Read Carefully

When reading the Bible, I’m seeing the importance of word order. For instance, one verse says to yield to God and resist the devil and he will flee from me. It does not say God will flee or that I can resist the devil first and then yield to God. If I’m not yielded to God, I have no power to resist the devil.

Another passage, quoted in today’s devotional, has a sequential order too. Without paying attention to it, I could make a serious error:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1–4)

Several versions interpret “turn” as repent or “be converted” which definitely comes first according to the rest of Scripture. Being reborn begins the transformation to child-likeness and that new birth is the entrance to God’s kingdom. After that, the humbling process of spiritual growth makes the new Christian greater than he/she was before that conversion, and more like a humble child. Those who are humbled in that childlike way become great in God’s kingdom.

Unfortunately, some will interpret this passage to say that getting into the kingdom is only for those who first become like little children. One example: “Become a little child, then, by laying aside all your greatness, self-assertion, self-dependence, wisdom, and strength, and consent to die to your own self-life and be born again into the kingdom of God.” This makes salvation a matter of assuming the right attitude, doing the right things, all good works, yet the NT repeatedly affirms that doing the right things is the ‘result’ of salvation. No one is saved by their own efforts.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

I’ve met those who attend church, serve in various ways, and speak often of “I decided to follow…” or “I did…” They seem to mean well yet their salvation is about their choice to follow Jesus. However, Jesus said:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

This topic of genuine salvation seems to come up often. It reminds me repeatedly how Jesus came into my life and surprised me. I don’t remember the date but vividly recall the day. He changed my life. I’ve nothing to boast about. Since then, He keeps dealing with my stubborn pride, showing me how helpless I am without His Spirit, and that being like a child is impossible as a decision or an action. As my King and my Savior, He must do this in me. Those who speak of laying aside self don’t seem to realize that that kind of statement comes across as a do-it-yourself project and is in total contradiction to:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

How did I get to this understanding? It was not by choice. The Holy Spirit and circumstances of life, the thorns in my flesh, the trials and failures, the love of God — all teach me that I am nothing and Jesus is everything. He is wisdom and grace and goodness. Without Him, I can do nothing and am merely a blip in the passage of time.

PRAY: Jesus, these claims of being able to choose and to turn our lives around make me incredibly sad. As long as a person thinks that way, the humility of a child cannot describe them. Isn’t childlikeness being aware of my limitations, not that ‘I can do it myself’ attitude? Isn’t trusting You about leaning on You for everything, even the ability to lean on You? Oh Lord, enable me to pray rightly for those who twist Your Word to justify their self-effort, but also never to fall into that same misunderstanding. If pride in self shows up, deal with it quickly — that You are glorified and never me.

What do people see in me?

When we lived in San Fernando Valley, our daughter was close friends with three girls. For months after we moved back to Canada, she talked like a valley girl. As a boy, our oldest son loved watching “Get Smart” and was completely familiar with all the quirks of Don Adams who played Maxwell Smart in that show. He talked like him and acted like him. Husbands and wives also pick up each other’s mannerisms and way of speaking. It is only natural that if Jesus Christ comes to live in me, His words and actions will also begin to show up . . . 

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:1–6)

John reminds me that if I am not acting like Jesus, He still is my advocate with God the Father and has given His life to pay the penalty for my failure. I have hope, even when I fail.

On the bright side, with Him in my life His character will show up. For example, after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, the disciples were involved in a healing and confronted by the high priest and other religious leaders. When asked how they pulled this off, they spoke of Jesus and “when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

A Christian friend told us that before she knew Jesus herself, she could recognize Christians because “their faces were shiny.” My husband is often asked at work or on the golf course, “You are a Christian aren’t you?”

This recognition is not usually from obvious things like seeing a person kneel in prayer, or hearing them talk about church activities or noticing that they are always thankful about everything. It might be that they do not curse, or that they are kind and joyful, or do not whine or gossip. Whatever it is, Christians show something of the way that Jesus is and the things that Jesus does.

Although some may fall into that fake spirituality, this is not ‘put on’ or a conscious effort to be pious. Rather, it flows out naturally, like the way a child is without pressures and just being themselves. The Bible calls this walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

Jesus describes how to do it:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I know that fruit-bearing is about attitude first, then actions. You want me to have Your attitude about people, events, everything. If I love You and love others, then everything I do will flow out of that. The New Testament is filled with descriptions of what this looks like, yet if I try to examine myself to see how I am doing, it is like trying to step into my shadow. Instead, I’m to keep my eyes and thoughts on You and let You take care of the output. This is a learning curve, yet a most wonderful learning curve — making life a great adventure.

Today’s thankful list . . .

- that I know Jesus — such a wonder and a joy!

- that Jesus never leaves or forsakes me, even when I take my eyes off Him.

- being with Jesus is the way to become like Him in all that I say and do.

- uninterrupted time to make progress on two projects.

- homemade hamburgers.

- a very good timer so my power naps don’t wind up taking all day.

