I asked a young man what is the greatest calling and he was a preacher so he said preaching. Some say evangelism, some say a pastor and teacher. The greatest calling is to be a son or daughter of God. Christ gave his life for us that he might give his life to us. I wrote something previously and I know that the Holy Ghost inspired it and that was "stop trying to get all you can from God and get God all you can". I've been holding on to that, because I see Christians today, running after so many materialistic things. But Christ called us not to go after worldly gain; he called us to be after Him. To run after Him so that when you look in the mirror of your life you see Christ Jesus. You don't see your money, your clothes, your looks, but you see Jesus Christ the author and finisher of your faith. So if you get nothing from this writing, please get, get Jesus. I don't know about you but I need Jesus more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow. I'm going to need him more tomorrow because I know that I'm going to want him more tomorrow than today. I'm hungry for Jesus and if you are also hungry for Jesus everything is going to come against you because the enemy does not want you get close to Jesus. He is going to try everything to divert from this walk of faith and the walk of holiness and purity. When you are set to be pure and do right the devil is going to do everything to attack you. But Jesus promised when he attacks you "Be of good cheer because he has overcome the world".

1 Jn 2:15 tells us, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So if you still love the world, check your heart the love of the Father may not be there.

I want to share something very crucial in the scriptures, in Matthew 5 there is great potential in what you are going to read and I believe that the Spirit of God is going to speak to you. It's such a simple word, yet the meaning and the interpretation of Jesus' words are so profound and you can get abundant strength from this word. I guarantee you that if you take this in, you will be so victorious and so joyful in your life, because the words of Jesus will not return back void.

In order for us to become successful Christians we must develop a new attitude. That's why Chapter 5 of Matthew is entitled "The Beatitudes" it's simply saying be of this attitude. When I read this passage of scripture a long time ago, I used to wonder which one is for me. As I grew I found out that every one was for me. The beatitude is a beautiful statement by Jesus that if you grasp the meaning of it, it will literally change your life.

The process of building new attitudes sometimes is slow and frustrating. You may want to stop reacting quickly with anger when someone is angry with you. It takes more than a promise to change yourself. These attitudes have been a part of your life, part of your way of thinking for years. So notice that everything we do we develop attitudes. Just today, I had an attitude and I have to learn to change my attitude when my attitude is not consistent with truth. One of the things you will learn when you start to change your attitude is that you have to humble yourself. Philippians 2:5 tells us, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God. Isn't that beautiful? That you and I have the mind of Christ and we have the potential of putting on the attitudes of Christ and what these beatitudes are.

I believe the beatitudes speak something profound because Jesus will never speak anything that he was not doing himself. I believe within the course of his life his family saw these qualities in him. I have some writings that are not scripture, but as you read them they prove themselves to be history. For instance, I have a letter of Caiapus, who interviewed Jesus. Letters of Caesar, Caesar kept very good records of his time and it mentions Jesus and it is reported that Jesus was raised from the grave. I have the letters of Gamaliel, who was Paul's teacher. History tells us this man went out to interview Jesus, he was a contemporary of Jesus. But sadly to say every time he got where Jesus was, Jesus had already left. He never got a chance to meet the master face to face. He did get to interview a few people and asked them questions. He interviewed Mary, the mother of Jesus and Joseph according to these letters. And he asked them how Jesus was as a youth and she answered, He was not interested in the things the other young people were, he was just a simple young man. And when there was trouble in the house, he would often calm the situation with one word.

Gamaliel asked one man how it was to be with Jesus and the man answer, "It was the safest feeling in the world". He said that snakes would not hiss at him and wild dogs would come to be patted by him. It sounds pretty consistent with my Jesus. What about the Pharisees and Sadducees? The man answered, "He never argued with them, he would give them a word and than be quiet.

What a beautiful picture of the Christian life. We have a lot of Christians arguing about the scriptures today in trying to prove they are right. You don't have to try to fight someone to prove that the scriptures are right. God's word will not return back void.

There are so many other illustrations, one of the things he asked in the interview was about the things that interested Jesus, and the man answered not many things interested Jesus except when you talked about heaven, his tongue seemed to wiggle and his eyes just sparked with light. He asked what did he look like, they said he was a very Jewish looking man and he had a very Jewish looking nose and you can see heaven in his eyes. When I read these letters I almost wanted to preach it because it is so consistent with the life of Jesus.

Are you satisfied with the Christ in you? Are you truly satisfied? Or are you still running after riches and trying to get all you can out of this world? If you are than get all you can out of this world, enjoy yourself but you will miss Jesus. I'm not trying to say that a person can lose their salvation or not. That has been an issue in question for many, many, many years. However, I will remind you of the scriptures of the vine and the branches being cut off and many other scriptures, which speak on the subject.

