The Be-Baditudes February 19, 2017

The Be-Baditudes

February 19, 2017

Originally published in Face to Face: Intimate Moments with God © 2013. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Matthew 5:3-20, DSV (Devil's Standard Version)

Blessed are those who have their act together and are spiritually with it, for they illustrate what God's reign in this world really looks like.

Blessed are those who are healthy, wealthy and happy, for they've found the true meaning of life.

Blessed are those with power, money and influence, for they already possess the earth.

Blessed are those who are saved and satisfied, for they don't have to be bothered by conviction of sin or calls to full surrender.

Blessed are those who have received mercy from God and others, for they know it is more blessed to receive than give.

Blessed are those who get everything their hearts desire, for they are themselves as god.

Blessed are the winners and those who always get their own way, for this is what it means to be a child of God.

Blessed are those who use godliness for personal advancement, for they have learned how to serve two masters and inhabit two kingdoms at the same time!

Blessed are you when you are popular and everyone thinks your religion is really cool.

Blessed are you when many flatter you and say nice things about you. Rejoice and be glad! It just doesn't get any better than this.

You are the sugar of the earth: be sweet and nice to everyone all the time. This is what godliness looks like. Don't offend people by your words or actions. But if sugar loses its sweetness, how can it be made sweet again? It's just white powder, worthless, good for nothing. You might as well throw it away.

You are the mirror of the world, a reflection. So fit in and conform. Don't stand out as different. Act like the people around you. Reflect popular opinion, don't try to shape it! And never point out other people's sin. Let others see how your thoughts and actions are a mirror reflection of their own, then they will see your good works and praise your God in heaven for making you this way. Your life will reassure them that they too can profess godliness and yet live like the devil.

Don't think that I came to lay a bunch of moral obligations on you. I came to abolish the law, not to fulfill it! Truly, truly I say to you, everyone jot and tittle of the law, all those ethical demands of God, it's all gone, passed away. Therefore, whoever preaches that you have to obey God's moral law will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever puts those demands aside will be called great. For I tell you the truth, unless your righteousness is less than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

"Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right." —Charles Spurgeon

Point to Ponder: A half-truth is more dangerous than a lie.
Prayer Focus: The ability to discern right from wrong and truth from error.

Rev. Stan Key

About Rev. Stan Key

Stan Key speaks frequently in churches, conferences, retreats, and camps both here in the U.S. and abroad. Stan’s education includes an M.Div. degree from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Th.M. degree in Missions from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has completed additional graduate work at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Evangélique in Vaux-sur-Seine, France. After serving churches in Virginia, Kentucky, and Illinois, Stan and his family served for ten years as church-planting missionaries in the suburbs of Paris, France with One Mission Society. From 1994–2012, Stan was the senior pastor of Loudonville Community Church in Albany, NY. Stan joined the staff of the Francis Asbury Society in 2013 and was named president a year later. He serves as editor of The High Calling newsletter and authored The Last Word (Warner Press, 2015), a study on the book of Revelation, Marriage Matters (Francis Asbury Press, 2017), and Jeremiah: Fire in His Bones (Warner Press, 2017). Stan is a member of the boards of One Mission Society and Sammy Tippit Ministries and has also served as the spiritual dean for the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS). Raised in Georgia, the son of a Methodist preacher, Stan came into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ while he was a student at Asbury College. It was there he met Katy, to whom he has been married since 1977. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

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