[arcura]

(Mt 18:1-5.10.12-14): At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, «Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?». Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, «I assure you that unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in my name receives me. See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you: their angels in heaven continually see the face of my heavenly Father. What do you think of this? If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, won’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillside, and go to look for the stray one? And I tell you: when he finally finds it, he is more pleased about it than about the ninety-nine that did not get lost. It is the same with your Father in heaven: there they don't want even one of these little ones to be lost».
Have you become like a little child?
How did you manage that?
Peace and kindness,
Fred

[arcura]

saintjoan,
I wish that you had answered my questions as I asked.
But your post is correct.
God gave The Church the power to bind or loose on earth and it would be so in heaven.
Thank God that The Church continually prays for salvation for all those in friendship with God.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

[savedsinner7]

To have the faith of a child is to believe that your Father will take care of everything. It means I don't have to worry about today, tomorrow or next week. It means I can just be content that God is in charge and when I go to work, the pay I receive will cover all that needs to be covered. It means that when I say I'm sorry to Him and stop doing what I know is wrong that I can trust I am forgiven and not grovel and beg and work my way to forgiveness. It means trusting in God that when He says He is going to do something He will, even if the timing isn't when I thought it would be. Faith like a child means I can jump out into the water knowing that He is there to catch me because He said He was.

[arcura]

Savedsinner7
Thanks for your thought on that.
But the bible says that we should ask for forgiveness and confess our sins.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

[Choux]

Hi Fred,

Yes, one can't be in/go to heaven without looking at the world as a child does(with joy and happiness and positive expectation)... or being born again(internal spiritual transformation). :):):)


The Kingdom of God is Within... The Kingdom of God is on Earth.

The basis of Christianity as a spiritual religion, and not to be denied wisdom.

[savedsinner7]

Savedsinner7
Thanks for your thought on that.
But the bible says that we should ask for forgiveness and confess our sins.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

Yep, I addressed that. The Bible says "if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins." That means done and over with, no groveling or pleading or anything else.

[0rphan]

Hi arcura... in my simplistic terms, I take that to mean: the purity and innocence of children... without sin until they grow and are influence by the world around us.

For each of us to cast out our sins and repent... to become clean again.


Blessings

[MoonlitWaves]

I believe Jesus in these verses is talking about humbling yourself.

We are by our nature independent. It's not easy to, not only put your life into someone else's hand, but to put everything about your life into someone elses's hands either. It also not easy to set aside everything you think you know for someone to tell you differently and change all that.

But this is exactly what God does and expects from us.

He expects us to put aside what we think we know on our own so that He can teach us His truth. If God did not come to us we wouldn't even know He existed.
He expects us to to put our life in His hands so that He can not only save it, but guide our lives, talk to us and give us the strength to live our life the way He would have us live it.

All of these are qualities of a child. A child depends upon his parents to protect, teach, guide and correct.

For an adult to lean on God as a child leans on his parents is to humble yourself. God requires it for very good reason too. It is to set us aside so that God can shine through, so that Spiritual knowledge can outshine our worldly knowledge, so that being a good person Spiritually outshines being a good person worldly, so that the ways to live Spiritually outshine the ways to live worldly, I could go on and on. All of these Spiritual things we can't even begin to do without God which means we have to totally and completely lean on Him. That is what it means to "become like little children".

To depend on God as a child depends on his parents.

[cogs]

Have you become like a little child?
How did you manage that?

Well, according to nicodemus, dontya know, you have to get younger, and crawl up into your mother's womb, and be born again. Lol jk

I'm trying to become like a little child, in that I'm trying to stop relying on pride, and whatever I think I should do to run my life the way I want. Instead, I'm trying to let god be the one who disciplines(ha, disciple) me, and show me where I need correction, and basically run my life with his orders and guidance. It's almost like a reprogramming, but I think it's even deeper than psychological change... I think it's a spiritual development that can only be started by god's spirit.

[revdrgade]

Jesus is talking about a "childlike faith" and not a "childish faith". "Childlike" is with a strong faith in our heavenly Father. "Childish" is reckless and without paying attention to instruction from our heavenly Father.

We are to be wise, but not in our own pursuits but with the wisdom that comes from God in Christ.


1 Cor 1:20-25
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom , 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom , and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
NIV

As I get older I'm learning to be more like a child in my dependence on God. It's not perfected yet. I still have old habits of getting ahead of God in my plans.. and then worries.

[savedsinner7]

Isn't it awesome to know that we are His by His discipline in our lives?

Hebrews 12:6
For the Lord disciplines those he loves,and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”