However, when we are talking about the life of Jesus, it's such a simple life. I'm finding out that the life of Jesus is simple and we have made it very complicated. Let's read the beatitudes:

Matthew 5:1-11
1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them

I love that whenever God brings people to you, sit down and begin to teach them. Is that a Christ-like character? Yes, it is. I remember when I was in Rome for 3 days by myself. I spent a lot of time by the Coliseum and I would sit there and read the book of Romans. One day I said, "Lord I'd like to meet somebody who's a Christian". And lo and behold, I'm sitting there reading the book of Romans and this young lady comes up to me and asks, "Is that a bible"? I said, yes it is. She asked, "Are you a Christian"? I said, yes. She said, "Praise the Lord". As we talked I found out she was a missionary there with her husband. As we sat there, she began to ask me a lot of questions and we got into a topic about the prophetic spirit and I began to teach her.

And he began to teach them, saying:

Can we stop there for a second; I'd like to break this down. The bible here says, "blessed" the Amplified bible says "fortunate, happy", because when the Lord says, blessed or fortunate you are for being poor it doesn't mean poverty in the sense that we do not have money, but what Jesus was saying was blessed, fortunate, happy are you if you are poor in spirit. If you realize that you are a pauper and that without God you are completely desolate and that you're spiritually dead and must rely on a greater source.

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You notice that he trades, for the kingdom of heaven is rich and then he says blessed are you if you realize how poor you without that kingdom. Notice also, he says here blessed are you if you're poor and he speaks about the sorrow of the heart. Jesus Christ though he was God, he depended on the Father of heaven for everything. It's this simple

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Mourn, what do you mourn for? You mourn over your sins, over your failures. You mourn because you know that your sins have separated you from God. But he says you will be comforted. You notice he says blessed are the poor, for theirs is the riches of the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn over their sins for God will come and comfort you. When you repent and you ask him to forgive you of your sins, the father of compassion will always come and comfort you. God only comforts those who repent. God only comforts those who come kneeling at his feet to find him.

Jesus went into a house one day for a feast and these two sisters were there called, Mary and Martha. And you know the story, Martha was so busy in the house running around trying to serve and I commend her for her serving, but where was Mary sitting at the feet of the Master. You know what that illustrates that God commends a life, which is submitted at the feet of the master because you're take time to be with the Master. When you sit at his feet you often find time to serve him. But if you serve him and not sit at his feet and wait and learn who he is, you'll find yourself without him. And Jesus Christ gave his life so that he could give his life to us.

If you look at that room, there were the Pharisee, Sadducees, thieves, the spectators, and the administers. They all looked at her when she took that beautiful alabaster jar and broke it and began to anoint Jesus. She just poured it all over Jesus, what a sight that must have been. The perfume pouring down Jesus' hair and beard while he just sat there.

They began to complain about the expense of the perfume and how it could have been sold for a lot of money and the money could have been given to the poor. And he said to leave her alone. First of all he knew their minds and hearts were not really for the poor. The bible specifically says, that it was Judas who said that, because he used to help himself to the purse anytime he wanted money. We often find those in the house of God who are hungry for money never have time to worship. He said, what she has done will not be taken away from her. There is something about worship that will not be taken away from you. When you find out the true meaning to worship Jesus, to sit at his feet, you will be richer than you have ever been in your whole life. He also said, leave her alone for she has found the better thing and what she has found will not be taken away from her. The bible says that the fragrance filled the room. Do you know that was a picture of the church, that little room was a representation of the church? In the church we have the Pharisees, Sadducees, the thieves, the disciples, the spectators and out of all the people in the room one dared to sit at the feet of Jesus and worship him. I'm not surprised when there's a full church and two or three worship. Only few find the treasure of breaking their treasure before the master. Believe me when you mourn after him you will be so comforted. Better to be in the house of mourning than in the house of gladness. For they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Before I go on with this I want you to know that meek is not weak. To be humble is not weak. It takes a real man or woman to follow Jesus.

General Schwarkoff, who fought in Desert Storm was interviewed and he spoke about the war and began to cry. The interviewer said, "General you're crying". And he answered, I fear the man who does not cry. We need today, tenderhearted warriors. The true knowledge of God will always humble you. Whenever I find people who have knowledge of the bible and they are proud, then they don't have the knowledge of God, they have the knowledge of the word of God.

You can find the knowledge about the word of God anywhere you go today. You can buy books on the word of God, how to study the word of God, how to do hermeneutics, hormaletics, how to study exergeses, how to break every word in the Greek. You can have a vast knowledge of the word of God, but not know God. However, when you have an encounter with God and he reveals himself to you, you will not be proud, you will be very humble. Every person in the bible that I have seen that has seen God was humble.

