Faith of a Child

The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Children
On the way to work last week, I was thinking about Jesus telling the disciples to let the little children come to him for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Jesus was not happy with his disciples when he said this. The disciples had been telling the grownups that they shouldn't have brought children to Jesus. I wonder if they thought Jesus was too busy to pay attention to children? I do know that Jesus quickly let the disciples know that they were in the wrong.  As I thought on this I had a "God moment" of realization, Jesus was telling us to have the faith, focus, and trust of children if we want to follow him. 

My grandson is two years old and he repeats everything he hears at least five times. When I show up at the door, he says,"Hi Grammy!I happy to see you!" and then repeats it four more times. His little face is all smile and lit up from the inside out with his happiness at my arrival. He throws open his arms and runs to me for a big hug and a kiss.  It is humbling to be greeted like this. What a precious gift that little boy is giving me. Unconditional love and joy at seeing me. 

Can you imagine Jesus showing up for a visit and saying,"Hi Jesus!I'm happy to see you!" with a face that is all smile,  lit up from the inside out, and running to hug him in greeting?
That is the joy Jesus wants us to have in our relationship with him. Unconditional love, joy, and trust is a precious gift that can be given to Jesus as each of us lives in the moment, trusting him to take care of us, and finding joy in his presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

How many times have you watched a child playing with complete concentration, totally absorbed in what they are doing? 
Children live in the moment. They aren't worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. Nope, small children live in the moment and trust their parents to take care of their needs.  Can you imagine what would happen if grownups focused on Jesus and his teachings in the same manner? Life would be lived without stress while trusting Jesus to take care of every outcome. 

Verse of the Week - Galatians 2:7

...was entrusted to me, as the gospel of the circumcision was to Peter...

• as the preaching of the gospel to the Jews was committed to Peter, and not to him only, but to James and John. 
• It must not be so understood, as if Paul might not preach to the Jews, or Peter might not preach to the Gentiles, for the contrary is evident from Acts 9:15, as to Paul, and from Peter’s preaching to Cornelius, Acts 10:1-48
• God designed the Gentiles to be more especially the province for Paul to exercise his ministry in, Acts 26:17, and accordingly he was specially sent out by the church, Acts 13:3
• Peter’s chief work was among the Jews.         adapted from Matthew Poole's Commentary at www.biblehub.com

Verse of the Week: Galatians 2:6

•  Though Paul conversed with the other apostles, yet he did not receive any addition to his knowledge, or authority, from them. 
• Perceiving the grace given to Paul, they gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, whereby they acknowledged that he was designed to the honor and office of an apostle as well as themselves. 
• They agreed that these two should go to the heathen, while they continued to preach to the Jews; judging it agreeable to the mind of Christ, so to divide their work. 
• Here we learn that the gospel is not ours, but God's; and that men are but the keepers of it; for this, we are to praise God. 

adapted from Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary at biblehub.com 

Verse of the Week - Galatians 2:5

Memorizing an entire book of the Bible is a daunting task at which I am not succeeding.
However, this is NOT a failure because I am staying immersed in the Word of God. This immersion in the word is helping me to deepen my spiritual roots and I am sure Jesus is happy about that!

Additionally, I find myself speaking from the Bible as naturally as I breathe air. I don't mean I am quoting scripture, I'm not. What I am doing is speaking sentences and phrases from the Bible. I may not be quoting it, but the parts I have read and reread are appearing in my thoughts and speech automatically. I don't know how else to explain it. Is this as clear as mud?
Today I reread my study Bible's introduction to Galatians and Galatians 1:1 - 2:5. 

• In these verses, Paul makes the point that the truth of the gospel is free. Salvation is not earned, it is free. 
• If anyone shouldn't have been able to be forgiven, it was Paul because of his persecution of Jesus' followers.
• Jesus paid the price for all mankind. 
• Paul received the gospel from God, not man and he had to be bold in proclaiming it.
• The apostles he met in Jerusalem didn't disagree with him. The trouble was being caused by false followers who slipped into the church and gave the appearance of holiness. 
• These false followers were also adding rules to the gospel of Jesus. There are no rules in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus' gospel is simple - admit to God that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and receive his gift of forgiveness from sin. Confess your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. 

Verse of the Week - Galatians 2:3-4

Paul shares that this was a crucial case because Titus was a Gentile.

In fact, Titus' parents were both Gentiles, unlike Timothy who had one Jewish parent and was therefore capable of being identified with the Jewish people. 

On the other hand, Titus was an uncircumcised Greek Gentile who was accompanying Paul and assisting in his ministry. 

"The "false brethren," Ga 2:4 ("certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed," Ac 15:5), demanded Titus' circumcision. The apostles, however, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas (Ga 2:5), did not compel or insist on his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles and admitted his independence as an apostle: the point he desires to set forth to the Galatians." Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Paul brought Titus about with him as a living example of the power of the Gospel upon the uncircumcised heathen.   Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary