Drought of the Heart

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Matthew 18:3

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.



That is not a very understood or lived out verse in our culture, it was not then and certainly not now. I , for many reason had to become an adult at an early age to help on those farms and after my moms car wreck.

We are all about teaching our children how to be adults . Sure we have to learn skills and be educated in the world to get by. We are to be as a child, to learn from God and we do not become full adults till we die. Meaning we should learn from Him until we die. If we try and learn from God as we learn from the world we do not learn what the Kingdom can do and is. We are taught to memorize words to spell or books to have worldly knowledge. If we do not go to that Bible as a child and ask God to teach us , then we become as the Pharisee that could quote Scriptures.



Something happened yesterday that brought this verse to mind.

We have a pretty old dog that has out lived 3 others , the wilds of Montana and a Texas snake bite. His health is failing and he has many bumps and lumps. I use to have money to take him to the Vet every time he got sick. The last few years I have had to call on God for his healing and use natural remedies that God has provided. Last night something happened and I felt he would not make it through the night. So I comforted him , gave him some melatonin and laid hands on him and prayed for God to not let him suffer.

I wake to a hungry, tail wagging dog. I thought about how I had settled in my mind he would die in the night . This is what the Lord showed me in all this ...



Life and death is in His hands , we can not look at life as the world looks at life. He can take something that seems near death and bring it back to life , that is Who He is. God knows my heart and knows I have doubts about His call in my life and it seems there is not life in it, from the worlds point of view.

Life and Death is not what we make it ...He is truly amazing if we look at Him with child like eyes.

Teach your loved ones to go to God as a child , learn from Him as a child...Listen to children before the world removes that sponge like mind... Watch what He does even in our tiny circle of life with the things we care about. He does not speak to us not as we speak to each other or as the world speaks .



I may know the true answer one day but there is great purpose in how God created memory before we where six years old and how we lose it as we get older ...It may be a dog , it may be a job , it may be a book or even a person , that seems near death...But whatever it is , God is in charge of life and death in all things for His purpose...Remember this life is all about the next. As I near the end of the so called old testament, we see Micah speaks of Jesus hundreds of years before Jesus . In fact most times when God used someone in this life, it was for the generations to come...Be a child today not as the world says but as Jesus said...I spent a lot of time trying to be and relive that childhood I missed that did not matter. What God allowed me to see in the last 24 hours is greater than any fun I might have missed or did not experience.. Souls is all that matters in this life and He uses things this very minute or hundreds of years from now...That Cross we could only look at the suffering or the Life it gave...
 
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bcbsr

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Matthew 18:3

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.



That is not a very understood or lived out verse in our culture, it was not then and certainly not now. I , for many reason had to become an adult at an early age to help on those farms and after my moms car wreck.

We are all about teaching our children how to be adults . Sure we have to learn skills and be educated in the world to get by. We are to be as a child, to learn from God and we do not become full adults till we die. Meaning we should learn from Him until we die. If we try and learn from God as we learn from the world we do not learn what the Kingdom can do and is. We are taught to memorize words to spell or books to have worldly knowledge. If we do not go to that Bible as a child and ask God to teach us , then we become as the Pharisee that could quote Scriptures.



Something happened yesterday that brought this verse to mind.

We have a pretty old dog that has out lived 3 others , the wilds of Montana and a Texas snake bite. His health is failing and he has many bumps and lumps. I use to have money to take him to the Vet every time he got sick. The last few years I have had to call on God for his healing and use natural remedies that God has provided. Last night something happened and I felt he would not make it through the night. So I comforted him , gave him some melatonin and laid hands on him and prayed for God to not let him suffer.

I wake to a hungry, tail wagging dog. I thought about how I had settled in my mind he would die in the night . This is what the Lord showed me in all this ...



Life and death is in His hands , we can not look at life as the world looks at life. He can take something that seems near death and bring it back to life , that is Who He is. God knows my heart and knows I have doubts about His call in my life and it seems there is not life in it, from the worlds point of view.

Life and Death is not what we make it ...He is truly amazing if we look at Him with child like eyes.

Teach your loved ones to go to God as a child , learn from Him as a child...Listen to children before the world removes that sponge like mind... Watch what He does even in our tiny circle of life with the things we care about. He does not speak to us not as we speak to each other or as the world speaks .



I may know the true answer one day but there is great purpose in how God created memory before we where six years old and how we lose it as we get older ...It may be a dog , it may be a job , it may be be a book or even a person , that seems near death...But whatever it is , God is in charge of life and death in all things for His purpose...Remember this life is all about the next. As I near the end of the so called old testament, we see Micah speaks of Jesus hundreds of years before Jesus . In fact most times when God used someone in this life, it was for the generations to come...Be a child today not as the world says but as Jesus said...I spent a lot of time trying to be and relive that childhood I missed that did not matter. What God allowed me to see in the last 24 hours is greater than any fun I might have missed or did not experience.. Souls is all that matters in this life and He uses things this very minute or hundreds of years from now...That Cross we could only look at the suffering or the Life it gave...
The verse that follows says, "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Mt 18:4 Therefore his emphasis is on humility. Childlike in that manner, not childish. The proud are unteachable. They've already formed their convictions, presumptions, prejudices. And they only do "good" to get a name for themselves.
 
