“Friends” whom we had known for a couple of years came to our house one day singing the praises of an investment opportunity that had fallen into their lap.

“This could be the next Trivial Pursuit!”

They were referring to the humble beginnings of the popular game, which was funded by a small group of friends, all of whom ended up with huge financial gains as a result of their faith in Chris Abbott and Scott Haney’s brainchild.

We were now being offered an opportunity to be part of a small group that could potentially strike it rich by investing a minimum of $2000 (which was a month’s take-home pay for me at the time) in this “fail-proof” idea conceived by someone whom they trusted with all their heart as well as their savings.

Sulojana and I talked it over. She had some reservations. I did not.

After all, these were our friends.  After all, how often does an opportunity like this come along? After all, the idea was well thought-out, had potential…even I could see it! She decided to go along with me.

I went to the bank, got a loan and forked the money over. Now we were shareholders in the next great Canadian success story.

Fast forward one year. We get the news that the one whom my friends had trusted had absconded with their savings and our loans, never to be heard from again. We had lost every penny. To add insult to injury, the bank continued to make monthly demands for the rest of our “investment” plus interest.

Several months later we discovered that another friend of ours had also been approached about the same “opportunity.” However, being a business analyst by profession, he had spotted the downside right away and politely declined the offer.

And then he asked me: “Jeeva, why didn’t you pick up the phone and ask my opinion before you decided to go ahead with it?”

To be honest, the thought didn’t even cross my mind. Obviously, I had forgotten these words of wisdom from Proverbs 24: 6: “There is safety in a multitude of counselors.”

I knew instinctively that “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:12) and was content in the knowledge that Sulojana and I had made this decision together…but we could’ve done one better!

I had total access to the wisdom, knowledge and discernment of my business analyst buddy. By seeking his counsel, we could have spared ourselves the agony of losing $2000.

In the ensuing 20 years, I have noticed that most of the “successful” people I have personally come to know surround themselves with a trusted group whose counsel they value and seek prior to making major decisions.

I can also give you countless examples of those who ignored this principle and made choices that turned out poorly.

One of the greatest blessings we have as members of the Body of Christ is access to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit directly from Him and through what He has deposited into others who are also members of this One Body.

All it takes sometimes is one simple phone call, one e-mail, one text message to a trusted friend who has no vested interest, a time of prayer with a pastor or counsellor to help you make the right choice.

It will definitely prevent you from making mistakes that could hold you back from accelerating toward your destiny…like investing in the next “Trivial Pursuit.”

You may have noticed that for the past two days, the DWOD has been published about 9 hours later than normal.

Sulojana and I have been ministering in the Ottawa Valley since Friday night. We have been staying at a retreat centre named A Place to Seek His Face.

It is a comfortable house located in a natural forest setting that is accessible by driving up a mountainous curvy road for more than 3km away from the closest main street.

The quietness and serenity of this place owned and operated by Charles and Alexandra Cheatley is ideal for anyone who simply wants to get away from it all and get rested up and/or restored in body, spirit and soul.

Needless to say there is no internet connection available here—which is a blessing if you want to avoid all distractions.

But, it also spells difficulty for someone who writes and uploads blog posts daily for you who subscribe to Destiny Word of the Day.

The game plan was to compose the DWOD before going to bed, get up early in the morning and drive 30 minutes to a place where there was a free Wi-Fi connection.

At breakfast, we were prompted to ask Alain, the caretaker of the place, the closest location where one could go online.

He promptly pulled out his IPhone, got out the cable with an Apple connector at one end and an USB connector at the other and said: “Right here!”

Thanks to a process known as “tethering” I was able to go online from my laptop and upload the DWOD to facebook, the website and the autoresponder, all in short order.

Praise God for tethering!

This morning, as Sulojana was sharing her side of the amazing miracle that God performed on my body on Dec. 31, 2010, the Holy Spirit helped me discover the tethering grace of God.

Part of Sulojana’s story is about how she was so adversely affected by the deterioration in my health that she found it difficult to pray.

It is not that she did not want to pray. She was not angry at God. Her faith was still intact.

