what he's done in you and what you look like now versus what you looked like then. Welcome to the reality is podcast, where we're here to talk about real life and real faith. My name is Joey. I'm joined here by my partner, richard. So glad to have you back. I missed you last week but I know you were off doing wonderful, great things. Can you just kind of tell us about what your week looked like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we were in Ecuador, down at the in Shell, ecuador, down in the Amazon Basin, working with Jonathan Pfeiffer, a missionary that we support here, out of our church In fact, his sister and her family comes to our church here and just just a great opportunity as we think about what it looks like to to worship here in America. We have the, the large churches, the comfortable environments and you get down there. It was a covered concrete platform with no walls, windows. Of course it never goes above 75 or below 65, but it ranged 360 days a year.

Speaker 1:

You know so you sent this picture to you guys trying to do the work out there, and you're doing it in the rain Right so.

Speaker 2:

So we were building a 700 square foot two room center block building for the kids to have a place to go get out of the rain and have Sunday school. So it was great. We had a great time. Just looking forward to continuing many years of ministry there in Shell and working with the people there.

Speaker 1:

That's great and I know I spoke to a couple of the guys who went on the trip with you and they said that they were the muscle of that trip.

Speaker 2:

But you and I had a different conversation of who the real muscle on that trip was really carrying you know, anyone that was there knows I was the brains, the beauty and the brone of the whole operation, so that I'm so glad that we've clarified that for everybody to see, hey to say, one of those guys are sitting right there. Yeah, well and if he could, he could come over and testify. But so that's true. Yeah, we'll go from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which which, honestly, is a great transition into what we're talking about today, because the word that we have chosen to discuss today is blessed, and I know a lot of those guys came back feeling blessed to have the opportunity to be able to go on that trip, and so you and I talked about that word before and how it just has this definition to the world and what they see blessed a certain way. And we as Christians are called to look at the word blessed in a different way, and I looked up the definition of it. It says it's to be divinely or happily favored, it's fortunate to have or to do or to experience something. Now, you know I'm not from the low country, you know I'm not from the South, but y'all have this saying here in the South that goes something like this oh, bless your heart. And for years I thought that actually was, you know, a good thing when somebody said bless your heart.

Speaker 1:

But? But you have explained to me. You know, joey, that's not a compliment when somebody says bless your heart all depends on context.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes it means a bless your heart You're, you did well and sometimes it means bless your heart, you got a lot of work to do, and so yeah, but we use it in so many ways like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's so many different ways that we use the word blessed and so we try to assume that bless at least the worldly definition of the word bless is to merely be happy or to enjoy good fortune. But in the Bible, christians, as we know, we've heard about this sermon on the Mount. You know everybody talks about the sermon on the Mount. If you're Christian, you know that. And in the sermon on the Mount there's this thing called the Beatitudes. That goes through all of these different blessings and they don't look like. You know real blessings and we'll get into it. We'll say what the different ones are. But I wanted to open it up to you to say what does it really mean to be blessed? Not the worldly definition of oh hey, I got a new car, I'm so blessed. No, no. What does the Bible say about blessings?

Speaker 2:

Well, as you said, just to kind of capitalize on that, when we're talking about blessed in the aspect of the world, we say things such as have a blessed day, yes, or I'm just God bless you, and. But you know, when we stop and we think about that and we look at the way it is, it's even common for unbelievers, people who have no belief in God, they describe themselves as blessed. Well, if we really stop and we look at it and we want to go with the word blessed simply meaning that I've had good fortune in life, well, I guess we could say anyone can claim the word blessed. But you know, when you stop and you think about what, what you said, and we're going to come back to that on the beatitudes, because I think, in order for us to truly understand the biblical idea of to be blessed, we've got to start there. Yeah, because if you want to depend on Facebook and Twitter, then I can tell you right now everybody's blessed, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Just look at their photos.

Speaker 2:

All you got to do is listen to what they say. Blessed for the new house, blessed for the new car, blessed for good health. What does that mean, if I have an old house, a bad car and bad health, that I'm not blessed, you know good question.

