I’d Rather Be Childish

ALL – Psalm 37:29-40
ALL – Proverbs 21:27
OT – Job 4:1-7:21
NT – 1 Corinthians 14:18-40

Interesting passage for the day: Dear brothers, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent babies when it comes to planning evil, but be men of intelligence in understanding matters of this kind. – 1 Corinthians 14:20, The Living Bible

Thought: Has anyone ever called you childish? It’s a stinging rebuke to receive, no matter who gives it. No adult likes to be called childish. Child-like? Maybe. Childish? Never.

Too often the world lures us into its clutches by calling us childish. The world views believers’ convictions against immorality in various art forms as childish. It insists that being anti-abortion or opposing homosexual marriages is childish, immature, and under-enlightened. The world tempts us to consider whether perhaps its view of ethics and morality is better than ours—not because its view offers any true wisdom or justice, but because the world makes us feel inferior by calling us childish.

God spoke through Paul. And God says that it is fine with Him if we are children as far as evil goes. But God wants His people to be grown-ups in understanding not only what is good and right, but what is best and most fitting for the purpose of guiding people to love Jesus Christ more fully.

Question: Would you consider yourself to be a child or an adult in knowing God’s expectations? How about in the eyes of your peers at work—in the lab, in the classroom, in court, in the factory? What will you do to seek the nourishment that God provides so that you can grow to be more like the child of God that He’s made you?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Wanting Jesus to Fit Our Box

ALL – Psalm 14:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 3:19-20
OT – Genesis 32:13-34:31
NT – Matthew 11:7-30

What shall I say about this nation? These people are like children playing, who say to their little friends, “We played wedding and you weren’t happy, so we played funeral but you weren’t sad.” – Matthew 11:16-17, The Living Bible

That’s what we’re like. We're childish. We want Jesus to do as we do. But Jesus sets the pace. We’re supposed to do as He does. We join Him; Jesus leads us. Not the other way around.

Where does Jesus not seem to be the way you might want, and what effect would it have on your life if you conformed to Him?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.