Sabbath Thought.

Sabbath thought-

Each day of creation brought something into being-

1. Earth, space, time, light and water.
2. Atmosphere.
3. Dry land and plants.
4. Sun, Moon, Stars.
5. Sea & Flying creatures.
6. Land animals & man.
7. Sabbath Rest.

Has ANY of those created things as a WHOLE- disappeared?

We still exist upon an earth, water exists, space exists, time and light exist.

We still have an atmosphere.

We still have dry land and plants.

We still have a sun, moon and stars.

We still have sea and flying creatures.

We still have land animals and mankind.

So why wouldn't we still have a day of rest?

There was NO real reason whatsoever for God to CREATE a seventh day if it weren't important.

The weekly cycle was enacted at creation and still exists today.  Man has changed a lot of things and even tried to change the weekly cycle to a different one- but it never caught on.

Six days of labor- of work.

One day of rest.

This is God's plan even before the fall into sin which made work something hard and unpleasant.

Six days of living tending the garden, tending the animals all as desired- none of that tending was a hardship at all. Six days to focus upon things around you in your world, and one day to turn that focus on a central figure- God.

Let me put an idea out there for a moment- one that could be totally wrong, but maybe not.

Remember this verse--

Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

God was NOT always in the presence of the created pair.

However, I believe on the day of rest they were together the entire day. I even believe they could go the entire six days without seeing God and talking to Him- never forgetting Him of course, just as we don't forget people we love just because we don't interact with them. However, I truly do believe that they were together on that seventh day- every seventh day Sabbath. 

Jesus, when He walked the earth before His death and resurrection, kept the Sabbath day. He could be found in temples teaching as was the custom, He could be found conversing with His disciples, He could be found healing and helping others on the Sabbath. Jesus was accused of violating the dictates of the Sabbath- no work- and the Pharisees considered Jesus' healing of others to be work, but Jesus showed them their hypocrisy concerning that.  Jesus was accused of working by allowing His disciples to get a bit of corn off a cob in a field as they walked. Jesus also put that hypocrisy to rest as well. Jesus was NEVER accused of not recognizing the Sabbath day for what it was. He kept the Sabbath! If He simple did NOT keep the Sabbath at all and treated it as all other days we would have heard a lot more from the Pharisees and rulers of that day who were out to get rid of Jesus. Jesus' accusers would have jumped upon the chance to add charges against Him. Remember violating the Sabbath meant being stoned to death.  Do you recall the passage where Jesus intervened with people getting ready to stone an adulteress to death?  The mob getting ready to do the stoning believed in keeping the moral laws as they saw them and their sacrificial system of ruling then called for the punishment of stoning- not forgiveness.  They could have picked up their stones and murdered Jesus for breaking the Sabbath, but they didn't because He kept the Sabbath.  As already mentioned the few times they accused Jesus of Sabbath breaking they were proven false.  Jesus did NOT come to condemn people, but to save them. The murderers were those who even thought about murdering someone, the adulterers were those who even thought about lusting after another.  The heart of the moral law was being REVEALED by Jesus.  Keeping the Sabbath in the heart of the moral law meant keeping it in the way God intended, not in the way of rigidity before the Son of God came to save sinners.  Doing away with ANY of the ten moral laws was NEVER something Jesus would do- He created the moral law! 

The Sabbath was instituted at Creation there is no doubt about that- on the Seventh day God rested from all He'd made and He blessed and sanctified the seventh day.

Gen 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Gen 2:3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Why would God bless the seventh day if it were simply to be forgotten?

Why would God make the seventh day holy through sanctifying it if it meant nothing for the future?

