This is from the book The Secret Message of Jesus. It's on my fridge at home and on my desk at work. I try to live by these words every day of my life.
The Kingdom Manifesto of Christ:
Be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for true righteousness, be merciful, be pure in heart, be a peacemaker, be willing to joyfully suffer persecution and insult for doing what is right.
Be salt and light in the world—by doing good works. Do not hate or indulge in anger, but instead seek to reconcile. Do not lust or be sexually unfaithful in your heart. Do not presume to make vows, but have simple speech, where yes means yes and no [means] no.
Do not get revenge, but find creative and nonviolent ways to overcome evil done to you.
Love your enemies, as God does, and be generous to everyone, as God is.
Give to the poor, pray, and fast secretly.
Don't let greed cloud your outlook, but store up treasure in heaven through generosity.
Don't worry about your own daily needs, but instead trust yourself to God's care, and seek God's kingdom first and foremost.
Don't judge others, but instead first work on your own blindness.
Go to God with all your needs, knowing that God is a caring Father.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Don't be misled by religious talk--what counts is actually living by Jesus' teaching.
Jesus reinforces this last point—that he's looking for action, not just agreement—in the final words of the manifesto:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall! (Matthew 7:24-27 NRSV)
(The photo is of a lighthouse Keith and I visited while in Florida in May)
4 comments:
Amen my sister in Christ! These are definitely some wonderful words to live by! It was so neat because as I was reading this post, I could hear the words being spoken by Jesus. We have the New Testament on cd and I listen to it often in the car and have listened to the Manifesto of Christ several times. James Caviezel (who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ") is the voice of Jesus on the cd's and I heard it loud and clear!
Thanks for this wonderful reminder of how we are to model our lives.
Have a blessed day my friend!
Trudy
Hi Trudy! :)
Your enthusiastic comment warmed my heart this morning. Thank you so much! :) I admire Mr. Caviezel greatly. He came to Spokane and spoke at one of the local churches a year or two ago, and, while I wasn't there myself, I heard about it from several of my friends who were there and said that his testimony was amazing, shocking and inspiring.
I particularly love this message of Jesus's, because it's so clear. Almost everywhere else in the gospels, He spoke in parables, (which are great,too!) but I like the sermon on the mount the best because it's so easy to understand, black and white.
Have a lovely day dear friend!
Love,
Mel
Hi Mel:)
Amazing post with a beautiful photo.
If we can follow them, we will be Saints. They are easy to read and understand but difficult to follow. I wish I could follow at least 50% of the inspiring words.
Many thanks for sharing. It serves a guide post for us Christians.
Have a nice day Mel:)
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
I'm so glad you like the picture, and that you found the post useful. You're right, these words of Christ are hard to live up to. But I think that as we aim for these ideals, even though we won't ever exactly hit the mark, we'll be doing a lot better than we would be if weren't aiming at anything. Same with the 8 habits, too, many of which are based on Christian principles.
God bless you, Joseph!
In Christ,
Mel :)
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