Blessed in Our Most UnBlessed Moments

A beautiful view of the Sea of Galilee

 on a rolling hillside

possibly the site of 

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount

The Mount of Beatitudes 

A visit to church on All Saint's Day celebration
and it's likely we will hear Jesus' words:
"Blessed are you when. . ." (Matthew 5:1-12)

But whenever I am that one to whom He speaks
finding me when I'm:
poor in my spirit,
hungering and thirsting after righteousness . . .
feeling guilty,
mourning my loss,
feeling a little persecuted
I don't feel too blessed . . . until
I remember

Jesus is standing in front of those unblessed ones.
And just like that . . .
He meets me at the intersection of
my unblessed moment -- and with
Kingly presence and life-changing Word  
He recreates
 baffling badness into
 kingdom blessedness.

And only later I realize:
I've was blessed! 
 

Holy De-Construction

I wonder if, once again God is taking down the walls of the institutional church in order to enable the living stones to fulfill the function for which He put us in place - to present His incarnate Son to a His children waiting for grace alone.

Four hundred ninety-nine years ago (October 31, 1517) a remodeling project began with a hammer and a couple nails when Martin Luther posted 95 statements for dialogue on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

The re-modeling had to begin by taking down an old structure not built on the Word of God - but on the traditions and words of man. Such a church is bound to come tumbling down.

"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (I Peter 2:4-5).