You know what's beautiful; let's take Moses for instance. The bible says that Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, but look how many times he saw God. In Exodus Chapter 19, it says that he went up into the mountain and the cloud of glory came down and he stood there for about 40 days. Can you imagine? When he came down he was so anointed, he was so blessed with the presence of God that the bible literally says that he had to put a veil over his face because of the glory. And actually he knew the glory was fading, the glory was not a permanent one. I will remind you that when you have been with God and stay with God the glory will stay on you.

The New Testament gives us a great picture of the glory of God; it tells us "God who said let light shine out of darkness made his light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Moses saw the back of God, but you and I have the privilege to see the face of Jesus Christ. And the bible also tells us "we go from glory to glory". This glory is not fading. Paul said that although the outside is being decayed yet the inside is being renewed day by day (more glory, more power, more strength, more transfiguration). When you're meek and you seek God and you humble yourself, he says all the treasure of the earth, everything that I have is yours. When you're humble God will use you greatly.

Humility doesn't mean that you walk with your head up high, even though you can walk with your head up high because the bible tells us "you are the glory and the lifter of my head". God doesn't want you to walk with your head down like you're ashamed, He wants us to lift our heads up, to show we are children of the King and that we can stand straight and speak with boldness and yet be a very humble people inside. Humility has nothing to do with the position of your body, but with the attitude of your heart. When you're humble it's because you understand who God is. You can't be humble if you don't understand that God is greater than you. When you understand that God is great than you will walk in victory.

Attitudes are formed in the mind and become so much a part of your life that you don't even consciously think about them. You show your attitudes by how you respond in your daily activities. Jesus Christ tells us to be of this attitude, he says, "the way you respond is going to show what attitude you are of". If someone comes and tells you, you don't need anyone, you can do this by yourself, when you know God you will say, "no, I can't do this by myself, I'm blessed and I'm poor in spirit because I understand my dependence is in God. Jesus says in, "John 15:5 "for without me you can do nothing."

Often times when we are doing things contrary to God's word, we find ourselves crying, this is mourning. We are mourning because of our sins, but when we repent we will be comforted.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

This is interesting because every time you deal with the word righteousness you have to deal with God. God is good in you and he's the one that does the good through you. Jeremiah 17:9 is an interesting scripture that really defines us as what we really are. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" I think that pretty much describes us without God. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". The word sin means to miss the mark. Who is the mark? God is the mark. We fall short from God, but Jesus Christ truly is the bridge over that trouble water. He has become the bridge between the gap so that you and I can walk to God the Father and have fellowship with him. But only when you hunger and thirst for God and his righteousness will you be filled. Only when you really seek God with all your heart will he send his Holy Spirit and fill you with the power from on high. Jeremiah 33:3 says, 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' If you call he will listen and respond. If you hunger, he will hear you and he will fill. Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Call upon me, seek my righteousness and I will fill you. Luke says this, "For what son asks his father for an egg and the father will gives him a serpent." "Though you who are evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give you the Holy Spirit if you ask." And who is the righteousness of God, but the Holy Spirit. He's the only one who can satisfy you with righteousness that comes from above.

2 Corinthians 5, are we talking about the true Christ like life? In order for you to have the life of Christ and live the life the way Christ did, you have to be of these attitudes. Verse 21 "For he made him that knew no sin to become sin for us so that we can become the righteousness of God through him." Who is the righteousness of God? Jesus Christ the son of the living God. And who fills you with righteousness? The Holy Spirit is the one that fills you with righteousness because he is the Spirit of Righteousness. He is called the Spirit of truth, not of the truth. He does not have to learn the truth, He is truth. John 16:12-13 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Let's look at the work of the Holy Spirit now, how can you be hungry for righteousness if you don't know what righteousness is? Obviously, you have to know what unrighteousness is in order to hunger for righteousness. Let's look at the Holy Spirit's ministry, same chapter 16:5

John 16:5-8 "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:"

So as we see here the ministry of the Holy Spirit upon the earth is to convict the world of sin. His primary purpose is to show you that you don't have righteousness apart from God. And when he convicts you of that and you finally realize that God is the only one that can make you right with Him. Then you will begin to hunger for righteousness, you will begin to cry out to God for righteousness and he in turn sends the Holy Spirit and fills you with righteousness so you will be satisfied. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Here is one of the greatest verses of scripture, which speaks about sympathy, all these qualities above will not come to anything if you do not have a merciful heart.

The growth of the Christian is to understand we are poor without God, so we can receive riches when we come to Him; which are the riches of our salvation, and the riches of God's life. When this happens we begin to mourn over sins because we want to become more like God and God will comfort us. Then we will become humble and will begin to hunger after righteousness, but in all these things it will produce in us a heart of sympathy toward others.

You know mercy triumphant over judgment, and that's why when I see people pronounce judgment and they have no mercy, it's not God. Judgment must always be bathed, insaturated with mercy. Even when God judges, he does it mercifully. He's a merciful God.

