I've Got a Golden Ticket!

When Jesus Of Nazareth Of Nazareth warned the grownups that no 1 will ever come in into the Kingdom of Heaven unless they have it as a small child, no 1 suspected that what He said was actually true.

It's obviously a "nice sentiment" that Jesus expressed, but He certainly wasn't serious. After all, He said it to grownups -- His disciples, apostles and what-not gathered around Him. And besides, everyone knows that Jesus Of Nazareth can't intend that to come in the Kingdom, one cannot be an adult! After all, if you haven't received the Kingdom by age -- what? 12? -- you can't acquire in? So Jesus Of Nazareth didn't really intend what He said. He was just making a point, right?

To a degree, that have to be true. After all, everyone presumes that Paul, the apostle, "entered" into the Kingdom of Heaven -- and he was manner past times childhood.

But too many people, having satisfied themselves that Jesus Of Nazareth Of Nazareth "couldn't" have got meant what He said, wind up throwing the whole statement out -- almost as if Jesus hadn't said anything.

But He did. He said, "I state you the truth, whoever makes not have got the land of Supreme Being like a kid shall not come in into it."

So what's His point?

Since He doesn't explicate it, we have to depend on the Holy Place Spirit for interpretation. This could be a good topographic point to stop this article... but I won't! Instead, I promote you to travel to your "prayer closet" and inquire Him what He intends -- who cares what I might have got to say? (If you believe this is a cockamamie approach, bank check out 1 Toilet 2.26f.)

Now -- assuming you just checked out that transition and concluded that you are the 1 who is responsible to go on out from the Holy Place Spirit (the Anointing) what Jesus Of Nazareth meant -- did you happen to glimpse at the adjacent verse, 1 Toilet 2.28? It says, "And now, small children, stay in him..."

Notice, Toilet addressed his fold (apparently including the adults) as "little children". Like what Jesus Of Nazareth talked about.

John doesn't explicate what exactly makes them "little children". But it's always a good policy to check up on and see if an writer do additional usage of a term, since every case may assist clear up its meaning. In 1 Toilet 3.1 Toilet writes, "Consider this: The Father have given us His love. He loves us so much that we are actually called 'God's dear children'. And that's what we are!" And down in 3.10, he continues, "This is the manner God's children are distinguished from the devil's children. Everyone who doesn't make what is right or love other trusters isn't God's child."

This doesn't actually say that the manner Toilet utilizes "children" and the manner Jesus Of Nazareth utilizes "children" are the same. But (in my opinion) they have got to be somewhat similar. See what haps if you set Jesus' Word together with John's Word: This is the Truth -- no 1 can come in the Kingdom of Heaven unless they have it as people who are who submitted and obedient to God, living lives in which they take to do right and love other Believers."

Does that make sense to you? It makes to me. But it also raises a challenge -- are you living a life in which you persistently make what is right in obeisance to God, including loving your (highly seeable and often unlovely) blood brothers and sisters?

If you can't state a clear and resounding, "Yes!" to this, then you can't claim to be His kid nor can you anticipate to come in into the Kingdom of Heaven!

But I do have got a clear Word of hope. And, actually, the lines that "inspired" this idea come up from an old children's film -- "Willy Wonka and the Cocoa Factory". But, first, allow me ask: is there any more than worthy beginning for "insight" than from a children's movie? How many ways may we be "as small children" -- may we bask the games and amusements which little children enjoy, or are we too grown up for that?

God forbid!

Anyway, there's a song (in the 1971 version) in which Charlie's grandfather happily sings, "I've Got a Golden Ticket", to a merry, cheerful, tune. After Charlie discovered Willy Wonka's "last Golden Ticket" in a cocoa bar, his grandfather began to appreciate that life wasn't over for him yet. He realized he'd begun to look at his life as filled with calamity and problem -- but suddenly he began to see that a spot of "good luck" had swept in and changed everything.

Prompting him to sing, "I've got a Golden Ticket..."

Which is precisely why you and I can be quite happy about our prospects for getting into the Kingdom of Heaven, despite our adulthood. In malice of our leaning to often do what is not right and our battles at modern times to love others as Jesus Of Nazareth loves them -- we don't have got to be afraid we might not be "childlike enough" to be received into the Kingdom. And why is this?

Because, we've got a Golden Ticket...

So -- what is our "Golden Ticket"?

Consider this: Paul, the apostle, had a lovely "name" for the Holy Place Spirit in his Christian church letters. He called the Holy Place Spirit, our "down-payment" Oregon even "certificate of promise" [KJV, "earnest"; Ephesians 1.14 and 2 Corinthians 1.22.] Just as Charlie had a "Golden Ticket" which guaranteed entry into Willy Wonka's fantastic Cocoa Factory, Supreme Being have got given us a "Golden Ticket" guaranteeing entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.

It's the Presence of the Holy Place Place Place Spirit within us.

