Giving It Up
My reading in Mark this morning made me think of a few stories:
1. The young girl at our church who kept asking her parents if she could be baptized. Her parents encouraged her to wait until she could understand more of what she was doing but then finally relented to her wishes.
2. A niece who at a very young age asked her mother about how to receive the Holy Spirit since she had heard about Him at church at home. She invited Jesus into her heart when she was six or seven.
3. The "surfer dude" to whom my brother and I witnessed about Christ back in the mid-70's. He told us that he wasn't ready to accept Jesus because he didn't want to give up having sex with women.
4. The times I feared the Holy Spirit and was reluctant to surrender my life to Him because of what I'd need to give up and risk losing.
You might read this whole passage: Mark 10:13-26.
But here are a few phrases from these encounters people had with Jesus:
Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who doesn’t have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God.”
“How hard it is for rich people to get into the Kingdom of God!”
And Jesus replied, “I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return, a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—with persecutions. And in the world to come they will have eternal life.
Bloggers, why is it that children tend to be more open to Christ and adults often are less likely to accept the forgiveness of Christ and let Him be their king?
The word that came to mind while I was showering and pondering this verse was: ATTACHMENTS.
Don't you think that our attachments to things of this world, including close family and friends, can get in the way of us giving our full allegiance to Jesus?
As I talked to Susan about this a few minutes before leaving the house, she gave me a suggestion: what if we started paying our cleaning lady more for her twice-a-month work? My first reaction was, "I dont' want to give up more money." Then it immediately hit me -- attachments! "Give it up, Jim. Isn't God enough?"
I've been reading a fascinating autobiography of Phil Vischer called Me, Myself and Bob. He's the guy that invented the wildly successful Veggie Tales videos. He tells of how his Big Idea company skyrocketed into fame and fortune -- and then blew up after a lawsuit in Dallas. It was in the aftermath of his lost dream that He began "hearing" the Lord wake him up to the fact that his dream had become an idol. And that God plus nothing is enough. He is enough.
And giving up for Jesus whatever we've attached to or let others attach to us is worth it all. He promises us so in vss. 29-30.
O, what those young children have to teach us about being open to Jesus! Teach us more, Lord, and give us hearts more yielded to You each day.
Jim
posted by Jim Clark @ 8:07 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Jim,
Perhaps it is also because children are doers. They are not afraid of activity. Adults usually are. We know that with commitment comes responsibility. Oh, to be more like children, attached to people rather than things and not afraid to take on the world.
Peace and prayers, brother
neva
ps. my husband is also a minister and I am a social worker and I think it is a GREAT combination. :)
n
Jim-
Having worked 25 years in the nursery, I can say that there are real differences between adults and babies (besides the obvious). Little ones, even only months old, desire and crave contact. It is how we are designed. They actually look you right in the eyes at 2 or 3 months, sometimes earlier. It is part of how they assess your state of mind, how they invite communication. As we grow older and are hurt from our exposure to others, we learn to guard ourselves from that intimate eye contact, as well as other, more obvious contact, and gradually build up walls of protection. As we grow up, we distance ourselves from others and begin to avoid touching, hugging and being close. As we become men and women, we even become uncomfortable wondering what others might think if we show intimacy. Will I give them the wrong impression? Will they think I'm gay? More distance. Unfortunately, the walls which keep our brothers and sisters at a distance keep our Lord out, too. I believe it is the walls we build which keep us from the Kingdom. They might be walls attached to protect our "things", our hearts, our habits, our family, our secrets, our pleasures, even ourselves, but walls are inclined to block all entrances, not a select few.
In my experience in the nursery, I find that even tiny babies who come in upset are calmed by feelings of love and intimate contact. I believe the little ones flocked to Jesus because he had no walls--- none at all. He noticed them and welcomed their contact. He looked them in the eyes and welcomed relationship. I just know he had a grin on his face when the little ones ran up to him.
He calls us to the same place. No walls to block our welcoming Saviour, no walls to keep others from inviting us or us from inviting them.
No matter what I have done or not done, no matter what my sin is, no matter how much I want to live the right kind of life, it is the walls I have built and maintained which keep God out. The Creator of the universe still must be invited into my private place, or he just won't come. He will not use his unlimited power to force his way into my heart.
"Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the Kingdom of God."
He has known it all along...
Thanks, Neva and G-ampa C.
Wow -- what great insights from working in the nursery for 25 years.
I wish you could preach entire sermon on this idea of walls and how we adults are so inclined to keep others out, and keep them from coming to Jesus.
May I use your thoughts in an upcoming talk that I may make at a Walk to Emmaus? Also, in my class this Sunday?
Jim
Jim-
You may, indeed use this information. Maybe we should collaborate on your blog publication work. How is that coming, by the way?
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