Does That Describe You?

Is your faith child-like or childish? Jesus called a little child to Him one day, and then said to His disciples: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). But the Apostle Paul wrote: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me (1 Corinthians 13:11).

As I was reading Philip Yancey’s book, Reaching for the Invisible God, I was struck by his thoughts on child-like faith versus childish faith. He writes, “Somehow we must learn to distinguish between appropriate child-like behavior, a prerequisite for the kingdom of heaven, and inappropriate childish behavior, a mark of stunted growth” (page 214).

David gives us some insight into this in Psalm 131. He says, I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me (vs. 1b-2).

And so, a child-like faith is one that does not complicate issues. One that takes God at His word, even when failing to comprehend it. A child-like faith is unconcerned with all the details that are God’s responsibility, and rests in the assurance that the Heavenly Father has promised to supply all our needs.

For those of us who have raised children, we can easily distinguish child-like behavior from childish behavior. When our children are doing child-like things, we find them endearing, lovable. Those are the things we put in the baby book and tell Grandma and Grandpa. Child-like behavior is a beautiful part of the maturing process.

Childish behavior, on the other hand, is not so attractive. Those are the traits and characteristics we dutifully try to eliminate through teaching and correction. We want to develop a child-like faith and eliminate a childish faith. Our Lord is looking for grown-up people with child-like faith. Does that describe you?

Source: Monday, July 30, 2007 - Childlike Faith vs. Childish Faith, Christian Working Women

Child-Like Faith

All my life I have heard that in order to come to Jesus one must have a "childlike faith." I had a difficult time with that concept for many years, for it usually meant that one must have the "naiveté," "simplicity," or even the "blind resolve" of a child. This did not reconcile with what I saw in the rest of the Scripture regarding how we are to think of God. Solomon obviously did not hold this view when he wrote, "How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding"(Prov 3:13). David says to "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). Furthermore, when I looked up the meaning of "faith" in the original language, I found that it involved having confidence in something that was trustworthy (or faithful). It did not imply anything associated with acting blindly.

I recently received a letter from a lady expressing the tension she was finding in her own life. On one side she wrestled with some of the more difficult doctrines and truths of Scripture. But on the other side she continued to hear she should have a 'childlike faith.' This was an impossible reconciliation for her and left her somewhat spiritually paralyzed.

Where did we get this idea of "childlike faith"? I searched through nearly a dozen different English translations to find the phrase. I could not find it. Rather, the only reference that emerged was the familiar passage of Jesus in Matthew 18:3, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

It is easy to take verses like this out of context. If it were true that Jesus wanted us to make an endless list of metaphors for children, he would have certainly left us with an interesting picture. The picture that usually comes to the modern mind is one of "simplicity." Children accept everything you tell them, whether you are a parent or a sinister bully on the playground. "Never talk to strangers," responsible parents tell their kids for good reason.

But other metaphors come to mind that would certainly not apply. Children love to wear their ice cream as well as eat it. Does God want us to become like little children and smear hot fudge across our faces? Children love to chew on their fingers in public. Is Jesus asking us to do the same? How are we to know which metaphors we are to use? Simplicity? Hot fudge? Fingers in the mouth?

If we look at the context of the verse, Jesus spells out what he means in using the metaphor of becoming like a child. It has nothing to do with the popular meaning we attribute to "childlike faith." In fact, the verse does not even use the word "faith." Rather, Jesus says, "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:4).

Read in context, we see that Jesus is referring to one particular attribute of children that is naturally lost in grown-ups. When he speaks of becoming like a child, Jesus means this: humility.

Brennan Manning spells it out this way, "For the disciple of Jesus 'becoming like a little child' means the willingness to accept oneself as being of little account and to be regarded as unimportant," and may I add—that God is of great account and of utmost importance.

When I look across the landscape of the New Testament I see a church that believed in a Christ who was bodily raised from the dead. They believed it because they had adequate evidence and testimony for it. And when Paul says, "The just shall live by faith," it is because God's character and "faithfulness" is such that we can bank on his promises. When we cry out to Him in humility, He will hear us. Mature Christians believe in Christ because he is true and is an explanation on which all of life and reality can be based.

Let us do away with this cultural misconception that "childlike faith" equals "intellectual simplicity"; and let us walk boldly forward as humble children of God into the wisdom and greatness the Kingdom of God affords.

