Study: The Beatitudes – God’s Plan For Battle
Are you looking for a study on the Beatitudes? Russell’s book is filled with insight and we know you will be blessed.
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” I love a good fight. When the enemies of the Lord unjustly attack me, I seek the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls us to retaliate evil with good. There is a difference between a peacemaker and a pacifist!
Terrorists kidnapped me in 1983. I was held hostage under extreme conditions. Since then, thousands of missionaries, pastors and Christians have been kidnapped or murdered. Many were forced to flee rural Colombia. The Battle Plan, gleaned from the life and message of Jesus, rested upon my heart for years.
The Underground Church multiplies across a region (about the size of North Korea), in the south and east of Columbia. For more than 25 years, Bibles, Church Buildings, and House Meetings were prohibited. Many of those who chose to remain live in danger. They now rally around the message of good replacing evil. Severe persecution in rural Colombia actually served to bring real Christians together. Believers now recognize the true church. Their trials helped cleanse believers from corruption so that the Promises of God can be fulfilled.
A life lived by the Beatitudes is God’s plan to overcome the evil of this world. Jesus shows us the way to victory for God’s kingdom over all other kingdoms.
Description
Study: The Beatitudes – God’s Plan For Battle
Out of the four gospels, if you were to pick three chapters that sum up, and synthesize the message that Jesus Christ came to leave with us, the Sermon on the Mount is the prime candidate. It has been called at times the Constitution of the Kingdom of God, the Magna Carta of the Christian Church, and the Little Gospel. The proclamation of the Beatitudes by Jesus Christ at the beginning his public ministry marked the climax, or watershed of moral teaching. The first few times I read the Sermon on the Mount, I sensed that it contained something important; but for many years, Jesus’ Beatitudes and His Sermon on the Mount seemed to me as if they had been written in code. I knew they contained something special, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. One day I turned on the radio and got a preacher I didn’t know, but what he said stuck in my mind. He said, “How in the world can we expect to have a deep revival when we are dealing with such a superficial generation?” Do you want a deep revival? Well then, we are going to have to search for God. God is looking for people who will seek Him in spirit and in truth, and who are willing to go His way no matter what. If you don’t desire to obey God, you really shouldn’t read this book about the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. I say this because I don’t want to end up having a part in bringing someone under worse condemnation than they already deserve. If you are not going to act on revelation of truth, it might be better for you not to know any more about it, because then your purpose in life will be less. If you listen to the Sermon on the Mount and begin to understand Jesus’ message, and do not apply it and begin to practice it; then there is a great and grave responsibility that comes with refusing to act on your knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ’s heart.
(271 pages)
