Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 839 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
As a Child! – Meditation Monday
Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 839 of our trek, and it is time for Meditation Monday. Taking time to relax, refocus, and reprioritize our lives is crucial in order to create a living legacy.
For some, it may just be time alone for quiet reflection. Some may utilize structured meditation practices. In my life meditation includes reading and reflecting on God’s Word and praying. It is a time to renew my mind, refocus on what is most important, and make sure that I am nurturing my soul, mind, and body. As you come along with me on our trek each Meditation Monday, it is my hope and prayer that you too will experience a time for reflection and renewing of your mind.
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. As I grow older, although it is hard to accept, I realize I am not a child, or a teenager, or a young adult anymore. Even with the advances in medical technology and understanding of human physiology, I am still aging. The Apostle Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”Yet Jesus said there is one area where we should not be. In today’s meditation let us explore…
As a Child
When we read the verses below, I want you to notice Jesus’s interactions with His disciples regarding a rich public official who turned away from following Him. Jesus challenged His disciples to think through His rejection of His call to focus their attention on those who are worthy of their emulation. Religion gets far off track when the focus becomes a question of who is most important, most religious, and most deserving of the Father’s love.
Jesus came to us as God. The rich public official in the story that I will read today missed this truth. He called Jesus “good,” and only God is truly good. So Jesus challenged him to listen to Him as God. Jesus told him that he needed to drop his religious game of trying to earn the Father’s love.
He needed to quit trying to outdo all the others around him in his religious practices. He needed to look deep into his own heart and see that there was an idol he held as more important than obeying the voice of the Father. However, he dismissed what Jesus said. He refused to give up his idol — his great wealth — for two reasons:
- He didn’t think of Jesus as God. He dismissed what Jesus said as just more religious teaching. He didn’t accept what Jesus said as the very commands of God.
- He was rich and his idol — his real god — was his money. Unfortunately, he thought he could earn the Father’s favor just like he had earned his money.
Sadly, he walked away from Jesus and from the joy of His kingdom because he couldn’t give up what was false.
Just before the description of this rich public official’s visit with Jesus, you meet children who are the model for the kind of heart that receives His kingdom. Just after this official, you meet Jesus’s disciples. In childlike amazement, they wonder how anyone can be saved if someone who has lived a good life, like this rich public official, couldn’t find his way into His kingdom.
Jesus reminded them that they were thinking in human terms. In human terms, it is impossible. But the Father, Son, and Spirit — make the impossible, possible. All that Jesus’s disciples had to do was look at themselves and what they had given up.
You see, nothing is impossible for the heart totally yielded to Jesus. You cannot give up more for Him than you will receive many times over in the age to come.
However — and this is a huge “however” — you have to be willing to follow Jesus as a child. So let’s become like a child in our faith as Jesus’s disciples
During Jesus’s time on earth, children were not an important part of society. They were trained, loved, nurtured, and apprenticed at home. They were not important in adult society. For Jesus to hold them up as a good example of a disciple was shocking. To elevate children above a rich, devoted-to-the-law public official was shocking. Listen with your heart. Invite the Holy Spirit to attach these words to your soul.
Jesus is the good teacher. Jesus is God among us. Jesus is the One teaching the eternal truth. You either renounce all of your idols and follow Jesus as a child, or you walk away from Him with a sad heart. If you leave, you forfeit your hope of enjoying His kingdom. Listen now as I read today’s passage.
· Jesus Blesses the Children
One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.
Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
· The Rich Man
Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”
The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”
When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.
When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?”
He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”
Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”
“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”
Next week we will continue our trek on Meditation Monday as we take time to reflect on what is most important in creating our living legacy. On tomorrow’s trek, we will explore another wisdom quote. This 3-minute wisdom supplement will assist you in becoming healthy, wealthy, and wise each day. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
If you would like to listen to any of the past 838 daily treks or read the daily journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Apple Podcast and Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most importantly, your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
I am Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Everyday! See you tomorrow!