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Matthew 5:8, the good life belongs to the pure of heart, because they will see God. They are the ones, who will look upon the face of God, but looking upon the face of God, isn’t that a very dangerous thing to do? It is, but it’s only dangerous if we live on the outside of Eden, because if we’re...

Matthew 5:7, the good life belongs to those who show mercy, because they will be shown mercy. The famous parable of the guy who’s debt was forgiven, but he doesn’t forgive a debt owed him. The conclusion of that is the guy who holds the debt said, shouldn’t you have shown mercy to your fellow...

Matthew 5:6, the good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be satisfied. Righteousness refers to the character of someone who is in right relationship with others around them. The good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for, Jesus is using a...

Matthew 5:5, the good life belongs to the afflicted, because they will inherit the land. The afflicted or the unimportant one, whoever the afflicted are, they are a group of people that need to be rescued when God brings ultimate justice. The unimportant one are people who are being abused and...

Matthew 5:4, the good life belongs to those who grieve, for they will be comforted. Grief, people who experience life in a constant state of grieving, because they’re experiencing death and loss. Comfort, the New Jerusalem is on its way, that will be the comfort for those who grieve and mourn...

Matthew 5:3, the good life belongs to the impoverished in spirit, the Hebrew word for spirit is “ruach,“ poor in relation to their ruach. Ruach, refers in it’s essence to invisible energy. It can be impersonal energy like wind or it can be the presence of someone’s personal life energy. It’s...

This whole setup is about how Adam and Eve in Eden are like priests in the cosmic Temple and there’s abundance, they walk with God, they are meant to rule, that is organize their lives in such a say that there’s flourishing. This whole package, this is the blessing. Jesus starts touring around...

The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five blocks of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel according to Matthew. So for most of the history of the Jesus movement, it’s the first main block of teachings that people encounter if they pick up and start reading the New Testament. Just the sheer...

Something new has happened, we have in effect fitted Jesus and even his resurrection into the story that our Western churches have had all along of the present world as the preparation for the various options of life after death in the traditional scheme, heaven or hell. But in the New...

The two main players in the Bible, God and humans on the stage of our world, but there’s actually a way bigger cast of characters, than just God and humans. Like who? The figures called the “Elohim,” they inhabit the heavenly realm, which is parallel to our earthy reality and actually overlaps...

The tradition of the Jews used to teach that there were two Yahweh figures. There was the invisible transcendent one and then there was this second one who was the same in terms of being Yahweh, but was also distinct in some ways and one of the ways that gets expressed is the angel. Where did we...

Jesus’ Kingdom work, which reached its climax on the cross and because the power of death was defeated on the cross, that opened the way for creation to be set free from its slavery to decay, from its corruption and death, starting with Jesus’ own physical body resurrection is the beginning...

Look at the language use to describe the Name in Isaiah 30:27. Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar. Looks like we’re getting language that makes the Name sound like a person. In blazing wrath with a heavy burden, his lips. The Name has lips? This language is speaking about the Name as...

Matthew chapter 24, I heard a teaching about the heavens being shaken, heavens were dimensions. The verses you are using, they could be metaphors, like using a curtain as a metaphor. The point is that at the moment it is as though there is a great curtain hanging down through the middle of...

The first sentence of the Bible is actually saying something deeply profound, everything up there and everything down here, it did not cause itself, universes don’t just happen to exist. What’s down here was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, does it sound like a...

Genesis chapter two, so streams come up from the earth, watered the whole surface of the ground, raw materials are there, then the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Adam, he’s lonely, and so God makes animals and brings them to...

Genesis chapter two, what’s that pairing? It’s about this covenant of marriage, when humans covenant to love each other, they choose not to multiply like rabbits with everybody else, just with each other. When they do that out of that covenant of love, new life comes into existence and is the...

The origins of the universe, but when it comes to the origins of humans, the pinnacle moment of the story, God created humanity in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Who’s him? Not him male singular, him as a singular reference generic to the whole of the human species, male and...

On the seventh day God rests from his work, so what are these seven days about? God’s making his cosmic temple and he’s inaugurating it on the seventh day. The Israelites, they rested after Joshua brings them into the land, so they can get to the business of human flourishing. So God is creating...

Days four and five, God fills this heavens and earth, God delegates and shares that responsibility with the lights above. The lights become images or symbols of God’s own light, they are the rulers above who govern day and night, because once these domains have been ordered, then each of these...