Seriously we need to consider this because people today simply don't believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy.  They tend to keep an hour here or there, maybe a bit more- if they keep it and generally they keep the wrong day altogether- not caring that God went out of His way to assure us which day was the proper day.  We KNOW which day is the Seventh day. The Jewish people still in existence today still keep the same Sabbath day they were given to keep in the moral laws- and while they don't keep it in accordance to Jesus- the heart of the law, they are still keeping that day.  We KNOW which day is God's Sabbath and Biblically it was NEVER changed. People will say but Jesus rose the first day so that changed it.  But Jesus didn't authorize that change and you can be sure He would have made it perfectly clear.  Others say they gathered together on the first day of the week- the apostles and such.  It also says they gathered together daily and they gathered money on the first day of the week something they wouldn't do on the Sabbath. If their Sabbath day had changed to another day it would have been such a HUGE deal, it would tremendously more important than if we changed the day we celebrate yearly holidays. Yet can you imagine someone telling you that we know longer celebrate Ground Hog's day on February 2nd but from now on it'll be on the 3rd of February.  I'm just throwing that out there but think about it, we'd go nuts over a celebration day change yet we don't hear anything about a law kept for thousands of years being changed? 

How was it changed by people? Very subtly, very slowly.  The pagan and Christians began to merge and several holiday and such were altered to fit the Christian idea, not the pagan. For a long time the seventh and the first day were both kept, and then gradually the corrupted Christian church authorized the change and their bogus reasoning was taken for truth because by then they told people only they could truly interpret God's word.  There is a lot of proof but the Devil has done an amazing job of stamping down God's truth. 

Remember- that broad path is where the majority believe- the narrow path is what few believe.

Please, Father God in heaven, please help us to keep the day YOU set aside Holy. Jesus was there with you at the creation of our world and we know He was part of creating the Sabbath day, that He wants us to keep this day holy unto YOU! Teach us how to worship You, to keep Your day holy!  Guide us, Lord.

All through the love of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior now and forever!!!!!!!

Amen.

Don't Tempt God. Jesus did not tempt God.

Jesus resisted the Devil.

Resist…  the DEVIL. 

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

After 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, the Devil confronted Jesus - supposing He was at a very weak point in His human life. A very good assumption on the Devil's behalf because the Devil knew perfectly how to tempt people at their lowest points in life. It was a tried and true method for the Devil and so he decided to use it on the Son of God.  Jesus had taken on a human body and no one was more aware of this very amazing fact than the Devil.  The Devil KNEW that in human form Jesus could sin. No longer was He God with God in Heaven, no longer was He God the co-Creator of all things as yet undeclared as God's Son.

Psa_2:7  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Act 13:33  God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Heb 1:6  And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Heb 1:7  And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Declared to be the Son of God, emptying himself to become HUMAN like us! Able to be TEMPTED LIKE US!

Php 2:5  Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Php 2:6  who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Php 2:7  but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;

Php 2:8  and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.  (ASV)

God declared to be the Son of God, the decree had been made and He took on the form of a slave, emptying Himself- made in the likeness of men.

He COULD sin in that form, that very vulnerable flesh prone to sin.  He COULD be tempted in ALL ways! If He had some special flesh that could not feel the pull of temptation, He could not feel the things we feel, He could NOT be tempted like we are tempted!

Heb_2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

Heb_4:15  For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

ONLY ONE who could feel temptation's insidiousness could save us!

The devil KNEW in His human form, having taken on human flesh, that he could tempt the Son of God and so he set about tempting Him.

Mat 4:5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

Mat 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Mat 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The devil TOOK Jesus into the holy city-  JERUSALEM.

The devil SET Jesus on a pinnacle of the temple.

Imagine it if you will.  The devil using powers of his own - powers of an angel- to physically take the weakened Son of God from the wilderness and place Him on a high point of the holy temple.  Jesus wasn't held up there safely by His own power- He didn't USE His own power- not ever. Jesus was vulnerable to falling from that high perch. If God had willed, He would have fallen and yes, an angel would have kept Him from dying, but that wasn't what God willed.  Jesus stood there upon the holy temple in a place probably no other had stood and He could look down the long way to the ground, He could comprehend the graveness of His situation.

The devil decided to use God's word to tempt Jesus. In the first temptation only moments before, Jesus had refuted the devil's temptation by using the word of God and now the devil was using that same word of God.  It wasn't a lie, it is written…

Psa 91:11  For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.

Psa 91:12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

The devil knew Jesus would know that it was written, so he wasn't lying to Him.

