SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/1/2023 9:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Jesus Loves the Little Children”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 19:13-15
Message of the verses: “13 Then some
children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray;
and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, "Let the children
alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven
belongs to such as these." 15 And after laying His hands on them, He
departed from there.”
As we begin this SD I want to continue talking about
“the age of accountability” in stating that it is not that small children are
regenerate and then lose their salvation if they do not later receive Christ as
their Savior and Lord. It is rather that
His atoning death is applied on their behalf if they die before they are able to
make the choice to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. A person has to make that choice on their own
as that is the only way to be saved, and if a small baby dies they certainly
cannot make that choice on their own so the Lord will just take them to be with
Him. There is some thought by John
MacArthur that in some countries where there a lot of very young children dying
that perhaps the Lord is taking some of them to be with Him so that they don’t
have to be raised in a very difficult society, a society where it is so
difficult to encounter the gospel and believe.
It
is an awesome responsibility that parents have to teach their children about
the Lord Jesus Christ. I can say that I
have had that responsibility and thank the Lord to be able to lead both or my
children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and they too have led their
children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The
children who were brought to Jesus must have had this in mind as the Lord laid His
hands on them and blessed them. Let us look at Mark 10:16 where we will find
the Greek form behind “blessing” is intensive, indicating a passionate
fervency. “And
He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on
them.” I have to believe that
Jesus had a smile on His face as He looked with kindness at these small
children. John MacArthur writes “We do
not know the specific nature of His blessing, but we can surmise that He
promised the provision of God on their behalf and the care of God over each one
of them.
“Luke
reports that Jesus then declared, as He had a short while earlier, ‘Truly I say
to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not
enter it at all’ (Luke 19:17; cf. Matt. 18:3).
In other words, the kingdom is populated by only two kinds of subjects;
those who die while little children and those who come in the trusting and
humble attitude of little children. Only
those enter God’s kingdom who come to Him in the simplicity, openness,
dependency, lack of pretension, and lack of hypocrisy of little children. As John Calvin commented, ‘The passage
broadens to give kingdom citizenship to both children and those are like them.’”
In tomorrow’s
SD I want to begin with a quotation from MacArthur’s sermon about a young Hindu
man named Paul Pillai, a very interesting story, one I believe all who read it
will think so too.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I was putting the verses onto this SD a
phrase stood out to me: “He might lay His hands on them and pray.”
What a blessing to me to know that Jesus is praying for me in heaven as
this is part of what He is doing now, a very important part, a very humbling
part to think that He is praying for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To be very thankful that my Lord prays and
intercedes for me in heaven.
3/1/2023 9:54 AM
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