The Preceding The Beatitudes Theology Religion Essay

The Preceding The Beatitudes Theology Religion Essay Preceding The Beatitudes is the beginning of chapter 5 in the Gospel of Matthew. This is also the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5 starts off with Jesus going up on the mountain. Matthew 5:1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. When you first read this text you think that he was being overcrowded and simply went up on the mountain for more space. However, is that the only reason Jesus went up on the mountain? When we look at other verses in the Bible such as Luke 6:12 In these days he went out into the hills to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. Perhaps Jesus felt closer and more alone with God by being on the hills or mountain. Perhaps it made him feel closer to God. Or another reason may be that he was interacting and teaching his disciples on the mountain while the crowds surrounded them to listen down low. Look at the second part of this verse, when he sat down his disciples came to him, whenever Jesus sat down somewhere it was usually a good indication that he would be teaching so his disciples automatically came over to him. Matt 13:2, Mark 4:1, and Luke 5:3 are all other examples of when he sat down and taught as well. Matthew 5:2 And he opened his mouth and taught them by saying: This is where the teaching, otherwise known as The Beatitudes begins. In this part of the Bible Matthew seems to be portraying Jesus as the new Moses. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin word Beaus. It means happy, fortunate or blissful. Each beatitude has two phrases, kind of like a cause and an effect. Each beatitude also starts off with the word blessed. To be blessed is to be happy and filled with the Holy Spirit. The eight beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (5:3) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (5:4) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (5:5) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (5:6) Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (5:7) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (5:8) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God (5:9) Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (5:10) (5:11 12) Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter evil against you. To rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Now let us take a deeper look at each beatitude individually. Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the opening verse to the Sermon on the Mount. At that time, the word Blessed was a common word for describing someone who is happy. That meaning of the word has been lost in the present day interpretation, but that seems to be the original intent of the Gospel writer. Blessed also means to be made holy, so when someone is blessed it means they are experiencing a life changing, spiritual transformation. Whoever goes by these rules will lead a happy life and a step closer into getting into Heaven. This could also be the interpretation of the word Blessed used. In my opinion, it means both. The poor in spirit, I think this means actual poor people, people who are destitute. Like the woman who gave everything she had, and was commended by Christ for doing so. It means they have spirit, yet little else, so they are blessed with spirit or in spirit, and theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They may not have anything on earth, but they can be assured of the afterlife. Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. We already know that Blessed means to be made holy and to be happy. But what shall we mourn over? This can be having many meanings. A person can mourn over the loss of a loved one or friend, or even the loss of possessions. A person can also mourn over sin. Everyone mourns someone or something at sometime in their lives. In time, we laugh and are happy again. I think that is Gods way or seeing us greive and in pain and He puts happiness back into our lives. When I was a little boy my dog got ranover by a car and I cried for two weeks straight and wouldnt talk to anyone. I am an only child and that dog was my best friend. The dog would wait for me at the bus stop and walk me home even. After about 2 weeks over hell, I got off the school bus and found a puppy hiding under some bushes. I didnt really want the puppy at first, but knew it was alone like me so I took it home. I think God put that puppy in my path because he seen I was sad and lonely. God and the puppy (Cuervo) healed me. Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In Greek literature, the meaning of the word meek means gentle or soft. So to be meek you should be gentle and not strong. You should be gentle in a disposition that you do not fight Gods will. Also, if you compare Mathew 5:5 in different Bibles, you get the same translation as well; The King James Version Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. World English Bible Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. As you can see, they have been translated even further and shows that meek means gentle. The phrase inherit the earth could mean that in time God will come down to earth and choose these gentle people to rule over the entire world. Or it could be that these gentle people will get their every need provided by God. Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Hunger and thirst here could be an expression for a strong desire. Since hunger and thirst are something EVERYONE needs in order to have nourishment to live, so does their soul need nourishment in faith. The soul needs nourishment as well in the need or desire of forgiveness of sins and to want to do the right things on Earth to go to Heaven. Those who have a great desire for righteousness will be satisfied in Heaven. Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Those who have mercy on others shall get mercy from God. People can show mercy to others in numerous ways. By sympathizing with them, showing them affection and tenderness. In return, when the believers ask God for mercy for certain reasons, they will receive it. Mercy is Gods gift for mercy. Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To be pure means to be clean and in the New Testament the heart is believed to be the center of ones essence or being. When I read this I think of small children for they are pure in heart and are said to have a guardian angel following them around to see that no harm comes to them. So maybe that is it. If we cleanse ourselves of bad thoughts and nastiness to make ourselves pure we shall see God by being under his protection until the day we actually see Him standing at the gates of Heaven. Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. These peacemakers can be individuals that will go out of their way to make others happy or to help others in their time of need and the result being in that some way peace was made or kept. These are the ones that put themselves at risk in order to prevent arguments or wars. The phrase sons of God is a common Hebrew expression that means someone who has the quality and characteristic of God, someone who is Godlike. Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted, not for any crimes they have done, but for unrighteousness. In other words, by living saintly and living righteously, you will separate yourself from the unrighteous people and be permitted into heaven. Now let us take a look at some similar passages in the Bible. Four similar blessings appear in the Gospel of Luke and are followed by four woes that mirror the blessings. This passage in Luke is also known as the Sermon on the Plain; Luke 6:20-22 Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account as the Son of man! Luke 6:24-26 But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Theere being a difference in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Lukes version of the Beatitudes shouldnt surprise us really. Think about it. This is two different peoples version of what was said. Of course it would be recorded differently, because everyone is different and interprets things different in their mind. What does The Beatitudes say about the relationship with God? Basically through The Beatitudes God is giving us a pathway to follow to find happiness with God in our lives. By centering our lives on God, we become transformed. I think the whole message of The Beatitudes is if we center our life on God, we will find peace in our lives. What follows after The Beatitudes is the rest of chapter 5 in The Gospel of Matthew and also the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 6 in the Gospel of Matthew is also a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus tells the disciples to be discrete in several areas of their lives versus showing off with pride. Doing these things in secret will result in rewards from the Father in secret. Give to the needy, pray in your home with the door closed, fast in private, and not to worry about earthly treasures, but instead worry about treasures you can store in heaven by keeping your heart on God. I think the main question this passage may have addressed in the community for which it was originally written was What about the ten commandments? Think about it. At the time Jesus was giving these new rules from God, everyone was honoring the ten commandments as the law. Im sure Jesus had to explain that the ten commandments ARE the law, but The Beatitudes are kind of a modification to the laws. The ten commandments were the laws of the Old Testament and, yes, they are still the laws, but times were changing and new modifications were needed in the New Testament time.