© 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Dale Fincher, Child-like Faith

Seek And Ye Shall Find

Jesus promised if we seek we shall find, if we knock the door will open ... do we really want to know the truth or are we just asking but not prepared to humbly accept the truth when we find it? Honestly, some is not even interested in the truth .. I truly believe if we sincerely ask God to reveal the truth to us, He will reveal Himself to us. As we seek the truth, we will find that the most invaluable resources God has ever given to us is the Holy Spirit who will counsel, and guide us to the truth, correcting us if we live IN the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can help us cross check resources and materials (or even advice from Christian friends - baby or matured, true or not so true believers) we receive day in day out. In order to validate the real meaning and content of a book for example, where else is it better to look than to check with the author Himself!!! But that does not mean we bar resources and materials from anyone other than God Himself, for today, He has given us more tools than ever, in order to have the abundance life He offers. And for the many blessings we already received, we are to bless others with all that we have received so we may bring glory to the Lord because He is worthy of it.

Faith Of A Child

The Bible says we must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:2-4). Just what does that mean?! I've heard people say this means we must have the faith of a child, but what does that mean? Here's the straight scoop, through a little story from my past:
I remember my daughter when she began toddling, then walking. She was a little bundle of energy! Our house was her whole world. She didn't know what was outside it, at least not past her yard. She didn't understand the vastness and complexity of what was beyond her own little world.

Well, she and I began going for walks around the neighborhood, ranging far and wide. Once the house was out of sight, she could not return on her own. She was lost. She had no idea where to go or what to do, or even if she was safe.

Yet as we crossed one street after another, she held my hand and knew deep in her heart that she was safe. She knew her father loved her and would always do what was best for her. She knew her father would protect her from all harm and guide her in the best way to go, every single time. All she had to do was hold his hand and do what he told her to do and she would have fun along the way, whether she knew where she was going or not!

She didn't get scared or hesitate. She embraced the trip down strange new streets as an adventure, with full confidence in her father. That's how Jesus said we should be; like a child. It's called faith.

Source: Jon's Place

Growing Up

Three Stages In The Christian Life (John 2:12-14)
Infant, Youth and Maturity - see Executable Outlines, Mark Capeland

Love - Giving The Needy

When we are willing to do Gods will, we will realize that serving others gives us the best joy in the world! And guess who can we serve??? Our neighbor! Yes, who is our neighbor? Who is closest to you, who do you see when you wake up .... for married couples, we are to serve each other with humility. Receiving love is a result of our servant attitude, not a pre-condition to serving. If you find arguments lingering around within your marriage (or even your relationships with other people) - we can approach it from here with a servant mentality. That means meeting the other persons need - that is love, giving them what they need, not what they deserve, or what we think we should give, or what we think others think. That is the love God gives us - what we need and not what we deserve, because if we were to justify we are not worthy of it, we have sin so much, the entire nation, over decades and centuries! Even if you do not see yourself as unworthy.... thinking you deserve to be loved, think about God's love for so many more people who are undeserving. Weather we realize it or not, we think others deserves our attention, our love and our respect more than some. That is not love ...... because love is not giving what others deserve, but what they need.

I am practicing to be good to my closest neighbor, my hubby! I will be his greatest fan, and serve his needs, not give him only when I think he deserves it .. sacrificial love, loving him the same way Jesus loves me. My next closes neighbor is my little girl! She's is so much fun to be with, so much I can even learn from her child-like attitude, and I thank God for putting her in my life to remind me of the child-like attitude we need as I grow up a baby Christian.

Where Is Our Heart?

My friend asked me ... do we honestly enjoy life here? Honestly everywhere is the same -it is where our "heart" is that matters. Msia can be the best place to live, the US can be the best place to live, every place is filled with God's greatness - His creation and goodness, if we are standing on God's side ... when we start to see things from God's perspective and live the original lifestyle designed for us, we will be able to claim the promises that God originally intended for us - for His plans is to prosper us not to harm us. Our key to true happiness (joy in life) lies in our hearts. One can be far and near at heart or one can be near and yet far at heart .... where is our heart??? Where have we placed our heart???? Our heart is where our treasure is. If money is our treasure that is where our heart is. If career is our treasure that is where our heart is. If children is our treasure, that is where our heart is.. If a care-free, my way lifestyle is our treasure, that it is where our heart is ..... do we have a heart for God Almighty?

Our true heart is meant for God and living the life He originally intended us to live because He gave us our hearts. With His grace and mercy, He will be able to open our eyes to see, ears to hear and we will experience God's love through an intimate relationship with Him - but only if we treasure God - because if we do, that is where our heart is.

