salt and light christians--poor in spirit

Did you read the opening words from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in our previous post? The overriding theme we see in Jesus' message is that, if we are to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world", we must seek to emulate certain personal traits and characteristics. Put another way, if we are to have any hope of changing our culture by bringing others to Christ, then we must strive to imitate Jesus. We must work each and every day to get rid of all of those ungodly character traits that pop culture celebrates, and instead seek to take on the characteristics of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's look at those characteristics one by one.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What did Jesus mean by being "poor in spirit"? John Wesley said, "It is a recognition of personal, moral, and spiritual unworthiness. Spiritually, morally, personally, socially, in every single realm that you can think of in the human life, that you're showing you are in need of God." We are so bankrupt in our own spirituality that we must depend on an external source--our Heavenly Father. Our good works won't get us into heaven. We have nothing within us worthy of presenting to God. We need God to bless us, to save us, and to make us worthy to be in His presence.
As a first step to becoming a true "salt and light Christian", let's all pray to God that He will open our eyes to our own broken, bankrupt condition. Then pray that He will show mercy on us, bless us, and draw us closer to Him. We should pray this every day, because God will hear our prayers.
We'll have more later. See you next time.

Sincerely,
The Christian Conservatives
christianconservatives@yahoo.com