Guest Blog written by: Brad Kempson

One of the first things we read today are the Beatitudes. A beatitude is supreme blessedness. Jesus tells us how we should be, and if we follow those things, we will be blessed. 

Another big thing we read at the is about the salt and the light. This passage takes me back to winter retreat. That lesson was amazing. We need to be something that helps people. We can’t loose our faith. Jesus needs us to be able to draw people closer to him. We are also a light. We need to give people light and not hide it. 

Another thing we read is not to flaunt what we do. We have all heard this before. We shouldn’t let everyone know what we are doing, or announce what we do. It doesn’t matter if people think highly of us after we have done something. It should only matter to God. 

We also hear about the two houses. One on the rock and one on the sand. This story is special to me. When I was 9, I was going on my first trip with the disciples at church. Mrs. Nancy Gatewood was leading a lesson. That day, I accepted Jesus. 

We read about Jesus calming the storm. While everyone was panicking, Jesus was asleep. He was calm and knew everything was going to be ok. Everyone woke him up and asked him to do something. So Jesus called out to the storm and it calmed. Jesus also calms the storms in our lives. We don’t have to worry.

Jesus healed many people. He drew out demons, healed leprosy, raised dead, and healed paralyzed. Once as he was drawing a demon out, the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.” The Pharisees were saying that Jesus was Satan. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus was healing these people by God.

One thing Jesus says is that the people hear but don’t understand, and that they might see something, but they don’t see it fully. We do this. Sometimes, we don’t fully understand what we hear, or we don’t see fully things that are shown to us. We need to get closer to God to be able to understand the things we see and her.

We read two well known passages. Jesus feeds the five thousand, and Jesus walks on water. We all know that the food was given to all the people and there was more left. This tells us that God can take the smallest thing in us and make it huge. Jesus walking on the water tells us that if we have faith in Jesus we can do great things.