Speaker 2:

And so, as a believer, I would argue that I'm blessed regardless of my external circumstances. Amen, the world would say, and unfortunately, even some who would profess to be Christians would argue that the blessings have to be material, in financial health, so to speak, in order to prove God's blessing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, I've even heard in the Christian realm like if, if something's going bad in your life, then uh-oh, what have you done to God? What's the sin in your life? Because you aren't being blessed right now?

Speaker 2:

Well, we have a real problem with that. We're coming in on Easter week, uh-huh, and our Lord and Savior went to the cross and died for us, and you know, we know there was no sin in his life, absolutely. We know that many of Paul's epistles were written from prison. So I guess some people have a real issue with blessing with that. Paul in Philippians tells us that I've learned how to be rich, I've learned how to be poor, I've learned how to have plenty, I've learned how to have nothing, and the whole argument he's making there is that he's blessed regardless of his external situation, and so I think we have to hold on to that. And when we're talking about blessing, if we're going to draw a direct line and say the blessing is material or physical, then we have a real problem there.

Speaker 2:

Because I'm privileged, as you know, to travel to many places in this world and to many Christian's work. I've been to closed countries where you go into these countries and it's illegal to be Christian. I've been to countries that are, unfortunately, far more secular than ours. They would claim Christianity's legal, but when you get into these countries, christians are treated very poorly. They still face martyrdom, they still suffer greatly for the gospel.

Speaker 2:

They typically will be the low rung of society. They will have less than most. Does that mean they're not blessed because they don't have what we have? Does that mean because they don't have the big house, they don't have the extra income? And, of course, scripturally, that that flies in the face of everything that God talks about Absolutely does. And so when we think about that you said it, let's kind of visit it for just a moment. Sure, in Matthew 5, yeah, we read of the Beatitudes, and when you go to the Beatitudes and you start reading, christ begins with the Beatitudes and as he begins that it he says, bless it is. And then he goes through a whole series of events that, quite honestly, we don't want in our life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a blessing at all, not to what we're used to hearing the world say. A blessing, right. I mean it says blessed are the poor in spirit. Well, no, that doesn't sound like a blessing at all to me.

Speaker 2:

Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are persecuted? Yes, and the word Beatitude actually comes from the Latin and it refers to a state of happiness or bliss. Okay, so listen to what he's saying. Blessed are you, happier you blissful are you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when things the world would consider a negative are occurring in your life. And when we look at that, we really, especially in the West, we flip that over and we go well, that just can't be, because I mean I won't again the prosperity to demonstrate my blessing. That's the word right. And God says I don't think so.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so when we really think about that and we start understanding the Beatitudes just the word blessed, there in the Beatitude, it literally the way the Greek translates that over there is an idea that talks about happy and blissful or fortunate. Yes, it's fortunate as other ones. But when you look at the way that word is used, it's saying you're happy, you're blissful, you're fortunate when, and again what we would consider less than positive. Now, the word that's used there, it's very interesting because it's not only used in the Bible, if you get into the philosophers of that same time period and you notice that they use it in the same way, but they use the word that would push away from poverty, weakness, misfortune, death. They never use the word in connection with that, but Christ does.

Speaker 1:

That's exactly where Christ is going, saying this is when you are blessed. And what we need to start thinking about is why, right, why would the Lord say when the world is saying you are blessed, if these great things happen to you, and Christ turns around and says well, look, let me tell you, you need to consider yourself fortunate if you are. And then he goes through this list of things where you go well, wait, if I'm mournful, I should consider myself to be fortunate. If I'm poor in spirit, I should consider myself to be fortunate when I'm persecuted, like why? Why does Christ flip everything upside down on his head and say no, this is when you're blessed. I know the world says this is what a blessing looks like, but I'm telling you this is what, when you're blessed.

Speaker 2:

Well, if I'm looking for material blessings to say I'm blessed, okay, material fortune. If I'm saying, okay, I have to have this to consider myself At that point in time, does that mean again, as we said a moment ago, I'm no longer blessed if it's removed? So, to my knowledge, I'm as healthy as I can be. To my knowledge, I have nothing physically wrong with me, I would say mentally. But there's people that disagree with that part.

