“Didn’t you just study Matthew?” my wife asked when I informed her that I was going to study the Sermon on the Mount again. “That was like 3 months ago,” I replied.

Perhaps I am going back to Matthew because I am drawn in the season of Lent to study the life of Jesus. Also, Chuck Swindoll–which I listen to frequently–is doing a series on the Sermon on the Mount. However, I think the main reason is that I just really need to hear these words again!

Ever since Joe, who is a good friend of mine, brought these 3 chapters of Matthew freshly to my attention, I have found myself craving their words in my life. Swindoll summarized all of the many teachings in Matthew chapters 5,6, and 7 up in 5 words that Jesus is trying to get across to His followers:

“Do not be like them…” (Matthew 6:8). Jesus is telling us what we innately realized in our hearts when we became His followers: The ways of the world are not the ways of Jesus.

There is a primary coming up soon in my home state of Illinois. Politics, like many areas of our culture, rewards a person’s image more so than their integrity. I don’t know if George Washington and John Adams (two men whom, regardless of what you think of their politics, people would be hard-pressed to not see them as men of integrity) could be elected today in the era of television and sound bites. Our culture doesn’t value the traits those men lived by. We want the “coolness” factor instead.

Here is another example of the topsy-turvy world we live in. After church yesterday, Laura and I went to Barnes and Noble to get the Rosetta Stone Level 1 for Mandarin Chinese (1/2 price by the way if you are interested in learning a language!) When we went to pay, there were magazines all over the cashier’s counter with mostly naked women on them. The SI Swimsuit Issue, Maxim, some other ones that I can’t remember, and there is a shirtless Justin Bieber with the cover, “Bad Boy”. Now, I don’t want to sound like a prude, but why do they have to place those there? That is right where every little boy and girl are going to be looking–it is at their eye-level when you think about it.

What are the values that the world is trying to give us? What are the values that Jesus was trying to teach His followers? Do you see the difference?

This week I am straight-up stealing my challenges for you from Chuck Swindoll (but I am giving him all the credit!) Here they are:

1. There are 8 Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10, pick one a day and work on implementing it in your life. You will come face-to-face with Jesus’ words in these verses. I do have to admit that The Message translation helped me understand these verses better.

2. Like my experience at the Barnes and Noble counter, really start noticing the differences between Jesus’ ways and the world’s ways. Explain them to those around you–especially your children! They need to be taught His ways because they will certainly be exposed to the world’s!

More to come…
Jeremy