STAYING WITH OR LEAVING CHILDISH THINKING
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Proverbs [NLT] 22:6 Direct your children onto the
right path, and when they are older, they will not
leave it.
Luke 14:1-3 One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat
dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching
him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs
were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in
religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal
people on the Sabbath day, or not?” [Mt.12:10; Mk.3:2; Lk.6:7]
John
4:1-14 [Jesus and the Samaritan Woman] Jesus knew the Pharisees had
heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though
Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he
left Judea and returned to Galilee.
He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually
he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to
his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from
the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon
a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a
drink.” He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone
into the village to buy some food.
The woman was
surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to
Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a
drink?”
Jesus
replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking
to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
“But
sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep.
Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you
think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can
you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water
will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I
give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within
them, giving them eternal life.”
John 7:38 [Jesus declared] Anyone who believes in
me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will
flow from his heart.’”
1Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke and
thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish
things.
Children of all
ages commonly treat parents like gas stations. They tend to go to them when
they personally decide they need fuel.
Adult children may continue this practice with parent and God the Father.
There, as ever, is distinction between God and humans in this. The all too
common way of humans is planning periods of direction, formal instruction while
largely neglecting informal opportunities . . . whereas God, though He does
provide available formal instruction through the Word (1Jn.1) living and
written, He is also ever and always dependably available responding to our
informal moments of thirsting. If and as we mature as parents, whether
biological, foster, or surrogate, we then recognize, stop and seize upon
informal moments -- which very well may be an fleeting actual minute or less
when we are oh-so occupied with grownup activity and order.
Picture a
Christmas Eve service. Candles with paper drip guards so as to protect pew and
carpet from dribble handed out as you enter the sanctuary, prayers interspersed
with Christmas carols joyfully sung, nativity story retold, the lights are
turned off, then an altar candle is used to light the first front/left handheld
candle and then that candle is used to light a neighbors candle and so on so
forth. The room is wonderfully aglow with soft flickering illumination and warm
poignancy . . . and after a brief meditative silence the musicians lead in
singing Christ Alone.
In Christ
alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ
alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the
ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
A wonderful
moment of worship it is for a Mom and Dad with young child standing between
holding hands. Suddenly the child, loud enough for neighbor worshippers to
hear, blurts out “But that’s not a Christmas song!”
How should the
parents respond?
[_]
Shush child! We are in our Christmas worship service. Please behave!!
[_]
Let’s sit down and Mommy and I will explain what Christ-mas really means and
how very much Christ Alone is a proper song to sing now and during any season.
What would God
Incarnate do?
EBB4
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