I really appreciated the opportunity to come over today and have Mallory blessed here in Bend, additionally, it was very special for us that Jeff was able to perform the blessing as we’ve become very close to the Richards family in our travels this way. My wife and I were on the schedule for today for a couple of months, and then while we were at the Feast it slowly dawned on us that we have an infant this year that needs to be blessed. Then we thought, wait… if I’m in Bend that day, Mr. Richards and Mr. Walker are quite possibly elsewhere… and that’s not going to work. Thankfully Jeff was going to be here, so it all worked out and we were able to have Mallory blessed today with you all. It was a special moment for Shannon and I as parents, and I hope for you as well, as Bend has truly become like a second home to us… Brethren, children are a blessing from God. No really, the bible says so… I kid of course, but those of you who have had children know that sometimes… well… sometimes you do wonder. There is the 2 AM screaming fits, the public meltdowns, the 30 extra minutes it takes to get out the door because the one of the shoes that were sitting right beside them 30 minutes ago is now somehow behind the couch, the important files deleted; objects broken, lost, or otherwise missing-in-action, fights over toys, the list goes on…. The reality is that there are numerous things that our children do that try our patience… But despite all of that… despite all the frustrations and difficulties that go along with parenthood, having children provides us with some incredible memories we partake in.

The birth of our children in and of itself is miraculous and full of tears of joy; but then we get to experience all of their firsts: their first smile, first giggle, their first steps, first words… As times goes on, before our very eyes, our little babies, born in the image of God himself grow and develop; we begin to see their potential, their personalities begin to shine through and we have the opportunity and admonition to bring them up in the ways of God. Like iron sharpens iron, we teach our children, but more than that, they teach us… incredible lessons!! Frankly, lessons I personally would not have learned in any other way. They are an incredible blessing.

Let’s begin today by turning over to Psalm 127. We’ll take a look at a psalm that discusses children and paints for us a very detailed picture of the blessings that our children provide. Psalm 127 and we’ll pick it up in verse 3. Psa 127:3 Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; And the fruit of the womb is his reward. So the fruit of the womb – children – are a reward, but a reward for what? Psalm 128, just across the page follows up with what is said in Psalm 127 and fleshes it out a little further. Psa 128:1 A Song of Ascents. Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah, That walketh in his ways. Psa 128:2 For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands: Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Psa 128:3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, In the innermost parts of thy house; Thy children like olive plants, Round about thy table. Psa 128:4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed That feareth Jehovah.

So with the combined contexts of these two passages, we can see that God rewards those of his people who are faithful, those who Fear him, but notice the second part of verse 1… not just Fear him, not just have the respect and the awe of our creator, but who walk in his ways – those who are actively DOING. God pours out blessings on his people, particularly when they are doing their part, when they Fear him, when they walk in his ways, God will bless them exceedingly. In the case of this part of Psalms, those blessings include children, the fruit of the womb. Let’s go back to Psalm 127, and we’ll pick up the account again with this context in mind, Psalm 127 and we’ll pick it up in verse 4. Children are a heritage from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward… then in verse 4. Psa 127:4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are the children of youth. Psa 127:5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: They shall not be put to shame When they speak with their enemies in the gate. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full. Not arrows in the hand of Joe 6-pack, but arrows in the hand of a mighty man.

Old Testament Scripture refers frequently to mighty men. They were the warriors of warriors. David had his Mighty Men, and they were renowned across Israel. One of those men, Adino, according to the book of Samuel slew 800 Philistines, single-handedly. So when we say mighty men, we’re not talking about me with a bow and arrow here. I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. A mighty man, trained in archery would have likely been able to hit a spot the size of a quarter at 50 yards, while moving on back of a chariot. We’re talking an elite soldier. So children are like arrows in the hand of one of these men. They hit their mark. Arrows are fired from a bow, and as you well know, a bow is not a melee weapon. You don’t swing it around like a sword. It’s also not something you can pick up and be successful at right away. Archers are trained soldiers. It takes YEARS to get good at it. It takes work, it takes concentration and focus. Even though it’s difficult to master, it’s a simple enough principle to learn – you point the arrow where you want it to go and release. Kind of like parenting. It takes us years to train up our children, all the while we train spiritually to become a mighty man, an elite warrior – as you train, you train up your children too. You point them in the right direction, but ultimately… you have to let them go. If we’ve done our part, if we’ve instilled a fear of God into them, barring overwhelming external influences, they’ll fly true. God gives them to us; we train them, and ultimately give them back to God. Our children are on loan from God.