Speaker 2:

And so if I go to the doctor tomorrow, though, and I'm told that I'm not physically okay, does that mean that somehow God's removed his blessings?

Speaker 1:

All the blessings are gone.

Speaker 2:

And so I think, in order for us to really grasp what Christ is talking about when he says blessed are you, then we begin to realize that our blessedness, that fortunate part of us, the blissfulness, all those ideas that we can put with that are connected to our relationship with Christ, not with our relationship with possessions. And when we confuse that then we find ourselves just really in a mess.

Speaker 1:

I think so and can I just say and please I always tell you, correct me if I'm wrong, but I look at it and go. I think Christ is trying to say when you are in this state, you're going to reach out to me, not me, joey, but me, god. You're going to reach out to Christ. When you are mourning, when you are poor in spirit, when you are persecuted, you're going to cry out to the Lord. And when you're crying out to the Lord, what better place to be? And now that I am in communication with God, because these things are happening in my life now, I'm blessed.

Speaker 2:

Right and I think that spot on. Well, I know it is. It's exactly what scripture teaches us. I mean, you… so I got one thing right. Yeah, it's been a long time coming, but you know, when you stop and you really consider what the world would again, you have to put this in perspective. If you say, okay, in order to be blessed, I have to have, then what you're doing at that point in time. Let's face it, we're making these things icons, and so we're saying that the fact that Christ is present in my life and the fact that I have a peace that passes understanding that that is not sufficient for me to know who Christ is, that I have to have these other things.

Speaker 2:

The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4, as he was dealing with this, in Philippians 4, verses 11 through 13. And listen, he said I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstance. Yep, all right, now I want you to think about that. He's…. Here he is saying I've learned contentment in the circumstance. He said I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation rather well fed or hungry, rather living, or plenty or in want I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Now, that's blessing right there. That's when you get to the point that you can say I can rely on God and I can do those things that God has called me to do.

Speaker 1:

And that's a hard place to be sometimes and I know I've shared this before and you and I have talked about it when I was going through what I thought was a crisis in my life because, you know, god had put me on this faith journey and nothing was happening the way I thought it was supposed to happen. I'm talking to my mentor and I call him on the phone and I'm like I can't believe this is happening and I am whining and I'm complaining and my mentor says oh, oh, you mean, you mean to tell me you have to cry out to God every day? Oh, my goodness, you're so blessed. This is what he tells me. I'm so blessed because I'm calling out to God every day to meet my need, because I have nothing else. I have no job, I have no money, like there's nothing in my life that I have what I would consider material blessings, right, right. And I got so angry with him. I literally yelled at him and said you're supposed to be encouraging me, there's nothing encouraging about this conversation. And I hung up the phone on him and we still laughed to this day about that conversation. But he was right. I was so blessed because I was doing where, what everybody should be doing calling out to God, seeking after him and asking God to be the one in charge of my life and taking care of me.

Speaker 1:

And in that moment I didn't see the blessing, because I'm so used to seeing the blessing as things that I have in my life. And let me tell you, I was blessed. The family we grew closer than we had ever been together. My family loved that three and a half year period of misery. I call it because I just didn't know what was going on in my life and I couldn't and without God. But that's all right, because I needed God and because I was seeking after God. The family's closer. I'm doing the things that I'm supposed to be doing and I didn't see it. But, my goodness, as I look back I go man, those three and a half years. What a blessing for me to go through that. But it's hard to see it in the midst of it.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes it's not only hard, it's sometimes it's impossible, humanly speaking. Yes, and I think one of the biggest issues we run into when we talk about this idea of blessing and in the hard times and again I just want to set this up by reminding most of the people listening to us are here in the West. Now, I do know that there are some people that are listening to us in other countries and I know that, but at the end of the day, what we call blessing, honestly, most of the people in the world would call excess.

Speaker 1:

And so.

Speaker 2:

I have sat with people over the years that, joey, they didn't know where lunch was coming from, as we were eating a very meager breakfast, and yet they were literally as content as anyone could be and they were truly thankful for what they had. And I think one of the issues we get into is we misrepresent blessing and we try to transfer that over into some kind of worldly happiness.

Speaker 1:

And that's the word worldly happiness.

