Heaven #8
"... whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
"But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
Matt 10:32-33, Matt 18:10, www.solascriptura.com
Jesus, sometimes Your teaching gives us no hedge room. We would like to say we "sort of tell people we love You" but here you seem to be saying, "do it". What form would You have our confession take? We know that we are to love our enemies and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, so how can we witness to others without the risk of offending people who just do not want to hear it?. Perhaps the answer lies in the second verse.
You tell us that "these little ones" always see Your face. The children are a special treasure in Your eyes. What is it Father that we adults lack? Do we lack the forthright nature of a child? Their innocence is genuine, not contrived. Their faith in Your love and the love of those around them is not like our faith as we mature. Our faith in other adults is usually conditional, based on how things are going at the moment. Help us today to see that the faith of a child, towards others and toward You, is an enabling factor. It makes telling other people we love You much easier if we have the faith of a child.
As to "denying You before men", we know that behavior would greatly grieve You. We would actually be putting our souls at risk, forever, if we were to do so. Strengthen our witness and our faith this day, we pray, in Your Holy name, amen.
Bruce Caldwell
"But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
Matt 10:32-33, Matt 18:10, www.solascriptura.com
Jesus, sometimes Your teaching gives us no hedge room. We would like to say we "sort of tell people we love You" but here you seem to be saying, "do it". What form would You have our confession take? We know that we are to love our enemies and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, so how can we witness to others without the risk of offending people who just do not want to hear it?. Perhaps the answer lies in the second verse.
You tell us that "these little ones" always see Your face. The children are a special treasure in Your eyes. What is it Father that we adults lack? Do we lack the forthright nature of a child? Their innocence is genuine, not contrived. Their faith in Your love and the love of those around them is not like our faith as we mature. Our faith in other adults is usually conditional, based on how things are going at the moment. Help us today to see that the faith of a child, towards others and toward You, is an enabling factor. It makes telling other people we love You much easier if we have the faith of a child.
As to "denying You before men", we know that behavior would greatly grieve You. We would actually be putting our souls at risk, forever, if we were to do so. Strengthen our witness and our faith this day, we pray, in Your Holy name, amen.
Bruce Caldwell
Labels: Heaven
posted by Sola Scriptura at
10:17 PM
