Like a Child

Yesterday, I read Matthew 18:1-9 and 19:13-15. Both of these passages feature Jesus speaking about how to inherit or enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Take a look:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
² Then He called a child to Him and had him stand among them. ³ “I assure you,” He said, “unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child—this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me.
⁶ “But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me—it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea! ⁷ Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes your downfall, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire. -Matthew 18:1-9

Then children were brought to Him so He might put His hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.” ¹⁵ After putting His hands on them, He went on from there. -Matthew 19:13-15

You see, He claims that we must come to Him like a small child to enter the Kingdom of God. We must have the trust and faith in God and in Jesus that a small child has in his/her father. We are completely dependent, relying on Him for everything and having ever-flowing love for Him. 

But, we often times are not like this. Our dependence and love for Jesus can be muffled by many things, including earthly possessions. I don't think it is a coincidence that in Matthew 19:16-22 we find the story of the rich young ruler. He claimed that he wanted to follow Jesus, but could not let go of his money. He was not able to part from possessions:

 Just then someone came up and asked Him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”
¹⁷ “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” He said to him. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
¹⁸ “Which ones?” he asked Him. Jesus answered:

Do not murder;
do not commit adultery;
do not steal;
do not bear false witness;
¹⁹ honor your father and your mother;
and love your neighbor as yourself.

²⁰ “I have kept all these,” the young man told Him. “What do I still lack?”

²¹ “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
²² When the young man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. -Matthew 19:16-22

Money brings safety and security, so we trust Him less. Money brings distraction and entertainment, which sucks away from our love for God. This is why Matthew 19:23-25 is such a somber passage:

²³ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I assure you: It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?” -Matthew 19:23-25

 The good news is that there is a flipside. In verse 26, Jesus says that all things are possible with God. That is then followed up with a quick back-and-forth between Jesus and Peter: 

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
²⁷ Then Peter responded to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You. So what will there be for us?”
²⁸ Jesus said to them, “I assure you: In the Messianic Age, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses, brothers or sisters, father or mother, children, or fields because of My name will receive 100 times more and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and the last first. -Matthew 19:26-30

You see, we as Christians are called to be completely devoted to Jesus. We are willing to leave it all and be totally dependent on God, relying on Him day-by-day, step-by-step. We must walk by faith, trusting that we will be held tight by our Father and that the One who loves us won't let us go.

We can be confident in that because He loved us so much that He gave up His Son on the cross, and it was through that act that the impossible happened. The ones who were far from God, separated from Him by sin, were brought close. We were impossibly separated from God until God made it possible for us to draw near to Him.

So, it is no longer impossible for us to trust Him, walk with Him, love Him, be with Him and depend on Him in all things. It is no longer impossible for us to give up all we have to follow Him. It is no longer impossible to come to Him like a small child, and it is no longer impossible for us to inherit eternal life. The Kingdom is ours.

Rest in the Midst of Your Burdens

Man, I am swamped these days. I recently started attending seminary in Louisville, while working at my home church in Lexington, all while balancing family and friends and interests and such. Life is crazy. My days and nights consist of reading about church history and Old Testament scholarship, writing papers on Hittite treaties, organizing and guiding and leading and preaching in growing, active student ministry, leading a small group, discipling a couple of guys and being discipled myself.

It has been during this past week, about three weeks into the semester, when I have realized that I am burning out already. So, I took much of this past weekend off and have been scaling back some things.

Alas, here it is. Monday. And I am reaping the consequences of my weekend of minimal work. And that's OK.

It is good to appreciate little things and relax a bit. I spent Friday night watching the first live MMA fights that I have watched in quite some time. It was a blast. Then, on Saturday, I spent much of the day with my family and some friends, eating jambalaya and watching LSU football. I accomplished a bit yesterday afternoon, but ended up spending last night in front of a Quentin Tarantino movie. All of this is going through my mind as I sit at my desk on a cool, autumn-esque morn, reading the Psalms.

If you have followed my blog any length of time, you're probably aware that I spend quite a bit of time in the Psalms. David, who wrote much of the Psalms, is my boy, and we think rather similarly (that is to say, we're both rather dramatic). So, as I read Psalm 35:27-28, I resonate well with his sentiment there.