But emotionally, it was very difficult for her to cope with the sight of seeing me lose 30 pounds in less than 6 weeks, lying around with no energy left whatsoever, often experiencing incredible pain as another spasm would hit my stomach.

She realized at that moment how much she (and I) needed the prayers of others. It was so comforting for her to know that there were people in our congregation and a number of close friends who were seeking God on our behalf.

When she could not go online in prayer herself, it was so amazing to realize that others could upload those prayers to the Throne Room in her stead.

The Holy Spirit reminded me that when you are part of the Body of Christ, you are knit together with others who have also chosen to follow Jesus.

No Christian has to ever walk alone, even when it feels lonely. There is always another fellow follower of Jesus who would be glad to agree with you in prayer, stand with you in solidarity and walk with you in unity.

Theologically, you can call it fellowship.
Pragmatically, you can call it support.
Prayerwise, you can call it intercession.
Biblically, you can call it “standing in the gap.”

Let’s just say that we could just as easily name it The Tethering Grace of God.

Can you relate? Please share your experiences with the rest of your DWOD family

“They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”  (Revelation 12:11)

“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10)

Come to any Sunday morning service at Morgan’s Point or Forks Road East United Church (the two congregations I serve in Wainfleet Township), and you will notice that it includes a segment known as “Celebrating God’s goodness.”

It is an open microphone session where everyone is encouraged to share how they have experienced the goodness of God in their lives, particularly during the previous week or other recent time period.

Seldom is there a shortage of people willing to share something exciting that happened in their lives.

Some of the stories are nothing short of miraculous, some would be labelled God-incidences, some are about God’s guidance in everyday situations, but they all have one thing in common.

They point to the greatness of our awesome God.

There are times when there are so many reasons for giving God praise that it cuts into my sermon time, but I don’t mind one bit.

Because there is such great power in the sharing of these stories that one sermon by itself cannot offer. Let me explain.

In the first place, they provide encouragement to those who are listening.

I recall a Sunday when a disproportionate number of testimonies had to do with breakthroughs and answers to prayer that had to do with finances. It “just so happened” that we had a first-time visitor to our church that day who had just experienced a serious financial setback. She went home greatly encouraged that God cared about her financial well-being as well.

Since many of the stories attest to the healing power of God, anyone who comes with any healing need or a burden for a loved one/friend who is sick,receives an infusion of hope that they would not have received otherwise.

Recently we started keeping a written record of these testimonies. This way, when someone is discouraged about the way their life is unfolding or feeling that God is not that real anymore or doing miracles anymore, all they have to do is access the record of what God has done in most recent times and their spirits are stirred.

They receive enough hope to hang in there for just a bit longer and stretch their faith just that bit more until they get their breakthrough. “If God did it for them, He will do it for me as well!”

As the verse from Rev. 12:11 points out, a testimony has the power to help you overcome obstacles in life.

So, when I am discouraged, I can rehearse victories I have experienced in the past, so that I can declare: “What God has done before, He can do again for me!”

Another powerful effect we have witnessed is when people start receiving their healing simply by hearing another person’s testimony, without anyone having to lay hands on them or pray for them.

Once when I shared the testimony of how God caused a polyp in my colon to come out in a bowel movement, a woman had a polyp in her colon completely disappear (as verified by her doctor following a colonoscopy).

The testimony of one person became a prophecy that brought about change in another person…wow!

Now you know why we would not dare skip “Celebrating God’s goodness” time at our churches. It is so powerful that we cannot afford to skip it!

So, my dear friend, please share your testimony with the rest of the world at every available opportunity, even if it means overcoming your fear of speaking in public or your reluctance to be in the spotlight.

You will never know how God will use your story to change someone else’s history!

And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

Cleopas and his friend are on the road to Emmaus, when they are joined by a mysterious stranger who wants to know why they are so sad.

They give a Reader’s Digest version of Jesus’ earthly life. He was “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” who was crucified by the powers that be.

