There are two primary characteristics of children as examples of kingdom living, found here.

Firstly, absolute trust. Jesus called the child and the child came and stood among this group of disciples whom, most likely, he or she did not know. Children these days, would be taught to run away! However, even today, as a parent or grandparent, the trusting innocence of a young child gives both intense pleasure and great responsibility.

Jesus had a love of children and they were attracted to Him.

The Little Children and Jesus

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16)

Can you see what Jesus was getting at here? The disciples were making the same mistake so many of us make. We place an importance on knowledge above faith. In the disciples eyes the children were a distraction from the great 'adult' teachings Jesus was no doubt giving them. This is particularly a 'man's' problem! Theological schools abound, while walking in faith, in the absolute, unconditional trust as seen in a child, is a scarce commodity in the church today. But unconditional faith is the single requirement Jesus sets out here for kingdom inheritance.

Makes you think, doesn't it!

Secondly, humility. True humility is the result of absolute faith, of complete trust in Jesus both as Saviour - and as Lord of our life. It is not a self effacing manner. It is not putting ones self down.

Rather, true humility is found in total submersion in, and submission to, Jesus, by being His servant to others, even to a little child.

35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." 36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." (Mark 9:35-7)

The theme of childlike obedience is further emphasised by Jesus here.....

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:1-5)

And again.....

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

As Jesus also explains, true humility, like that of Jesus, a humility founded in absolute faith, results in us being able to 'rest' in Him.

Rest for the Weary

"At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."" (Matthew 11:25-30)

The ever practical James explains it like this.....

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:6-7)

The description of the fully submitted kingdom believer as a child is carried through to the end time description of Jesus and His ruling church.....

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:4b-6)

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell." (Matthew 18:1-9)

Faith in the Son of God

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood-Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:1-12)

Submit Yourselves to God

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

1318. Religionists talk, disciples walk.

1319. Religionists talk of past glories, disciples walk into present glory.

1320. By definition, 'following' Jesus requires walking, not talking.

1321. If we talk, but not walk with Jesus, we will soon be 'left behind'!

1322. We must walk into God's rest.

1323. In God, talk is cheap, walking expensive, for it costs our life.

1324. Talking changes minds, but walking, hearts.

1325. To talk about Jesus is good, to walk in His ways, godly.

345. NOISY
Sunday School Teacher: "What evidence is there in the Bible that Adam and Eve were noisy?"

Boy: "They raised Cain!"

344. THE PERFECT OFFERTORY SERMON
"I would like to remind you that what you are about to give is deductible, cannot be taken with you and is considered in the Bible that the love of this is the root of all evil."

343. PEANUTS
A preacher visiting an elderly parishioner at a nursing home noticed a bowl of peanuts by her bed and took one. As they talked. he couldn't help himself and ate one after another. By the time their visit was over, the bowl was empty.

"I'm sorry, but I seem to have eaten all of your peanuts," he said.

ANSWER:
Emperor Marcus Aurelius succumbed to the 'Plague of Antonine', a smallpox epidemic that killed something between 3.5 and 7 million people in the Roman Empire in 180 AD. (A 'Big' man, but small to the pox!)

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:
How long was the world's longest prayer meeting?

SOME FUN FACTS

64. COLD HOT
The rare metal gallium melts at 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30C). It is safe to touch, so if you hold a piece in your hand and wait, it will melt. (Makes you look real hot stuff!)

65. NOT WHAT IT SEEMS
The television show Seinfeld was set in New York City. However, the exterior that was used for Jerry Seinfeld's apartment house is actually located in Los Angeles, California. (Is the New York weather that bad?)

66. NOW THAT'S POWERFUL!
If all the Earth's atmosphere was moving at the speed of a light breeze, its total energy would be equal to that generated by a large hydroelectric dam operating continuously for 7,000 years. (If only it was a breeze to harness it!)

A WORD PUZZLE FOR YOU

Make another word from this word using all the letters.

ADHERED

A - pigeons
B - sparrows
C - wren
D - stork

Source: www.biblequizzes.com

1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.

2. What's the definition of a will? (it's a dead giveaway).

3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

4. A backward poet writes inverse.

5. In democracy it's your vote that counts; In feudalism, it's your count that votes.

7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

8. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.

9. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.

10. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.

11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.

16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

17. Every calendar's days are numbered.

18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.

19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

80. MONEY
One of my jobs at a bank is to answer the phones and put callers through to the right person. When a customer called one day asking to speak with a bank representative, I said, "Of course, Sir. What is it about, exactly?"

Dryly, he replied, "It's about money."

81. PERFECT
A civil servant is badly hurt, after falling down the stairs at city hall. He's taken to the hospital where he remains in a coma for several days. Finally, an eye opens and his doctor tells him, "My friend, I have bad news and I have good news. First of all, you'll never be able to work again."

"Okay," muttered the injured bureaucrat. "What's the bad news?"

82. TRUE VALUE
A man walked up to the counter of an auto-parts store. "Excuse me," he said, "I'd like to get a new gas cap for my Yugo."

"Sure," the clerk replied, "Sounds like a fair exchange to me."

83.GET WELL SOON
A motorcycle patrolman was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. The doctors operated and advised him that all was well. However, the patrolman kept feeling something pulling at the hairs on his chest. Worried that it might be second surgery the doctors hadn't told him about, he finally got enough energy to pull his hospital gown down enough so he could look at what was making him so uncomfortable.

Taped firmly across his hairy chest were three wide strips of adhesive tape, the kind that doesn't come off. Written in large black letters on the tape was the sentence:

ODENSE, Denmark -- In Denmark, at least 4 percent of the country's population claims to be of the Muslim faith. Now, one former Muslim is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

But it's not without a price.

Massoud Fouroozandeh was born a Muslim in Iran. In 1986 when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Fouroozandeh, then 15, was called up for military duty. But instead of serving, he fled Iran on crutches through the Kurdish mountains, and eventually settled in Denmark.

Today, he is the pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in Denmark with a special outreach to Denmark's Muslim immigrants. He is the author of the book titled "The Forbidden Salvation."

His journey to Christianity began when his mother, who also became a Christian, gave him a Bible. This angered him and he decided to disprove it, but something different happened.

"I found the God of love," Fouroozandeh told CBN News.

Fouroozandeh was running his own business in Denmark when he says Jesus appeared to him in a dream and called him to serve Him. He later began the Church of Love.

"Our mission was to tell everyone we knew about Christ," he explained.

And that has made some Muslims in Denmark very angry. The Danish media has reported about how Pastor Fouroozandeh has been threatened by Muslims, including having one car damaged and another destroyed.

But he said this opposition and persecution is exactly what the church in Denmark has needed.

"Before the church was dead but now it is waking up," Fouroozandeh said.

Today the Church of Love has congregations in three different cities. The threat of violence is not stopping the gospel from reaching more Danish Muslims.

As God is pure and we are not, He can only be approached through a mediator, a priest.

This study is about the establishment and development of the priesthood from the earliest of times until today.

U 2?

Not a thought.
But I ought
To have inspiration,
Not perspiration.
In emptiness am caught!

At least it does still rhyme.
Caught the brain in time.
Rubbish 4 u 2 read,
Must get up to speed.
Many mountains yet to climb.

Good News?
Your views?
What cues?
Pay dues.

Jesus saves!
Heaven paves!
Satan raves!
Makes waves!

My mission
Give vision.
Your decision.
With precision.

Which way?
Jesus sway?
Your day.
Him obey.

Elevate!
Celebrate!
Invigorate!
Passionate!

Until next week___

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD.

His servant and yours

David Tait

Today's 'Word Puzzle' Answer: REDHEAD