Speaker 2:

And James tells us I want you to count it all, joey.

Speaker 1:

When.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and not if, when you fall into various trials. Yes, now you think about what he's saying there. I want you to count it all, joey, and I think that's the first thing we have to make sure we define correctly. He doesn't say count it all happiness. And because if I'm going to count it all happiness, then I can tell you now a bad report from the doctor, an unexpected having to pay on your taxes this time of year. I know that there's people getting that sticker shock now that they're having their taxes done and they're going I got to pay how much? Yeah, or things of that nature. I'm just saying these unexpected things that happen in our life and when these unexpected things happen in our life, if we're depending on happiness, we're in a world of hurt.

Speaker 1:

Well, you're just right now explaining happiness is conditional. It's always condition. I'm only happy if these things happen to me.

Speaker 2:

If he said, count it all happiness, then what he's saying is any external change and I can't do it. I can be the happiest person in the world and one phone call can change that. Yep, you know.

Speaker 1:

Close your world.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and opening one piece of mail can change that, and so when we understand. But to count it all joy is an internal decision and so it's not has nothing to do with any external circumstance. And that's why he says count it all joy. And then he goes when you fall into these various trials. Now it's interesting because the way this is worded and the way it sets up there in James, it's reminding us that these are those things that you just don't see coming, those things that's not on your radar, driving down the road, and suddenly there's a dance that weren't there when you left.

Speaker 1:

You mean when you drive off the dealership lot and you get your first dean, you're like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so when you understand that and you say, okay, so it's not happiness, because that's external, it's joy, that's internal. So we roll back to this concept of blessedness. Blessed is he, as Christ says in Matthew 5, it's the same concept, it's an internal, it's not an external. Listen, it's totally dependent upon God. It's not dependent upon you Exactly, and so when we're talking about that, then it's totally Listen by human standards. All right, you tell me what there is to be blessed about humility. Blessed are the humble, the poor in spirit, morning. Blessed are the mournful. Blessed are the righteous, the merciful, those that are persecuted for my sake, and so when we look at those Beatitudes, man, we'd come back and we'd go. I don't think so.

Speaker 2:

And unfortunately, if you listen to a lot of modern theology, you would think that these Beatitudes have absolutely nothing to do with the reality of life, and so we have to understand that the natural man doesn't want to gravitate toward that and we don't want to hear that. But true blessedness is when we can understand that, whatever my circumstance, that circumstance God is using to grow me, mature me and make me more like him.

Speaker 1:

And that's blessed. And that's exactly what it is. The Lord is trying to put you in that refiner's fire yeah, you know he's skimming off all those impurities so he could see his reflection in you. And then he says now you're ready to go, but we don't want to go through the fire. Nobody wants to feel that pressure, that intensity. But because of that pressure and because of that intensity, the jewelry makers, as they're putting the jewelry in the pot and bringing off all that dirt, skimming off, and now they see their reflection, they go wonderful. Well, when the Lord sees his reflection in you because he's put you through the fire, it's a blessing to go through the fire because of what he's done in you and what you look like now versus what you looked like then.

Speaker 2:

I mean, let's be honest, all of us would prefer the for lack of a better way to define it the material blessing over the spiritual lesson. Absolutely Okay, I do not get up each morning and say, Lord, send persecution my way, Please don't.

Speaker 1:

You know, In fact let's hear that prayer right now. Please don't.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so I don't begin each day with Lord. I'd love to have a major financial crisis in my life today, you know. At the same time, it is in those times that it drives me to my knees. It reminds me that I can't, God can't. It reminds me that, in whatever state I'm in, as Paul said, I have to learn to be content, and so that's the blessedness that we're talking about. That's as we really stop to think about that. It's putting that perspective on blessed as we think about that. To be blessed is, we could literally say it's to become more Christ-like, it's to understand more that he has a purpose in what he's doing, and it's just the way we look at it. The world would word it this way Happy are the rich, the noble, the successful the macho, the glamorous, the popular, the famous, the aggressive.