Jesus saw through the attempt to get Him to sin and He immediately replied…

"It is written again- Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

Deu 6:16  'Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God…'

Jesus WAS resisting the devil's tempting!

How easy it would have been to show off and just jump from the pinnacle, knowing He'd be kept safe. That would shut the devil up, right? That would get the devil off His back, yes? No.

Jesus KNEW giving the devil any place at all to dictate a single thing He did, would be opening a door to further temptation. He would NOT give the devil a foothold.

You don't tempt God to prove Himself at all in any way. You don't say, God, if this is true then You'll react this way. You just do NOT do that! Why? Because God has given mankind all they need to believe in Him. He will NOT be toyed with and that's what it would be. People would constantly be tempting Him- expecting Him to perform for them to prove Himself. It would be unending!  And it would NOT be a walk in FAITH, not at all!

We know that we don't like to be tempted, do we? I mean, in this way-  we do not like someone asking us to prove ourselves to them over and over again. We expect someone who claims to be our loved one to believe we love them without constantly having to go out of our way to prove it. It hurts us when we are asked to prove our love, as if it isn't believed already.  Love does not tempt. Love is by faith.  Sure, a lot of times our human love is flawed and we are hurt terribly by someone who is supposed to love us, but that doesn't change what love is supposed to be.

The devil wanted Jesus to ask God to prove His love for Him, using his guile filled ways, as if Jesus didn't have FAITH in His Father's love.  If Jesus had given in to that goading, it would have shown a lack of faith, a lack of love and there was NO way Jesus would ever do that, no way!

Jesus RESISTED the devil's tempting! Jesus had faith in His Father! Jesus use the written word of God. 

May we RESIST the devil!

More tomorrow by the grace and mercy of our LOVING Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD now and FOREVER!

Amen!

Jesus Resisting the Devil.

Resist…  the DEVIL. 

Do we SET OURSELVES AGAINST THE DEVIL?!

Do we WITHSTAND the DEVIL?

Do we RESIST the DEVIL?

Do we OPPOSE the DEVIL?

*******

How did Jesus resist the Devil?

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, IT IS WRITTEN, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Jesus was confronted by the Devil, they came face to face. The Devil spoke to Jesus outright making demands of Jesus. The Devil knew it was Jesus, and yet he said this,  'IF thou be the Son of God.' Why? Why did the Devil do this when he knew the answer already? What was his reasoning? He knew he was face to face with the Son of God. He was TEMPTING, not just TRYING to tempt Jesus, but TEMPTING JESUS to defend Himself. IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD, they both knew that the Devil knew He was the Son of God, but the Devil isn't ever content to be understated. He will play on every single emotion he can at every opportunity. Yes, the temptation was to command the stones to change to bread but, only IF Jesus truly was the Son of God. Only the Son of God could do such a miracle, right? So if those hard stones made of stuff completely unlike bread were altered then that would prove Jesus was the Son of God, right? Not right. But according to the Devil if Jesus did that particular miracle for him then He'd be proven right. It was a BOLDFACE lie. They BOTH knew that the only thing that would happen if Jesus changed that stone into bread would be Jesus LISTENING to the DEVIL, Jesus succumbing to the DEVIL'S tempting! Jesus giving credence to the Devil's desires.  Jesus did NOT reply, that He couldn't change the stone into bread, He took it to another level. He bypassed any discussion on the change that the Devil wanted Him to make and went right to the HEART of the matter- 

IT IS WRITTEN.  Bread?  Man shall not live by bread alone.

Did the Devil say anything at all about living by bread alone? No. Not a single word. So why was He talking about living by only bread?

Jesus make the very bold statement to reveal that BREAD is not important at all, physical food was not important even though He, in His human form, was starving.  Seriously, forty days and kept alive by God miraculously, but NOT without feeling the extreme pangs of hunger. He hungered. Yet, even if He were left to starve all the way to death, if it were by the will of God - by God's plan whatever that may be, it was better than eating with the Devil, better than giving place to the Devil in any way.

Man wasn't to LIVE by food alone… but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Not food alone- but food with something greater than food- God's word.