So when we think of them that way, as property of our Eternal Father, in our custody on Earth for training and mentoring… parenting suddenly takes on a whole new aspect. Aiden, Desmond, and Mallory – they have been given to me as a blessing from my heavenly Father. He expects that I will not bury the talent that I’ve been given, he expects that I will grow what I’ve been given, develop them, strengthen them, teach them of God’s ways, God expects that I will raise them up in the way they should go, and that someday I will give them back and let them navigate the world on their own two feet, and not turn from the way of God. No pressure, right? In order for this to happen, God has to be a partner in the process. Verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 127 tell us that without God in the equation, all of our toil and our hard work is in vain. If we raise our children apart from God, all that hard work is useless. God builds the house. The word ‘house’ in Psalms 127 is the Hebrew word BAYIT, and is translated in most contexts in the sense of a family, House of Israel, House of David… it doesn’t always translate as a physical house, in fact, because of the meaning of the Hebrew letter Beyt, which indicates that which is WITHIN the tent, the family, it more frequently translates as ‘Family’ or Generations of a Family. The Lord builds the House.

God adds to the family, he blesses the patriarch with many children, blesses their children with children, and on down the line. We see numerous examples in the Old Testament of the blessings of the patriarchs passing from generation to generation, Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to his sons… in the New Testament, we have examples of children being blessed too. Christ blessed little children. We can see in Matthew 19, while Christ is with the crowds in Perea, that the parents brought their children to Christ in droves. Matthew 19:14 Mat 19:13 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should lay his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. Mat 19:14 But Jesus said, Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven. Mat 19:15 And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence. We can see that part of the blessing of these children involved prayer – supplication to God on the individual’s behalf, and a laying on of hands. The parallel scripture in Luke 18:15 gives us a bit of additional context. Luk 18:15 And they were bringing unto him also their babes, that he should touch them: but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

Luk 18:15 And they were bringing unto him also their babes, that he should touch them: but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. Luk 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, saying, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God. Luk 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. We see the age of the children being brought to Christ. These are not 10 and 12 year old kids, these are infants. Very young children, likely under 1 year of age, in some cases this Greek word BREPHOS that is used here is translated as unborn, in the case of Elizabeth and Mary for example, in some cases infants, and in some cases, young toddlers, so it’s hard to be certain of exact age. But it’s specific on little children… young children… very probably infants. The final parallel scripture fleshes it out even more, Mark 10:13. Mar 10:13 And they were bringing unto him little children, that he should touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. Mar 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God. Mar 10:15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. Mar 10:16 And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.

The word blessed here, is the word eulogeō, (yoo-log-eh'-o) means to speak well of, or to invoke a benediction upon. So with all three of the passages put together we can get a better grasp of exactly what went on. People brought their infants to Christ to bless them – to have him speak well of their children to the Father, to pray for divine favor in their child’s life, a direct intercessor. In all three accounts we see that the disciples rebuked them, sharply telling the parents bringing their children to Christ to back off. Leave him alone; take your children and go. We see in all three accounts, Christ tells the disciples, “No. Let them come.” But I want to draw your attention to the account in Mark. Verse 14. It says, When Christ saw it, he was moved with indignation. That is the only time that that word, indignation is attributed to Christ in the entire Bible. Do a search. It’s associated with the disciples being indignant about the wasting of the precious oil; it’s attributed to the Pharisees being indignant about various things. This is the one and only time it’s attributed directly to Christ. He was a bit torqued at their responses to the families, and in his indignation, He took the opportunity to remind the disciples of a very important lesson, one that they had already been taught and had forgotten – a lesson that is crucial to us today. Mark 9. Mar 9:33 And they came to Capernaum: and when he was in the house he asked them, What were ye reasoning on the way?

Mar 9:34 But they held their peace: for they had disputed one with another on the way, who was the greatest. Mar 9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all. Mar 9:36 And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them, Mar 9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. The early part of this account is kind of humorous to me because you can see a lot of humanity in the account. Christ is ahead of the disciples as they walk on the road, and as the disciples are travelling, lagging behind a bit, they begin arguing over who would become the greatest in the Kingdom. Christ enters the house before them, sits and waits. The disciples arrive and Christ says, “Hey, what were you guys talking about out there?” The disciples… realizing that they were arguing over something kind of stupid, wisely keep their mouths shut – but you can envision kind of a, “Oh nothing really, not a big deal – not that important” sort of response. Problem is, Christ knew exactly what they were talking about. He perceived their hearts. He calls a small child over to them, and in Matthew 18:3, the parallel account puts it in this way… Mat 18:3 and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Christ reminds his disciples here, that there is a lot more to this whole Christian thing, than just keeping the law and marking off the checklist. Paid my tithes, check. Kept the Sabbath, check. There are some fundamental changes that have to happen at our core in order for us to be with Christ in his Kingdom. We must turn, we must be converted and BECOME as little children, which tells us that there are some characteristics that children have, that we need to be considering in our spiritual lives. We just kept the the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, spending 8 days focused on God’s coming Kingdom, we’ve heard numerous messages about what it will be like, how we are to prepare now to achieve our goal of being a part of that Kingdom, reigning and teaching with Christ himself. What will it take to get there? Christ said that there is a fundamental change that must occur – that change must occur at our very heart. We have to become child-like in order to inherit the Kingdom. Not childish… child-like. My wife informs me that there is a difference. I’ve made a good go at childish so far… tantrums, pouting, etc. Think about the traits of young children… Before they learn the art of manipulation… I teach middle school, so I get them after they learn to manipulate. They are innocent, they are kind, gentle, trusting, obedient, humble, the list goes on.