Theories of perception

Perception is a combination of both the physiological processes involved within the senses and the way in which the brain integrates and interprets the sensory information that it takes in. The two main explanations of perception prioritise the role of one or other of these different aspects. The bottom-up theory emphasises the importance of stimulus features in perception. The visual information that reaches the eye is thought to contain sufficient unambiguous information about an object for ffective perception to take place with little further processing.Gibson suggested that light reaching the eye does so in an optic array. This provides information about such things as distance, movement and meaning. Interpretation is achieved through analysis of the information in the optic array by means of various cues such as texture gradient and horizon ratio. The former refers to the fact that the texture of an object becomes less clear the further it is away. By picking up this information an observer is able to perceive some aspects of depth. Gibson rejected the view that we erceive a meaningful environment because of the involvement of stored knowledge and experience.He claimed that the meaning of a stimulus is determined by the object's affordance, ie: the physical structure of an object gives clues as to what its' potential use. Eysenck and Keane (1990) suggest that the concept of affordances is central to Gibson's theory as otherwise he would be forced to admit that the meaning of objects is something we store in long-term memory. Gibson's theory has provided a good explanation of the generally fast and accurate perception of the environment ut it does struggle to explain why we do sometimes make mistakes, as with illusions.An alternative explanation of perception is that of the top-down approach suggested by Gregory. This sees the eventual product of perception being ‘constructed', that is, built up from a combination of stimulus information, expectations and hypotheses. The process involves making sense of all the various bits of information provided by the senses. A key aspect of this view of perception is that because of the role of the hypotheses and expectation, perception will be frequently prone to error.