"Let those who want my vindication shout for joy and be glad; let them continually say, 'the Lord be exalted, who wants His servant's well-being.' And my tongue will proclaim Your righteousness, Your praise all day long." -Psalm 35:27-28, HCSB

Now, the context of this passage is David, praying for victory over those who were oppressing him. Knowing his life story, I feel safe to assume they probably wanted him dead. I do not think anyone wants me dead. However, I believe there is something to be said here for anyone feeling some strain in life.

David writes that the Lord "wants His servant's well-being." God truly does want the best for His people. Romans 8 is a beautiful chapter on that front. While it may seem that we are overwhelmed, God has given us much in those moments. He is working for our good and is here alongside us, strengthening us through the work and truth of the Gospel (Philippians 4:10-13). This is why David proclaims at the end that he will proclaim "[His] righteousness, [His] praise all day long."

Our God is a loving God, and He wants our well-being. He wants His people to pursue Him with all they have and find joy/praise in Him. As a continuation of that, He wants us to cut out what keeps us from doing so.

So don't be afraid to take a night off. Yes, we work hard. Yes, we pursue excellence. However, it is not God's desire for us to be miserable, either. He has given us good things (such as friends, family, Cajun food and SEC football) to enjoy in His name. Don't spend your life worrying and stressing over everything all the time. He's got this. Our job is to shout for joy, be glad, exalt Him, proclaim His righteousness and praise Him all the day long. None of that involves letting the minutiae kill you.

Yes, this is a bit of a rambling post, so let me sum it up as such: David spends verses 1-8 and 11-26 ranting and rambling about his struggles, much like I did to start this post. Yet, he stops in verses 9-10, as well as verses 27-28, to rest in Him and praise God's goodness. Let's follow that example.

I challenge you: rest in Him at some point today. It's Monday, after all. We're all ramping up for the work week and diving in. Therefore, you're likely stressing already about your workload and deadlines and outside difficulties and such. Take some time off, at some point today, and rest in Him. Take a walk. Smell a flower. See a movie. Eat lunch with your phone turned off. Do something you enjoy that allows you to rest in the good, loving things He gives you and let the struggles disappear for a bit. Read through Psalm 35 and make the resting verses, the praises of Him be your refrain today. May our bones say "Lord, who is like You, rescuing the poor from one too strong for him, the poor or the needy from one who robs him?" today!

Money and Possessions: It's All About the Heart

"But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property. However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife’s knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Then Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds from the field?  Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!”  When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard.The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him.

There was an interval of about three hours; then his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.  “Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the field for this price?”
“Yes,” she said, “for that price.”

Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out!”
 
Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband. Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things." -Acts 5:1-11, HCSB

Every now and then, the Bible gets intense. Everything will be going smoothly, then BAM! Things get real. Quick. This is one of those times.

The book of Acts flows smoothly (relatively) from the beginning to here: Jesus ascends to heaven, the Holy Spirit descends to the Church, Peter preaches, the Church grows, the disciples do some other stuff, the Church grows more. It's a pretty fluid deal, until we get to Acts 5. Here, we see a man and wife named Annias and Sapphira, respectively. They didn't apparently jive with Acts 4:32-37, which speaks to the massive generosity of the early Church.

They sold a plot of land, and then decided to keep part of the profit. This isn't wrong, but it appears that they gave the money they gave a) under the guise that they were giving all the proceeds, b) making a show of their giving, or c) both. Regardless, the issue here is the same: they had a heart problem.

The whole attitude for giving in Christ is found in Matthew 6, specifically verses 1-4. Here, Jesus makes it clear: giving is a heart deal. We aren't to make a show of ourselves when giving, saying "hey, look at me! I'm holy and give so much!" That defeats the point of giving; we are to make much of God, giving Him what is already His. Making much of ourselves in giving takes the focus off of the Gifted and puts it on the gifter (whom is giving to God what was already His to begin with).

Also, if they simply wanted to hoard, Matthew 6:19-24 is Jesus' answer to that. He talks here about gathering up treasures and such here on earth, and how stupid and pointless this is. We're all going to die (or be raptured); there ain't a single one of us taking our crap with us. If Annias was wanting to hoard, then his problem was Matthew 6:24; he had made himself a slave to money, not God. One cannot be a slave to two masters.

Are you a slave to money, or God? Are you giving to make much of you, or to make much of God? What's at the core of your approach and attitude to money and possessions?