He would starve before He'd live by food alone. His Father had to give Him leave to break the fast He was on, not the Devil.  The Devil wanted Him to give into the HUNGER, to ease His hunger while PROVING He could do miracles that would in turn prove He was Jesus, the Son of God- something that did not need to be proved at all.

Jesus wanted us to know that EVERY word of God means more than ANY thing else, truly anything else. 

Is it any wonder that so many people throughout time have died rather than give up the Word of God?

The torture, the agony, the sheer horror of the things people have had to endure because they rather believe in God's word than the sensual, temporal things of this world is beyond our full understanding. We need to question ourselves though, would WE choose the Word over all else? Would WE? And if not, why not?

We must RESIST the Devil so he will FLEE from us.  May we learn from our Savior, through His power learn to resist through our submission, our full submission to Him!

More tomorrow by the will, by the grace, by the love of our God!

In Jesus' name now and forever, amen!

*******

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Submit to God- Resist the Devil.

Submit…  to GOD.  Do we submit to God? What's it mean to submit to God. How can YOU personally submit to God?  Do you yield your power to God? You do have a power of your own and that is the power of choice. You choose, God does NOT choose for you. If God chose for us it would be HIS choosing and He might as well have made us simple robotic without any will of our own at all whatsoever. We choose and we choose often, we choose constantly.  Our decision to submit to God is a constant choice as well. How simple would it be for us to make a choice once and never go back on that choice. But we are creature of different choices often. Some people are very rigid in their inability to choose anything other than what they are familiar with, however we deem them as anomalies, not average. How often today are we face to face with people making serious choices and then changing those choices, even ones they've considered final.

Getting back to submitting to God- do we yield our power to God? We have power simply by existing and that power to choose to give ourselves to God is yielding that power to Him. We yield any authority we may think we possess, to God- we want Him to be our authority!

Do you want God to be your authority, or are you like so many others proud to say you are the boss of yourself. We take so much pride in being in control of ourselves, making our own decisions and in truth we shouldn't. That pride we are talking about is in direct contradiction to our submitting to God.  If we lay claim to control we are not allowing God to control. We cry out in happiness, "Look what I did!" All the while forgetting that we only did whatever it was, because God allowed us to. Truly all glory goes to God!

Do we submit? Do we yield our authority to God? Do we give God the control of our lives to lead us in His way? This truly is something we need to contemplate, to pray on, to study more.

Resist…  the DEVIL.    Do you resist the devil?  How do you resist the devil?

The Greek definition for resist--

ἀνθίστημι

anthistēmi

Thayer Definition:

1) to set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose

2) to set against

Do we SET OURSELVES AGAINST THE DEVIL?!

Do we WITHSTAND the DEVIL?

Do we RESIST the DEVIL?

Do we OPPOSE the DEVIL?

How do we do this?  More tomorrow by the GRACE and MERCY of our LORD and SAVIOR!!!!! JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! NOW AND FOREVER! AMEN!

*******

Draw nigh… to GOD.

Cleanse… your hands.

Purify… your hearts.

Be… afflicted.

Mourn.

Weep.

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

HE- the LORD- will lift us up!

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Be Afflicted.

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Submit…  to GOD.

Resist…  the DEVIL.

Draw nigh… to GOD.

Cleanse… your hands.

Purify… your hearts.

Be… afflicted.

Mourn.

Weep.

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

HE- the LORD- will lift us up!

What do we think about affliction, mourning, weeping?  These are all very negative things, right? We shun affliction at all costs and weeping is a sign of something being wrong so the patent response to weeping is 'Please, don't cry. It will be all right. Don't cry.'  We want the crying to stop because crying means there is something wrong, something making you cry. Mourning? We say, sure mourn as you need to, but we then offer drugs and therapy to help stop the mourning.  Why are we told TO mourn, to weep, to be afflicted?  Where is the benefit from such things?  When we are told to let our laughter turn to mourning and our joy to heaviness this does NOT sound like a prescription for the calm, peaceful state we imagine we should be in as Christians.

The truth is… well, the truth is this…

When the people of God were readying themselves for their yearly day of atonement, the were to do this--

Lev_16:29  And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls…

YE SHALL AFFLICT YOUR SOULS.