Unanswered Concerns on Good College Argumentative Essay Topics

Unanswered Concerns on Good College Argumentative Essay Topics Although writing an MBA essay is much like writing any different type of essay in addition, there are difference that you have to know about to be able to compose a good paper. When you're writing your paper, have a look at the next 10 things you should know. Hope this list provides you a wonderful essay writing help. On the flip side, if you've got to compose a persuasive essay, all the matters mentioned previously don't play such significant function. Anyway, direct and indirect quotes are necessary to support your understanding of academic writing style. Winston Churchill gave a great speech and he was an excellent communicator are the exact same ideas. So, the best method to compose a wonderful persuasive essay is to discover a theme you're familiarized with and would like to share your experience with the reader. The reader ought to be impressed by how you defend your ideas. Don't neglect to bring a strong hook at the beginning (introduction paragraph) and wind up with an impressive conclusion to create the reader want to talk about the interesting persuasive essay topics of your pick. These sorts of essays demand a lot of in-depth research and a careful perusal of all of the perspectives or arguments for and against a specific stance. The above-mentioned topic selection may give you a crystal clear understanding of what things to write about. It's important to select debatable argumentative essay topics since you need opposing points that you may counter to your own points. From among the persuasive speech topics listed here, pick the one which you are most well-informed about or make sure you've got the time required to r esearch and prepare an all-inclusive speech that covers every facet of the topic. Examine the list to choose the topic which can help you compose a creative essay for your middle school class. Getting to a college can make things a great deal simpler to you, especially in regards to additional education and career development and the college makes it possible for you do develop new concepts and ideas throughout the paper writing and the main reason why various subjects are the component of normal discussions is the evolution of the critical and analytical thinking. The list of the greatest argumentative essay topics for college students contains nice and versatile suggestions that will boost your students and make them think. On-line education is like a normal college education. The Most Popular Good College Argumentative Essay Topics The procedure for getting good argumentative research essay topics is not simple. Every student who would like to carry out a great academic p aper can use mentioned subjects and example argumentative essay to do a superb work. You may continue to keep your argumentative essays for your upcoming job portfolio in case they're highly graded. However soon you're expected to file your college argumentative essay for grading, we'll write the paper for you. Since you can see, lots of the topics listed are new and tackle the recent issues happening in the World today. You should have your reasons, and our principal concern is that you find yourself getting an excellent grade. The worldwide community will however must keep on providing technical and financial support to the nation. Taking into consideration that there's a variety of topics and ideas for persuasive papers and distinct techniques to create them, often it becomes difficult for students to pick the most relevant and intriguing topic and method to follow. Read the list and stay in mind that interesting topics are a suitable way for an intriguing assignment. I t's possible to also restate the ideas you've discussed in the body paragraphs in order to make your point valid. In choosing your topic, it's frequently a good notion to start out with a subject which you already have some familiarity with. An excellent result is dependent upon absolute facts. Becoming in a position to compose a strong argument will allow you to succeed in society. The second thing which you should take care of once you choose the title is to maintain in mind five kinds of argument claims. In the conclusive paragraph, along with an overall review of the essay, you should also present your perception on the subject and end will an appeal to more research or action with relevance to the topic. The Most Popular Good College Argumentative Essay Topics Argumentative essay topics are so important since they are debatableand it's important to at all times be critically considering the world around us. An argumentative essay requires you to choose a topic and have a position on it. Moral argumentative essay topics are a few of the simplest to get carried away with. Don't hesitate to use any one of these topics for argumentative essays. Deciding on your topic isn't that easy. If you get to select your own topic, that's excellent. Quite frequently, the ideal topic is one which you truly care about, but you also will need to get ready to research it. Researching the topic permits you to find out more about what fascinates you, and should you pick something you truly like, writing the essay will be more enjoyable. If you must compose your whole essay in 1 day, do your very best to give yourself breaks so you don't burn out. Remember, however, that convincing your intended audience about something which you don't know for sure really isn't the best method to compose your paper. Preferably, it needs to be something that you're an expert in. It's not sufficient to select a topic which everybody agrees on. Doing sports in college needs to be mandatory. Argue not all sportsmen may get excellent coaches. It may seem fun and simple to play in teams, but it isn't so easy.

Practice in Identifying Appositives in Sentences

As weve seen in  What Is an Appositive?, an appositive is a word or group of words that concisely identifies or renames another word in a sentence. The exercise on this page offers practice in identifying appositives. Exercise Some of the sentences below contain adjective clauses; others contain appositives. Identify the adjective clause or appositive in each sentence; then compare your responses with the answers below. (If you run into problems, review Building Sentences with Appositives.) John Reed, an American journalist, helped found the Communist Labor Party in America.My sister, who is a supervisor at Munchies, drives a company car.I took a cookie from Gretel, who is the woodcutters daughter.I took a cookie from Gretel, the woodcutters daughter.Og, the King of Bashan, was saved from the flood by climbing onto the roof of the ark.I once saw Margot Fonteyn, the famous ballerina.Elkie Fern, who is a professional botanist, led the kids on a nature hike.Elsa, a good country woman, has a daughter named Ulga.Paul Revere, who was a silversmith and a soldier, is famous for his midnight ride.I read a biography of Disraeli, the 19th-century statesman, and novelist. Answers to the exercise: appositive: an American journalistadjective clause: who is a supervisor at Munchiesadjective clause: who is the woodcutters daughterappositive: the woodcutters daughterappositive: the King of Bashanappositive: the famous ballerinaadjective clause: who is a professional botanistappositive: a good country womanadjective clause: who was a silversmith and a soldierappositive: the 19th-century statesman and novelist