Children Get It! Matthew 18:1-5

First- I'm back! No excuses for my long absence- so I won't even try. A few notes- I am not going to be as long winded as I was in the past. You're busy and I know it, and I want to respect that! I'm going to try to post at least once a week. Finally- when we get long readings handed to us - I will try to focus on just a few verses! Now let's get to it!


I love when Jesus acknowledges children- it's a reminder of the why I do what I do (Director of youth and family ministries). Just as Jesus did, I am called to acknowledge and lift up children! It's especially fulfilling when Jesus says "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me"

Jesus goes beyond acknowledging this nameless child, Jesus tells us "unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" That's a serious charge.

What is about a child (or children in general) that we should aspire to? Well one quality is clear- the humbleness of children. And let's not forget Jesus is responding to the question from his disciples "Who is the greatest?". I must admit I've been there - I've wanted to be the best AND wanted to be recognized for it. Am I alone in this? Is it just me that wants praise, adoration, and recognition for being good at something? I am thinking probably not (at least I'm in the same boat as the disciples appear to be in).

So back to kids. Kids know they aren't the best- well at least they used to. I worry about kids nowadays- I see parents pushing their kids into extremely competitive sports environments, scholastic endeavors, and pushing them to be the best. Coaches and parents may say it's about teamwork, leadership, working towards a common goal, but more often than not, I see the adults lifting up one or two children as "the greatest". When we purposefully compete, we naturally try to be the best. A recent car commercial (at least I think it's a car ad) says they don't make giant foam fingers with two fingers, and no one strives to come in second...you get the gist.

Sorry for the tangent but to the conclusion. When I think of qualities of children that are worth emulating I think of these -

• They naturally know right and wrong (not nearly as many shades of gray)
• They get what is fair and what is unfair (their sense of justice)
• They believe that magic and miracles can and do exist
• They can believe something without having to fully understand it
• At least a part of them knows they need guidance from above (perhaps just from a parent)
• They trust easier
• They love easier
• They forgive easier
• They hope easier
  
• They know they aren't the ultimate authority in life
• They admit to messing up better and more quickly than adults

These are qualities that if we look to, will in fact bring us closer to Christ.

Dear God,
Remind me I am your beloved child. Remind me that you love me better than even my earthly parents could. Help me to simply trust in you, as a child trusts their parents. Guide me to loving you and loving others as a child loves- without question and without hesitation. Lord, bless the children of our lives, bless children everywhere, watch over, protect, and love the most vulnerable of children. In Christ's name I pray- Amen.

Procrastination pays...what?! James 3 and Psalm 112

Okay so first of all, if you know me you know I tend to procrastinate - alot. For those of you who don't know me, I tend to procrastinate - alot. I put off of the things I should be doing now simply because in the back of my mind, I know I can do them later. Well in reality none of us really know that we have "later" who knows what can happen between now and then? Well God knows of course!

Most would say procrastination is a bad habit, and you know what I would agree. I think some of procrastination is laziness, and sometimes a lack of motivation. Despite the title of this blog I am not going to advocate procrastination, so if you're a fellow procrastinator, this blog won't provide you with a viable excuse. Sorry, maybe I'll find one for you later!

But what I will tell you is that the story I am about to share demonstrates that our God can work with exactly who we are right now. You see that's one of the things that's so cool about God. Despite out bad habits, our growing edges, our weaknesses, God can and DOES use right here, right now. No change required (though God does desire change!)

Let me share the story.

There is a group, a ministry, that I am involved with, on a volunteer basis that has been greatly frustrating to me. I don't want to go into a lot of details but what you need to know is this group is facing some challenges and some difficult circumstances, and I feel as though they are seeking "the easy way out". Often times you get out what you put in. I feel that by taking the easy way, we aren't doing it God's way, which I have taken a stand on. I don't disagree that there are relevant challenges facing this ministry, and some tough conversations need to be had, but I am standing firm that we need to have these conversations in a faithful, Godly kind of way. So where this ministry team and I disagree, is not what the conversation should be, but instead how we go about having that conversation.

This situation has been causing me to lose sleep and feel the weight of the world on shoulders, and has made me feel all alone. Some of the team members have even taken to attacking me personally. Tonight is a meeting of this team that can either go really well, or really really badly. I hope you will keep me, and this team in your prayers.

Now about the procrastinating part. I get a daily bible reading sent to my email every day. I'm not always great about reading them right then and there when I get them. So I had a few of these bible emails built up in my inbox. Today, the day of this meeting I am not looking forward to, was the same day I decided to catch up on my bible readings, and read these readings from James 3 and Psalm 112. I don't think I really need to explain why these passages helped me so much. But what I will say is that do you see how God came to me right where I am with EXACTLY what I needed?? God spoke directly to me through these passages. If I hadn't procrastinated I would have read these days and days ago and separately and I may not have heard God's word as clearly as I did by reading them today, all combined.

this is how God works. He knows me, he knows exactly what I needed to hear and he knew I'd get "busy" and put off hearing his word, and yet, God worked with those parameters and gave me what I needed. God does the same for YOU!

God didn't make me not read those scriptures, God didn't force this challenging situation to come up, but instead God worked through and within these circumstances to Love me and speak to me just as I needed. How awesome is a god that can do that? That god is THE GOD! the one and only, and GOD loves me, knows me, and provides for me exactly what I need.

