Children were crowded together sitting and squirming on the floor. Girls playing with each other’s hair, boys wrestled a little, all the while a Sunday school class was going on. The smiling teacher patiently walks through John 3:16, asking questions like “Who is God?”, to which the sound of unsynchronized tiny voices, depending on the child, shout or whisper, “God the Father!” or “Jesus”.

The teacher affirmed them that they were correct because the Father and Jesus are one. The word father, triggered some children to even talk about their dads. The teacher talked about the cross and how God “gave” His Son. At this moment some of the children started saying things like “Jesus died for our sins!”, “Jesus died for you!” “God loves me!” With these words I almost started crying.

These children were saying truth, an incredibly weighty truth! They were innocently saying this statement without any knowledge that they are the privileged 5% of children in the world that even have access to this kind of information. They don’t yet understand have obtained the knowledge of a mysterious treasure that is hidden from the eyes of many yet is plainly spoken to them. The obtaining of this treasure is greater then the finest gold, silver or diamonds in all the world. Sometimes I don’t understand the weight of the knowledge of that truth.

“How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong” is an interesting article. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080695

The article goes on to talk about some pretty interesting statistics about what people in church think about the the Bible. Why is that many church goers have a silly understanding theology? (such as joan of arc was noah’s wife, or that “God helps those who help themselves”)

My answer is it is a lack of discipleship. Jesus’ great commission wasn’t just going and making “decisions” or even baptizing people, that doesn’t make people Christians, but obeying the commandments and teaching others to do the same(matt 5:19). “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” John 14:21

If everyone picked one or two people to come alongside them and then teach them to read their bible and practically obey what it said we could evangelize the world in no time. I am sure someone has done the math on that, and I know it to be true. So anyways my point is if you are not discipling someone to obey Jesus, then start today, and don’t delay. My recommendation to start would be at least to pray for God to give you someone to disciple you, and also pray for God to show you a couple people you can disciple.

At a missions conference I was at I was thinking about the large amounts of money that the students spent to attend. There were 20,000 people there and most of them paid at least $300 a person and that is with the early bird rate. Then when you think about how much money they were going to spend on books and cds at the conference and also on eating out, we are talking a few million dollars in disposable income that was at the hands of these few individuals.

Then we think about churches here in the states that spend crazy amounts of money on large foyers with fountains, bowling alleys, coffee shops inside the church, and landscaping. We look at this and we think of how many Jesus films can be produced with that money since it only takes $25,000 to make a Jesus film. Money is not going out fast enough.

We must remember in all of this to not allow our pride to get the best of us. It is wrong to horde money and spend it lavishly on ourselves, but it is also wrong to judge how others should be spending money, especially when they perceive they are pouring it out upon Jesus feet as a bottle of rich perfume. When this happened in the Gospel’s it wasn’t Jesus who got upset at how money was spent, but It was Judas. It later said that he was stealing from the treasury and he wanted the money to himself. The Scriptures are true when it says that we have to guard our hearts for out of them come the issues of life. In self-examination, gentleness and humility let us maintain keeping planks out of our own eyes, so that we can better encourage, challenge and equip our brothers and sisters to remove the splinter from theirs, so they could more readily see Jesus.

Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation.” Luke 2:28-30 (NIV)

I was struck by the first part of this verse. “Simeon took Jesus in his arms.” Of course Jesus was a baby then, but imagine now being able to warmly and secure possess Jesus in your arms right now. Clenching to Him in the midst of your anxieties, fears, doubts, lack of confidence. You know He wants too. There is constant encouragement in the Gospel’s from Jesus saying “Behold the Son!”

Better yet imagine with me the outcome when we look at Him, even with a single glance. If our emotions woudl be stired with excitement by getting to hold Him in the midst of our struggle, hear what happens to Jesus when we just glance at Him.

“You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes…” SGS 4:9

Wow!!! He is that excited about me looking at Him. That is amazing, He is the God of the universe and much greater and bigger than Me, yet I am a poor wretched man living half the time in my own self-righteousness, yet He isn’t ashamed of me, but encourages us to look at Him and embrace Him.

Look to Jesus today and embrace Him.

The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. Psalm 146:8

Jesus said to Saul, “Get up and enter the city, and you will be
told what you are to do.” Acts 9:6

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” Isaiah 6:8

Jesus answered Nathanael, “I saw you under the fig tree before
Philip called you.” John 1:48

Friends, I have recently signed up to receive the Moravian Daily Texts. They are awesome little devetionals. Above are some verses they send for meditation upon. I thought I would share my meditations with you. In Psalm 146:8 we recognize that it is repeating the same idea that God opposes the proud and exalts the humble. When we humble ourselves we are free to obey Christ in whatever He would call us to do. Acts 9:6 is an example of that, Paul was humlbed and the Lord spoke to him. Hearing God’s voice for direction necessitates obedience. In order for Paul to be shown more about what His destiny looked like he had to “get up and enter the city.” The same was true for Abraham in Gen 12:1-3 “Go to the land I will show you”, but humility I believe were actions of the heart that had to happen first before this. Now then once you obey You might overhear conversations the Lord is having about His plans, and in the state of humility how can you not want to volunteer (Isa 6:8)? Finally before you ever got to this place of humility and even hearing God’s voice on instructions about what you are supposed to do, or overhearing His conversations, you recognized, He saw you first before you ever saw Him. (John 1:48).

God of Hope, help us to trust in you to lead us, even though the
places in which we find ourselves are often difficult. Grant us
the vision to see how it leads to you. In Christ’s name. Amen.