Christ made it very clear, that in order to be a part of his Kingdom, we have to make a change. We have to turn, we have to be converted, and become child-like in order to enter the Kingdom. With the time we have remaining today I’d like to examine three characteristics of young children that are necessary for us as Christians today. 1) Children are Humble. 2) Children are Trusting. 3) Children are Teachable. These are characteristics we must strive to achieve. Humility: The first of our traits today, is not just one of the traits – it’s really THE trait upon which the rest build. In fact, the account we read earlier, in Matthew 18, and Mark 9 where Christ called the small child over to him, sat the child in front of himself and the disciples and explained that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first – that account occurred following a situation of extreme pride amongst the disciples. They weren’t being humble, they were strutting down the road to Capernaum playing the ‘Who’s the Greatest’ game? No, no, I’m greater than you because… no no, no, Christ likes me more… no, you’re both wrong - I’m greater than you because…. It was pride. Plain and simple. What is God’s response? Mat 18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You want to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven? HUMBLE YOURSELF!

Empty yourself of pride, get rid of your haughty spirit – get rid of your arrogance. The word humble here literally means to “make low”, to abase yourself. Children are naturally humble. To begin with, when they’re young enough – they don’t know any difference. It’s a natural trait of childhood. They are dependent upon their parents, they are unable to do for themselves and so they naturally place themselves subordinate to their parents from the beginning. It’s not until they get much older that they get too big for their britches. Once that occurs, those of you that have raised teenagers know – they can exhibit a large degree of self-importance. What’s the big deal? Why does God care so much about Pride? Let’s begin in Isaiah 14. In Isaiah 14, we see an account against the King of Babylon, discussing the ultimate end of all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with kinghood – the grave. All that pomp, all that circumstance, all that pride and arrogance, and you’re going in the same hole in the ground that everybody else ends up in.

Verse 12. Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! Isa 14:13 And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. We’re not in Kansas anymore… the account goes from illustrating the words of God against the King of Babylon, to a time long before the King of Babylon even existed. Satan’s rebellion. Verse 13. And you said in your heart. So not even necessarily outwardly. It was said in his heart – I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, above the angels, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High. Ezekiel 28 is a parallel passage that discusses the same event, we’ll pick it up in verse 12.

Eze 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Eze 28:13 Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared. Eze 28:14 Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth: and I set thee, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Eze 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee. Eze 28:16 By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Eze 28:17 Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee. His heart was lifted up, because of his beauty; his wisdom was corrupted because of his beauty. What began in his heart, as a haughty spirit, a prideful attitude, like most sin eventually occurred outwardly. We know he influenced 1/3 of the angels to go along with his rebellion against God. At some point in Lucifer’s life, being a covering cherub, being a member of the mountain of God, bringer of light wasn’t good enough anymore. He no longer wished to be just a part of it… no, he had to be in charge. He had to be top dog. He desired to make himself like God. He became prideful, arrogant, haughty, whatever word you want to use for it, he sinned, and enmity with God began. That enmity has been passed to mankind, and generation after generation we continue to produce people who are hostile to God. Enemies. People who live in direct rebellion to God’s law. Even us, who strive to live our lives according to God, are no better. We are physical, and as a result; we are carnal and that mind is enmity to God, we in our carnality are openly hostile to God. God gives us a solution to this pride. Abase ourselves, take ourselves down a few pegs, and be humble. Feeling overly important? Need a shot of humility??