Humble dependence

Last night our daughter and son-in-law went out for a few hours. Despite their vet calling him the happiest dog she has ever seen, their “nearly human” little pooch whined and pined for them the whole time. Not only does this pet depend on them for food, he also depends on them for emotional stability.
 

We don’t have children in the house now. Even our grandchildren are grown up, with the youngest in grade nine. For the most part, their dependence on us has changed from total to very little, if any. So when I read these verses this morning, I thought about this little dog who is so much like a little child . . .

And calling to him a child, (Jesus) put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:2–4)

Entrance to the kingdom of God is about humility. At breakfast, I picked up a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” an old book that is still packaged as good advice. Some of Dale Carnegie’s ideas seem biblical even if the goals are suspect. The first chapter is filled with illustrations of how people refuse to think ill of themselves. Criminals blame others for crimes they call self-defense. Politicians cannot see their blunders and say they did the best they could. In this, Carnegie has seen the truth about sin. One of the first things that it does is makes us blind to its presence.

However, the gospel does what that book would say not to do. It convicts us of sin and says that without the grace of God and His life-changing power, we are lost and doomed. Of course the gospel brings good news too, but first there is bad news that must be humbly admitted.

This is true for that initial conversion to a life of faith, but it is also true for every step of the way in that life. I need God. I cannot do this myself. I am a sinner with a new life, and living that new life takes a great deal of humility, of being willing to say that I need Jesus, of being like a dependent little child.

Oswald Chambers reminds me that when I trust my wits instead of God, then I am responsible for the consequences. He also says that because I have obeyed Him once or ten times, that is no guarantee that I will do it again. The relation of my old life to my new life is one of continuous conversion, and believe me, this is one thing that I do not like. In every setting in which I find myself, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to “put on the new man” and be filled with the Spirit. Otherwise, I am trusting myself, not God.

  

God holds me responsible every time I refuse to convert myself from trusting me to trusting Him. Why would I refuse doing that? Unlike Carnegie’s advice to never tell others their faults, Chambers calls it like it is; disobedience is willful obstinacy that thinks I know better than God. My pride and my idol-making heart still want to rule.

I am hindered when I refuse to let God continually “convert” my independence and obstinacy. He has given me enough light to realized there are whole tracts of my life that have not yet been brought into subjection. As Chambers pointedly says, this can only be done by continuous conversion. This is discouraging except that Chambers also adds a positive side by adding that those who humble themselves can slowly but surely claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

Childlike is maturity!

Pete was green with one black and white wing. His coloring was odd for a canary, but so was his voice and pluck. He sang like nothing I’ve ever heard and was my constant delight.

As a child, I also had a stamp collection. When it was laid out, Pete would fly into it, scattering stamps everywhere and taking one in his beak to sample. If I pointed my finger at him, he considered that an attack and came at me, his beak open. As soon as I backed off, he began to sing. In no time, to get him to sing all I had to do was point at him.

I must miss both childhood and Pete. I dreamed last night that I still had him, as well as Vicki, the female that we bought to keep him company. (He stopped singing at that point, but when Vicki died, he sang all day!) The dream was so vivid that when I woke I had to keep shaking my head to fight a sense of disorientation.

Today’s devotional verse is about being like a child. My childhood included this plucky canary and the enjoyment he gave me, but this is not what Jesus was talking about.

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-4)

The comments that go with this verse say that a person needs to come to Jesus like a child to be saved, but a careful reading shows that this is not what Jesus says. He describes how a person must first be converted, then become like a child.

Conversion is the work of God in a human heart. He gives new life and faith in Jesus Christ at the same time. From that point forward, His goal is to transform the convert into the image of His Son. In a spiritual sense, a newly converted person is immediately in the kingdom of heaven, but entrance to it in a physical sense comes later. The conditions for getting in are conversion and the proof of that conversion is childlike humility.

Jesus had to be thinking of very young children who still have a dependent attitude and outlook. Only little children are simple in thought, helpless and trusting, unaffected by the jaded world around them, without pretension and ambition. They are still sinners but naive in many ways, totally dependent on others, and free from selfish claims to greatness. They submit themselves to the care of their parents, and in having their needs met they are not demanding or obnoxious.

We cannot do anything to earn or deserve eternal life. We cannot become like a little child, then get saved and enter the kingdom. The order is like this: we are first saved, then become like children. That is what the Spirit of Jesus Christ does in a human heart. He brings a humble and dependent attitude that is unlike anything we can do ourselves.

I might have started life like this little child He speaks of, but because of my sin nature (which is part of every human being), my self-focus soon showed up. Actually, even as a baby, I wanted what I wanted NOW. In just a few months, like any other child I knew how to make my parents come running. I knew how to make people think I was cute and I knew how to manipulate my brother. This is not the type of childlikeness that Jesus was talking about.

Pete the canary died more than forty years ago, but I woke up this morning missing him. As I read the Bible and thought about what it means to be like a child, I should be longing for far more than my childhood pet. While Pete amused me and kept me company, the greater value is the trust and innocence, the simple joy and delighted contentment, of being a child of God.