Thought of the Day !!

He called a little child and had him stand among them.  And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

                                                          Matthew 18:2-4 (NIV)

The disciples had just asked who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  If we read between the lines, I believe we could assume that the meaning of this question was actually "which one of us will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven".  Because of this Jesus takes this opportunity to teach about humility.  To be great in this world of ours means having power, prestige, money, authority, etc.  But being great in God's kingdom means being humble, caring, faithful, honorable and trustworthy.  The first of these, humility is what Jesus says a child is like.

As I read this again, the word change went round and round in my mind.  Jesus says that unless we change and become like children.  I've always assumed this to mean change as in accepting Christ.  But in light of this teaching on humility I believe Jesus is trying to stretch it further.  The KJV puts it like this.  Unless ye be "converted".  In reading from the great preacher/theologian Matthew Henry, he says that we are to be converted of our backsliding over and over in our lives.

What this all boils down to is this.  We will fail at being the perfect Christian on a daily basis.  We will all fall back into old ways or find new ways to sin.  Some of these will be long battles that we will struggle with while others will be brief lapses of judgment.  Jesus knows this.  What he wants from us is to humbly convert/change back when we realize we are heading in the wrong direction.  We must not be to proud to ask for his help and forgiveness.  We must be willing to except that we are flawed and in need of him to find a better way in this life.

This is the struggle of life.  We are not to simply accept that we are flawed and live with the flaws.  We are to humbly repent, even if over and over until the time comes when this life and its struggles are past and we live in perfect harmony with our Lord and Savior with the Father and Holy Spirit forever.

In the love of Christ,

greg