Listen to the pathos in these poignant words: “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”

Yes, they had heard the reports of the women who had seen the empty tomb. But they had not seen him personally. Neither had their buddies. So they were not sure what had actually happened.

After Jesus explains to them how everything that happened was a fulfilment of prophecy, he keeps on going. They invite him to “abide with us.” He does.

When he breaks the bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize him as Jesus.

That’s when they utter these immortal words. “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

You can almost hear them say: “How could we have been so dense that we could not recognize him earlier on in the journey?”

It is reminiscent of Jacob waking up after he has just seen the amazing dream that we have come to know as “Jacob’s ladder.”

Here is what he says: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:16-17)

Jacob and the disciples on the road to Emmaus receive revelation…but only in retrospect.

Is it fair to say that most of us can relate to the aforementioned characters?

Have we not also had those moments when we perhaps slapped ourselves on the forehead and said words like: “I should’ve known all along…why didn’t I…how (you fill in the blanks) could I have been not to…?”

Of course, it would be preferable to receive revelation at the very outset, but, frankly, there is nothing to be ashamed of in receiving it in retrospect.

Someone once said: “Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.”

There is a lot of truth to that statement, isn’t there?

Often, it is only as we look back on what happened that we recognize where God was in that moment.

When we are in the moment, we can be blinded by what we see that we fail to see what we ought to see.

The guilt of cheating his brother, the fear of running for his life and the anxiety of what lay ahead in Haran prevented Jacob from seeing that surely God was in that seemingly God-forsaken place.

The grief of losing their Lord, the lack of confirmation of the women’s accounts and the disappointment of seeing their hopes dashed stood in the way of the disciples recognizing the stranger as the one who no longer called them servants but friends.

Once the revelation finally hit them, watch what they did.

Jacob turned his rock-hard pillow into an altar.

Cleopas and his companion turned back toward Jerusalem to tell the rest of the disciples: “We have seen the Lord!”

So, if you’ve had revelation, but only in retrospect, don’t feel bad. It happened to Jacob. It happened to disciples who had spent three plus years in close proximity to Jesus.

What can I say…it happens to the best of us…as well as the rest of us 🙂

Perhaps what we need to do is exactly what they did…offer sacrifices of praise on the altar of worship and share our revelation with those who are eager to receive it. Amen?

He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.” (Mark 5:39-40)

Can you visualize the scene at Jairus’ house when Jesus got there?

The mourners would’ve been surprised to see Jesus there in the first place. After all, Jairus had already been told not to bother bringing Jesus with him. His daughter was dead. Period.

The death certificate has already been signed. It was time to prepare for the funeral.

Those were the cold hard facts staring everyone in the face, including Jesus.

But Jesus makes a startling statement: “The child is not dead, but asleep.”

To paraphrase Arnold from Different Strokes: “Whatcha talking about, Mr. C?”

Jesus ignores their mocking laughter, kicks them all out of the house and enters the room where the little girl is. Only the parents and His inner circle of Peter, James and John are with him.

“Talitha Koum!”

“Little girl, I say to you: Get up!”

You wouldn’t ask a dead girl to just get up, would you?

“Be raised!” “Rise up!” “Come back to life!” “I speak life into you!” “Spirit of death, be gone!”

Any one of the above would’ve been an appropriate choice.

“Wakey, wakey!” “Get up out of bed!” are words reserved for a sleepyhead, not one who is dead, wouldn’t you say?

As he takes her by the hand, she gets out of bed, as a little girl would when she wakes up from sleep.

No wonder He said: “The child is not dead, but asleep.”

Those who said she was dead were stating the facts.

But the One who said she was asleep was declaring the truth.

Raising the dead girl was no more of a chore than awakening a sleeping child.

Clearly, Jesus proves that He spoke the truth about her condition.

This example of Jesus notwithstanding, isn’t it true that we are often tempted to focus on the facts and not the truth?

The apostle Paul gives us a great example of this in the passage quoted in yesterday’s DWOD from II Corinthians 4:8-9:
“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

FACT: “We are hard-pressed on every side.” TRUTH: “We are not crushed.”
FACT: “We are perplexed.” TRUTH: “We are not in despair.”
FACT: “We are persecuted.” TRUTH: “We are not forsaken.”
FACT: “We are struck down.” TRUTH: “We are not destroyed.”

