Monday, March 13, 2017
“Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are
always in the presence of my heavenly Father.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he
do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine
others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if
he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the
ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my
heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:10-14(NLT)
A crisis in a family demands our time and attention. Jesus looked at the children his disciples
had tried to keep away from him and quickly made the point that they were
incredibly important to him.
What
if the disciples had been successful in shooing them away? Could it be that they would have never heard
the words of life from Jesus?
Earlier in this passage Jesus had been asked a typically carnal question
by his disciples: How do I get to the top in this
organization? And Jesus
responded with the most stinging kind of rebuke; He gave them the children's
sermon - literally!
The simple parable of the one lost sheep is one of the easiest to
discern. God cares so much for those who
are outside the fold; He will seek them out to save. The Great Shepherd cares much less about our
disputes over the color of church carpets, and the shape of offering plates
than if we are being faithful to win the lost.
So the Master simply taught his followers that they would have to make a
decision between worldly and heavenly priorities.
Decisions are tough! When I go to the grocery store the bag boy
wants to know if
I want to destroy a tree, or pollute the atmosphere when I discard the
plastic bag.
Jenny Lind made a tough choice.
She had won great success and fame as an operatic singer, but she left
the stage at the height of her career.
She missed the money and fame. One
day, late in her life, a friend found her sitting on the seashore, Bible on her
knee. She asked why the star had
abandoned the stage at the zenith of her career. Her answer: She pointed to the Bible on her knee and
said: When, every day it made me think less of this (laying a
finger on the Bible) and nothing at
all of that (pointing to the sunset), what else could I do?"
For You Today
As believers we must make choices between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom
of this world. Today will be no
different!
Go to VIDEO
NOTES
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