|
Hi!
I'm
Bruce Collins. I am an evangelist and teacher of the Bible. I
became a child of God by faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on November 24, 1963 and have tried to serve the Lord in various
capacities since then. I am presently an itinerant minister of
the Gospel. I do not work for an organization but I try to
serve the Lord in the best way that I can wherever He leads. That
means that my wife and I have our financial needs met by the Lord as we do
not have a salary from any church or organization. We believe
that the Gospel is free so we have never made a charge for our services.
I
am available for Bible studies, conferences, Gospel meetings, children's meetings
and camp work. I have traveled throughout much of the United States
and Canada in my service for the Lord. My wife helps me, and
we attend the Bethany Bible Chapel in Cedar Falls, Iowa. They have encouraged us
by commending us for this work.
My
wife, Geneva and I live in Waterloo, Iowa. We have four children.
One of them is married and has provided us with two grandchildren.
This
web site has a weekly meditation that I hope will encourage you. It
has links to literature and organizations that I think are helpful.
You can also listen to my weekly radio program here.
Yours
because of Calvary,
|
Meditation--updated
weekly
If
you would like to comment go to
http://bdcministries.com/
Are we really Happy or Blessed?
Matthew 5:3-12
(3)
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
(4)
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
(5)
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
(6)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For
they shall be filled.
(7)
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
(8)
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
(9)
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of
God.
(10)
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(11)
"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say
all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
(12)
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I
am a people watcher. I like
to go to places where people congregate and observe the people
I really believe that God wants people to be happy or blessed.
So I like it when it seems that people I am observing are happy.
But sometimes what we see is deceiving and while people seem
happy on the outside, they may be hurting on the inside.
Likely many of the people I see are looking for happiness, but
they are looking for it in ways that are destructive
I believe that God wants to give us true and lasting
blessing or happiness.
What
is happiness and where is it found?
In
the Bible the words happy and blessed seem to be linked.
In the beatitudes above, each word blessed has been changed to
happy in some of the more modern translations of the Bible.
As I read these beatitudes, they seem completely opposed to what
most of us believe brings happiness today.
Just reread the beatitudes and substitute happy for the word
blessed and then see if that is the thing that brings happiness in your
life. Aren't all of these
things completely contrary to what we are taught will make us happy?
I realize that the beatitudes are looking at eternal rewards, but
I believe they indicate that it is possible to be happy right now.
But we must meet the conditions of each promised blessing.
Happiness
is sometimes associated with success.
When I was in school, I was always happy when I got A's on exams.
I was happy when I passed
the CPA exam. Many of us
think that happiness involves “getting ahead.”
Many of us want honor and authority.
Achievements in this world do make us happy for a while.
But does that happiness last?
Do those achievements really bring lasting satisfaction?
Is
happiness a feeling or a condition or both?
Dictionaries use various terms to define happiness.
Some of them say it is a state of contentment or satisfaction.
Some compare happiness to joy.
Often the word pleasure is used.
Some relate happiness to good fortune.
Happiness is likely different things to different people.
Scriptural
Happiness is not obtained by Natural Means
When
the Queen of Sheba observed Solomon's kingdom and reign she realized
that his servants and subjects were indeed blessed because they had a
righteous, wise king. I
think she thought they were in a state of good fortune and that living
in Israel at that time was pleasurable.
While conditions that make us happy change, the attitudes that
make us happy don't have to change.
The beatitudes deal with those attitudes. I don't think those
attitudes are the attitudes that we are born with naturally.
But they can be cultivated by one who has been born again.
The new birth gives us a new eternal destiny and that has to make
us happy. It gives us a new
leader who like Solomon is wise and righteous.
Before we were saved or born again we served Sin or Satan even
though we may have thought we were serving God.
After we are saved we serve Righteousness or the Lord.
Paul explains this in Romans 6.
However, if in serving the Lord, we had to take the humble place
in society, if we had to put others interests ahead of our own, would
that make us truly happy? And
yet, just as I like to see people happy, the Lord likes that as well.
But to obtain His happiness, which is not just a fleeting
emotion, we have to unlearn the principles of our society which put self
first. We have to practice
the principle of putting others first.
Should
Happiness be our Goal in Life?
As
I write this, I realize that happiness was never a stated objective in
our family. We respected
hard work and success in achievements, but I don't ever remember being
asked if I was happy. But
in later years, I have found that happiness should be one of our goals.
But we should strive for the happiness found in the beatitudes.
I suspect that many Christians would have to admit that they
don't think the principles of the Sermon on the Mount really work.
They think they if they lived by the principles of the Sermon on
the Mount that people would walk all over them.
They are right. They
might even nail you to a cross. And
how could that make you happy? God
says it will and the early disciples who were martyred said it did.
Of course that is not the kind of happiness most of us want.
I
want to be happy and I am sure you do too.
We certainly ought to believe God when He says Christ died for
our sins. And maybe we
should believe God when He tells us how to be happy now that we are
saved. I am personally
praying for the attitude adjustments in my own life that will lead to
true happiness.
Meditation
for the week of August 13, 2017
Archived
Meditations
If
you would like to be on the email address list for these meditations
write to me at
mail@bdcministries.faithweb.com
|
BDCMINISTRIES HOME
Mother's
of Unbelieving and