Jesus shows us, as does Paul, that we do not deny the facts, we simply state the truth despite the facts!

How could this work in your life today?

FACT: The doctors have diagnosed cancer. TRUTH: “By His stripes, we were healed.” (I Peter 2:24)
FACT: There is no money in your bank account. TRUTH: “My God supplies all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:13)
FACT: You have been put down all your life. TRUTH: “I am seated with Christ in heavenly places.” (Ephesians 2:6)
FACT: You have just buried your loved one in the grave. TRUTH: “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

We can die by the facts or live by the truth.

Followers of Jesus would be wise to opt for the truth, amen?

“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

In the British system of education in which I was raised as a child in India, we referred to a period as a “full stop.”

As to the origin of this term, the telegraph seems to provide the most logical explanation. The end of a sentence was marked by the word STOP. The end of the telegram in its entirety was denoted by FULL STOP.

In American usage, a period refers to the dot used to signify the end of a sentence.

Thus the period/full stop signals that you have come to a point where you absolutely need to stop. You can go no further.

What applies to a sentence also applies to our lives, doesn’t it?

There are times when we are forced to face a period and come to a full stop.

It could be the end of a relationship, a career, a business or a phase of life.

The ultimate would be the end of life itself as we know it. Death is definitely punctuated by a full stop. Period.

That is what the disciples of Jesus experienced on Good Friday. The end of a journey. The end of the road. The end of His life. “Low in the grave he lay.”

But everything changed on the third day when Jesus was raised from the dead, amen?

Death was no longer a full-stop. The period was now replaced by a comma, hallelujah!

That gives us hope that when we die, “God will raise us from the dead by His power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead.” (I Corinthians 6:14)

However, Resurrection power is not just reserved for the end of our lives, it is also made available when we reach certain ends in our lives.

This is how the apostle Peter puts it: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)

Paul articulates this living hope in these familiar words from 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Do you see the predominant punctuation mark in this statement? It is the comma.

If we were to truncate each clause at the point of the comma, these would be the most hopeless statements ever uttered.

We are hard-pressed on every side. Period.

We are perplexed. Period.

We are persecuted. Period.

We are struck down. Period.

The comma changes everything. It adds hope.

Isn’t it sad when many in our world today, Christians and non-Christians alike, put a period where God puts a comma?

We hear so many tragic stories of those who give up on life, renounce their faith, lose all hope and sometimes even take their own life.

They thought they had hit a full stop. Period.

What if they had replaced that period with the comma that comes from faith in the Resurrection of Jesus? What a difference that would have made!!

For now they would know that what looked like the end of the road was no more than a bend in the road. What seemed to be a period was actually a comma that offered hope.

How about you? Have you resigned yourself to seeing nothing more than a period in certain situations you are facing right now?

Please ask the Holy Spirit this simple question: “Am I placing a period where God has placed a comma?”

If the answer is No, Praise God! If Yes, please repent, replace the period with a comma and keep moving forward.

Why put a comma where God’s put a period, eh?

(Be blessed by this DWOD for Easter, March 31, 2013, which was first published as a Niagara Faith column in the St. Catharines Standard)

In keeping with tradition, this Easter column begins with a joke.

Three people are greeted at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter who tells them they can enter upon answering the question: “What is Easter?”

Candidate #1 replies: “That’s when we cook a turkey and give thanks.” Peter frowns.

The next one says: “It’s when Jesus came to earth as a baby, with angels, shepherds and the Wise Guys.”

Peter is disgusted by this display of ignorance until # 3 pipes up: “Easter is when Jesus was crucified for our sins and lay buried in a tomb for three days.”

His face lights up as our candidate continues: “Then he rises from the dead, and if he sees his shadow, it means we have six more weeks of winter!”

That’s when St. Peter fainted!

Actually this joke may not be all that far-fetched.