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Drought of the Heart

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The verse that follows says, "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Mt 18:4 Therefore his emphasis is on humility. Childlike in that manner, not childish. The proud are unteachable. They've already formed their convictions, presumptions, prejudices. And they only do "good" to get a name for themselves.
amen
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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Matthew 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven...........................
Oh, to be 50 yrs younger again.......but then again, maybe not LOL

1 Corinthians 3:1
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly--as infants in Christ.
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?
1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children.
In regard to evil, be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
21 It is written in the Law:
“By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”a
1 Peter 2:2
Like newborn infants, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
Hebrews 5:
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing.
12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
13 Everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their sensibilities to distinguish good from evil.



Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(3) Except ye be converted.--The English word expresses the force of the Greek, but the "conversion" spoken of was not used in the definite, half-technical sense of later religious experiences. What was needed was that they should "turn" from their self-seeking ambition, and regain, in this respect, the relative blamelessness of children.
Ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.--The force of the words as spoken to the Twelve can hardly be exaggerated. They were disputing about precedence in the kingdom, and in that very dispute they were showing that they were not truly in it. It was essentially spiritual, and its first condition was abnegation of self. Even the chief of the Apostles was self-excluded when he gloried in his primacy. The words at least help us to understand the more mysterious language of John 3:3; John 3:5, as to the "new birth" of water and the Spirit, which one, at least, of the disputants must, in all likelihood, have heard.

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 3. - Except ye be converted στραφῆτε); i.e. turned from proud, ambitious thoughts of worldly dignity. There is no question here about what is popularly known as conversion - the change from habitual sin to holiness. The conversion here spoken of is confined to a change in the present state of mind - to a new direction given to the thoughts and wishes. The apostles had shown rivalry, jealousy, ambition: they must turn away from such failings, and learn a different lesson. Become as little children. Christ points to little children as the model to which the members of his kingdom must assimilate themselves. The special attributes of children which he would recommend are humility, unworldliness, simplicity, teachableness, - the direct contraries of self-seeking, worldliness, distrust, conceit. Ye shall not enter. In the sermon on the mount Christ had said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). To all who are not such the gate opens not. That virtue which was unknown to pagan antiquity, the opposite character to which was upholden as the acme of excellence, Christ here asserts to be the only passport to his ideal Church on earth or its eternal development in heaven. Not the self-esteeming, proud man (μεγαλόψυχος) of Aristotle's worship ('Eth. Nic.,' 4:3), but the humble (ταπεινὸς), the lowly, the self-depreciating, is the man who can realize his position in the spiritual world, and shall be admitted to its blessings and benefits. St. Paul has summarized the ideal character of the members of the kingdom in 1 Corinthians 13, especially vers. 4, 5, and 7.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And said, verily I say unto you,.... You may take it for a certain truth, and what may be depended upon, that

except ye be converted or turned; from that gross notion of a temporal kingdom, and of enjoying great grandeur, and outward felicity in this world; and from all your vain views of honour, wealth, and riches,

and become as little children: the Arabic renders it, "as this child"; that is, unless ye learn to entertain an humble, and modest opinion of yourselves, are not envious at one another, and drop all contentions about primacy and pre-eminence, and all your ambitious views of one being greater than another, in a vainly expected temporal kingdom; things which are not to be found in little children, though not free from sin in other respects,

ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven: ye shall be so far from being one greater than another in it, that you shall not enter into it at all; meaning his visible, spiritual kingdom, which should take place, and appear after his resurrection, upon his ascension to heaven, and pouring forth of the Spirit: and it is to be observed, that the apostles carried these carnal views, contentions, and sentiments, till that time, and then were turned from them, and dropped them; for, upon the extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, they were cleared of these worldly principles, and understood the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom;....................

Matthew Henry Commentary
18:1-6 Christ spoke many words of his sufferings, but only one of his glory; yet the disciples fasten upon that, and overlook the others. Many love to hear and speak of privileges and glory, who are willing to pass by the thoughts of work and trouble.

Our Lord set a little child before them, solemnly assuring them, that unless they were converted and made like little children, they could not enter his kingdom. Children, when very young, do not desire authority, do not regard outward distinctions, are free from malice, are teachable, and willingly dependent on their parents. It is true that they soon begin to show other dispositions, and other ideas are taught them at an early age; but these are marks of childhood, and render them proper emblems of the lowly minds of true Christians.

Surely we need to be daily renewed in the spirit of our minds, that we may become simple and humble, as little children, and willing to be the least of all. Let us daily study this subject, and examine our own spirits.
 
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About being as a child > this can include how God our Father keeps track of us. He knows when we have become ready for something, and then He has things show up in our lives, so we can do what we have grown to be able to do.

So, a child in this process can enjoy all which God has for him or her, at any time. And be so satisfied with what he or she really does have, instead of getting all concerned about something else.

But I would not be like the child who is so excited about Daddy coming home because the child wants Daddy to take the child out for ice cream.

We need to love God because He is God and our Father, and do not keep hanging on whether or not He gives us things we want or even that we feel we need. But love God for Himself, and thank Him for being our Father through Jesus.

"be content with such things as you have" (in Hebrews 13:5).
 
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