This was an early and busy Sunday morning for me. I participated in a men’s ministry leadership group meeting that began at 7:30 a.m. at the church. After that meeting, I went to the new Morning Star Assisted Living facility and conducted two chapel services. One in the memory care unit and one in the assisted living center. These were small groups since the facility is new and is just being populated with residents, but I enjoyed the interaction that I had with both groups. I did find myself more fatigued than I anticipated and even slept through the third quarter of the\u00a0 Broncos’ game, which wasn’t a bad thing. My energy level picked up when they came from behind and won their playoff game.<\/p>\n
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…<\/strong> \u201cIf anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.\u201d<\/span><\/span> Then He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,<\/span><\/em> \u201cWhoever welcomes one little child such as this in My name welcomes Me. And whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me, but Him who sent Me.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Mark 9:35-37 HCSB<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One of the more interesting contrasts in Jesus teaching is found in Mark 9. The transfiguration has taken place, Jesus has demonstrated his power over the demonic control of a child, he predicts his death and resurrection. Scripture records that at this point the disciples were confused about Jesus talk of being “raised from the dead.” However, the fact of who Jesus was and future opportunities was not lost on them. Jesus found them arguing about who would be greatest in His kingdom.<\/p>\n In response, Jesus tells them, “whoever wants to be first shall be last of and servant of all.” <\/em>(Mark 9:35 HCSB) Later James and John came to Jesus and asked Him for positions of honor, Jesus responded in like manner and said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life\u2014a ransom for many.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em> (Mark 10:45 HCSB)<\/p>\n The disciples consistently reverted to human thinking and carnal attitudes and Jesus kept putting before them the illustration of children and of Himself.<\/p>\n Children in Jesus day were certainly among the, “seen not heard of society.” But Jesus says that greatest is reflected in welcoming, even the least among you and showing them value and love. Later on, Jesus says, that the faith of children, simple faith, fragile faith, is to be guarded. \u201cBut whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me\u2014it would be better for him if a heavy millstone<\/span> were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.<\/span><\/span>“<\/em> (Mark 9:42 HCSB)<\/p>\n Faith even in the “least” is to be nurtured and guarded. Jesus was not calling His disciples to an “exclusive club” but was allowing them to have a special role in proclaiming the good news to all. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus about being the Messiah, one of Jesus’ response included, “the poor have the gospel preached them.”<\/em> (Matthew 11:5)<\/p>\n Later, when children were brought to Jesus to be blessed, the disciples hindered the mothers and received a rebuke from Jesus, \u201cLet the little children come to Me. Don\u2019t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.<\/span><\/span><\/em> I assure you: Whoever does not welcome<\/span><\/em> the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.\u201d<\/span> <\/em><\/span>(Mark 10:14,15 HCSB)<\/p>\n God’s kingdom is received when people are just willing to come to Jesus. Jesus was being analyzed, critiqued and criticized by adults and religious leaders. Children were drawn to Him and parents of children sought Jesus blessing on the lives of their children.\u00a0 In like fashion we are to welcome what the Lord offers our life with open arms, and\u00a0 simple faith, like a child. We don’t need to demand an explanation or for the Lord to accommodate our questions and address all of our doubts. We simply come.<\/p>\n Parents realize that children can be demanding and self-centered. But there is a difference between being “childish” and being “child-like.” The Lord invites us to be “child-like” and to avoid the “childish” behavior that allowed the disciples to exhibit at attitude more like “sibling” rivalry than simple trust and faith in the Lord’s care and provision.<\/p>\n When we come to Jesus, with simple faith, taking Him at His word and pressing into Him, that is where we receive His blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was an early and busy Sunday morning for me. I participated in a men’s ministry leadership group meeting that began at 7:30 a.m. at the church. After that meeting, I went to the new Morning Star Assisted Living facility and conducted two chapel services. One in the memory care unit and one in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2757,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions\/2757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}