Blessed Assurance When We Have Our Hope in the Lord! Your Reward Will Be Great in Heaven! Alleluia!

 

The readings in church this week are so powerful! So profound! Although many may think because you are a person who believes in Jesus Christ and God, they may mistake you for being weak, for being poor, for being a pitiable people, but know that God does not think this, maybe man does, but God opens the doors of Heaven for people like you! In the readings today it says, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all." But the Gospel reminds us that, "Blessed are you who are poor for the kingdom of God is yours." Back then in the times of Jesus, those who believed in Him were the poor by the others account, but they had hope in God and Jesus, plant yourself by a spring or river, put your roots in good soil, know that when you trust in the Lord you will be just fine, you will spring eternal and stay green, and not wither. You will reach Heaven!   Like both the Old and New Testaments remind us, the Torah and the Bible, "Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD." "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven." What a wonderful thought to know that even though your fellow man may hate you, persecute you, hurt you, be jealous of you, cursing you, treating your poorly, know that your reward will be great in Heaven with the Lord!  Trust in God only, not man, never turn away from our Lord!   God is the one who opens the door! Walk by faith! God has the remote control, let His will be done! Find refuge in God! Trust in the Lord always! God is our doorkeeper, He can make all things possible! Trust in Him and His blessed assurance! 

Jerimiah 17:5-8

Thus says the LORD:
            Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
                        who seeks his strength in flesh,
                        whose heart turns away from the LORD.
            He is like a barren bush in the desert
                        that enjoys no change of season,
            but stands in a lava waste,
                        a salt and empty earth.
            Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
                        whose hope is the LORD.
            He is like a tree planted beside the waters
                        that stretches out its roots to the stream:
            it fears not the heat when it comes;
                        its leaves stay green;
            in the year of drought it shows no distress,
                        but still bears fruit.

Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6

R (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Blessed the man who follows not

            the counsel of the wicked,

nor walks in the way of sinners,

            nor sits in the company of the insolent,

but delights in the law of the LORD

            and meditates on his law day and night.

The Gospel of Luke 6:17, 20-26

Jesus came down with the Twelve

and stood on a stretch of level ground

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a large number of the people

from all Judea and Jerusalem

and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

            “Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for the kingdom of God is yours.

            Blessed are you who are now hungry,

                        for you will be satisfied.

            Blessed are you who are now weeping,

                        for you will laugh.

            Blessed are you when people hate you,

                        and when they exclude and insult you,

                        and denounce your name as evil

                        on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.

For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

            But woe to you who are rich,

                        for you have received your consolation.

            Woe to you who are filled now,

                        for you will be hungry.

            Woe to you who laugh now,

                        for you will grieve and weep.

            Woe to you when all speak well of you,

                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

Praising my Savior All the day long! I love this song we sang in church this weekend!