We know the sacrificial system was done away with at the cross, but we also know the sacrificial system was an example. The lamb was symbolic for the sacrifice of Christ in every sacrifice for sin. The whole ritual process was for a purpose.  What did the afflicting of their souls represent?  They wanted to be a part of the day of atonement because they wanted that atonement.  They wanted all their sins that had been accumulated over the course of the year, washed with the blood of the sacrifices over the altar, staining the sanctuary, to be cleansed completely- gone forever. They knew how important it was for their sins to be cleanses away, they couldn't be pure if they weren't cleansed, they couldn't be God's. This ceremony was one of cleansing, a dual atonement. This ceremony was the most sacred of all the Jewish holy days for a reason. 

The final cleansing of ALL sin is going to take place BEFORE our Savior returns is there any wonder why need to do be afflicted?

I'm NOT talking about going about moaning and groaning, oh, woe is me and the world is ending moan, moan, moan. I'm talking about a heart affliction, the deep sense of sin in ourselves and the world. A deep sense of our unworthiness, of our need to be saved because we CANNOT save ourselves!  We can recognize our need for a Savior, but we cannot save ourselves, it's impossible to do anything other than submit to the ONE who can save us.  If that is saving ourselves, then that is what is necessary- submission, realization of our need of saving.

We must mourn, we must weep, we must be afflicted because we know the horrors of sin and the cost of sin.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever! 

AMEN.

Was Jesus Humble?

Was Jesus humble?

Did Jesus abase Himself? Did Jesus take on any airs at all?! Did Jesus magnify Himself? 

Jesus did NOT crave power.

Jesus did NOT lift Himself up.

Jesus did NOT have any self-adulation.

There was NO pride in our Savior.

Jesus did say- I am the WAY the TRUTH the LIFE- was that a boastful declaration? No. It was the TRUTH.  It was a fact.  He wanted people to know that the way to truth, life, to eternal life was in Him.  And yet, He did not act like any power hungry, self-centered, leader. He defied the definition of leading by pulling up the down-trodden, exalting the poor, chastising the rich, reprimanding the powerful. He did NOT pull up an army of men and He could have. That wasn't His mission. 

Jesus was humble.

Jesus ALLOWED Himself to be led, like a lamb to the slaughter because He had to give up everything, His very life in order to save all mankind who would be His.

Jesus had such amazing power- from God, His Father.

Joh_14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works

The Father did the works in Jesus.

Jesus did NOT use the power of His Father to raise up an army of men to defeat the oppressive ruling powers around them and all that knew Him, all that believed in Him, KNEW He could have done that. 

JESUS HUMBLED HIMSELF and He is our ultimate example.

When we constantly look at ourselves and feel put out even in the slightest at the lot life has given us, we are NOT humbling ourselves, but rather exalting ourselves all the while believing we do not deserve to have the life we have, the hardships we face.  We moan inwardly at being called to do things that interfere with our own plans believing our own plans are superior to any plans others have for us. We are so incredibly SELF-CENTERED, that humbling ourselves is the furthest thing from our minds.  Humbling ourselves.

Jas_4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

We HAVE to learn to humble ourselves!  Do we sense the importance of doing this? Humbling ourselves!

PLEASE LORD!

HELP US!

SAVE US FROM OURSELVES!

We are little children.

Excerpt from yesterday and expansion on that excerpt-

'To be humble like a child can be confusing for those who have experience with all sorts of young children. We have come in contact with many 2 or 3 year old children who seem to be anything but humble in any manner. 

The Greek definition in the Bible for humble in discussion here is--

Strong's -

From G5011; to depress; figuratively to humiliate (in condition or heart): - abase, bring low, humble (self).

