Childlike correction

Not too long ago I was with one of my grandchildren who was talking about a car he saw on the street.  He called the car green, but when I looked to see what he was talking about, I saw that the car was blue.  I told him that the car was blue and not green, and the next time he mentioned the car, he called it a blue car.  His willingness to receive correction – a childlike, humble, teachable quality – made me think of Jesus’ words to His disciples:
 

Matthew 18:1-5 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹ At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 
² And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, 
³ And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. 
⁴ Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
⁵ And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.

I also remember reading a devotional about a pastor who graciously accepted public criticism (http://odb.org/2003/01/22/the-critic/), humbly acknowledging that “God may be in it, and if He is, I need to hear what He’s saying.”

Proverbs 3 Amplified Bible (AMP)

 ¹ My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
² For length of days and years of a life [worth living] and tranquility [inward and outward and continuing through old age till death], these shall they add to you.
³ Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart.
⁴ So shall you find favor, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or judgment] of God and man.
⁵ Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
⁶ In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.
⁸ It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.
⁹ Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income;
¹⁰ So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine.
¹¹ My son, do not despise or shrink from the chastening of the Lord [His correction by punishment or by subjection to suffering or trial]; neither be weary of or impatient about or loathe or abhor His reproof,
¹² For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
¹³ Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding [drawing it forth from God’s Word and life’s experiences],
¹⁴ For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, and the profit of it better than fine gold.

 

Hebrews 12:5-14 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁵ And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement in which you are reasoned with and addressed as sons? My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him;
⁶ For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.
⁷ You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline?
⁸ Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all].
⁹ Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live?
¹⁰ For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.
¹¹ For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].
¹² So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees,
¹³ And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.
¹⁴ Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

As Proverbs is a book of instruction, my plan, with God’s help, is to begin again reading a chapter of Proverbs every day.

Proverbs 1:1-7 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹ The proverbs (truths obscurely expressed, maxims, and parables) of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
 
² That people may know skillful and godly Wisdom and instruction, discern and comprehend the words of understanding and insight,
 
³ Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity,
 
⁴ That prudence may be given to the simple, and knowledge, discretion, and discernment to the youth—
 
⁵ The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]—
 
⁶ That people may understand a proverb and a figure of speech or an enigma with its interpretation, and the words of the wise and their dark sayings or riddles.
 
⁷ The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.

… and my journey with Him continues …

Write!

Habakkuk 2:2-3 (AMP)

² And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.

³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.

*********************************************

It’s still January and I am already behind.  In checking the God at Eventide devotional (www.twolisteners.org), my spirit is stirred when I see that the January 1^st entry begins with what feels like a command personally directed at me:

“Write for all things are now ready.”

I asked what I was supposed to write.  Getting no answer, I went back to my first blog entry where I asked the same thing.  Since I’ve not gotten different instructions in this regard, I am trusting that the answer I got then is the answer for now:

What you have experienced with and of Me.

So … now the question is which thing I am to write.

John 21:25

And there are also many other things which Jesus did. If they should be all recorded one by one [in detail], I suppose that even the world itself could not contain (have room for) the books that would be written.

Something that has come up a couple of times today is the question of whether something is just good, or is it (from / of) God – how it aligns with God’s plans and purposes for me.  Increasingly, I find myself in need of God’s wisdom, guidance and discernment in this area.  I am grateful for this truth from Hebrews 4:14-16 (AMP):

¹⁴ Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him].

¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.

¹⁶ Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

… and my journey with Him continues …