Men must struggle or they deteriorate.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (The Californios)

       “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
                    –Romans 8:10 (NIV)
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         “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled.”  –Matthew 5:6 (KJV)

     Let me begin this with some background of the times in which it was written.  William Barclay does an able job explaining the life of the period.
               “The fact is that very few of us in modern conditions of life know what it is to be really hungry or really thirsty.  In the ancient world it was very different.  A working man’s wage was the equivalent of three pence a day, and, even making every allowance for the difference in the purchasing power of money, no man ever got fat on that wage.  A working man in Palestine ate meat only once a week, and in Palestine the working man and the day labourer were never far from the border-line of real hunger and actual starvation.
               It was still more so in the case of thirst.  It was not possible for the vast majority of people to turn a tap and find the clear, cold water pouring into their house.  A man might be on a journey, and in the midst of it the hot wind which brought the sand-storm might begin to blow.  There was nothing for him to do but to wrap his head in his burnous and turn his back to the wind, and wait, while the swirling sand filled his nostrils and his throat until he was likely to suffocate, and until he was parched with an imperious thirst.  In the conditions of modern western life there is no parallel at all to that.”
     I am thirsty just from reading that.  We may cry, “I’m thirsty,” but this beatitude is speaking of a deep thirst.  Not for real water but having an appetite for God.  There is an ongoing hunger for Him that is never fully satisfied.  The term means to have a “vehemet desire” or a “vividely expressed desire.”  Barclay refers to it as a “starving spirit.”  How thirsty are you for “righteousness”?
     There are actually three parts to righteousness.  The first is legal.  This is justification, a right relationship with God.  This was taken care of at the cross, but now we move into this meaning of this verse.  There is a moral righteousness which is an inner right-of-heart, mind, and motive.  Do you long to do right in all your motives?  Hmmm.  Then there is also social righteousness, this is outside of the private and is expressed in the community.  D.A. Carson says that the righteousness that Jesus is speaking of is “wholly to do God’s will from the heart.”  Barclay says, “It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food, and the thirst of a man who will die unless he drinks.”  That is the righteousness that we should and must have.
     The question is:  how intense is our desire for goodness, for righteousness?  The great author, Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote that “There is the malady of not wanting.”  Oh, we want all right.  We want this and we want that.  We want in our selfishness.  But…what do we hunger after?  We have a “jaded appetite.”  We want the calories of dessert or pizza or something that will fill the craving of our taste buds.  Friend that is not the same as spiritual hunger.  “Spiritual hunger is the characteristic of all God’s people.  Our supreme ambition is not material but spiritual.” (John Stott)  We want just a taste of righteousness but then we look at the things out there and we have a different type of hunger.  Listen, “Blessed is the man who hungers and thirsts for the goodness that is total.” (Barclay)
     We do not seek legal righteousness, that was taken care of at the cross.  To do this is crossing into legalism.  Longing and thirsting after salvation when it is already taken care of is not true hunger.  Our hunger should be after God’s righteous character.  To be like Him.  Oh, we can never reach that lofty goal.  But the key is, as Barclay writes, “Not necessarily the man who achieves this goodness, but the man who longs for it with his whole heart.”

Don’t be a drifter. Always have some sort of a plan. It may not be much, but don’t travel through life aimlessly. The plan may change; it may be vague, but have some purpose in where you travel and what you do.”
                    –D.C. Adkisson  (The True and Unbiased Life of Elias Butler)

