Fresh Eyes for Familiar Words: Revisiting the Sermon on the Mount
I have read the Sermon on the Mount more times than I can count.
I know the Beatitudes. I know “salt and light.” I know “do not worry.” I know “ask, seek, knock.” These are some of the most familiar words in Scripture, which also means they can be some of the easiest to move through too quickly.
That is one of the reasons I love Kelly’s Knowledge Notes so much. They make you stop and think about verses you have read so many times that you have forgotten how truly amazing God’s words can be.
The newest set focuses on Matthew 5–7 and reminded me that familiar does not mean finished. There is always more to notice, more to understand, and more room for God to reshape the way we see.
Taking Another Look
As I was spending some time in the Knowledge Notes, I saw Sydney Friere’s (@aredeemedrose) newest Design Team Project. She created this incredible three-dimensional, layered View-Master project that I absolutely adore. She shared a video of it on her Instagram; you should definitely check it out.
Beyond being amazingly creative, it became a picture of what this study has been like for me. Looking through a View-Master does not change the image, but it does invite you to pause, focus, and see it differently.
That is exactly what these Knowledge Notes did with the Sermon on the Mount. They helped bring certain parts back into focus and invited me to look again at what Jesus was saying about righteousness, freedom, trust, mercy, and life in the Kingdom of God.
Sometimes it just takes looking at something through a different lens to experience a new perspective, even of something so familiar.
A Kingdom Heart
Sherri Brophy’s (@sherriluvsles) Design Team project captures that so well. Her Bible journaling pages are always so detailed and gorgeously curated.
She paired the Sermon on the Mount Knowledge Notes with pieces from the Wonder Club collection and titled her page “Kingdom Heart.” Her reflection centers on the way Jesus teaches that righteousness begins internally before it ever appears externally. Also, Sherri, I need to know exactly how you made those coordinating ransom letters. Share with us!!
The Sermon on the Mount is not simply a list of things we should do better. Jesus keeps drawing our attention beneath the surface, into the places where anger, pride, fear, mercy, desire, trust, and surrender begin.
He is not asking us to become better at looking righteous. He is inviting us to let Him transform the heart underneath our actions.
I love the way Sherri used the View-Master imagery alongside that truth. It becomes a visual reminder that Jesus is teaching us to see righteousness differently, not as performance, but as the outward fruit of inward transformation.
Seeing Freedom Differently
Sydney also used the Knowledge Notes in her most recent WIDSIOPOSA spread and connected the Sermon on the Mount to freedom.
We often think of freedom as being able to do whatever we want, but Jesus offers something much deeper.
His teaching points toward freedom from the things that quietly rule us: the approval of other people, anger, revenge, anxiety, comparison, and the constant need to secure everything for ourselves.
He also shows us the freedom to forgive, love generously, trust God, and live with an undivided heart.
That is not freedom without boundaries. It is freedom from being controlled by the things that keep us from living fully in God’s Kingdom.
Sydney’s reflection made me see these familiar chapters from a slightly different angle, and that is exactly what I appreciate about Knowledge Notes. They help us notice connections we may have passed over before.
Familiar Words, Fresh Attention
One of the beautiful things about Scripture is that we never return to it as the same person.
We come back with different experiences, questions, wounds, and hopes. The passage has not changed, but we have, and the Holy Spirit has a way of bringing another part of God’s truth into focus.
That is why I love seeing Knowledge Notes used in so many different ways. Sherri brought them into her interleaved Bible. Sydney carried them into her WIDSIOPOSA notebook. Wonder Club pieces became dimensional art, layered journaling elements, and visual reminders to slow down and pay attention.
The notes are not meant to stay as information on a page. They are a starting place for study, reflection, prayer, and creative response.
The Sermon on the Mount may be one of the most familiar sections of Scripture, but I do not think it ever becomes ordinary. Every time I return to it, I am reminded that Jesus is not simply giving us a list of rules to follow. He is inviting us into a different way of living, one shaped by mercy, trust, integrity, surrender, and love.
Sometimes we do not need new verses. We simply need to see familiar ones a little differently. If that sounds like the season you are in, I hope you will spend some time with the new Sermon on the Mount Knowledge Notes, available now in the Illustrated Faith Print & Pray Shop.
