The Happiness of Desperate Need
I'll be doing a series of talks on the Beatitudes at our Gloucester Chapel in the coming months, so rather than duplicate what I write at our church blog, I thought I'd share my thoughts with you on those talks. If you'd like to check out our Approaching Sunday blog, you can do that here . There are a number of very capable writers that contribute to that ministry along with me, so enjoy. "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." These beatitudes sure are counter-cultural." Jesus starts at the bottom as He begins His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. His plan to enjoy the blessing of God begins with the lowest rung on the ladder...poor in spirit. There are several aspects to the kind of "poor" that Jesus talks about here. Obviously it includes a lack of resources and a dependency that focuses on our need of someone else to help. But the idea goes further to describe someone who is "begging poor,&