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Eight blessings (6):  The blessing of the pure in heart     [ Matthew 5 :8 ]     Do you have a “ba.bo”( 바 . 보 .) among the people you love?   How would you feel if someone who loved you came to you and said, 'You're ba.bo.'?   Do you feel bad for yourself and your pride hurt?   Here, “ba.bo” does not refer to the ‘stupid and foolish person’ we usually think of.   But it means ‘the more we look, the more we want to see’.   A long time ago, when I heard the meaning of this slang term ‘ba.bo.’, I thought, ‘I want to be a ba.bo.’   How good is it that the more you look, the more you want to be seen?   It is a blessing to be able to see and live with the people we want to see while we live on this earth.   How many people live in this world without seeing the ones they love?   How much would you miss, especially if your loved one has already passed away and fell asleep?   Especially when we are having a d...

Eight blessings (5): The blessing of the merciful       [Matthew 5:7]     We have already meditated on “The blessing of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” the fourth of the eight blessings Jesus taught.  That blessing is ‘satisfaction’.  There is one point that we did not go into more detail as we meditate on the fourth blessing.  There are three meanings of the word “righteous” (Swanson): (1) The first meaning is righteousness, what is right, justice.  One example is Matthew 5:6, which we have already meditated on, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”  Another example is Matthew 5:10 – “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Here, “righteousness” is “God’s righteousness,” not “self-righteousness” or “righteousness of the law” that the Pharisees sought.  And the righteousness...

Eight blessings (4): The blessing of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness       [Matthew 5:6]     Are you living with a sense of satisfaction right now?  Are you happy now?  There is a quiz developed by Dr. Ed Dinner in the United States to measure happiness (Internet).  There are 5 questions in the quiz, and you have to score them when you answer them.  Answer 1 is “definitely not”, answer 2 is “no”, answer 3 is “somewhat not”, and answer 4 is “Neither this nor that”, answer 5 is “slightly yes”, answer 6 is “yes” and answer 7 is “strongly yes.”  After answering each of the five questions from 1 to 7 in this way, if the total score is 31-35, “extremely satisfied”, 26-30 is “very satisfied”, 21-25 is “slightly satisfied”, 20 is considered “moderate”, 15-19 is “slightly dissatisfied”, 10-14 is “very dissatisfied”, and 5-9 is “extremely dissatisfied”.  Then I am asking you those five questions:   (1) ...

‘You may know that you have eternal life.” (10) [1 John 5:13-21]         The fourth assurance is the assurance that we belong to God. In other words, it is the assurance that those who are born of God, that is, those who are born again (regenerated) belong to God and not to this world ruled by Satan.         Look at 1 John 5:19 – “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” The Apostle John says there are only two kinds of people in this world: (1) children of God, or (2) children of Satan (MacArthur). Look at 1 John 3:10 – “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” The Apostle John says that it is possible to distinguish clearly between the children of God and the children of the devil (v. 10). The way to distinguish it is that “Anyone w...