Devotional Index

September Devotional

Little Ones to Him Belong

The summer of '08 turned out to have some tough challenges for me as a pastor. The first challenge was to conduct the funeral of a three year old girl who had passed away in another community. As I thought to myself how difficult that was for all involved, it would be less than two weeks and I would be ministering again to one of our own church families as they lost their three month old son to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

At each funeral service I spoke of David having the assurance of little ones being in heaven as recorded in 2 Samuel 12:23, "But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him,but he shall not return to me." Needless to say, that in the case of the loss of these little ones, there was deep heartfelt grief and pain. The consolation is that God in his mercy takes care of the little ones, the innocents, in delivering them to Himself. The challenge at each funeral was for the adults and all others of the age of understanding. The question was asked, "What about you, will you be ready to meet the 'little ones' in heaven? Have you understood the plight of your own sin and how it separates you from God, and how God will not allow you with your sin to enter into His presence in heaven?" The Bible states in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The Redeemer of course is Jesus Christ; He must be received and believed upon. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Romans 10:13 goes on to say, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved."

A few days after the funeral of the three month old, the father said something to me that has stayed with me. He said, "I have really come to understand and appreciate the phrase in the song Jesus Loves Me that states, 'Little ones to Him belong.'" I did a hymn history search and the song's message does indeed reference Christ's mercy with the death of infants and little ones.

We trust God in these tragedies when God calls children home to Himself. But what about the plight of the unborn that do not even have a chance at life and are aborted? Jesus said in Mark 10:14, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." May people's hearts be changed about abortion, and may we even by the Grace of God someday see this nation's 1973 infamous Un-Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision be overturned. May we live in a land and a world where the little ones have a chance to "come unto Jesus," for the little ones truly belong unto Him.

Reader, what about you, do you understand that you have been fearfully and wonderfully made by God? Psalms 139:14 states, "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Genesis 1:27 goes on to declare, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Man's image of being in the spiritual likeness of God has been marred by sin and man needs a spiritual birth. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Become the new creation in and through Christ that God wants you to become. Jesus declared emphatically in John chapter three verse seven, "Ye must be born again." The big "If" of the Bible is found in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." The newness of Christ brings life. In John 10:10b Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Reader, if you have not yet come to Christ, come to Christ, your soul's eternal destiny depends upon it.

Pastor Ron Kutz
Bible Baptist Church of Utica
Access Women's Center Board Member