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May The Force Be With You!
February 14, 2101
"How happy are you who are poor: yours
is the Kingdom of God" (Luke 6:20).
Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalms 1:1-4,6; I Corinthians
15:12,16-20; Luke 6:17,20-26
In the motion picture, "The Empire Strikes
Back," Luke Skywalker lands his skycraft
in a desolate, foggy swamp. There he meets with
the "Yoda" for the purpose of learning
how to deal with his enemies. Luke's skycraft
sinks out of sight into the mud. The Yoda instructs
Luke that the mighty power called "The Force"
will enable him to lift his craft out of the swamp.
Luke tries to follow the Yoda's instructions,
but fails. The craft remains stuck in the mud.
Then, the Yoda says, "No, no, my son, you
are trying to use 'The Force'. You can't use 'The
Force'. Let 'The Force' use you."
Likewise, Jesus resisted all temptation to use
"The Force" (which is God). Instead
He let God use Him. He carried out His ministry
in harmony with God's Will. "Not My Will,
but yours," He prayed to the Father in the
Garden of Gethsemane.
We must learn to allow God to use us. When we place
ourselves in God's hands and submit to God's Will,
His Power flows through us and gives us the strength
to rise up from the level of mere existence to the
New Life Christ is calling us into.
In today's Lesson, Luke tells us that Jesus stood
with the twelve Apostles before a great crowd of
His disciples, and that a great multitude of other
people "who had come to hear Him and to be
cured of their diseases" (Lk. 6:17). And He
lifted up His eyes, and said, "How happy are
you who are poor: yours is the Kingdom of God"
(Lk. 6:20). That is the first of several "Blesseds,"
(or "Beatitudes") Jesus delivered as a
prelude to His blueprint for living which we call
"The Sermon on the Mount." With those
"Beatitudes," Jesus says, in effect, "If
you are going to live My kind of life, you must
put your life in its proper, God-intended context.
Blessed are you poor!"
You put your life in proper context when you acknowledge
that you are not self-sufficient. You put your life
in proper context when you acknowledge your absolute
reliance on God, not only for who you are but who
you are to become. You put your life in proper context
when you acknowledge not only that God is the Source
of your life, but also your way of life. Blessed
are you poor! Blessed are you poor in spirit!
An ancient king summoned the wise men and the
philosophers of his kingdom and instructed them
to write down all the "Wisdom of the Ages."
After laboring for twenty years on this awesome
assignment, the learned men presented the king
with a massive work consisting of fifty volumes.
The king examined the books carefully. Then he
said, "This work is much too long. Condense
it." Five years later, the wise men and the
philosophers presented the king with their condensed
version of the "Wisdom of the Ages,"
in the form of a single volume of several thousand
pages. Again the king examined the work, and again
he said, "This work is much too long. Condense
it." One year later, the scholars presented
the king with a single sheet of paper containing
only one short sentence. As the king examined
it He seemed greatly pleased. "Magnificent!"
He said. "I congratulate you on a job well
done!" The paper read: "There are no
free lunches."
What pleased the king, of course, was the profound
implication in those few words that anything worthwhile
has its price, whether it be in terms of money or
time or effort or discipline. Moreover, in terms
of our ultimate human destiny, that implication
is ...
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