Todays passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2018&version=NIV
Matthew 18 begins with an admonition to have a child like faith. We must come to God on His terms and trust fully in Him. It is not our works that save us, but belief that God’s love wishes to embrace us and call us His children. Dave Riggle preached on the importance of accepting our new name as a child of God and this passage resonates with that message. Child like faith and humility are requirements for coming to God. In fact, when we are older and think we are self sufficient, it is only difficult to turn away from that feeling of importance and realize that we are just clay in the Potter’s Hands.
We also see a dire warning about the consequences of harming children and not allowing them to come to the Father. Children have a very special place in God’s heart and He wants us to realize this. They are not to be maligned or trivialized but welcomed into the kingdom. This is one reason why it is so important to support the church’s children’s ministry and this year you can volunteer with Angels of Light or the Christmas show where puppets are used to tell the story of God’s Son to children of all ages. Each time you can minister to the little ones and bring them to Jesus, you can rest assured that you are advanced the kingdom and doing the will of God. We have gone to minister to the children at the Salvation Army several times this year and the children appreciate the attention, listen to the message from God’s Word, and echo back the love that is shown to them. Prayerfully consider how you can minister to the little ones in the next few months.
The passage wraps up with the importance of forgiving one another because God has forgiven us such a great debt. God is Light, God is Love, and God is Life. He has forgiven us an enormous debt and we should ponder His Love for us. This Love should compel us to seek Him and worship Him. When we seek and worship God Almighty, He will stretch out His arms of love, embrace us, shelter us with His wings, and keep us from a multitude of sins.
Today's post submitted by Joseph Konieczka
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Joseph--->Good stuff, sir!!
ReplyDeleteIt is great to revisit the 18th chapter of Mathew's Gospel, and I want to Dovetail upon some of your comments.
Without my being converted and rendered to a state of innocence, as a child, I cannot enter the Kingdom! WOW! If those words are not a commandment to be pure in heart and deed, then I do not know what is!
I am thankful to my mom and dad for getting me into Bible study at a time when I still couldn't read or write very well. HEARING the word, as Avery Willis says, is better than any other method of receiving God's truth(with the exception of via prayer and meditation of course).
Mathew 18:12,13,14--->**When Jesus says that the FATHER rejoices more in the one which was lost being saved than the ones(99) who never went astray to begin with, the ideology of that reality brings tears to my eyes.
**Let us go out there and bring the lost sheep to Christ. Let us follow the direction of Christ which HE gives in Luke 9:23--->If anyone wishes to come after ME, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow ME. Notice that HE so beautifully gives us a choice, as is the name of the game as far as FREE WILL is concerned. HE uses the word "wishes" in verse 23 and 24...
Angels of Light is right around the corner, as was mentioned, and it has become an event that I would not miss for the world.
**Witnessing and ministering to the mothers and their children during this great time is a wonderful, innocent happening and we are carrying out the Great Commission in participating with this. As Ananias stood with Paul early on in his conversion and served as a representation or witness of the reality of the HOLY SPIRIT, so can we stand with the lost, the miserable, the sad, and the spiritually bankrupt. We can do so with the joy of the LORD!
Peace and love!!!
Jesus mentioned the word church only two times in the gospels. The 1st time was in Matt 16 where He said He would build it and the gates of Hell would not prevail against it. Thus the church is in good hands.
ReplyDeleteThe 2nd time is here in Matt 18 where in context it is talking about when a brother offends us.
Love the realism of Jesus. He will build it and we will have some trouble with each other by the way of offenses while in it
If we don't forgive, we will be handed over to the tormentors. Been there... noting goes right in your life, no peace, even easy things become impossible. Yes, God knows how to put of the heat to get us to forgive each other