Good Morning! - Mat. 18:2-4 - Little Children

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said,Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 18:2-4)See also (Mat 19:13-15) (Mark 10:15) (Luke 18:15-17)

Jesus Receives Little Children

This passage is a sufficient basis for the salvation of children who die in infancy. When King David’s baby by Bathsheba died, David arose from prayer and fasting and said: …he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me (2Sa 12:23).

Until children come to the age of accountability, if they die they go to Heaven to be with the Lord. No one knows when children reach the age of accountability but they do reach that age.

The second statement built into this passage is that adults are going to Hell as rebels against God unless they humble their hearts as little children before God and receive Christ as Savior and Lord as little children. Forget about being a celebrity in God’s presence. A proud and arrogant heart will get you into big trouble with God and that’s the truth. In the Luke reference above, just before Jesus picked up little children, we find this scene:

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Luk 18:13-14).

This passage is so very important! I hope no one will miss it. Have you received the crucified and risen Christ as a little child? It is so clear: if we would be saved for eternity we MUST be converted and receive Christ as a little child. All who have gone to Heaven have gone this route.This fits hand-in-glove with the memory verse for this week.

Memory Verse This Week:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mar 8:38).

Write the verse on a 3x5 card and say the verse five times a day, reference before and after the verse. Write the verse several times a day on a card or paper carried in your pocket for that purpose. Say the verse to a friend or family member once a day. After this week, repeat the verse daily for several weeks until it pours out without effort. It takes about 60 days to thoroughly memorize a verse. It takes a lifetime to obey and practice a verse.

Dan Carr

Good Morning! - Eph.4:30 - Being Confident

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in youwill perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (Php 1:6)

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph_4:30).

The Best Commentary – by J. Vernon McGee . (The length has been cut in half.)

Because this is my life verse (Phil.1:6) and therefore very meaningful to me, I hope you won't mind if I tell you about it. I was a very poor boy when I went away to college. My dad had been killed in an accident in a cotton gin when I was fourteen years old. My mother took my sister and me to Nashville, Tennessee.

I had to get a permit that allowed a boy of fourteen to go to work, and I worked for a wholesale hardware concern. I had to be up by five o'clock in the morning to pick up the mail and have it sorted and on the desks of all the officials in each department. I should have been in school, and I wanted to go to school. Later I had the privilege of going back to school because a wonderful friend acted as a father to me. He had a son who was a drunkard. He had wanted his son to get a college education, but he didn't; so the man helped me get a job, and I was able to go to college.

Every year I thought it would be my last year. I never thought God would see me through—I had very little faith. The last year I was in college was during the depression; 1928 and 1929 were bad years. I couldn't get a job and had no money.

On graduation day, after receiving my degree, I returned to my room in the dormitory, still in my cap and gown, and sat dejectedly on the edge of my bed. My roommate came and asked, "What in the world—did somebody die?" I said, "Just as well to. I thought God had called me to the ministry. I'm through college, the depression has hit, and I don't even have a job for this summer. I haven't a dime to go to seminary next year."

While we were still talking, the phone rang. It was for me. On the other end of the line was a dear little lady who asked me to stop by her home where she lived with her sister. They were both widows, and they looked as if they had come out of the antebellum days. They attended the church where I taught a class of intermediate boys, and I herded the boys into the church service every Sunday morning.

The sisters sat in the pew behind us, and I always thought they disapproved. But in their home that day each handed me an envelope in memory of her husband. I left as soon as it was polite to go, hurried around the corner, and opened the envelopes. The first contained a check for $250; I hurriedly opened the other envelope and found another check for $250. Do you know what $500 was like during the depression? I felt like a millionaire!

That night the Sunday school had a banquet for me, a farewell banquet, and they gave me a check for $100. So now I had $600! That is the money with which I went to seminary the next year. That night at the banquet someone gave me this verse: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." That has been my life verse ever since that night (McGee).

Memory Verse This Week:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mar 8:38).

Write the verse on a 3x5 card and say the verse five times a day, reference before and after the verse. Write the verse several times a day on a card or paper carried in your pocket for that purpose. Say the verse to a friend or family member once a day. After this week, repeat the verse daily for several weeks until it pours out without effort. It takes about 60 days to thoroughly memorize a verse. It takes a lifetime to obey and practice a verse.

Dan Carr

Good Morning! - Heb.12:14-15a - Follow Peace and Holiness

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God… (Heb 12:14-15a);

Chacteristics of Salvation – The above verses are short with extremely long roots. It is not possible to deal with it in two or three paragraphs. But, since death stares us in the face every day, a little time spent on this theme may not be the most wasted time in your day.

These verses have been quoted to me many times in fifty years by men who have been taught they had to live holy enough to be saved. At that exact point they turned away from any hope of ever being saved because they knew they could not live holy enough to be saved by it.

After several years of this I began to study these verses and other related verses with an open mind and considerable research in the Bible. Without going into a lot of detail here, I will simply say that I believe the Bible teaches when one repents of sin and the old direction of living and turns by faith toward the blood of Christ's death on the cross as complete payment for all their sin, something vital happens to that person inside. There is a new birth and a new nature!

A characteristic settles in upon that person that finds them following after peace with all men and following after holiness. The key words are: "follow after." Not having achieved perfection, but following after, in the direction of peace and holiness.

The new birth from God involves a radical change in the life of a repenting soul. They do not become perfect, but they do become endowed with a new nature from God. It cannot be copied or mimicked any more than the sap of a peach tree can be produced by tying peaches onto a tree.