Speaker 2:

That's how the world would define it, and Christ flips every bit of that on cheer. Literally, this is the way the 2024 world would define it. It's the way the first century world in the days of Christ would have defined it, and so, understanding the people he's talking to saw everything in life as the more the merrier, and I wanna eat, drink and be merry, and if anything bad happens, it's, and Christ is flipping all that, and so that's where we have to be. It reminds us to truly understand, blessed the way Christ defines it. You gotta know, christ.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I wanna bring up a point, because you brought up a very good point about he's talking to the people of this time. If you go before, if you read in Matthew, chapter four, it says all the nations were gathering together to hear this. So it wasn't like he was just talking to his select people, his disciples. This was everybody from all the different nations that were coming around to hear what he had to say, and so he wasn't saying, oh well, now that got these people who are rich or these people who are prominent, like, oh, so I have to change up my message. No, he made the message clear to everyone, from every nation who was listening at the time. This is what it means to be blessed.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and I think, if we can grasp that, if we can get to the point that we truly begin to understand now, now we also have to always keep in mind and I think this is a good time to end, just to remind ourselves, and those listening trials come into our life. Yes, they do. They come into our life for a lot of different reasons. I think if we go to the book of Jonah, we understand that trials come into our life as a means of discipline. Sometimes God said to Jonah go. Jonah said no. God said oh, you're going. And so, excuse me, we watch.

Speaker 2:

It's what we call storms of correction. And so these storms of correction come into our life when we find ourselves wanting to do it our way and not God's way. And then there's storms of perfection. These are storms that come into our life to bring us closer to Him. If you go to 2 Corinthians 12, you find a great example of that, where the apostle Paul has a thorn in the flesh. We have no idea what it is, but he prays, asks God to remove the thorn. God says no, it's not gonna do it. So this sure blows a hole in modern day theology that blessing is only found in right when everything goes your way and you have it the way you wanted.

Speaker 2:

But God explained why that wasn't necessary. He said no, because to know me is what you really need. And Paul said you know what? I would rather know you than have my full health restored Absolutely. And so I think, as we look to the totality of scripture and as we look to what scripture defines for us when it comes to this idea of blessing, that we have to understand that it is to know God and to be more like Him Absolutely. That's what true blessing is, and anything else that comes into our life. Yes, it is a favor or a blessing of God, if you will, to be able to pay my bills at the end of the month, but that is not the defining moment in my Christian walk.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and can I just say I'm gonna bring up another word, just cause we have time. I think it's pride in our heart that keeps us from wanting to go through the blessing that the Bible is talking about, that crisis talking about Because in my pride I want certain things to look a certain way, and if I don't get it that way, then sometimes you know there's probably people listening, so I don't want to offend anybody, but sometimes you get mad at God because it doesn't look the way you wanted it to look, and so now you're angry and again, that's a prideful thing. But in reality God is actually trying to do something through you to correct a certain thing, to draw you closer to Him, so that you are blessed.

Speaker 2:

You know, as we start talking about doing this podcast, I was reading, and one of the things just Along what you just said, listen to what one author asks. He asked this question, kind of left it hanging out there. Uh-oh, all right, but he said for believers, is the blessed life synonymous with the successful life? You know, I think he's asking the question that all of us have to answer every day. All right, so if we're not careful, the idea of blessing again turns into to um, if my blood pressure is high and yours is normal, does that mean you're blessed? I'm not. Yeah, if, um, I mean there are people with hair, can you imagine how unblessed that is? Man gosh, uh.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I mean, I have to try to take care of that daily.

Speaker 2:

The Lord, the Lord blesses me with 10 extra minutes a day, that I don't have to worry about that. And so I mean we can, we can argue blessing from a thousand different ones.

Speaker 2:

We can Right, uh, but the idea that it has to be synonymous with success, and again I would argue that's a Western thought. It is. And this, this is from again being in many impoverished places and, by the way, we call them impoverished and let me just tell you, from being with those believers walking in those, they don't call it that they don't see that, that's that. No, they don't.

