Faith 101 - Daniel J. Price - PDF

8/10/2019 Faith 101 - Daniel J. Price - PDF

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Faith 101

FaithWithWisdom.com January, 2015. D. J. Price1

Faith 101

By Daniel J. Price

http://www.faithwithwisdom.com

Tags: humility, faith, children, heaven, jesus, kingdom,

All material is copyrighted to the named authors and used bypermission. This work may not be resold or distributed without the

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Faith 101


Faith 101

At some time in their early childhood each of my children have

found themselves with a broken toy or something of significance to

them and each of them has said, Daddy can fix it. More often

than not they are wrong I cant fix it! It is usually some badly

made plastic piece or a specific part that I dont have the ability to

recreate or either the tools or know-how to fix.

However that doesnt stop them declaring that I can fix it, from

decapitated dolls to mangled Slinkys, they are sure I can make it

as new. Even after I havent been able to fix things the first few

times this happens they still declare I can fix things which I simply

cant. In fact my youngest two would often keep persisting that I

could fix it even after I told them I couldnt, they werent satisfied

until they saw me make at least some attempt to fix it. Myyoungest still declares I can fix things, even though I am sure that

more often than not I havent been able to fix her broken toys.

I was thinking about these experiences when I realised that there

was a connection here to our own relationship with God.

Before we get to the scripture I want to use here I should just say

that the passage I want to discuss here is often used to illustrate

faith, however some people would argue that the passage doesnt

talk about faith at all but about humility. If you are one of those

people dont stop switch off yet, because my view is that in fact this

passage talks about humility in order to show us the relationship


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between humility and faith. So lets look at the scripture in question

which is found in the first part of Matthew 18.

Matthew 18:1-51

1At 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.

3And he said: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like

little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the

greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5And whoever welcomes one

such child in my name welcomes me.

Now the background to this passage is that the disciples have

been arguing over who will be greater in the kingdom of heaven.So it makes sense that Jesus is teaching the importance of

humility to his followers, however I think he is saying more than

this, yes, he is also saying, as bible teachers the world over have

taught us, that our faith must be that of a child. Knowing about the

humility lesson though helps us to understand howwe can have

faith like a child. You see to my children when they were young,when they found something broken their first inclination was to get

their father to fix it, and not only that they also believed that I

could fix it. Why? Because they couldnt, and who does the things

for them that they cant do? Their parents! From our kids point of

view; Mum and Dad look after us, they do the things that we kids

1All scriptures references are taken from the New International Version of the

Bible, unless otherwise stated.


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cant do. In our family they assign the role of fixing things to their

dad, (which is a weird phenomenon in itself considering my low

success rate with fixing things) in other familys it might be their

mother, or their grandfather, or their older sibling, they see as

being able to fix things.

What then is our inclination as adults when things go wrong?

When we need someone to do something we cant? Who do we go

to? Are you starting to get the picture? You see I think Jesus is

saying to us that we need to accept that there are things we cant

do and we need our God to do them for us.

Humility as Jesus teaches it, is not about believing we are

inadequate. It is not about believing that someone else is better

than us. It is about accepting that there are things we dont know

and some things we cant do and that thats okay. Its about beingwilling to receive; willing to learn and willing to let someone else

help us. Namely God, but also by extension the people and beings

he created.

One of the concerns sometimes raised when this verse is used to

teach faith is that it might be misinterpreted as promoting blind,unquestioning faith. This is a valid concern and we need to

recognise that blind faith is not what Jesus is promoting at all, in

fact in using young children as an example Jesus shows that is

okay to ask questions, after all young children do. They ask lots of

questions!


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Eventually though all of my children, except my youngest lost this

strongly held belief that I can fix all things and my youngest is even

now starting to lose it. This is part of their growth and maturing to

learn that neither me, nor any other person can fix all their

problems. The challenge to us is to help young people maintain

their belief in God, to help them understand that while we, as

humans, are fallible their God is not. Where and when we cant

help them, God can.

This again calls for humility on our part, being prepared to admit

that it is not ultimately us that our children need, but God. In being

humble enough to recognise this we practise our own faith in God.

Faith through which we know that he can lead our young people to

Christ and that his Holy Spirit will walk beside them on their

journey through this world.


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References

Alexander, D. & Alexander, P. (Eds.), (1984). The Lion Handbook

to the Bible.Herts, England: Lion Publishing.

Barker, K. (Ed.), (1995). The NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids,

Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.

Brand, C., Draper, C., & England, A. (Eds). (2003) Holman

Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, Tennessee: Holman

Reference.

Davis, J.D. (1977). Davis Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids,

Michigan: Baker Book House.

Goodrick, E. W., & Kohlenberger, J. R. (2012). The Strongest NIVExhaustive Concordance.Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.

Thompson, F.C. (Ed.), (1988). The Thomson Chain-Reference

Bible: Fifth Improved Edition. Indiana, USA: B. B. Kirkbride Bible

Co., Inc.

Zondervan. (2010, November 1). Updated NIV Bible Text.

Retrieved from http://www.biblica.com


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About the Author

Daniel is married to Elizabeth and they live in New Zealand with

their four children. Daniel is the founder of Faith with Wisdom and

has experience as an educator, school principal and business

founder. He has qualifications in education, leadership and

theology. His interests include spending time with family, outdoor

pursuits, photography, running, reading and philosophy.

You can read more from Daniel at FaithWithWisdom.com.

Cover Photo 2014, Daniel J. Price. All rights reserved. About the

Author photo by Rae Cliff Photography 2014, D & E Price. All

rights reserved.

Faith 101 - Daniel J. Price - PDF

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