“Suffer Little Children, and Forbid Them Not” the Wayfarer 4/24/14

“Suffer Little Children, and Forbid Them Not”
4/24/14

“But Jesus said, Suffer little children and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

As so often happens, the message for this day was changed before completion and publication, and the original intended must be saved for yet another time. This was prompted by yet another chance occurrence as I drove to the prayer breakfast that I too seldom attend, but chose to attend this morning.

A short distance into the drive to attend that breakfast, I encountered a school bus, half filled with children stranded in a ditch where the driver had gone to avoid a collision with a passing motorist in too much of a hurry to remain behind that bus, crowding the bus too far to the side of the road in an area where a ditch had been recently cleaned, making it deeper than normal.

The bus appeared to be precariously perched, leaning far to the side, with both rear axles off the ground and enough space to more than allow daylight to be seen between them and the road, maybe a foot in the air.

Naturally my first concern was with the safety of those on board, and having stooped, I spoke with the driver who assured me that all was in fact well, and help had been summoned and was on the way.

As I drove down the little country road toward the main highway that led both to the school, and my own intended destination, I found far more children waiting for that bus than I had previously thought to live in that area.

All were waiting for a bus, owned by a school system, and driven by a government employee to get to a place of education, and a place where much of their adult thinking will be formed.

Like that bus, that school system itself has been driven into a ditch, not by a passing motorist in a hurry to get elsewhere per se, but by an entire group of “motorists” in a hurry to get though the day and get along with what they are instructed to teach, whether the parents agree with what is taught or not.

Children are the most important asset of any people, the very future of any people, and a blessing given any people by God alone.

That asset should be cherished, protected, corrected when wrong, taught morality, taught ethical behavior, taught the importance of all the things to be found in the scriptures that are now denied by so many of those very teachers to whom they have been entrusted.

“And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, the children which god hath graciously given thy servant.

(Genesis 33:5)

“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.”

(Psalm 127:3)

These precious gifts are squandered by any who do not appreciate the blessing given them by God, who attempts to divest themselves of the responsibility of both their physical and spiritual wellbeing.

“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers”

(Proverbs 17:6)

Children will become whatever is made of them early on, and will in turn make of their children the same adults that have been formed by those forming them; parents, mentors and particularly the teachers they are expected to respect, emulate and learn from.

 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it,”

(Proverbs 22:6)

If those children are trained properly, taught properly they will know and do the things that is their duty, to not only society, but to God as well. Their parents will know that they will not depart from what is taught in the home, and take care that what is taught is what is best for the child, the child’s welfare, and most importantly, what is best for the soul of that child.

Faith comes only by hearing, if faith is not practiced in the home, it will not be easily acceptable to the children of that home.

The opening verse I used today is the absolute crux and most important point to be made in the message given today.

Little children are most precious, not only to their parents, but God as well. Their innocence is total, and it is in being like them that even adults must find the means to salvation and eternal life.

When the disciples argued about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus patiently told them:

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 the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

(Matthew 18:2-6)

How are the little ones to believe unless they are allowed to be taught about Jesus to begin with?

What teaching of mankind from all the knowledge available is more important that the eventual resting place of the soul of each and every child given us by God?

Parents should be the primary teachers of the scriptures, of the salvation plan, of the rewards that are possible to each, and the punishment for each that awaits those who do not hold that faith and belief.

If parents are themselves incompetent in the training of their children, they should at least insist that they be allowed to attend places of worship that teach what is required of them to attain a place in the kingdom of heaven.

At a bare minimum, Children should be allowed to attend those places, if necessary without their parents, in the care of trusted people who do hold those souls dear.

It would be far better if the parents actually cared enough about their children to go themselves for that same instruction, for that same edification that is best understood and exemplified in the simple faith of a child.

That same faith is needed among the clergy that pick apart the scriptures, claiming that they hold meanings far from that which is given, that eternity does not exist, that hell, damnation, and the eventual separation of unbelievers will place them alongside Satan himself and those angels following him that sought and seek to deny the presence of God to mankind for that eternity does not exist.

There is a book out called Heaven is Real, and indeed so it is, and so is hell, damnation and the eternal suffering of those, who like the rich man choose to follow the teachings and greed of their own kind instead of seeking that eternity in the bosom, not only of Abraham, as did Lazarus, but of God the Father and the Son sacrificed for the inexplicable yet undeniable love given us by God.

“Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

How important, how precious are your children and their children? How much do you truly love them and want their complete wellbeing?

What will they hear on arrival at a throne of judgment, enter in, or depart from me?

“And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last,”

(Revelation 22:12 & 13)

In closing, it is my prayer that parents see the ditch the children are being driven into, and care enough to assure their safety, not just for the moment, but forever.

I remain that same simple sinner, saved by grace through faith in my Lord, knowing that in knowledge and all things, I am but a child, but that the power, the glory and all blessings both now and in eternity ever received or to be received come from my God alone.

I remain a soldier, callous toward all evil, but whose heart cannot help but melt and mourn those children misled by them, or refused the very chance to learn of my Savior, thereby denying the required belief in Him that grants them the surety I found and would have others find as well.

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen.
the Wayfarer