We should carefully search our souls to make sure that new birth has taken place that has produced the change of following after peace with men and following after holiness. Peace and holiness are characteristics of the new birth and this endures for life. A backsliding Christian will be judged in this life by the Lord, even if it is counted as "a sin unto death"(1 Jn 5:16). Again, I have chosen the comments by Barnes as the best on these verses.

The Bible gives several characteristics that are true of everyone who is saved. This is one of them. Others include accepting Christ with the humble faith of a child and embracing Christ so that you are not ashamed of Him. There are others we will consider for a few days (DC).

Follow peace with all men - Do not give indulgence to …passions of strifes, see Rom_14:19. The apostle is referring to the trials which those whom he addressed were experiencing. Those trials seem to have arisen mainly from persecution, and he exhorts them to manifest a spirit of kindness toward all. This is the temper of the gospel. We are to make war with sin, but not with people; with bad passions and corrupt desires, but not with our fellow-men.

And holiness - Instead of yielding to contending passions and to a spirit of war; instead of seeking revenge on your persecutors and foes, make it rather your aim to be holy. Let that be the object of your pursuit, the great purpose of your life. Men might in such cases counsel them to seek revenge; the spirit of religion would counsel them to strive to be holy.

"Without which no man shall see the Lord - (Cannot locate soucrce of following comments.)That is, shall see him in peace; or shall so see him as to dwell with him. All will see him in the day of judgment, but to "see" one is often used in the sense of being with one; dwelling with one; enjoying one; see Mat_5:8. The principle here stated is one which is never departed from; Rev_21:27; Isa_35:8; Isa_52:1; Isa_60:21; Joe_3:17; Mat_13:41; 1Co_6:9-10.

"No one has ever been admitted to heaven in his sins; nor is it desirable that anyone ever should be. Desirable as it is that lost people should be happy, yet it is benevolence which excludes the profane, the impious, and the unbelieving from heaven - just as it is benevolence to a family to exclude profligates and seducers, and as it is benevolence to a community to confine thieves and robbers in prison. This great principle in the divine administration will always be adhered to; and hence, they who are expecting to be saved without holiness or religion, are destined to certain disappointment.

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but God will not admit one unrepenting and unpardoned sinner to heaven. It was the importance and the certainty of this principle which made the apostle insist on it here with so much earnestness. Amidst all their trials; when exposed to persecution; and when everything might tempt them to the indulgence of feelings which were the opposite of holiness, they were to make it their great object to be like God."

Lest any man fail - As every man is in danger, it is his personal duty to see to it that his salvation be secure.

Fail of the grace of God - Margin, "fail from." The Greek is, "lest anyone be wanting or lacking" - ὑστερῶν husterōn. There is no intimation in the words used here that they already had grace and might fall away - … but that there was danger that they might be found at last to be deficient in that religion which was necessary to save them. It is a proper…to inquire diligently whether.…when he comes to appear before God he will be found to be wholly destitute of religion (Barnes-Abbreviated).

Memory Verse This Week:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in he glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mar 8:38).

Write the verse on a 3x5 card and say the verse five times a day, reference before and after the verse. Write the verse several times a day on a card or paper carried in your pocket for that purpose. Say the verse to a friend or family member once a day. After this week, repeat the verse daily for several weeks until it pours out without effort. It takes about 60 days to thoroughly memorize a verse. It takes a lifetime to obey and practice a verse.

Dan Carr

Good Morning! - 1Pet. 5:6-7 - Humble Yourselves

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1Pe 5:6,7)

Humble yourselves therefore - Be willing to take a low place - a place such as becomes you. Do not arrogate to yourselves what does not belong to you; do not evince pride and haughtiness in your manner; do not exalt yourselves above others. See the notes at Luk_14:7-11. Compare Pro_15:33; Pro_18:12; Pro_22:4; Mic_6:8; Phi_2:8. (Barnes)

Casting all your care upon him - Compare Psa_55:22, from whence this passage was probably taken. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Compare, for a similar sentiment, Mat_6:25-30. The meaning is, that we are to commit our whole cause to him. If we suffer heavy trials, lose our friends, health, or property; if we have heavy duties to perform; if we feel that we have no strength, and are in danger of being crushed by what is laid upon us, we may cast it all upon the Lord for grace and strength for all that is laid upon us. He will enable us to bear with ease what we supposed we could never have done; and the burden which he lays upon us will be light, Mat_11:30. Compare the notes at Phi_4:6-7.

For he careth for you - See Mat_10:29-31. He is not like the gods worshipped by many of the pagan, who were supposed to be so exalted, and so distant, that they did not interest themselves in human affairs; but He condescends to regard the needs of the smallest of his creatures. We are not forgotten by our heavenly Father. He who remembers the falling sparrow, and who hears the young ravens when they cry, will not be unmindful of us. “Yet the Lord thinketh on me,” was the consolation of David, when he felt that he was “poor and needy,” Psa_40:17. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up,” Psa_27:10.

Compare Isa_49:15. What more can one wish than to be permitted to feel that the great and merciful Yahweh thinks on him? He who watched over you with a parent’s care in the bloom of youth, will not cast you off when you are “old and grey-headed,” Psa_71:18. If we are what we should be, we shall never be without a friend as long as there is a God. (Barnes-abbreviated)

Memory Verse This Week:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (Mar 8:38).

Write the verse on a 3x5 card and say the verse five times a day, reference before and after the verse. Write the verse several times a day on a card or paper carried in your pocket for that purpose. Say the verse to a friend or family member once a day. After this week, repeat the verse daily for several weeks until it pours out without effort. It takes about 60 days to thoroughly memorize a verse. It takes a lifetime to obey and practice a verse.

Dan Carr