Blessings and Curses

Blessings and Curses 

You might say that blessings and curses are two different experiences of the same reality. The ultimate reality is God, revealed, present, speaking, acting in history, confronting us in our lives. The experience of God is  how we respond.

That determines whether an encounter with God is a blessing or a curse. 

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Those who trust the Lord are like trees 

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. 

The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse-- who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

So, we have trees and bushes here.

Trees trust God. Bushes trust mortals.

Psalm 1

Happy are those

    who do not follow the advice of the wicked

or take the path that sinners tread

    or sit in the seat of scoffers,

but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees

    planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

    and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

 

The wicked are not so

    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment

    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,

for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

    but the way of the wicked will perish.

Here, we have trees that prosper and trees that perish.

One trusts and delights in God's ways and words. The other in the counsel of the wicked.

What does Jesus say?

Luke 6:17-26

He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

 “Blessed are you who are poor,

    for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,

    for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,

    for you will laugh.

 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

 “But woe to you who are rich,

    for you have received your consolation.

“Woe to you who are full now,

    for you will be hungry.

“Woe to you who are laughing now,

    for you will mourn and weep.

 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

For Jesus, there are the simple folks who are coming to him with real life problems and trusting him to bring them healing and meaning. On the other hand, there are the self sufficient ones, who are avoiding their own vulnerabilities and rejecting any feeling for the poor and broken of the world.

"I am fine. Why aren't you?"

Is there a common thread?

The Number two is in common.

There are two lenses through which we view our realities, desires, and values.

“… his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” – Psalm 1:2 (KJV)

Delight and meditation are the two greatest determinants of a healthy digestion of scripture in our lives. They enable us to allow the Word of God to get into every area of our lives and transform us into strong, stable followers of Jesus.

We stand strong, bring forth fruit, experience ongoing vitality, and prosper in those things that we are prompted by the Spirit of God to do.

When we delight in God’s Word, we hunger and thirst for it. We are drawn toward it. We crave it and enjoy it. We find warmth and light in it. We find ourselves getting excited about new insights and glimpses into the heart of God.

That is how we take it in.

Then, we mediate upon it. We receive it and we take a stroll with it, mulling it over, praying about it, and applying it to our lives.

Oh to be so captivated by a single verse in a day that it grips the soul and sinks deeply into our consciousness! If we could live with that morsel of spiritual food for a day and properly assimilate it into our lives, we would be taken to a new plane.

“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous.” (KJV)

In our delight and meditation, we are not merely engaging in mental exercise. God is present and aware and He enters into the process.

Open the Word. Let your eyes take it into your heart. Find the joy in what you receive. Then turn it over and over in your thoughts until it marinates your entire being.

You will be blessed.

In today's epistle from 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, there is a great resolution, and it is in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of resurrection for his people.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Let’s end where we began:

You might say that blessings and curses are two different experiences of the same reality. The ultimate reality is God, revealed, present, speaking, acting in history, confronting us in our lives. The experience of God is  how we respond.

That determines whether an encounter with God is a blessing or a curse.

That is a choice.