I'm just sitting here thinking about how a child's perception of the world is so different from an adult. Children have something magical that adults need to see and adults have stability and perspective that children need. God was so wise to give us overlapping generations.
Adults have a responsibility to the children or their generation. If adults get cut off from that magic something is lost. One of the responsibilities that often parents take on is to teach courtesy and responsibility. That is so needed because if this is done right (and that may be very different for each unique family situation) then those children will have a good transition into adult life.
"For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." - Romans 2:14-16 ESV
This seems like an odd passage to quote but I think God must teach us how to process blame. Children will often blame themselves for a tragedy and then secretly harbor that blame and carry it into adulthood. A trusted adult needs to reassure a child that tragic events are 'not their fault.'
We don't know how to forgive. God sent Jesus to teach us how. He died on a cross to give us an 'instrument' of forgiveness.
We need God to bring us out of 'accusing or even excusing' ourselves and others. We don't know how to forgive. We don't have the power or authority to leverage forgiveness off of our self. God forgives because of the cross. He makes a reckoning and says that because Jesus shed His blood we are forgiven. If we see the cross as God does we will leave the 'accusing' or 'excusing' economy far behind.
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 ESV
As adults, we can still have the wonder. If we become spiritual adults we can have it all. We can have faith, hope and love. We can have a healthy way to process responsibility that has liberty. We can be free.
--
Showing posts with label Childlike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Childlike. Show all posts
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Regression
I have been thinking today a lot about regression (or reversion) in people. I see it in myself at times. If you have even done nursing home ministry you see it everywhere. Elderly people acting like children. You could say they have gotten more childlike but if you speak to them it is not that at all. They have returned to their childhood state of mind.
It is natural in a crisis to look for shelter and safety. If where we are is intolerable and we can't go forward we go back. Time travel is not possible so we flee in a different way.
A couple of verses come to mind.
"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." - Luke 18:17 ESV
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." - 1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV
I know believers that act like atheists. They aren't but they have reverted into the mindset of one. Some might say that they were never regenerated at all... that is the case for some but not others. They have just reverted because of pain or hurt or something irreconcilable that happened.
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt." - Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV
This is a very contested passage but I really think it is speaking of reversion. The reborn Hebrew suddenly couldn't work. They were thrown out of the synagogue and faced tremendous pressure and persecution in Israel. Some of them responded to the pressure by reverting. They acted like they were who they were before Jesus came on the scene. They denied Christ and returned to an old way.
It is sad to see someone saved in their twenties revert back to the things they did before but it is even sadder to see someone who was brought up in a Christian home and converted at an early age revert because they just don't have anywhere to go. They almost invent a fictional past to return to.
Salvation can't be lost but the believers experience of salvation can be. People can't turn back to God if they deny the very existence or reality of the thing that they would be turned back to. Jesus isn't Messiah to a backsliding person... He is a problem to be avoided and not the solution to be embraced.
But, The old music isn't the answer. Finding your high school flame won't solve anything. It might just raise more questions. Skepticism is from before... why would we return there? We can sulk like a thirteen year old and skip through the grass like we are seven but we will still be who we are now. The thing that stopped us and caused us to retreat is still there. Hiding won't fix anything.
We all need to be childlike but in a right now kind of way. God can return our thinking to childlike purity when redemption enters our frame of reference once again. Jesus is the door that opens into childlike faith. There is no other way in. In truth there is no other way forward but through Him that will not lead to vanity.
Fear can only hinder the ignorant. Faith mixed with truth gives all of us the ability to move forward because God is doing it in us.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation ... Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." - Psalm 42:5, 7-8 ESV
Yes. Let's be men and women that stand tall. We might flinch but we don't have to fall back. Our faith can be fresh, pure and new like a child as we move in the maturity of years.
The past has a nice fragrance to us at times but those roses are gone. There are new fields to be planted and harvested. Let's go forward and cry out, 'Today I will put away childish things. Today I am believing in You. I am going forward with You God. Take me where You will.'
--
It is natural in a crisis to look for shelter and safety. If where we are is intolerable and we can't go forward we go back. Time travel is not possible so we flee in a different way.
A couple of verses come to mind.
"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." - Luke 18:17 ESV
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." - 1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV
I know believers that act like atheists. They aren't but they have reverted into the mindset of one. Some might say that they were never regenerated at all... that is the case for some but not others. They have just reverted because of pain or hurt or something irreconcilable that happened.
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt." - Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV
This is a very contested passage but I really think it is speaking of reversion. The reborn Hebrew suddenly couldn't work. They were thrown out of the synagogue and faced tremendous pressure and persecution in Israel. Some of them responded to the pressure by reverting. They acted like they were who they were before Jesus came on the scene. They denied Christ and returned to an old way.
It is sad to see someone saved in their twenties revert back to the things they did before but it is even sadder to see someone who was brought up in a Christian home and converted at an early age revert because they just don't have anywhere to go. They almost invent a fictional past to return to.
Salvation can't be lost but the believers experience of salvation can be. People can't turn back to God if they deny the very existence or reality of the thing that they would be turned back to. Jesus isn't Messiah to a backsliding person... He is a problem to be avoided and not the solution to be embraced.
But, The old music isn't the answer. Finding your high school flame won't solve anything. It might just raise more questions. Skepticism is from before... why would we return there? We can sulk like a thirteen year old and skip through the grass like we are seven but we will still be who we are now. The thing that stopped us and caused us to retreat is still there. Hiding won't fix anything.
We all need to be childlike but in a right now kind of way. God can return our thinking to childlike purity when redemption enters our frame of reference once again. Jesus is the door that opens into childlike faith. There is no other way in. In truth there is no other way forward but through Him that will not lead to vanity.
Fear can only hinder the ignorant. Faith mixed with truth gives all of us the ability to move forward because God is doing it in us.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation ... Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." - Psalm 42:5, 7-8 ESV
Yes. Let's be men and women that stand tall. We might flinch but we don't have to fall back. Our faith can be fresh, pure and new like a child as we move in the maturity of years.
The past has a nice fragrance to us at times but those roses are gone. There are new fields to be planted and harvested. Let's go forward and cry out, 'Today I will put away childish things. Today I am believing in You. I am going forward with You God. Take me where You will.'
--
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
The Topic Of The Cross
"They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.'
But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, 'What were you discussing on the way?'
But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.' And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.' " - Mark 9:30-37 ESV
If we have no understanding of the cross we will have ambition that has no fellowship with God. After the cross comes in and it is no longer a topic to be avoided with God it is then we become ministers. We can love instead of looking for recognition.
Love becomes a stewardship. Instead of replacing Christ we go as people crucified and raised from the dead. Able ministers to the guilty and the innocent.
When we no longer fear to discuss the cross with God fear of every other topic fades as well. Everything that could ever separate us from fellowship was nailed to that cross. No topic is off limits. We can come just like little children to the one who loves us.
--
But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, 'What were you discussing on the way?'
But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.' And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.' " - Mark 9:30-37 ESV
If we have no understanding of the cross we will have ambition that has no fellowship with God. After the cross comes in and it is no longer a topic to be avoided with God it is then we become ministers. We can love instead of looking for recognition.
Love becomes a stewardship. Instead of replacing Christ we go as people crucified and raised from the dead. Able ministers to the guilty and the innocent.
When we no longer fear to discuss the cross with God fear of every other topic fades as well. Everything that could ever separate us from fellowship was nailed to that cross. No topic is off limits. We can come just like little children to the one who loves us.
--
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)