Our paragraph topic is:
(Against ambition) Part 3.
Christ told them that they had to turn. He told them that they had to change. He told them that they were in the wrong place and that they had to leave that place and get to another place. Satan was in their midst and had persuaded them to come to his place. He influenced them to think about the future, to think about themselves, to think about fame and fortune and greatness. He influenced them to think about all those things that were of this world and not of the spiritual world of heaven. Satan wanted to turn them around, to turn them away from Christ.
Christ told them that they had to turn away from where they were. He told them that they had to see what was needed to enter into the kingdom of heaven and that ambition would not lead them there. Just as a child had no ambition, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child had no desires, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child was full of joy and wonder, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child was humble, so the disciples had to turn away from pride and become humble. Christ told them: "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven".
Christ told them that they had to turn. He told them that they had to change. He told them that they were in the wrong place and that they had to leave that place and get to another place. Satan was in their midst and had persuaded them to come to his place. He influenced them to think about the future, to think about themselves, to think about fame and fortune and greatness. He influenced them to think about all those things that were of this world and not of the spiritual world of heaven. Satan wanted to turn them around, to turn them away from Christ.
Christ told them that they had to turn away from where they were. He told them that they had to see what was needed to enter into the kingdom of heaven and that ambition would not lead them there. Just as a child had no ambition, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child had no desires, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child was full of joy and wonder, so the disciples had to become. Just as a child was humble, so the disciples had to turn away from pride and become humble. Christ told them: "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven".
Christ gave the disciples an example to follow. He showed them the humility of a little child that they would know true humility. Here they could refer back to this example and remember what they saw and what they felt to know who would be the greatest. This is a simple example for us to follow if we can. We live in a world filled with examples of how not to be humble. We ware fed through all our senses the world's view of how we should live, how we should think and how we should be. Humility is not a part of what the world teaches us. Humility is not a part of what we see in the world. Humility is not a part of what we believe today.
Yet Christ tells us that to be like a child is the key to entering the kingdom of heaven. How can we do this? How can we turn from the world and espouse humility? How can we practice this principle in a world that presents everything to the contrary? It all starts with the knowledge of who you are in Christ. What knowledge is this?
God, our father, created man in his image. He created man and woman in his likeness as spiritual beings and not physical beings. God is not a man. God is not a physical being. God is not of this earth. And yet we are created in the image of our God. We are spiritual beings and not physical beings. We belong to the spiritual world and not to the physical world. Our life and our light comes from the light that was given back to us by the sacrifice made by Christ.
Christ is the most humble of all. He gave up his power, his majesty, his glory to become a physical man to save us from destruction. And it is through his humility that we have life today as spiritual beings not physical beings. The body dies, decays, and returns to dust. But the spirit is eternal in Christ, if we choose it to be. It is our choice.
It is only that we do not know who we are that we follow the principles and precepts of the world. For with the knowledge of the light of Christ we know who we are and we can see ourselves as we truly are in him. Christ gave us the way. He told us what to do. He created the path to follow, the path to discover the joy and the peace and the happiness that is ours to have, if we choose.
Follow the path that is before you. See the light that is within you. Know the truth of who you are and the world will no longer have a hold over you. For you are a child of God, your father, and he will provide. He will protect. He will love you as no other can love. Christ knocks at the door. Open it!
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