Prayer Life

Thank you Lord for providing what I need and not having to worry about things of the world. I was in this deep deep dream but managed to hear the phone ring (phew!) and headed towards the airport to pick up JT and family. It was very nice seeing them again and thank you Lord for giving me the opportunity to serve them. I also told JLT that I would have to think all night about either the goldish batik or blue-ish songket to use as the bed runner and never really got to it, but saw that she left the former in my car! What a pick Lord! Thanks and I'll do with that, and I think we still have to try and make a blueish small throw pillow, hows that? As I was driving home, Allister Begg was on radio speaking of obedience, and Jonah the prophet. The Lord has reminded me to work on my prayer life ..... somehow, events of which the Lord has helped me help other people in the last couple of many weeks kept flashing through my mind and I do need to work on my prayer life, consistent and truthful from the heart, going after God's heart. If you are available to help me work on this area such as like an accountability partner, please leave me a note, I am thankful for you too! Mean time, have a great week and may God bless you!

God's True Children

"... there's no room in your heart for my message ... anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don't listen because you don't belong to God" John 8:31-47

Jesus does not give us freedom to do what we want, but freedom to follow God ... are we living our life doing what we want or do we seek God first in all we do? Jesus made a distinction between illegitimate children and true children. The religious leaders, descendent of Abraham claimed to be children of God. But their actions showed them to be true children of Satan for they lived under Satan's guidance. True children of Abraham (faithful followers of God) will not act as they did. Your church membership and family connections will not make you a true child of God. Your true father is the one you imitate and obey. ~ Life Application Bible.

This is true for many of us Christians today as we think of ourselves as child of God because we do certain things, or even say certain things. Anyone can say they know Jesus, but what they really mean is, they have heard of Jesus - read about Jesus, not necesarily know him. In order for one to know Jesus, one has to have a personal relationship with Him. For example, I may say I know Sarah whom I've met a few times, but I may not know her personally. Think about some people whom we know by name but do not spend quality time with them, or some whom we do go out in a group with them once a while but do not take the time to care about what they care about, do we know them personally? Certainly not. God's thumbprint is all over us, if we pray for the Lord to help open our eyes to see and ears to hear the truth, His grace and mercy upon us will help us learn the truth and gain understanding - if we earnestly seek Him. Knowing Jesus personally means knowing what is important to him, what He values, what He doesnt not like and all that list goes on just as you know your own friend personally. Loving Jesus means more than that ... as we may know many friends in a personal way but we may not truly love them the way we love others ... if we truly love Jesus, it means we do what is important to him, we value what He values, we hate what He hates, we do His will, not our will.

To accept Jesus as our Lord Personal Saviour means to know Him personally and to love Him. When He is the Lord of our life, that means He is above us, He is worthy of our love, He is worthy of our respect, He is worthy of our obedience ... we seek Him in all areas of our life, in our everyday life, we believe (words and heart) and trust (words and heart) in Him. Because we accept Him as our Lord, he is worthy of all we do for him and because we accept him as our saviour, that means we go to him with humility, submit to Him the bad sides of us, we surrender in obedience to His will. We die to our old self and we are now a new person - yielding to the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruits of the Spirit, let Jesus correct us, transform us and well equipped in all areas doing His will.

Some may accept Jesus as Saviour but do not accept Him as Lord. Some may accept Him as Lord but do not accept Him as their Saviour. Some may know Him in a personal way but do not accept Him as Lord and/or Saviour. Some may claim they know Jesus but in reality they are only acquainted to Jesus or might have just heard or read about Jesus but because they go to Church, and do certain things that other true Christian do, they think they know Jesus. Last but not least, some may even accept Jesus as Personal Lord and Saviour but do not love Him as their Personal Lord and Saviour. I am saying this not to condemn anyone because we all fall short of the glory of God, but our human heart is evil and our flesh is weak, we have a tendency to create our own little religion whether or not we think or say we know Jesus. I am definitely no better than anyone out there. There's no way we can get right with God, unless we (truly) accept and love Jesus as our Personal Lord and Saviour. If we claim we know Jesus and use His name day in day out, let's lift each other up, encourage each other, help each other as Body of Christ (the Church) and give Jesus a good name and not misrepresent Him. We can never claim that we know enough and we need to approach each day with humilty for Jesus says, "..unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:2) - We are to be child-like (not childish) with humble and sincere hearts just like children .. if you are not sure, you might want to work with children for a longer period of time, live with them and learn from them. Children are always very willing to learn - they may disobey, but they are very responsive towards teaching. The last thing we want to do is to shut off this responsive attitude to learning. When we do so, we set ourselves further and further away from the Lord.

