Welcome to the Jesus Image Podcast.

You know, each beatitude, as I said before, begins with the word blessed.

And when we speak of a beatific life, we're speaking of the beautiful blissful holiness of God

so the blessedness of the beatitudes is an invitation

into the blissful experience of God

and it is the journey into union and oneness with Jesus.

I want to encourage everyone here to memorize the beatitudes.

I mean, that should be like step one for a Christian.

As I've said so many times, the beatitudes are the constitution of our faith.

They are an invitation into holiness and blessedness.

And when we talk about the word blessed that precedes every beatitude, as I've said before,

it's the Greek word macadios, in English that would be M-A-K-A-R-I-O-S.

It's the same word that the scriptures use when they call the Lord our blessed God.

In other words, this blessedness is connected to the Lord himself. So this is literally an invitation

into the presence of the Lord Jesus

and a journey, listen to my words carefully,

a journey into the experiential union with Christ.

And I want you to notice that the first book end is being poor in spirit, right?

That bookend promises us the kingdom.

And as we started in this teaching, this journey begins with the realization that must come by the Holy Spirit that we

really need Jesus.

When there is a gospel deficiency in the church, you will always find a strength deficiency in the church. You will find an inability to stand when things get

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