       “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
                    –Matthew 7:14 (ESV)
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     Give praise and thanks to the Lord that you are traveling this path that some call the narrow way, others the gloryland trail, while others the highway to heaven or the heavenly trek.  No matter what you call it, know this, that it is uphill and hard.  Always uphill, or upward to glory.  It is always onward as well, there is no turning back.  I recall the first stanza of one of my favorite hymns penned by Johnson Oatman, Jr.
               “I’m pressing on the upward way,
               New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
               Still praying as I’m onward bound,
               ‘Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.'”
     As Christians we are all on the same upward trail, or trek.  It is the same path for every believer, however, on this journey each of the travelers face different obstacles along the way.  There may be storms, battles, disease, death, financial problems, sorrow and sufferings of a myriad types, and on, and on, and on the list continues.  And we all face these trials in different ways depending on our experiences, training, attitude, personality, and character.  But now no matter what, it is upward.  We continue on.
     Some will walk the road slowly, but with certain steps.  Others will take great strides at times, but then falter and slow down, while for others there seems to be little progress just inching along, but onward and upward is the road.  That is certain.  Another certain thing, this road is not a tip-toe through the tulips waltz.  But is very often along a precarious edge of a cliff knowing that a misstep could be fatal.  That’s when we reach out with assurance to grasp the Master’s hand.  He is with us all along the way, but it is on those strenuous parts of the journey that we feel the touch of the Savior.  The words of Elmo Mercer come to my mind.
               “Each step I take I know that He will guide me;
               To higher ground He ever leads me on.
               Until some day the last step will be taken,
               Each step I take just leads me closer home.”
     There are those of you who say, “wait a minute,” I’m not always going upward.  There are times I’m down in the valley of depression or the slough of despair.  If you have ever traveled in the Rocky Mountains you will know that even in the high country there are small valleys and ravines that must be traversed.  In Colorado, there are those lark parks:  North Park, Middle Park, and South Park.  They are not rugged, yet they are at a high altitude so when you are in them you are clearly in the high country.
     You must walk the journey alone, yet in another sense there are others walking with you.  You face your trials and obstacles alone, however there are members of the “family” who are there to pray and help escort you along the way.  You work out your own salvation, but you know that others have gone the way before you and that others are following you so leave clear footprints for them to follow.
     Weariness may try you, but take time to look back at where you once were.  Look at the experiences you have come through and rest in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit was with you each step of the way; therefore rejoice and smile.  Keep moving, don’t stand still, the journey continues and you’re moving toward eternity and home in heaven.

We make our choices, and we pay the price. That’s the way life is.”
                    –Stephen Bly (The Long Trail Home)

       “Do not envy the oppressor, And choose none of his ways.”
                    –Proverbs 3:31 (NKJV)
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          “Work in me all the good pleasure of thy will, and I will only lie still in thy hands and trust thee.”
                         –Hannah Whitall Smith

     “The need is the calling,” declares Bill Wilson.  I emphatically decided to not go into education.  No way was I going to deal with a bunch of brats; kids who didn’t care if they received a proper education much less become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Nine years later I was in the classroom.  Much had happened in my life over the time when I decided not to become a teacher and the time I entered the classroom.  One of those was that God was working in me His good will, the other was that I saw a tremendous need–the need of discipleship.  Why were so many of our church young people falling away from the faith?  There was a need, so I accepted the calling, and I would say that need is perhaps greater than ever.
     We live in an evil world, one that is arrayed against God.  Paul tells us what our relation to the world should be.  
               “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
                         –Ephesians 4:17-19(NKJV)
We must–we must–get this, we must think differently than the world.  There is quite a bit in these verses, but I want to concentrate on the futile mind.  Ray Stedman states that Paul “does not start with actions.  He starts with the thoughtlife, with the mind, and he declares that the world’s thinking is empty.”  The world lives in futility, emptiness of mind.
     Futility is being “void of purpose of appropriateness,” or in other words, “pointless.”  In the light of eternity the efforts, the philosophy of men, the thoughts and ideas are pointless compared to the truth of Jesus Christ.  As Christians we must realize that there must be a distinct line between Christianity and the world.  John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15, NKJV)  James tells us, “…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4, NKJV)
     “How close to the world can one live?” is often the question asked by, and let me call them by their right name, pseudo-Christians.  When the right question is, how close can I live to God?  Who is right then, the world or God?  “Christians must choose on which basis they are going to live their lives.” (Stedman)  As we follow Christ, we must change our thinking.  This is paramount.  “You must be willing to have your whole fundamental outlook on life drastically altered.  Christianity is not merely a change in outward action, or a bit higher moral or ethical level.  Christianity is a revolutionary change of government that results in a radical change in behavior.” (Stedman)
     Life is full of choices, and even when we have decided to accept Jesus we must then make choices on serving Him.  Every day there is a choice, there may be a great challenge to our faith, but even in the daily activities we decide whom we will give our allegiance.  The words of Joshua should ring out in our hearts and minds, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV)