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If salt stopped being salty you’d throw it out.

Useless.

A “christian” who claims to be one but doesn’t hold the values of Matthew 5:3-12 is like that unsalty salt.

Useless.

Thrown out and trampled.

A young man once asked a Jewish Rabbi what would make unsalty salt salty again. The teacher answered, “The afterbirth of a mule!”

It might take you a second to get that, but the punchline brings home the point that unsalty salt is worth nothing. It’s uselsss. You can’t make it salty again. The teacher was answering a stupid question with a stupid answer. Mules are sterile.

To be “salt” in the world we should allow God to work the principles of the Beatitudes in us. Notice I said allow God. We can’t do enough good deeds on our own apart from God to be “salt” in the world. It’s Jesus loving our neighbors and our enemies through us that makes us salty.

My “quiet time” today is in Matthew 5 (this whole week). We’re also singing Israel Houghton’s Say So, which puts these lyrics to an extremely catchy hook:

What does it mean to be saved
Isn’t it more than just a prayer to pray
More than just a way to Heaven
What does it mean to be His
To be formed in His Likeness
Know that we have a purpose

To be salt and light in the world, in the world
To be salt and light in the world…

Yesterday the light turned green.

I clicked a button and the box was delivered today.

When I opened the box a Leopard jumped out.

Now I am upgraded.

Mud is giving away free music.

You know you want some.

Go.

Now.

Comment.

Matthew 5-7. Read it. Chew on it. Live it.

Want to know what  Jesus thought about issues? Read Matthew 5-7.

Commonly referred to as The Beatitudes, the first 12 verses of Matthew 5 are indeed a complex yet simple “Constitution of the Kingdom” – Jesus lays out the basic principles of what it means to live Kingdom life.

When I refer to the Kingdom I’m talking about both the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Some view those as two separate concepts, I view them as two manifestations of the same thing. The Kingdom of God is what Jesus established here on earth. It’s the Kingdom of Heaven being superimposed onto earth. It doesn’t manifest like an earthly kingdom, no castles or borders to speak of. It’s a spiritual kingdom. It’s Heaven on earth, per se.

The Kingdom of Heaven is just that. It’s the future. It’s heaven, but it is also now. Jesus brought it to earth with him when he stepped out of eternity into humanity.

Anyways, Jesus lays all the cards on the table and basically says this: If you want to live Kingdom life, then here’s what it looks like.

The 8 principles Jesus lists in the Beatitudes are this:

1. Poor in Spirit.
2. Those who mourn.
3. Meek.
4. Hunger and thirst for righteousness.
5. Merciful.
6. Pure in heart.
7. Peacemakers.
8. Persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

I wanted to take a little time today to briefly chew on each of these 8 principles. I won’t write a novel about each, but this is a great passage to chew on.

Before I dive in, it’s important to know that these principles aren’t a check list to complete in the hopes of earning some material, earthly blessings. Jesus says, “Blessed are…” before each of these values to indicate a spiritual state not necessarily an earthly blessing (though God does bless us here on earth).

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The visual here is someone who is bankrupt. It doesn’t mean someone who is down on their luck or throwing a pity party. It means that people who look at their own spiritual condition apart from God and recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt (no life). Looking to Jesus to “enrich” them, they will inherit true riches (eternal life – the kingdom of heaven).
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Again this isn’t talking about those times when we lose someone or something we hold near and dear to our hearts. Jesus is specifically referring to something spiritual. When we “mourn” our own spiritual condition, we are looking at our separation from God and truly grieving. We are in essence mourning our own existence (which apart from Jesus is a living death, so to speak). Our own mourning involves repentance. Jesus will comfort us with true life.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Meek doesn’t mean to be walked over. It doesn’t mean that we are wimps. Meekness is a strong, willful submission. Jesus was meek when He went to the cross. We are meek when we willfully submit to God’s ways and leave our own behind.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Jesus IS our righteousness. Apart from Him there is no true righteousness. All of our efforts, all of our good deeds, all of what we think is righteous, without Jesus is like a filthy rag to God. So to hunger and thirst for righteousness means to hunger and thirst for Jesus. As a human how often are you hungry and thirsty for food and drink? Me? Every day. Jesus uses this picture of hunger and thirst to paint two levels of this value. We should be hungry and thirsty for Jesus daily, but we should also know that ultimately, Jesus, fills our hunger and thirst spiritually, etermally.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. I don’t believe this Jesus is speaking to the judgment of our sins or our own judging of others in a sin/righteousness sense. I believe Jesus is teaching the value of caring for others here. When society judges a people group or even an individual as not valuable, unlovable, or not worth time or resources, Jesus says we should have mercy on them. We should cast the “judgment” aside and show mercy. Jesus showed mercy to Lepers when society had judged them untouchable. Mother Theresa is a great example of this in action. Mercy breeds mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Again, Jesus moves the focus off of self and onto others. Jesus is talking about our deeds here. Obviously He’s talking about the condition of our hearts. But here’s the deal: to be pure of heart, it’s not about YOU, it’s about others. For us to be pure of heart we have to put the needs and interests of others above our own. Think about that! We will see God when we care for others. We will see God when we look outside of ourselves.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. I honestly don’t believe Jesus is an anti-war protester with this phrase. I’m not saying he’s pro-war either, but the point is that this value has more to do with putting others first, than it does about being violent or non-violent.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Persecution usually comes from whatever is established at the moment. It may come from secular OR religious establishments. But the point here is that Jesus values future. It’s important to him. When we are firm in our stand for the values that Jesus had, we are not tied up in the here and now. We’re not accumulating comfortable stuff and goods. We’re looking forward to heavenly living.

All in all, Jesus values can be summed up in 3 areas:

1. Past (moving from the past by repentence, salvation, entering the kingdom)
2. Present (living for others not ourselves right here and now)
3. Future (looking to heaven as our motivation, not storing up material treasures, but looking forward to our heavenly kingdom)

When you read through these beatitudes only looking at them as a checklist of tings to do, you miss the point. You see, these are VALUES that Jesus holds near and dear to his heart. He goes on to expound on them throughout chapters 5-7. These are things that we ARE. We “BE” the beatitudes, not “do” them.

As you read through Matthew 5-7, know that Jesus is coming to turn the establishment upside down. He takes the self-righteous Pharisees (who appear on the outside to be the pinnacle of righteousness) and basically takes the to task. He calls them out. Blasts them. Why? Because they were DO-ers. They weren’t BE-ers. They had the checklist mentality down pat.

Jesus didn’t come to bring a long list of rules and regulations. But he did come to say that the rules and regulations that had originally been laid out by God were all about your HEART. If you loved God with all of you, you would keep the laws.

The beatitudes are like the new “Commandments” – they don’t replace the 10 Commandments, they reinforce them.

…heh, just kidding.

I did however try. From 2003 to early 2006 I was in a band called Blind Men See.

That’s me second from the left.

We made some good music and had some good times. We played everywhere from summer festivals to youth camps to churches to bars to clubs to fields. We actually played in a field once. It was fun.

You can’t see it, but I’m rockin’ a Dr. Seuss shirt. Good times.

Though we never made it to rock star glory or any sort of fame or fortune, we had a great time. Four guys in their 20s making music. We all lived at the same house and rehearsed a few times a week. We had all played together over the years at some point or another so we really grooved pretty well.

Man, look at those cool, gray, rock star pants. Sweet!

Here’s a pic of our drummer, Crowe, rockin’ it. He is probably the best drummer I’ve ever personally played with or even heard live. And look at his mad intense rock face:

Blind Men See didn’t make us rich or take us all over the world, but we did make some good friends, make some good music, and got to travel across the Southeast. At one point we played in NYC. Nothing came of it, but we had a great time running around Manhattan.

The song Open My Eyes from the I Used to be a Hip Hop Star post is from the Blind Men See era.

Here’s another tune from BMS. It’s called Drowning (copyright 2004). If you like it leave a comment!

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Here’s a little more light tune, we actually re-wrote it into more of a minor sounding arrangement, but all the girls hated our new version, because this version was more “fun” and poppy. Go figure.

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I’m realizing that as I move into my 30s I look back fondly at those years. I think any desire to be a traveling, touring musician went out the window on the one big 3 week “tour” we did. We hopped on a van with another band and took off. We started in Georgia and drove up to Illinois. The tour started near Chicago and we traveled east through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania playing shows. Pretty fun, but definitely a deciding factor in the ultimate laying down of that dream. It’s crazy to live out of a 15 passenger van!

Anyways, a ton of great memories, but all I want to do now is lock myself in my spare bedroom/studio and make good music…alone. I have no desire to be in a band or be a rock star. I want to write. I honestly don’t care if I ever take my “show on the road” again, I just want to make good music.

How bout you? Have you ever had a dream that you enjoyed when it was being fulfilled, but ultimately realized that it was time to move on to a different season?