The New Doctrine.4

"Let the little children

come to me,

and do not refuse them.

For the kingdom of God belongs

to hearts so trusting;

for without a childlike faith

you will never enter the kingdom."

-Jesus

Childlikeness: the essential character quality to living in a good place!

The difference between childlike and childish is not one of degree but of devotion. The childish are devoted to their own selfish ways and desires. The childlike are devoted to love.

The selfish child is miserable to be around. The childlike

melt your heart.

When my oldest granddaughter was age three I remember laying her down for a nap. She tenderly took my face in her two hands and asked, "Grandpa may I have some milk?" In that moment I would have given her anything!

A core value of faith as a follower of Jesus (a list compiled by George MacDonald) is to believe that He died to make us merry children of our Father in heaven,

• loving what is lovely,
• delivered from all:
• meanness,
• pretense,
• falseness,
• unfairness,
• cowardice,
• fear,
• anxiety,
• self-worship,
• trust or hope in material possessions.

Jesus used a variety of ways to express His Father's desire to be surrounded by people with transformed "supernatural" hearts: born again, childlike, perfect, obedient, fearless, following, listening, trusting, and loving.

Contrast that with the "natural" state of the soul demonstrated by today's "protester": childish, foot-stomping, screaming, insolent, arrogant, ignorant, undisciplined, disobedient, lawless and unruly.

A question posed by a famous politician years ago sums up nicely our eternal choice: "What kind of country do we want to live in?"

While we journey in this world, we certainly don't want to live in a country besieged by screaming foot-stompers and heavy handed governance.

Interesting that, according to Isaiah 3, one indication of a nation that God has entered into judgment against in rejecting his influence on the character of the country is that "...I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable." Isa 3:4-5

Everyone who puts their trust in Jesus to transform their heart, are of the company of those looking for a better country -both now and beyond! While we journey here, the hope in our hearts for "the better place" urges us to improve the place we currently occupy. The self-governing structure of the USA, dependent on people who are committed to goodness and self-improvement, is toward ever improving the conditions under which we all live. To leave the place better than we found it! The call of the childish to raze the USA to the ground, to fundamentally transform it, is like a person who acquires a home and rather than remodel and improve a solid structure with a sound history, completely destroy it and build something new. (A caveat: If the vision and plans for a new home excite the senses and prove inviting, then by all means rebuild! Think Declaration of Independence, a strong vision of a new country complete with listed grievances, solution for resolution and an appeal to the Supreme Judge for the "rectitude of their intentions".)

Except that the people wanting to destroy and rebuild the USA are of such dubious character it makes one wonder who really wants to live there when they are done? Which also makes you realize that history matters, especially the USA's history which has as its focus the character of the founding fathers and the people who helped instill a vision of a "city on a shining hill." By pledging their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor", the founders of the Republic wove into the fabric of the USA the one essential character quality -sacrificial love- that ensured continual commitment to "a more perfect union", i.e., a steady improvement in the conditions for every American citizen.

Which brings us back to the Kingdom of God. The character of its inhabitants is the primary concern of Jesus' work on earth. For no country is worth living in if the people who make it up are self-centered and have no interest in making it a better place by their mutual effort to improve.

The best manifestation of a childlike heart is the loving, trusting effort to put into practice Jesus' words; to obey everything He says to do or not do. The only true way to improve one's character and one's family, community and country!

The hope we have, childlike in its simplicity, is that however far short we are in living Kingdom values here on earth, our efforts to obey and live them will pay off in God's Eternal Kingdom!

The New Doctrine.3

Once there were two men who went into the temple to pray.

One was a proud,

self-righteous man,

while the other was a miserable tax collector well known for his dishonesty.

The proud man prayed:

"Thank God I am not a sinner like other people,

especially that cheating tax collector

I see here today.

I never cheat,

nor do I commit adultery.

I fast twice a week,

and I give the temple a tenth of all that I earn."

The tax collector remained in the

back of the temple,

and dared not lift his eyes toward heaven.

He prayed sorrowfully:

"God, please be merciful to me. I am unworthy

and have fallen short of what you ask."

I tell you now, that the tax collector

who recognized his need

for God's mercy,

returned to his house

lighthearted,

free from anxiety, and

forgiven.

Those who,

in their pride,

exalt themselves

will be humbled,

while those who humble themselves

will rise above the cares of this world

to a place of blessing and honor."

--Jesus

As far back as Cain and Abel mankind has been divided into two camps:

Those who reject God's judgment

-vs-

Those who seek God's approval & blessing

The Self Righteous get humbled.

The humble find freedom.

Or as Jesus put it: justified - the legal and formal acquittal of guilt.

Hubris (excessive pride or self-confidence) is never justified.

The Self Righteous Man can never be justified because he:

• can't properly assess his own actions
• sets himself above the moral assessment of others, including God
• takes the place of God in judging and condemning others
• is not merciful 
• is inured to the conviction of sin by God's Spirit
• can never be truly reconciled to God or man

The first step in properly aligning ourselves with the

True Righteousness is to admit how far we fall short in being like our Creator.

The Tax Collector, as Jesus points out, was well known for cheating others.

Worse yet, he had a governmental position that may even have sanctioned this kind of cheat. He may very well have been insulated from the seething hatred of people, his own countrymen, by the fact that most every tax collector skimmed or inflated the tax owed.

I remember meeting a burly business man who owned a cement company. He told me he worked for the IRS for over twenty five years before starting his own company. He said he never understood why people hated him so much until he left the premier tax collecting agency in the world and started his own company!

It was an "Aha" moment when he could see what he'd been blind to for many years! The tax collector in Jesus' parable had that "aha" moment in coming to a point when he realized the terrible wrong -cheating people, and therefore God, out of what rightfully belonged to them- he'd been committing. So profound was his sense of loathing that he couldn't even lift his eyes upward. 

"When a man acknowledges the right he denied before; when he says to the wrong, 'I abjure, I loathe you; I see now what you are; I could not see it before because I would not; God forgive me; make me clean, or let me die!' then justice, that is God, has conquered--and not till then." George MacDonald, Justice.

By saying the man was "justified" Jesus is pointing out that justice had begun in his heart and would open the door to true atonement -- the righting of the wrongs he'd done to his neighbors. Perhaps Jesus had in mind the tax collector Zacchaeus who upon meeting Jesus while sitting in a tree trying to catch a glimpse of the Man, immediately repented and declared his commitment to making things right with those he'd wronged!

The only vengeance worth having on sin is to make the sinner himself its executioner! A man may be saved from sin by learning to loathe it, to hate it, to shrink from it with an eternal avoidance. Punishment is not the thing required of God, but the absolute destruction of sin. -MacDonald, ibid

Notice the attempt by the Self Righteous man to guilt shame the tax collector. Hubris does that. In fact, the more it is gotten away with the more widespread the disease becomes.

Consider today's "Cancel Culture" lead, primarily, by the "Credentialed", those with self important pedigrees from highly esteemed institutions or wealthy actors, athletes and business owners as well as governmental authorities and academics. Using the insulation of social media they are able to cast slurs on others who do not share their moral superiority and politically correct views. Or worse, destroy lives and careers by their hypocritical hubris.

Their attempts to do the work of God's spirit will never bring people closer together for there is no appeal to the "divinest" in one another, to the eternal brotherhood under one Father; an appeal based on grace, repentance, humility, a common understanding of our own fallen-ness and desire for true friendship and godly Oneness.

So follower of Jesus, remember that the great divide in the USA today is not between races or political parties, CNN and FOX, Trump haters and Trump supporters, men and women or urban and rural America, but the real divide is between humility and hubris.