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Broken and the Blessed Week 1, Day 1

by David Joynt on January 08, 2017


DAY 1

SUNDAY–JANUARY 8, 2017

MATTHEW 5:3

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This verse begins the greatest block of teaching ever given anywhere. The Beatitudes, or blessings, are a kind of constitution, Tom Long suggests, for the Christian life and the Christian church. In light of the kingdom Jesus brings, in light of his rule, they reveal a new reality that runs counter to every worldly expectation. We expect that the rejoicing know blessing, that the rich in spirit are happy, that the strong inherit the earth.

But instead, we discover that those who can receive the gift God wishes to give them through Jesus are the poor in spirit, the mournful, those who hunger and thirst for a better life. We are blessed in our brokenness and our emptiness, and not in our accomplishment and success. 

Read the Beatitudes and put your own name into each verse. 

FAMILY TIME—

Read the Beatitudes and ask everyone which are they like best and why.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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