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1:26. This is a humility boost. It’s difficult to remain prideful after a passage such as this. 1 Corinthians 1:26, and we’ll read through 29. 1Co 1:26 For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 1Co 1:27 but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 1Co 1:28 and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: 1Co 1:29 that no flesh should glory before God. We often fall into the same trap that the disciples did. We recognize that out of the 7 billion people in this world, we were called. God extended a personal invitation to us. He didn’t extend a personal invitation to those billions over there, he extended it to us. Obviously, he must think I’m something pretty special, and if he does, then so will I. The disciples were the personal friends of Christ, his followers – they spent time with the Son of God directly. Imagine what sort of mindset that must have placed them in, these guys are carnal – just like us. They walked around the roads of Galilee with Christ himself.

They responded to HIS personal invitation. In person! So when we see them arguing over who is going to be the greatest, when we see them wanting to call down fire from heaven to consume people, rebuking people bringing their children to Christ… it’s important to understand the mindset they were in. Christ understood it. He knew where they were coming from. He’d seen it before. In Luke he told his disciples that he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. He was there. He knew what pride could do… and he also knew that if not dealt with, it would destroy them. So he set a child amongst them and informed them that unless they humbled themselves like that child, the Kingdom of God they were arguing about who would be greatest in… they wouldn’t even see it. Brethren, we are nothing special. God has chosen the foolish and base things. We’re not nobles, we’re not royalty, according to the world. I we’re nobody’s. I don’t have an entourage, I don’t have 1 million Twitter followers… I teach middle school science.

Seriously… where’s the glamour and glitz in that? God has chosen us, the foolish and weak to put to shame the ‘wise’ and ‘strong’ – knowing full well that we can’t claim our own glory because we are nothing, but rather have no choice but to give the glory to God when amazing things happen to us. But what do we do when we have success, often we take credit. We think it was because we worked hard, it was because we gave it that extra effort when it reality, it was because God in his mercy blessed us. Little children don’t have this problem. They are naturally humble, and this characteristic is the one that the others are based. To humility, we add faith. Trusting: Children are very trusting. They rely upon their parents or other adults for help with the majority of things in their life for the first few years of their lives. They need help eating, they need help getting dressed, they need help using the bathroom, tying their shoes and the list goes on. They are simply unable to do many of their daily activities without their parent’s assistance. As a result, their parents become the most important figure in their life. Mommy and Daddy -- the keepers of the food, the putter-onners of the bandaid, the fillers of the toy box, Mom and Dad become central figures in their life, and as a result, they trust them implicitly.

Whatever we tell our children, they believe fully. As a result of that, I’ve had to undo some extremely interesting misconceptions about science in my years as a science teacher. More often than not, it’s because Mom or Dad told them that is how the world works, and so they believe it. Children believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy… and why? Because Mom and Dad said so. Parenting is an important job. You have the full trust of that beautiful child. They know they can’t do things for themselves, and as a result have to place their full trust in us. Their faith is placed in us as their parents. Even as they get older, for the majority that trust remains, and unfortunately in today’s day and age, this trust and faith can lead to children being hurt. They naturally trust adults, coaches, teachers, scout leaders, priests, and unfortunately – some horribly wicked people have found their way into these positions and prey upon the natural trust of children. It seems like you can’t read the paper or watch the news anymore without hearing about one of these circumstances someplace. A situation where the faith and trust of a child is betrayed, and once that faith and trust has been betrayed, it rarely returns. The school that I teach in has a disproportionately high number of low-income, high crime families compared to the other schools in the district.

I have a very high number of single parent households, either by choice, incarceration or murder, and as a result I have a large variety of students, who have been through some horrible things in their lives and for many that have had traumatic experiences, as you can probably imagine, they are very slow to trust. It takes a long time to convince them that you’re not going to turn around and hurt them like everyone else in their life has up to this point. What I have found in the years I’ve taught there, that once that trust is established, they’re very slow to let go of it. You become a balancing force in their lives. It’s like they need someone to place their faith in. And in the absence of God, they will put their faith in whatever is stable and constant in their life. I often joke that I have 143 kids. My 3 – and then the 140 others that rely on me to raise them. When Christ told the disciples that unless they became like children, they would not inherit the Kingdom, you can imagine their response. They were probably pretty stunned. In the account found in Luke 9 gives us another aspect of what Christ said. Luke 9, and we’ll pick up the story in verse 47. Luk 9:47 But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart, he took a little child, and set him by his side, Luk 9:48 and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same is great.