Four years ago, British supermarket chain Somerfield issued a press release which read:  “Brits will on average be enjoying 3.5 (chocolate) eggs each over the Easter weekend alone. But over a quarter don’t know why handing them out symbolizes the birth of Jesus.”

Shortly thereafter, an apology accompanied a revised version which described Easter as the “re-birth of Jesus.”

Shocked that the amendment did not actually make amends, Somerfield’s public relations firm contacted the Church of England.

Here is a church official’s (under)statement: “I clarified with them that it would probably be best to refer to Easter as a celebration of Christ’s resurrection rather than his birth.”

Hence the third press release which finally wiped the (Easter) egg off Somerfield’s corporate face.

Several years ago I quizzed young children in church about the meaning of Easter.  Perhaps it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that the Easter Bunny and egg hunts dominated the responses.

Now you know why such quizzing is not part of my Easter repertoire anymore!

How about adults?

According to a recent survey by the Barna Group, 42% of Americans said that the meaning of Easter was the resurrection of Jesus.  2% said that Easter is about the “birth of Christ” while another 2% indicated it was about the “rebirth of Jesus” (hello, Somerfield!)

Some simply celebrate Easter as a festival of new life, replete with symbols such as baby chicks, lilies and butterflies, with no reference to the bodily resurrection of Jesus whatsoever. Others claim that he lives, but only in the memory of his followers.

The Biblical record, though, is very clear about what Easter is.

On the third day after Jesus died and was buried, some women went to anoint his body with spices, as was the custom. When they got to the tomb, they found that the stone that sealed the entrance had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.  Angelic beings told them: “He is not here. He has been raised!”

Shortly thereafter, the Risen Jesus made personal appearances to Mary, some women and then to his disciples over a period of 40 days.

He showed them his nail-pierced hands and wounded side (where a spear had been thrust on Friday) and invited Thomas to touch him (John 20:27). In Matthew 28:9 we are told that they clasped his feet.

According to Luke 24:42, he ate a piece of broiled fish and honey. Clearly he was not just a Caspar of a Christ, a disembodied spirit being, but a full-blooded human with a fully functioning digestive system!

To quote John Updike in Seven Stanzas at Easter:
“Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body;
If the cells’ dissolution did not reverse,
the molecules reknit,
the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.”

That, beloved reader, is Easter.

“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56-57)

All four gospel accounts end their narratives of the Crucifixion with a report of Jesus’ body being laid in the unused tomb of one Joseph of Arimathea.

They also add that it was the day of preparation for the Sabbath.  Technically, the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday. So, Jesus was buried before Sabbath officially began.

When the story continues in the next chapter though, we are already into Sunday, the first day of the week.

Ever wonder what happened on the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Day?

Not a whole lot, apparently.  At least nothing that the gospel writers considered worth recording for posterity.

The reason, of course, is that it was the Sabbath. And good Jews keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work whatsoever.

Just as God rested on the seventh day of Creation, so did the people of God.

Luke records that the women who hung around long enough to watch Jesus being entombed, went home and prepared spices and perfumes with which to anoint his body on the first day of the week.

But, on Saturday, they did nothing. They rested, as they were supposed to.

So, here we are, on Holy Saturday. What are we to do?

Simply rest.

There is a sense in which Holy Saturday is more than a day for some of us. It is more like a season.

We may have just come through a season that was akin to Good Friday—marked by rejection, persecution, betrayal, abandonment, loss, even death.

The hope of Resurrection is in our hearts. We believe that our circumstances will be reversed. We confess that victory is ours.

As we are often fond of saying: “It’s Friday…but Sunday’s coming!”

And that indeed is the right attitude to have.

But the fact of the matter is, we need to go through Saturday in order to get from Friday to Sunday.

There is no way to avoid it. We simply cannot bypass it.

So, what do we do in the season of Holy Saturday?

Exactly what the women did. Exactly what every law-abiding Jew is supposed to do on the Sabbath.

We rest.

Easier said than done, isn’t it?

Sadly, many of us find ourselves rest-less in this season, don’t we?

We fret. We worry. We may even be tempted to doubt.

