Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Keep it simple, sweetheart…

Filed in Devotions & Studies, General |

Journal,

Have you ever had this thought go through your mind, ‘Why did they have to grow up?’ Well, I certainly have. Then I wonder, ‘Could it be that God has had this same kind of thought?’ 

Well, of course not. We know that God doesn’t think those kinds of thoughts. After all, He IS God! (Hmmmmm. Does make you wonder about God’s thinking.)

What’s this we hear Jesus say? 

“Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt18:3)

What is this? Why did Jesus say this? Sounds like growing down, rather than growing up.

Actually the disciples had been in a debate over who would be considered the greatest in God’s kingdom. Isn’t that just like us humans! We so badly want to be seen as great ones.

Jesus swiftly addressed this attitude in his disciples by calling a child to Himself, and saying, “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (v4)

The riskiness of self-seeking… 

The Lord knew that His disciples were moving in a bad direction. In fact their attitude was so disturbing to Him, that He gives them a severe rebuke. The rebuke in the Greek carries a double negative, which means that it is quite severe. Listen again:

“Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Lord was saying that with their present thinking they would not even be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven, much less hold a prominent place in it. This means that humility of heart is the real key to life in the kingdom of God, something that the disciples must learn.

But this childlikeness goes even further. A child knows his dependency is on his parents. He doesn’t worry about it. His world is very small and uncomplicated. A little child simply believes that his parents will take care of him. Nothing complicated about that. And that is the kind of life the Lord wants us to learn to live.

Communicating the Spirit of Christ…

There is a two-fold picture that we need to see with what Jesus is saying about childlikeness. First of all, to enter into the kingdom of Christ, we have to strip ourselves of self-importance, self-dependence, and self-achievers. This means becoming small in our own eyes. 

The point is that no one earns their right to God’s kingdom by their own achievements. This is why Jesus spoke of the struggle that self-made, self-reliant, or, self-important people have in attempting to enter the kingdom of God. 

“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt19:24)

Can rich people be saved? Certainly they can. But only when they come to the end of themselves and to their importance in their own eyes.

The second issue of the two-fold picture has to do with the communication of life. The ‘I’ in my life must take a back seat to His life. This communication of life relates to learning to live in constant fellowship with the Lord, that is, in a sense of looking to Jesus for all things. Once again we are allaying ourselves of independence.

Listen to what two New Testament men have to say about our life in comparision to the life of Jesus:

John the Baptist said,

“He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (John 3:20,21)

The apostle Paul said,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20)

Of course this reverts back to childlikeness. Sometimes our minds go back to how easy life seemed to be when we were children. We didn’t have to worry about anything. Our parents had it all under control.

Well, that is exactly what the Lord wants for our lives as grownups.  You see, the kingdom of God works unlike anything that we are familiar with. To grow up in the kingdom of God, means we actually have to grown into childlikeness in our faith. Wow, does that ever seem strange. To grow up, we must grow down.

And this is why the Lord taught us to pray simple childlike prayers.

Childlike you say?

Yes indeed. What we call the Lord’s prayer is a very simple prayer. Actually it is based on a simple Davidic prayer. And this is the kind of praying that the Lord wishes us to become use to. Not all this long, laborious, fancy-speaking, religious praying. Listen to what Jesus said,

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
 
“So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name…’” (Mt6:5-9)

The Lord wasn’t giving a formula of prayer that we are to repeat over and over. He is simply sharing what attitude to take in our prayers.

The one prayer in my entire life …

… that has been most meaningful to me, was a prayer that I’ve often written about. I was a wee lad. My mom would kneel beside me as I prayed this simple prayer,

“Now I lay be down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

At the end of that prayer I would ask the Lord to bless everyone that I could possibly think of.

And this brings us back to my thought of…

Keep it simple, sweetheart…

Sometimes we encumber and complicate our walk with the Lord with all kinds of religious thinking, with all kinds of ‘do nots’, or with all kinds of religious experience seekings. The apostle said that these kinds of things can become obstacles to a true spiritual walk with Christ. Listen:

“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” (2Co11:3)

Did you catch it? Everything in our walk with the Lord is to flow from our simple devotion to Him. This is what ‘keep it simple, sweetheart’ means. Just like a little child, we need to know that our heavenly Father will take care of us.

Ok, let’s move on. What else can I pass to my friends.

Oh yeah. Talking about sweethearts. Did you know that…

The General has a new girlie friend…

No, not a girlfriend in the conventional sense, but a girl who has become a special girlie friend. Here’s a picture of CJ and his new girlie friend.

This is Lois Gibson, our friend from Houston, who came over for the weekend. Lois spent so much time petting on CJ, that I’m beginning to wonder who his best friend is.

Naw - General Claudius Josephus will always be my good buddie.

Now where did that dog go? Not again. Lois, would you mind!? 

Hmmmm. I see right now that I’ll have to keep an eye on Lois Gibson. Not only did she make a move on my good buddie, but she plopped right down in my easy chair.

Oh well, that is life. 

Guess its time to find a stopping place. 

So, once again, never forget,

Much love is coming your way,

Buddy, best friend of CJ