1 QUOTE

“What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms? Altogether, yes!”

- Charles Simeon in a discussion on grace with Charles Wesley

1 NOTE

C.S. Lewis dedicated The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to his goddaughter. He encouraged her that one day she would be old enough to read children’s books again. My pastor, Darrell Johnson, on my 40th birthday, testified that followers of Jesus get older on the outside, but younger on the inside. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a short story about a man who ages in reverse. Filmmaker David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) turned his story into a feature film. All of us want to get younger. We all long for a simpler time. Jesus actually demands it.

In Matthew 18, Jesus begins his fourth sermon. Jesus delivers five sermons in Matthew, mirroring the five books of Moses. The fourth message begins with a call to become a child again: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never ever the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). I believe Jesus teaches that we must repent from the original sin of independence. The shiny apple in the garden was a sugar-coated lie that we can ‘do it our way.’ Instead of doing all we can to grow up in women and men, we must grow down and becoming like children. Children are simple, trusting, unburdened, relying for everything on mom and dad. 

So it is for those in relationship with the only God who works for those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4)!

1 QUESTION

This summer, are you growing up or growing down?

Until Next Tuesday,

John