Thayer's-

1) to make low, bring low   1a) to level, reduce to a plain 1b) metaphorically to bring into a humble condition, reduce to meaner circumstances 1b1) to assign a lower rank or place to  1b2) to abase

1b3) to be ranked below others who are honoured or rewarded 1b4) to humble or abase myself by humble living 1c) to lower, depress 1c1) of one’s soul bring down one’s pride 1c2) to have a modest opinion of one’s self 1c3) to behave in an unassuming manner 1c4) devoid of all haughtiness

To be humble like a child truly is to realize our dependence, our nothingness. To a society such as in Jesus' day- a child was expected to be obedient, their place in the grand scheme of things was very minimal, they had no rights, no voice to be heard, especially one of disrespect. They had no position of any authority whatsoever. Today we've elevated children to such a place they often think they have a lot of authority and they rule over their parents in a lot of situations. How often have we heard of children being disobedient to parents- we witness it for ourselves in the stores we frequent. We've begun to coddle children to such a point they've lost their position of humbleness.  And this has happened because of a misguided sense of sympathy for children being misunderstood. I say misguided because so much in our world truly is misguided and not always from a bad place but even in attempting to do good people can be misguided.

We need to HUMBLE OURSELVES.

We need to be HUMBLE as LITTLE CHILDREN.

Why? Because we ARE LITTLE CHILDREN - and our God is our FATHER.'

End excerpt from yesterday.

We are little children even in our adult guise.  It truly is a guise isn't it?  We do grow out of a lot of things but more of our youth remains than we tend to let on to children as they grow up.

I know personally, I thought there would be some (for lack of a better word) magical change that would occur when I became of age (18).  Yes, 18 years old was the magic age when childhood would disappear and I'd be consider an adult- back then it was the legal drinking age, it was also the legal voting age, the legal age to leave home, the legal age to marry as well any number of other legalities that were suddenly all mine.  Having all these new legal statuses surely meant I'd attained some sort of adulthood and change, right?  I was seventeen, underage, and then suddenly eighteen and of age. So why didn't anything magical happen? Why hadn't there been an overnight alteration in my brain to reflect my new attainment?

I was the same, the exact same as I'd been at seventeen without any sudden new maturity. I was goofy at times, silly, playful and to this day many, many years later I am still goofy, silly, playful etc.  What I have gained over the years is knowledge, experience and those two things have aged me, but I've never lost that person I was at seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen. HOWEVER, and it's a big however, I am NOT at I was much younger than that. I remember my five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve year old self and I do remember my life changing, that childishness giving way to maturity.  In some cultures maturity is measured by the age 13,  or for girls with the coming of their cycles and I fully understand that. By age 13 or so we do have a defined sense of who we will be as adults don't we?  The rest is up to the experiences we have, the choices we make, the paths we choose to take.  Our essential self is there by the time we are over what we deem our childhood, and still some of the child we were and are, is always with us. 

Going back to being as little children, there is a sense of wonder in children, a sense of innocence, a special humbleness in the very little children.

We, just as those little children, need that special humbleness. We need to REALIZE as adults that we NEED to be as CHILDREN in humbleness.  We spend so much time as adults trying to be this elusive grown up person, that we've forgotten we NEED to be humble children!

We should NEVER forget our NEED to comprehend we are CHILDREN of God, not grown-ups of God. We are ever created by Him in a very unique way that goes way beyond our human reproduction- Father/Mother = Child.  God is the FATHER of all who have ever been reproduced, no OTHER can claim that. God is the FATHER of ALL ever created.  All created need to be in awe of such a CREATOR. We need to HUMBLE ourselves before our CREATOR knowing that we are HIS, and all we are is HIS, for HIS will. To take it upon ourselves that we have some sort of power within us on our own to control ourselves is lunacy. We can choose to deny God, to embrace evil and become very far from anything resembling humbleness. We can choose to serve self.  We can do this but still God is there and HIS plan will be realized. Nothing we do, no evil we commit will change God's plan.  God sacrificed His ONLY begotten Son and that will never change. Evil will have its end. Our being allowed to know the outcome of all evil is a blessing that our Savior came to give to us. We need to live in humbleness to the truth we've been given.

Humbling ourselves.  A constant recognition of our dependence upon our God for our life, for our eternal life, for all we are and may be. 

When life tries to demand we think of ourselves more highly than we should- something Satan will encourage at every opportunity- we need to bow down before God all the more and pray for humbling.

All by the love, the grace, the mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!