When you trusted in Jesus Of Nazareth Of Nazareth for your salvation, Supreme Being performed a miraculous and occult work: Through the Holy Spirit, He made you One with Jesus Christ. And as proof that you're in Christ -- that you're saved and already in the Kingdom -- He gave the Spirit to you, to dwell inside you, living in a close, experiential communion and communication with you, every minute of every day.

Do you have the Holy Spirit home in you? If you do, He's your "Golden Ticket" you're "promise of entry".

But, if you can't state whether He is or is not residing within you -- you necessitate another small talking with Supreme Being about it. Just "ask" Him for the Gift of the Holy Place Spirit and He'll give Him to you. [Luke 11.13]

Charlie's "Golden Ticket" wasn't of any value to him at all when it remained hidden in an unopened package. We've looked at Scriptures which name out for you to come in into a personal and experiential human relationship with the indwelling Holy Place Spirit. If this "package" which Jesus Of Nazareth have offered you hasn't been received by you, hasn't been opened by you yet -- you're trying to do entranceway into a Kingdom without the necessary Ticket.

But as for me, I'm dancing and vocalizing every twenty-four hours to a merry, cheerful, melody called, "I've Got a Golden Ticket..."!

© by Emil B. Swift

Technology and the Family

Technology - the internet, cell phones, laptops, dvd and Mp3 players...the listing travels on. I love engineering and gadgets! They assist me maintain path of my children (how did parents raise adolescents without cell phones?), they let me to acquire a batch of work done efficiently (please don't take my e-mail away from me!) and in theory, they do my life easier.

The cyberspace have also go a great tool for ministry and missions. For example, when e-mail first came out, I retrieve thinking how easy it would be for missionaries to describe what Supreme Being was doing overseas! And more than recently, I cognize that many people have got establish a Christian church through a website. Today's engineering is quite astonishing but there are some dangers to be aware of.

As utile as laptop computers and cell telephones are, there are two things that concern me about our gadgets. One is relational, and the other informational.

Relational: We have got more than tools to pass on with than ever before, but are we really communicating about things that really matter? One thing engineering can never replace is the importance of household dinner or worshipping with other believers. I fear that we pass too much clip in practical worlds made possible by the cyberspace and not adequate clip human confront to face.

Informational: Not only make we have got got more than than than information available at our finger tips than ever before, we also have more bad information available and more enticements for habit-forming and destructive materials. For example, The Justice Department estimations that 9 of 10 children between the ages of 8 and 16 have got been exposed to pornography online. Software company Symantec establish that 47 percentage of school-age children have pornographic Spam on a day-to-day basis.

So what is the right response? I could state you that engineering is neither good nor bad. And that's true. Like money or fire, it all depends on what it's used for. But if the engineering you are using is ruining your life, maybe you should see whether it's usefulness is really deserving it. See these words of Jesus...Matthew 5:30 "If your right manus do you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole organic structure to travel into hell.

Some practical advice: Parents - cognize where your children are on cyberspace. If surfing the nett or picture games are taking clip away from your relationships, bounds your hours on-line. Brand clip for household dinners, days of the month with your spouse, worship and little groups. These are human confront to face brushes that engineering can not replace.

Into the Wilderness...Again

Into the Wilderness…Again

One of my favorite quotes comes from author Ray Bradbury in his book Fahrenheit 451. "My grandfather ….hoped that some day our cities would open up more and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to remind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing it's breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big."

I remember being young and spending nights in the wilderness, and hating and loving it all at the same time. I was scared as I lay awake staring at the stars, hearing night noises all around and smells that made me feel very alone and very alive. The wilderness was an arena that surrounded me with my smallness in the world. It reminded me that I wasn't so important. It still does.

And yet as a Christian, I know that there is a God who traveled through time and space to be with me in the middle of the wildernesses of life. And sometimes it takes the backcountry experiences to bring me back to my proper size, to realizing that life is really about Him, about His business, about His desires, not mine.

Sometimes people will ask me why I would want to sleep on the ground or walk long distances with a bunch of weight on my back. They struggle understanding why I would choose discomfort. And I try to help them understand that their question is the answer. The reason is that I can choose discomfort. That I realize life is not about me being increasingly more comfortable. We trade up our vehicles to something nicer. We move into a larger home because it is more comfortable. Life begins to be more and more about our own comfort and less and less about being totally sold out to a God who may or may not make us more comfortable. The wilderness reminds me that God is supreme, not my level of satisfaction.

Lately in my journey, God has taken me on a road of letting go, surrendering, releasing almost everything in my life. It's almost like He has been saying "Let go and let me teach you how to travel light". But I know from years of backpacking that traveling light means accepting increasing levels of discomfort. And the truth be known, I want, in the deepest recesses of my soul, to be comfortable, more than I want to follow a God who calls me into discomfort.

So I guess I am heading into the wilderness… again.

© 2007 Mike & Laura Ege, Outside Edge Coaching