Be A Kid

Adults are inclined to think like adults. The adult thought pattern, with its complexities and biases, tends to produce practices not productive to God's plans.

Adults:

• are skeptical.
• shake their heads, watching 'heroes' fall into disgraceful living.
• see gray instead of black and white.
• sit and watch others.
• ignore differences for tolerance and political correctness.
• are cruel to people (of road rage?) and animals (ASPCA?).
• refuse to improve through learning new ideas, or declining to adopt good learning practices .
• want to be pleased.
• allow friendships to fade into oblivion.
• are ambivalent or apathetic.
• are greedy and selfish.
• tell personal tales and become isolated from current opportunities.
• want others to take over their jobs.
• are prideful of who their person and accomplishments. 
• lack affection 
• are rude and hateful.

Does Jesus desire these traits in his family? I think not.

Once the adult disciples were thing like adults, They tried to control the crowd like an adult. Parents and grandparents wanted their children to see Jesus, maybe to touch Him or shake His hand. They were being rebuked by adult-thinking disciples.

Jesus rarely got upset, but the adult behavior of His disciples, preventing children from approaching Him, was not good. He became indignant. Jesus was very displeased with His adult acting students.

He claimed a moment for teaching them the characteristics He wants in His church. It was not what they expected. He said God's kingdom is made up "of such AS these." He added, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God LIKE A CHILD will not enter it at all."

To be a part of Is kingdom, I must struggle to exhibit child-like qualities. I must:

• believe what I read about Jesus.
• appreciate love, kindness, and affection.
• return love, kindness, and affection.
• try to please Jesus through obedience.
• be humble like a child.
• be efficient learners of Jesus, God, the Bible, etc.
• accept responsibilities as they are offered.
• be understanding and responsive to the hurts and needs of others.
• talk about what I am doing (such as TheStruggle and preaching), and share my experiences.
• be aware of the differences in people.
• willing to give more to others.
• be active in His Kingdom.
• be enthusiastic about my relationship with Jesus, and sharing the hope.
• discern between good and bad, eliminating gray areas.
• strenthen the ties with my friends.
• emulate my hero, Jesus.

Will you be my friend and join me in reverting back to a better life?
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Fort Sieged

My wife finished a historically accurate book. This is our synopsis. It is morbidly depressing.

WARNING: This is not for the easily stunned. Some depictions are disturbing.

Enemies have it easy, according to the author. All the countryside is captured or controlled. Designated magistrates have been brazenly lynched. Arrested elderly leaders are not esteemed. The apprehended youth are heartlessly worked as slaves. "It is like we have been condemned by God," he said.

Anyone braving to exit the fort breathes their last. All the farms surrounding the fort have been raided and robbed. Everyone is voiceless about the barbarity done to our wives and teenage daughters. 

But it is no better inside the fort either. A mystifying epidemic, like the plague, is everywhere. It exterminates so many. Beside the doctor's office is a pile of people, young and old. There is no boot hill for burial. Others agonize from an unidentified torment. Survivors call it "famine fever".

And where are the attorneys? There is no one to uphold order. 

The book's author illustrates a people 'beat down'.  "My prayers are quarantined in a brick box -- never getting to heaven. I am so lost. I don't know which way to go. It feels like a bear has pounced on me, or I have been gut-shot with a double barrel shotgun. I am numb," he wrote.

"I have forgotten what happiness is," he added.

Inside our outpost, hunger dominates. The enemy is starving us into surrender. Those who came from 'back east', who often ate steak and lobster tails, are now ready to eat a horse. Many trade their treasures for vittles. A lady trades pearls for pickles. Others spend 20 bucks for bread.

Hunger controls the fate of children. Kids have no vitality. Vigor is gone. Skin is purely a bag for their bones. 

The children from wealthy political families now dig down through rubbish for something to nibble. Beggarly parents are more cruel than coyotes. Coyotes suckle their young. Parents give children zilch to drink or eat. Mothers hold their children and let them die. What do you do with your dead child? "Better to be a dead soldier than a mother about to eat her child," the author commented.

In spite of the extreme tragedy, the author asserted God's kindness. His kindness has not ceased, nor His mercy consumed. "God's grace is sufficient. The Lord is my portion. I will hope in Him."

The author characterized everyone as appearing as orphans or widows. He prayed, "God, I don't know why You have forgotten us. You have rejected us. Please put us back. Let us come back. Renew us."

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You have just read a synopsis of the Book of Lamentations, set in an American fort under siege in the 1870s. It was penned by Jeremiah. It was the total of Isaiah's and Jeremiah's predictions. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, stripped the land, raped the women, tormented the old men, exploited the young men as slaves, and starved the people into surrender. God was disciplining His people for their idolatry. The Jews experienced God's wrath.

If God treated His people like this, is it so hard to believe He will hurl people into hell for a lack of dedication to following orders from his sacrificed Son?