So whoever accepts this child in Christ’s name, under his authority, they shall receive Him that sent him. So a relationship with God is offered through this simple act of acceptance. This simple act of receiving a child, not sending them away, not pushing them away, but accepting them. Receiving them, serving them. Christ goes on to explain that he who is least among them, that person will be great. When I started thinking of my students in this way, my relationship with them changed significantly. It’s not about me. It’s about them. I serve them. It doesn’t matter how cranky I am that day, what’s going on at home, serving them, and teaching them is my job. He who humbles themselves, and receives the children will receive the Father – it’s a relationship. We see numerous scriptures that tell us of our relationship with the Father. We see that we are bought with the spirit of adoption, that if we are led by the Holy Spirit we will be sons of God. Turn with me please to Hebrews 2:9. Heb 2:9 But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man. Heb 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

The entire plan of God boils down to this. Mankind was created by God to be part of his family, created lower than the angels, for a time. Mankind sinned and became enemies of God, openly hostile and that enmity created a huge chasm between us and God. As part of his plan, Christ willingly gave up his position, lowering himself in stature, humbling himself, to become our savior. To be sacrificed for our sake, to come across the chasm and bridge the gap between us and God, to reconcile us to God. That is the totality of the plan of God. Mr. Petty in an incredible series of sermons on reconciliation titled the Ministry of Reconciliation put it this way. In wartime, you hear of stories of guys who will dive on a hand grenade to save their buddies, but what Christ did, was dive on a hand grenade to save the guys who threw it. Verse 10 – Christ suffered, and died for us, his enemies, in order to bring many sons to glory. That is the goal of the entire plan of God. Verse 11: Heb 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Heb 2:12 saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise. Heb 2:13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me. As Sons and Daughters of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ, we are one. We are brethren.

As a result, as Christ’s trust was placed in the father, our trust must also be placed in God. Just like a little child we must place our full trust in him. All in. No reservations. Our full trust must be placed in God, just like a child places their full faith in us as parents. We have been given a promise from God. We have to trust that if we do our part, that God will fulfill his. It’s faith, the substance of things hoped for. Teachable: When the above two characteristics are present in an individual – when the self is removed, and they are humble, that allows for them to place complete faith and trust in someone else, and that complete faith and trust enables them to be taught by the person. The first two characteristics lead to the third. There is a reason that we teach children various things when they are young instead of waiting until they’re adults. Part of the reason for this is that young people haven’t become prideful yet, they don’t already think they know everything. They trust their teachers implicitly, they haven’t developed a bunch of bad habits; the relationship is primed for learning. They are teachable. When they’re young, we have the chance to establish habits and skills that we couldn’t establish if we waited until later. One of those things that we teach when a person when they are young is 2nd languages.

They learn their original language as a child through exposure to hearing it from their parents; we know it’s not genetic. It’s something learned by experience. But what’s fascinating about language development, is that it appears that the earlier a person is exposed to the language, the more effectively they can learn it. You could drop me into a village in Mexico, and I would likely learn enough to get by, but stop there. The chance of me becoming fluent is not great at my age, but if you took a child, and immersed them in the same village, in a short amount of time, they would be fluent like a native speaker, complete with an accent. In the same way, if we immerse our children in these things from their youth – they will pick it up, and will be like a ‘native Christian’. It has been fascinating as a parent watching Aiden as he’s entered the school system this year. We enrolled him in dual language elementary school – so he spends 90% of his day receiving classroom instruction in Spanish, and about 10% of the day is in English. Each year the percentages shift until both groups of students, Latino as well as Caucasian are bilingual. The goal of the program is to teach the language first, then teach the content second. We’re working with him at home to ensure he doesn’t fall behind in the content, but he’s picking up the language. Slowly but surely his vocabulary is increasing, and he’s learning more words, recognizing more words in everyday speech. Young people are so teachable. They learn things easier and more rapidly than us… well… more elder individuals.

So when we see 2nd Timothy 3:15, let’s turn there, 2nd Timothy 3:15, we can see that this time period is extremely important from a standpoint of teaching children about God as well. 2Ti 3:15 And that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Timothy was taught the scripture from his childhood. The word used here for Child is the same word we saw earlier, Brephos. So he was taught the scripture from his infancy, as a very young child. Children are primed for learning when they are young. They don’t have attitudes and pride in the way – they’re teachable – if we wait, we can miss our window. For us as adults, particularly if we are first generation, we’ve somewhat missed that window. Doesn’t mean we won’t make it, but we’re going to have a bit more of an uphill climb ahead of us. Obviously, we cannot physically to young children again, but scripturally, we can see that its vital that we put on these characteristics in our lives. Keeping the law simply isn’t enough. I’m not saying it’s not important, it is required. God says this is the deal. But the checklist of the law, tithes, clean/unclean meats, Sabbath – that is the milk of our spiritual food, meat is what we do with it – the change of our character at its core. Taking this horribly broken, messed up human shell of carnality, and turning it into something spiritual that can be presented to God. We must put on humility, we must place our trust in God, remain teachable; and receive the Kingdom as a child… if we don’t – we may find we have no place in it.