I remember the story of John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace. He was a captain of a slave ship and he used to transport slaves to other places and sell them. One night there was terrible storm while he was on his ship and he promised God, that if he made it through the storm, he would serve Him. And it was said that he became saved, but he didn't have a full conversion because he did not let the slaves go free. What he did was make the conditions better for them. When we are saved we must go all the way. God was working in this man. Finally he gave up the awful business of trading slaves and he opened up a church and he became a great pastor.

In his old age, they say he was losing his memory. He said one thing regarding that, though I'm losing my memory, I do remember one thing, "I am a great sinner, but Jesus is a great Savior." That's mercy and the same mercy God shows you, go and show someone else.

Colossians 3:12-13 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Dearly beloved, clothe yourself with mercy, clothe yourself with compassion, with love and forgive one another as Christ forgave you. We're called to be merciful to those who do not have mercy, to snatch others from the fire because we ourselves have been snatched out. Often I find those who have no mercy, do not know the mercy of God. There is no way you can experience the grace of God and show no mercy.

Matt 18:10-14
10"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
I have a friend most people would probably have given up on but I felt that something was going to happen somehow, someday and it did. He got closer to God. He's not finished but he got closer to God. I just kept giving and showing him the mercy of God.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

If I die before the Lord comes back, I want this scripture on my stone. I believe this verse of scripture for me has so much significance in my life because I'm so dirty without Christ. I'm so impure without Christ. And that verse gives me so much hope because God is so patient with me and he's purifying me and he's purifying his children day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. The Holy Spirit will not give up on us He will keep purifying us until we are pure.

There are countless of scriptures that I can share with you on purity. One of them says, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong" (Hab 1:13). Proverbs 15:26 says, The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked, but those of the pure are pleasing to him.

I think for me the area I would like to be pure the most is in my thought life, because I fail there so much. I fail God everyday in my thought life. I hurt my Savior everyday with wrong attitudes, wrong motives, wrong desires, wrong thoughts. How I hurt my Saviour each and every day. But every time I come to him and I say Lord purify me, He never fails to shed his precious blood over my mind and over my heart. He never fails to have mercy because he understands I am so poor without him. Happy, fortunate are the pure in heart. For without holiness no one can see the Lord. To be pure in every aspect of my life is my greatest desire because to be pure is to be like Jesus.

I remember the story of Charles Finney, man of God. The anointing was so strong on him that one time a prostitute came to him and propositioned him and he looked at her and she look at him and she fell to her knees and begun to cry and ask for forgiveness. She gave her life to Jesus because he was so pure before God.

I think within the body of Christ we have missed it. We've been preaching everything else except Christ. We've been teaching everything else except the life of Christ, how to get close to Jesus, and how to be like Jesus in every area of our life. To be pure, the only illustration I can give you is an imperfect one, let's take ivory soap it is the only soap that floats because it has not chemicals in it, it's just pure. The point I'm making here is that when your heart is pure it floats before God. It's without contamination, that's what purity means without fault, without an impure ingredient.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

This simply means blessed are you, happy are you if you win souls that your life has such a radiance of peace that others call you sons and daughters of God. Are we peacemakers? Or are we always trying to rip things to pieces. The real human nature always goes out against what's God. How come we are always prone to go after the flesh? It's because it's easier. But the bible calls us to peace because He is the Prince of Peace. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. You've been reconciled to God so therefore go and reconcile someone else to God. Let the peace of Christ shine through your life, and let them see peace. There's no peace in arguing. The bible says, that anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. There is something about peace however, that will bring people to the feet of Jesus. When they see the peace of Christ in you they will want what you have. The bible also tells us, that a righteous man will not be easily shaken because he has peace.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This scripture has the same reward as the first one. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He comes right back around, when you finally realize how poor you are without Christ and you gain him, you will be persecuted for it. But then He says, hang on for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Are you persecuted on your jobs? Are you persecuted in school? Are your persecuted because you belong to Christ?

I remember a story of a man who was in a country, which was anti-Christ and they dragged him into the street and demanded him to deny Christ or die. Many of his disciples were there watching. He proclaimed, Jesus Christ is Lord and so they killed him. Blessed are you when you are persecuted because of righteousness. Notice the word righteousness, after you are filled with righteousness you will be persecuted for it. Righteousness comes with a price tag, death. When you do what's right in the eyes of God you will often be persecuted by man because they do not see through the eyes of God. Are you willing to be persecuted because of righteousness? Don't say yes, to fast. That's the trademark of the Christian, persecution because of righteousness.

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

In other words, don't get discouraged, Jesus is telling us. Happy are you if you're going through this, but don't be discouraged because you're not the only one that's facing it. Others before you have gone through it also.

1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. KJV

1 Peter 5:9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. KJV

Our desire should always be to be more like Christ, keeping in mind always that with that desire comes a price. Are you willing to pay the price? After all, He was willing to pay the price for you.