The Poor Are Blessed

[Coconut]

"I can say that I never knew what joy was until I gave up pursuing happiness, or cared to live until I chose to die. For these two discoveries I am beholden to Jesus."

JESUS
-by Malcolm Muggeridge


[The] practical wisdom in Jesus' parables cannot be faulted. Through all history's changes, the revolutions and counter-revolutions, the rise and fall of great ones, it has continued to be valid.

Take, for instance, what he tells us about money; a key matter at all times and in all circumstances. In the first place, there is his statement that the poor are blessed. Today, this amounts to blasphemy. Set up in type, it will positively melt the lead; pronounced in a television studio, it will cause a deathly hush, making the lights go out, the floor-manager drop dead, and the Director-General hurriedly issue an apology that so monstrous a perversion of truth should have been uttered on the air.

The poor blessed! How in God's name can that be? It is a denial of our whole way of life; a contradiction of everything we believe in, of every single advertisement transmitted on every TV channel, or alluringly set forth in print and color; of everything said by every single politician and demagogue, of the contentions of every party and ideology.

All of these say: Get rich and be happy. Riches bring everything desirable - travel, speed, the delights of love and every human bliss. How beautiful are the bodies of the rich as they run, laughing, into the sea! Or as they sit at the wheel of a fast car, or look at one another's perfection across a white table-cloth beside the blue Mediterranean, Gatsby-like in their whiteness and fragrance and freshness!

Who in his senses could suppose the opposite state - poverty - is to be preferred? Poverty, as Bernard Shaw vehemently insisted, is dirty, squalid, unmanicured and ungroomed; not just unblessed, but a fall from grace, a sinful condition imposed by a cruel and unjust social system.

Yet Jesus dared to say that the poor were blessed, and what is more, through the centuries the choicest spirits have not just agreed with him, but often, in order to participate in this blessedness, embraced poverty themselves in its extremist form. As blissful at being naked on the naked earth as others are at being tucked up in newly laundered linen sheets; as joyous in their lack of possessions as others are in their yachts, their convertibles, their swimming-pools.

"My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

Malcolm Muggeridge's Jesus

 

[jiggyfly]

Good article Coconut, many of the WOF proponents say that being poor is a curse and being rich is a blessing. Yet the scriptures indicate the opposite, there are many warnings for those who are rich. One can only conclude that the WOF message is a carnal message and has no use or value for those who seek to grow spiritually.

 

[Coconut]

One can only conclude that the WOF message is a carnal message and has no use or value for those who seek to grow spiritually.

Amen, their message is about as valuable as their gold is going to be when the god of this world wont allow them to buy or sell without bowing down to him.


Jas 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
Jas 2:2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,
Jas 2:3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet,"
Jas 2:4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Jas 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
Jas 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
Jas 2:7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?



Jas 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
Jas 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
Jas 5:3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
Jas 5:4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
Jas 5:5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
Jas 5:6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.

 

[Samuel w]

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
He makes a weak man mighty, he makes a mighty man fall - not by wordly standard's for God's kingdom is not of this world.

Too much money corrupt's, in almost all cases. Too much power corrupt's, in almost all cases. With money comes power. Someone who was once poor but rich in spirit,; who was once humble - they inherit a massive sum on this earth & their spirit is now poor but they're bank account's rich. Their humility turns into pride, what good is pride - pride is only good for a fall? Is it not better to inherit wisdom than gold, is humility not part of wisdom, is it not the foundation' of wisdom? What good is gold in God's kingdom?

For this earth is only a blink of an eye & what comes next is eternal; our spirit is eternal., It bring's me much satisfaction & purpose to know I'm walking the path God set out for me; even though I stray from it many times I'm always brought back to this path this is because I'm a son in God's kingdom now; where'as once a child of darkness forever straying.

It bring's me alot of sadness knowing many are wasting their short time on this earth on temporal thing's, sugar-coated material's that soon become sour; they only bring temporary contenment. It sadden's me to know that many will continue to search consciously or subconsciously for something they may never find, only to find that when they pass away everything they've acquired on this earth is nothing. I was once like this, but Jesus found me in the gutter; he found me when I was poor in spirit, weak, despised, lowly.

 

[hadirfuss]

The poor are blessed indeed,,, for the Lord is their Treasure, their wealth, and all is nought and is passing,,,, like smoke.