Speaker 1:

You and I talked about before, when I went over to El Salvador and I saw them, you know, barefoot playing around to soccer ball in the dirt, having the most wonderful time of their life, and I'm looking on going. Those poor kids. No, they were happier than I was in my life. Right, you know, they really were blessed. Now I do want to clarify and I do want to say having things in your life that are material, that are good, it's not a bad thing. Like we aren't saying, oh well, you know you aren't blessed if you have these things. No, we're just saying the true blessing is when you are spiritually in tune with the Father, with Christ, when you are blessed to have the Holy Spirit inside of you and you're allowing the Spirit to guide your life.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, I mean, if we're not going to say again that just because I have three meals a day in a house to lay down in that somehow or another, I'm a sinful creature.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is not a bad thing.

Speaker 2:

I mean what the way I like to word that to people is do I possess my possessions or do my possessions possess me? And so, just kind of a side thought there is, that's where we have to go with our possessions. Yeah, right Now, if I'm going to define my blessings based on those they possess me at that point, yes, they do. All right, if I have to say, in order for me to prove God's blessing, I need a new truck, okay, then I can tell you right now, at that point, that's defining me. I'm saying that I need this icon in my life in order to prove God's blessing.

Speaker 2:

And that's totally outside of what scripture tells us and teaches us. And again we have to go back to that, that ever key thought found right there in the Beatitudes, and you start looking at what he tells us. Think about it this way my trials ground my faith. Yeah, okay, my trials, they drive me to my face before God. Earthly blessings are always temporary and can quickly be taken away. Yeah, all right. All right, ask Job, I was going to bring up.

Speaker 1:

John Soklajci brought up Job. That's a man that had everything and lost everything. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And no fault of his own. No fault of his own.

Speaker 1:

I mean even like his health, like everything, like he lost everything and still did not curse God. In fact, he had a loving wife. I don't know if you would call her loving he had a wife.

Speaker 2:

He had a wife who came to him and said why?

Speaker 1:

don't you just curse God and die. Yeah, woman, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

What? Yeah, yeah. And when you think about that from again from our perspective, from what we hear so often, there are many today that would profess to be born again, believers in Jesus Christ. That would insist Job was outside the will of God Absolutely, as did his wife and three friends and the friendship yeah.

Speaker 2:

And Job, without fail, he said you know what? I came into this world with nothing. I may leave this world with nothing, but I will not curse God and die. Yeah, and you know, when we really understand that and we grasp that, then we see that. Now we also know, as we're coming in, on the Easter season, there was Christ on the cross, yes, and in his death he had the scripture. He didn't even have a tomb to layman, no, and an extremely wealthy man, yeah, um, he gave his all, um. And so we see, okay, so it's not a matter of being poor, it's not a matter of being wealthy, it's a matter of is God the center? And that's the blessing, yeah, the maturity, the growth, the understanding. It's interesting One translation of scripture the, uh, the, the ESV, there's 112 references to the words bless, blessing, bless, okay.

Speaker 2:

First you get into Matthew five blessed, or the poor in spirit, blessed, or those are more persecuted, for righteousness sake, yep, um, when they revile or persecute you, you know you're blessed, yeah, um. And then Romans four, seven blessed, or those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, yes, all right. And so there you start to see the real Blessing. Okay, yes, blessed are you when you're persecuted? Blessed are you in the, but the blessing is from the forgiveness, ultimate blessing. Yes, james tells us. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial not under possession, but under trial, yeah, and. And then Revelation 14 tells us blessed are the dead who die in the Lord Revelation 19, blessed are those who are invited to the married supper of the Lamb all eternity. And so this is where we find our blessing, this, this is what blessing means as we think about it scripturally, so.

Speaker 1:

So I would bring this up to you. I know that, of those who are listening, yeah, we, we typically are talking to a Christian audience, but I know we have a group of those who aren't believers, who don't know what we mean when we say knowing Christ. You know that that's what it means to be blessed, and so would you just kind of share what, what, what does that like? To say, hey, you know, I'm talking to somebody who doesn't really get the whole Christian thing and the blessing thing, the Bible thing and all this stuff. And they're listening and going yeah, well, I know the word blessed to mean all these material possessions, but you're telling me that the true blessing is knowing Christ.