Yet God calls us to simply trust Him and rest in Him.

As He says in Isaiah 30:15: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

So, whether Holy Saturday for you is simply the last day of Holy Week or a season lasting more than just one day, will you follow the example of the women?

Prepare yourself for Sunday, for Resurrection Day, for the upcoming season of new life, when you will enter into the fullness of your destiny.

Then rest.

“For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” (Hebrews 9:19-21)

Last night at our Maundy Thursday observance, as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper while sitting around tables, we recalled how Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper by giving new meaning to some of the traditional elements of the Passover meal.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.“ (Matthew 26:26-28)

Jesus’ words about the blood and covenant echo the words of Moses quoted in Hebrews 9, don’t they?

The linking of blood with covenant adds a new dimension that goes beyond satisfying the requirement of blood for the remission (forgiveness) of sins.

Nowhere is this is demonstrated so vividly as in the Feast of Passover.

Passover, as you know, recalls how the angel of death passed over houses where blood was applied to the doorposts.

In other words, the blood of the Passover lamb offered them protection.

Since “Christ is our Passover Lamb” (as Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 5:7), the blood of Christ also offers us protection even today.

You may be familiar with the expression: “I plead the blood of Christ over …………”

In her book The Blood and the Glory, Billye Brim tells this story.

An American evangelist identified as Brother Stevens, along with his wife, was conducting powerful evangelistic meetings in Canada. Many were coming into the Kingdom and many were being set free through the gospel of the Kingdom. They had left their children at home in Tennessee.

Brother Stevens was tormented by the devil with the thought that he was going to kill the Stevens’ children through rabid foxes in the woods adjoining their property. Immediately, Brother Stevens remembered the reports of friends who had seen foxes roaming on his land before he’d left Tennessee. He and three mature believers agreed in prayer, pleaded the blood of Christ over the children and by faith drew a blood line of protection around the Stevens’ property.

Later on, his brother reported that he found five dead foxes as he was walking around the edge of his property. He had the heads examined and found they were all rabid. The foxes had dropped dead when they tried to cross the blood line and enter the property.

The blood of Christ, applied to the fence posts of their property, not by paint but by faith, had offered protection and repelled the attack of the enemy.

Perhaps you need to apply the blood of Christ by faith on the doorposts of your heart for your own protection, over members of your family and even your property.

It is as simple as declaring: “I plead the blood of Christ over ……”

You too will discover that there is Power in the Blood.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”  (I Corinthians 1:18, 23-25)

No matter which way you look at it, the Beatitudes run counter to what conventional wisdom would dictate.

Even in Jesus’ day, they would have struck the listeners as being counter-cultural.

Who in their right mind would consider it a blessing to:

• be poor in spirit to possess the kingdom of heaven, when it would be more preferable to be rich in goods instead?
• mourn and be comforted, while you could pursue pleasure and be doing things that make you happy?
• be meek and inherit the earth, when you have the chutzpah to be arrogant and simply take over anything you want, including the earth?
• hunger and thirst for righteousness, when you could live a full life, without ever having to worry about being right in God’s sight ?
• be merciful, when you could have your way by being ruthless, win through intimidation and rule by retaliation?
• be pure in heart just so you could see God, while it would be way more convenient to allow impurity to creep in so that you can feel like you are God?
• be a peacemaker, when you have the ability to bulldoze the enemy and establish your supremacy?
• be persecuted, when you could choose to compromise and be popular instead?

Yet, Jesus makes it clear right from the get-go, that he was not interested in winning a popularity contest.

He was not concerned about recruiting disciples in large numbers by making the entrance requirements easy.

He would state without a hint of compromise: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Once again Jesus is being counter-cultural, even counter-intuitive, wouldn’t you say?

Yet, as the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians and us, this is part of God’s strategy.

“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (I Corinthians 1:27-29)

It is upside down thinking that leads to right side up living!

No wonder that outsiders described Paul, Silas and other Christians as “these who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6)

Would you and I be accused of the same offence today?

If we were to live our lives by the Beatitudes, the answer would be an unqualified YES!