We pray:
Holy God, you know me better than I know myself. You know my past, my present, and my future. You are THE GOD and you are my God. I love you Lord. Thank you for providing me with exactly what I need. I ask you to be there for everyone, as you are for me. Speak the words they need to hear, just as you have spoken so clearly to me, despite my short comings and my faults. Grant these things through your holy Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen

for me, for YOU, for US ( Isaiah 53:1 -12)

So this is a lot to read, even though it's only 12 verses. This is a powerful text that directly and completely points to Jesus Christ. Since it is long there are a few sentences that I'd really really like to focus all our attention on. Here they are in the order they appear in the reading:

1. he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
2. He was despised and rejected by others;
   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
3. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
   crushed for our iniquities;
   upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
   and by his bruises we are healed.
4. All we like sheep have gone astray;
   we have all turned to our own way,
5. and the Lord has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.
6. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
   yet he did not open his mouth;
7. By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
8. They made his grave with the wicked
   and his tomb with the rich,
9. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
   When you make his life an offering for sin,
10. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

Alright I picked the 10 most powerful phrases to ME. These may not be the most powerful ones for you, but when I look over this list, it certainly stirs something in my heart. I will quickly identify why each one means something special to me.

1. It was just a few weeks ago that we celebrated the birth of Christ, and we remembered how humble his beginnings were. He was born in a stable. He was surrounded by animals; by the smells, sounds, and sights that go along with those animals. He was bedded in a manger, in other words a trough, a crude method of holding animal feed. Tell me where in these dirty and lowly surroundings would we find majesty? What in these appearances would cause us to desire to be with Jesus Christ?!

2. Jesus is God, but also fully human. He knew what it was to stub his toe, to hit his head on a low hanging object, to get the common cold, to have a sore throat and runny nose. God knows intimately what it is to be human because God chose to take on our flesh, with all it's infirmities. Christ was despised and rejected by the "righteous" ones, like the pharisees, the religious leaders, the learned men of Israel. These were the ones who would eventually bring Christ to the cross. And let's not forget even at his birth, Jesus was despised by King Herod who was so full of hate, he slaughtered innocent newborns and toddlers.

3. He not only DIED for our sins, for our failures, for our mistakes, but he SUFFERED for them as well. Before he was crucified, he was flogged, beaten and mocked. He was bruised and broken before being nailed to a tree. I am reminded that my only way to be whole again, to be reunited with my heavenly father is through Christ my brother.

4. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We wander, he comes and finds us, and then picks us up and brings us back to the fold.

5. The Lord sent his own son to take on human flesh and die for us. To bear our faults and failures, so that we might be reunited with God. This always was, always is, and always will be of God's own design. It's nothing we have done or thought of, it's ALL God!

6. We know that Christ could have, with one word, saved himself from the misery and suffering he endured for our sake and yet he didn't. He could have destroyed the people who tortured, mocked, and ultimately killed him, and yet he didn't; instead he forgave them. We also remember that many times Christ was tempted to save himself, and yet he didn't! When Pilate offered him an out, Christ didn't take it, he remained silent, knowing his life, and our salvation hung in the balance.

7. We remember that in fact Christ was tried. He was on trial before the Sanhedrin and pharisees. He was found guilty. Now in modern times we might call that trial fixed, or rigged but Isaiah also said well, calling the trial a perversion of Justice. After the "trial" he was taken away to be executed by Rome.

8. His place of death, his grave was between two convicted criminals. He hung between two thieves, two wicked men. His place of burial, his tomb was owned by a rich man Joseph of Arimathea, and the tomb would have been near other tombs of the rich.

9. The life of Jesus Christ is an offering to God. It's an offering that we should make, giving our lives, and giving up eternal life, for our sin, but God will not accept it, instead, God accepts the life of his own son, as our offering. This is the only life God will take in order to pay for our own mistakes and sins. Christ died not a peaceful, easy death, but one that physically crushed him. While the actual cause of death by crucifixion is debated, it is certain that the victim's own weight actually crushes them (either their heart fails, or their lungs fail to function) and of course this way of dying is extremely painful.

10. We know the only way to be truly righteous in the sight of God is through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are sanctified (made holy) and redeemed by the death and blood of Jesus. Therefore, all of us who have a relationship with Christ, have been made righteous. That's a great many, many people over the centuries!

So in closing, I look at the words of Isaiah it would seem he was writing about the life, death and resurrection of Christ, after the fact, but instead, Isaiah authored these words hundreds of years before Christ. Clearly these words, these images, come directly from God's mouth to Isaiah's ears. The bible supports itself! God's word is so so so good. Only God could inspire words that are so perfect to me, to YOU and to US!

We pray:
Oh my God. My perfect, loving and amazing God. I come before you a humble, undeserving servant. I thank you for your son, for his life, his death, and his sacrifice for me. Without Christ, without you I am nothing, but because of Christ alone I come before you. I boldly pray that you might speak to me as clearly and concisely as you did to Isaiah. Guide me in your ways oh Lord so that I might be your instrument. In your hands I place myself, and all those that I love. In your righteous son's name I pray. AMEN.