10 Great Teachings of Jesus from the "Sermon on the Mount"

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Issue #1--Week of November 1, 1999

Jesus' Teaching #1 of 10:

“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”  Matthew 7:7 (TEV) * 

Comment:  I remember seeing people camping on the sidewalk in a large city.  It was freezing cold.  They were trying to stay warm, huddled in blankets and cardboard boxes and sleeping bags.  Some of them waited for up to two days.  They were in line to get tickets for a concert.  Whenever I have attended a play or concert or ballgame, I sometimes wonder (from my seat way in the back) who gets to sit in the front row.  Guess who?  The ones who were determined enough to go after the best seats. 

To start a new form of Bible Study, this seems like a perfect scripture to begin with!  It is true with life, and with Bible Study too, that those who ask are more likely to receive, and those who seek something are usually the ones who find it, and the people who knock are the ones who get inside.   

I invite you to make it habit to open “Window into the Bible” when it arrives in your email each week, and open your Bible as often as you can, too.  If you want to be wiser, read from Proverbs as often as you can.  If you want to learn about what Jesus had to say, you can seek that out in his most famous sermon, the “Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew chapters 5-7.  (The next nine weeks will highlight other famous teachings of Jesus from that sermon.)

 The act of seeking is really a two-way street, just as a friendship cannot form between two people unless both are willing to seek out the other’s companionship now and then.  The Bible tells us that the Lord is like a Good Shepherd, who seeks and saves the lost sheep, or like a woman who, having lost a coin, turns the house upside down seeking it until she finds it.  I hope that today, and this week, you will think about how the Lord seeks your friendship and company, and how much it can benefit us when we in turn seek out God’s companionship, too.

Have a wonderful day, and may God bless you!  Thank you for your interest in the Bible!   --Jeff

* “TEV” stands for “Today’s English Version.”  It is a translation of the Bible in modern, everyday English which is easy to read.  It is published by the American Bible Society of New York.  Permission has been granted to reprint selections of Today’s English Version of the Bible.