Coaches & Facilitators – BT7:  Let the little children come to Me!

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Matthew 18:3-4 says: “Then Jesus called a young/infant (a) child to Himself, set (b) him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted (c) and become as young/infant (a) children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles/lowers himself as this paidion young/infant child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” <Notes> a) paidion, under 7-8 years ago, b) histemi: placed, made to stand up, balanced into place, implying that this ‘young/infant’ child was so young that Jesus may have picked him up and had to help stand, c) strepho: turn around one’s mind, a synonym for metanoeo: repent or think differently towards someone, to have a change in moral conviction.

The one thing about a little, young/infant child, they can’t and don’t need to get caught up in sophisticated reasoning as to WHY to listen to what their parents tell them to think or do.  They innately know this.  They simply are expected to obey.  They tell them to not “run out into the street” because they want to protect them from danger. Little children don’t have a clue what a car is or how dangerous it can be.  Our Heavenly Father doesn’t need to go into a “contextual, rational, higher reasoning” of elaborate gnosis info-knowledge when He gives us warnings.  He hopes that our relationship is good enough that as a little child we simply “trust and obey,” as the song says!

Later on, when they grow up, kids like to ask WHY  When they are teenagers, they could care less about the WHYs and just believe their way of thinking is better anyways!  And even if they understood WHY they often just want to rebel anyways.  The older we get, the more and more unlikely we will simply have trusting-relying-faith in what God has to say, not try to over-analyze it, or try to rationalize around it.  After all, the deception of Satan in the garden of Eden was to say “Did God really say….” and “Didn’t He really mean this….”.  The Lord is telling Christians and musicians that we need to “reset back to the beginning – be like these very young, trusting children that just listen and trust!”

Is it naïve or foolish or ignorant or too “fundamentalist” to be like a paidion young/infant child when it comes to God’s message to us?  Do the post-modernists, German textual “higher” critics, and de-mythification “experts” of many mainstream Christian denominations that suppose they are “more enlightened” than the millions of Christians that have come before them – do they really have an advantage over all the other Christians?  Are these “special people” of clergy really smarter than the “common laity?”  Is their “greatness of wisdom” that says “did God really say?” make them any closer to being “like a paidion young/infant child” that Jesus calls us to be?  Do they really have a clearer picture of how to be saved?  Is their “broader road” that encompasses more of the scientific thought of men in the last 100 years really helping Christians walk through the “narrow gate” that leads to a genuine relationship with God?  In the next BLOG Topic, let’s see what the Apostle Paul, an ambassador of Christ sent to the “smart thinking, special people” of Greece.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, are we more concerned with reaching adults or those as simple as little, infant-like, children?  Are we using “adult” ways to reach people, or the ways God would reach us as “little children?”

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Spiritual Education, Church leaders, Church equippers, Jesus favored little children, Little children don’t need complicated reasons to obey, Best to just trust and obey like a little child