You can experience the home of righteousness right now. You can get a head start on it all because of the Beatitudes. You can read more about it in Matthew 5:6.
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The Beatitudes - Find out what Jesus says about true happiness and blessedness in the Beatitudes. The beatitudes aren’t commands on how to live—they are illustrations of what living for God looks like. From meekness to purity, enjoy digging deeper into the meaning and practical application of each beatitude as you go line-by-line through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
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Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I’ve got a hunger for a new world.
I look around this world – and I’m sure you do, too – and don’t you just long for this broken world to be restored? So much division, so much anger and pride, wickedness. It seems that evil and corruption abounds everywhere, in politics, in our school system, universities, in the media. And all of it, all of it filled with more noise and rancor than I can ever even tolerate. It makes you so weary, doesn’t it? Little wonder Christians long for this world to be restored in righteousness. You know, I remember sensing this very thing when Ken Tada and I visited Yosemite national Park a while back. We arrived on the valley floor, I got out of the van, and as we started wheeling along one of the many paths, I heard the leaves rustle in the breeze, I smelled the pine trees, I looked across a big meadow, hikers walked by and they smiled, and I could just feel myself decompressing. It was like having a “timeout” from the crazy world of Los Angeles. Just being in Yosemite? I thought, “This is the way things “should” be: glorious beauty and peace, joy and total serenity.” My heart was beating to the rhythm of 2 Peter 3:13 where it says, “… We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth [God] has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
Now those words should strike a tuning fork in your soul. We are looking forward to a world filled with God’s righteousness. A new world where the relationship between God and man is restored, where the relationship between man and creation is restored. In the kingdom of heaven, people will relate rightly toward one another, doing what is right in the sight of God, and each other, and even with creation. In fact, another translation of 2 Peter 3:13 calls it the “home of righteousness.” Yes, we look forward to that day, to our new home where God will rule. And it is a rule in which God will satisfy the hearts of those who are hungry to live the way he wants them to live. And that is, God wants us [even now] to pursue his righteousness. Desiring to live rightly brings us joy and him, glory. Isaiah 65:13 puts it this way, “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “My servants will eat… my servants will drink… my servants will rejoice.”
And we can experience the home of righteousness now. We can get a head start on it all because in the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” That day when I was wandering the paths of Yosemite? I felt filled. I felt happy. I know that our broken world won’t always be this way. Yes, I hunger and thirst after righteousness. Romans 14 says that the kingdom of God is characterized by “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” I mean, doesn’t that sound wonderful? Of course, it does. And I want you to experience God’s righteousness, peace, and joy in his spirit. It’s why Jesus gave us his Beatitudes. So, let me share with you a great pamphlet that explains much more behind these verses that make up the first part of the Sermon on the Mount. Just go to joniradio.org and order your free gift called “The Beatitudes.” Together, let’s show this hurting, broken world what true, righteous living looks like. Let’s make them hungry and thirsty for God. Find out how by ordering your gift today at joniradio.org. God bless you today and thanks for listening!
© Joni and Friends