Dear Lord Jesus, I want to get right with you, I want to know you and love you - to truly accept you as my personal Lord and Saviour. Thank you for your grace and mercy that I shall live yet another day, giving me the opportunity to repent and be the person you want me to be. I know that it is your will too that we love those around us, I also know it is your will that we take care of those who truly love you, I want to get right with you Lord and that means to get right with those around me too, love them truly the way you love me truly. With my own might and weak human flesh, I cannot do it, but Lord I am willing to let you take charge, let you be in control of my everyday life, nevermind my old ways and my own ways, and I know, with your grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, you will setup all the necessary resource for me to know and love you because this is your Will that we desire to know and love you. This can be done! In Jesus name, Amen.

Philippians 4:6

Dont worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Thank you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (NLT)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Biblegateway)

"Imagine never worrying about anything! It seems like an impossibility, we all have worries on the job, in our homes, at school. But Paul's advise is to turn our worries into prayers. Do you want to worry less? Then pray more. Whenever you start to worry, stop and pray"

Clean Up

The Cleanup ImperativeTranscript
#1404 Isaiah 52:11; 2 Timothy 2:20-21

If you don't like to wash your hands, don't become a doctor or a nurse. They have to wash their hands a lot! Avoiding infection is at the heart of a hospital's insistence that healers and caregivers get really clean before they touch you. If they carry infection, they can do a lot of damage.

It's not just doctors and nurses that have to be clean for what they do. It's a requirement God makes of anyone who's doing His work on earth, including teaching, working in ministry, or raising a family in His ways.

The Bible says, "...be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord." When you're doing anything for God, you'd better not be handling the holy with dirty hands, a dirty mind, dirty motives, or a dirty attitude. The Apostle Paul said, "If a man cleanses himself ... he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master, and prepared to do any good work." No one serving God should dare to do it without first "scrubbing up."

Bow before your Savior and let Him forgive you, let Him cleanse you, and let Him purify you. He has great work for you to do; many lives for you to touch with His healing love. But only if you're clean!

Source: July 18th 2007 - Call for Greatness, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

Self-Esteem

If we think abit more about self-esteem.. have we ever asked ourselves if we are worth being known? What is someone were to give you a chance to be known to the world right now? Would you say, 'Yes, I am worthy of it, and because I am, I would love others to know me, I would love the world to know me!' ... do you have that kind of self-esteem? Most of the time, we don't ....because we see the mirror image of ourself - our own self esteem tells it all.

God Almighty is confident and worthy of all praise. Thats why we praise and serve the Lord, for he is worthy of it. Thats why I praise and serve the Lord, for he is worthy of it ... being the Creator of all things, I am nobody but He is somebody. That's the beginning of my journey towards joy in life, starting from the joy in the Lord.

God desires us to know him. He knows he is worthy of the world knowing Him ... for someone to be in that position, can you imagine how much self-esteem that is? It's huge! I am thankful for the big person God is, to always know that He is in control because He is big. Because He is big, He can do all things (but this doesnt mean He will do all things we think He should do) - also, "It is not what you do for God but it's what you acquire and let God work in your heart" ~ Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries.

Creation Options

Coming home tuning into AM800, excellent messages everyday without fail .... as my wonder wonders to thank the Lord for giving me eyes to see what's in the house and ears to hear the sounds - I cant imagine how it would be like if I cant hear and cant listen, there would be so much darkness and silence ....... yet, God did not create us just our bodies and say, Ahem OK now let's see if you deserve this super tool called "eyes" or "ears" - prove to me first that you deserve it, then I'll put it in... or earn it first, then you can have it ... We get those (and thousands and many more wonderful things in this world ... relationships, parents, siblings, nature, air, salt, food... love, friends) without even asking or begging or earning for it ... Thank you Lord for giving us even when we don't deserve it, yet you know what we need.

Mango Beauty

Gosh the mangoes are soooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooood!!! It is so super delicious!!! Thank you Lord for the wonderfully complex world you've created for us!

Happy To Be Alive Today!

I am so happy to be alive today! It seems every day I am alive, life itself is so wonderful... so wonderfully complex amidst all the hussle bussle, plainness, or what not of the world, yet the world that God has created is soo good ... realizing the fact that every new day being alive in this world is God's grace, is God's will, is a remarkable truth that is not only life changing but breathtaking! God's so creative, thought of so many wonderful things in advance for us: food, relationships, beauty of the world, creation itself - think about the many thousands of species in this world!!!!!!!!! Think about the many types of different plants in this world, gosh, its an amazing world! Thank you Lord for providing all these wonderful things even to those who do not know you, or heard of you but do not acknowledge you or not prepared to, or those who reject you, inc those who despise you - you still allow them to be alive on this planet, have access to so many wonderful things of the world. Thank you Lord for your big heart to all humanity.