Daily Bible Verses for 5/7/2016

Bible Verse
And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”

Reading Notes
Jesus finishes the Beatitudes with His final blessing. Jesus reminds us, that as His followers, we will have tribulation because we live in a world opposed to the things of God. We live in a fallen world that hates God, hates the things of God and is influenced by the one the Apostle Paul calls, “the prince of the power of the air” who is Satan. Therefore, we must always remember that we are the light in a world of darkness. Jesus told us in the third chapter of John’s Gospel, “the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Jesus was the light of God come to dwell among mankind, and as His followers, we are called to be light to a lost and dying world, and we shine that light by spreading the Gospel message of salvation in Christ alone, through faith alone and not by works

What this means for us is because of our faith we will experience trials. Trials which stem from the spiritual warfare waged around us. However, as we experience trials and tribulations in this world, we do so keeping the end in mind. Which means regardless of what happens to us in this life, when all is said and done, our home will forever be in the presence of Christ. When we see Jesus face to face, we will know more, understand more and experience more joy and happiness than we can ever know here in this fallen world. Therefore, if we keep eternity in mind, we will never forget, we are only sojourners living in a world under the curse of sin. With our salvation came a new family status, we are no longer children of this world, but through our faith in Jesus we have become children of God and joint-heirs with Him in the kingdom of God. And because of this change in family status, our rewards are waiting for us, they are waiting for the time when we go home to be with the Lord and see Jesus face to face.