Speaker 1:

Now, you brought it up earlier, but I'll let you get deeper into it. The true blessing is the forgiveness of your sins. And would you just go into that a little bit more? Because I want those who are listening, who who don't really understand the Bible, who don't really know Christ, to say I'm so used to hearing oh, I'm blessed because of these things, and you're telling me those things aren't blessing. The real blessing is knowing Christ. Why is it so important to know Christ?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think we we definitely have to first of all understand, as, as the scriptures tell us, the wages of sin is death. And so if, if we're going to fight for what this world has to offer, death is the only end result of that. But then we read but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. And, and so I think, when we talk about blessing and we talk about our relationship with God, do I want what I earn or do I want what he's giving? And? And if I want what I earn, then there's only one thing left, and that's death. And and if I want what he's giving, then that's eternal life through Christ Jesus.

Speaker 2:

We're coming in again on the Easter, easter season, and we know, in John 3, 16, he tells us for God's so, love the world, that he did something, he gave, he gave a gift, yes, and, and that if we believe in him, we will not perish but have everlasting life. We know that Romans tells us that there there are none righteous no, not one that that not one of us can redeem ourselves, save ourselves. And so when we're talking about eternal life, we're talking about knowing Christ. Nicodemus came to Christ in John 3, and Nicodemus said you're a great teacher, so how does this life? You're talking about work. And Christ said well, unless you're born again.

Speaker 1:

And so Nicodemus said what, yeah, how am I supposed to be born again? I cannot climb back inside of my mom and be reborn.

Speaker 2:

And Christ said you know, it's spiritual, yeah, and so when we're talking about being born again, we're we're talking about confessing our sin. Yes, we're talking about repenting and giving our life over to him and and walking into the newness, or the new life, and so we're not talking about anything we can do of ourselves. We're talking about what Christ has done and and placing our faith in who he is and what he has done.

Speaker 2:

Then and only then can we begin to understand the this whole concept or this whole idea of blessing, Because, outside of that, the only context I have for blessing is bigger and better, and and so there's there's absolutely no other way to look at it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, that's what I needed. People to hear outside of that context. He, you don't understand blessing at all.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

Before we get out of here. What I want to do is I actually just want to go through the B attitudes and then I'm going to let you close us out. Okay, kind of talking about that, talk about blessing, but I want them to hear what the B attitude says. All right, it says he said blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Speaker 1:

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled, and blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Because of me it says rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Speaker 2:

Right. And you know, when we hear those words, it reminds us blessing is true. It speaks of our interstate of well-being in Christ and not in this world. It comes from an unhindered fellowship with God. It comes from understanding Romans. You know, we hear Romans 828 and we fail to really put in focus that we know all things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to His purpose. And so when we hear those words, we forget that all things work together for good doesn't mean all things are good. Yeah, all things are good. And so this really blows a hole in the whole idea that says if I'm truly blessed, then everything's good in my life. Well, it's not what he tells us. Again, don't confuse happy and blessed. As we think about so, as we think about wrapping up, we can't confuse those two ideas.

Speaker 2:

And we know, I know that I'm loved in Christ. I know that I'm loved in who he is and what he has done in my life, as I read in Romans 8 and verse 28,. We read those words and it tells us okay, here's where I'm at, here's what I'm going to do. All things work together. But then I come down to the end of Romans 8, and he tells me that nothing can separate me from the love of God, Nothing. And then he goes through every possible understanding of what this world can throw at me I mean in a generic sense and then at the end of it he says but I am more than a conquer. And so when we're talking about blessed, then I'm able to say that I am more than a conquer because of who Christ is, not because of who I am. Amen, I can say I'm blessed, not based on the world's definition, not based on what I have or don't have, but blessed on who Christ is man.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Thank you so much for sharing all of that. I mean, I know we can talk about blessings forever, but we are kind of restricted to time. We don't want people to spend two hours with us, so we do want to say thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of the reality is podcast, where we're here talking about real life, real faith. Join us next week because we're going to be, as you keep talking about coming up on this Easter season. I think next week we should talk about Easter, absolutely. So next week we'll be here talking about Easter. We look forward to you guys joining us for our next podcast. Please go on like subscribe, let us know that you're there and go in the comments and let us know what type of topics you would like to hear us talk about. For now, we would like to say God bless you and have a wonderful day.