“
I am the greatest batter in the world!”, shouts a little boy in his imaginary stadium that is his backyard . He is all alone. He gets ready, spits on the ground like his heroes and takes a practice swing. He then throws the ball up into the air and takes a swing. “Strike one!”, he yells. He waves his hat to the imaginary crowd.
I am the greatest batter in the world!”, shouts a little boy in his imaginary stadium that is his backyard . He is all alone. He gets ready, spits on the ground like his heroes and takes a practice swing. He then throws the ball up into the air and takes a swing. “Strike one!”, he yells. He waves his hat to the imaginary crowd.
With no hesitation, he throws the ball into the air again and swings harder. His twisted body falls to the ground. “Strike two!”, he shouts to the noisy crowd. He picks himself up, dusts himself off, picks up the bat and ball once more. He skillfully throws the ball into the air, he swings…and misses. “Striiiiiike three!, You’re out!”, he yells, followed by,
“I’m the GREATEST pitcher in the world!”
I love this story of how we think about greatness. We must be great at something, right? That’s the world thinks we should think. But what does Jesus say?
Matthew 18
The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
What? Become childish again? No, become childlike in our complete trust and faith in Him. “Unless we change…” our thinking from “me” to He as the only one who is great, the One who died to save us, the One we place all our hope upon, the One we live for, then we will never “get it”, understand it or live it. We will never enter the Kingdom of God and be where God resides. We will constantly be feeding the “me” who wants to be great and never be satisfied.
In Jesus day, children were seen but not heard. They did not seek greatness, they did what their parents told them to do. Children trusted their parents to know what was best for them, never questioning their authority. Children were loved and cherished by their parents as gifts from God. Children responded with complete faith in their parents. That’s why this example, modeled by Jesus, works.
HOLY PAUSE
Don’t you want to hang out where God lives? Come as a child, not childish looking for attention and greatness, but with a childlike faith with complete trust in our Father. Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life to living in God’s Kingdom.
Be great in faith. Be tenacious in trust.
Micah 6:8 tells us what God seeks in us,
“…what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Seek God. HE is the Greatest of all.
Dear Lord and Savior,
The world gives many tutorials on how to be “great” in the watching eyes of the world. Then you show us what true greatness is…humility. Help me to remember and live it because I get it. We are only as “great” as our faith in You. We are “great” only in the measure of our love for you and others. Continue to transform me to be all you intended for me to be. All my hope, faith, love and trust is in You.
In Jesus Name, Amen
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
“Go fishing, Peter!” Jesus sends confused Peter back to what he knows best, fishing! This act of obedience, mixed with a bit of fun for Peter, results in a miracle catch of four-drachma coin lodged in the mouth of the first fish he caught. Can you imagine wide-eyed Peter taking it from the fish’s mouth and giving it to the temple police? Jesus provides “for my tax and yours.” I’m certain that Peter never forgot this learning experience and probably retold the story many times! Wouldn’t you?
We sold our home. We left Oklahoma not knowing the salary package for Randy. Crazy. We left not knowing who of our three children would go with us as two of them were in college. My plan was to secure a teaching job to help support us. God’s plan was to take me on a journey that was only God. Our denomination asked me to consider a new position being formed, putting other part time jobs into one full time job with a sketchy job description. Who in their right mind would walk into that situation? Crazy.
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
In uncertainty, we can be certain of this. God is with us. God never left us. God is stretching our arms and legs, minds, heart and souls and pouring into us what He knows we need for such a time as this. We have a tendency to think only of what has been taken away and we sulk in our lack of faith attitudes.
When the disciples realized that GOD was talking to them they immediately fell face down in fearful awe and worship. In that moment, they came to know God in a real, authentic, undeniable intimate way that began a relationship that would last for eternity.
In Jesus’ command to us to “go and tell”, may we focus more on the authoritative command with less emphasis on our structures and methods. It is not the structure that saves and grows us. It is Jesus. 
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
We also are drawn to follow people who do not believe in God, who live only to please and satisfy themselves in sports, media, and and other leadership forms. We follow because they seem to be successful so…
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
“Whoever loses their life for me will find it.” We are good at following. We are not as good at following who and what(life) is best for us. We need to decide daily WHO we follow. 
So, who are we following today? Who owns our souls? 
I think of this activity of engagement as Jesus takes a poll of his believers and followers. The question of the day is “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Then Jesus has a follow up question as He polls His devoted who walk with him every day. “Who do YOU say I am?” 
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
THINK ABOUT IT
Do we really believe that Who we believe is really real?
Who knew? I remember the day, months ago, that we heard about a virus that was beginning to spread in China. So, the very next day people in the United States stood in long lines to buy toilet paper until it was gone. They fought over it. They secured it in their homes under lock and key. My thought was what kind of virus is this? Exploding diarrhea? Why does it involve toilet paper? I didn’t get it then and I still don’t get it.
A few days later, no bread. People who professed to be on no bread, Keto diets were in a panic because they couldn’t buy the bread they were not eating. I still don’t get it.
Then there was shortages of all kinds of items we weren’t buying but felt like our freedoms of buying them were taken away so we horded what we could find. Yeah, I still don’t get it.
5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
We can miss the obvious even when we are doing God’s work with Him in obedience. Sometimes we get busy doing and miss being and learning about Life from Him. Suddenly, we miss the point of His teaching altogether. It is in these moments we pull back and begin to horde what we have, who we are and keep it all to ourselves. It is also in these moments of insanity that we become venerable and weak.
Once we give in, our giving attitudes turn sour. We pull back. Our sharing ceases. We begin to horde whatever we have whenever we are distracted from the Bread of Life. These evil thoughts, like yeast gets worked into our minds and permeate our being. We become more like the joyless, critical, judgmental, and deeply insecure Pharisees and Sadducees and less like Jesus.
At a restaurant we have to warn people about the outdoor fire pit, “Caution, Fire is hot.”
SERIOUSLY, THOUGH….
Their demand for a sign revealed the sad condition of their hearts: they were evil and adulterous. He did not accuse them of being guilty of physical adultery, but of spiritual adultery (Isa. 57; James 4:4). These men were worshiping a false god of their own manufacture, and this was spiritual adultery. Had they been worshiping the true God, they would have recognized His Son when He came.
HERE’S ANOTHER SIGN...
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
This question seems simple and maybe redundant, but is profound when you go deeper into the meaning of faith. Faith is built, brick by brick, step by step, day by day into our being, but the question remains, do we really believe who God is, what Jesus did for us and that His Holy Spirit lives in us? Does fear drive us to deeper faith or keep us from a growing faith? What distracts us from pure, unrelenting faith from the One who created us, died for our sin and abides in us?
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
Jesus was not playing games with the woman, nor was He trying to make the situation more difficult. He was drawing out of her a growing response of faith.
The Gentiles glorified Israel’s God, but the Jewish leaders said that Jesus was in league with Satan (Matt. 12:22–24). Our Lord’s miracles did not cause the Jewish cities to repent (Matt. 
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 