A couple thoughts...

Yesterday, my 3-year-old daughter was playing on the front porch with my 2-year-old son. I was standing by enjoying their company. Our neighbor friend, an 11-year-old boy came over to chat and play for a few minutes. My daughter "boldly" asked him if he knew God. (My wife and I have made efforts to constantly remind our children about the Lord's presence in our lives - indwelt by His Holy Spirit in our heart of hearts.) The boy was obviously discomforted by the question - he pretended not to hear her and instead turned his attention to my son. My persistent daughter asked again, louder this time, and the boy turned to me and mumbled, "I don't know." It was clearly something that he had never considered. Do you know God? Do you fear God? Do you love God?

Who is God? Jesus said in Matthew 11:25-30: "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was Your good pleasure. All things have been committed to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

What a blessing it is that our Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, has revealed Himself to little children - even my daughter!

Now, about the boy, I helped my daughter with her Gospel presentation and added: "She's asking you if Jesus lives in your heart. Do you know Jesus?" And the boy said, "I'm not sure. I think so." I added that the Bible tells us that we are sinful and deserving of death - and the boy interrupted me and acknowledged that "nobody's perfect, but that he had never really read the Bible and he never talks about that kind of stuff at his house" - I continued, "That's right; we are imperfect and unable to to earn our ticket to heaven, but we can know for sure that we have the free gift of eternal life if we have the Son, if we believe that Jesus came and lived a prefect life for us and died on the cross to pay the penalty price of our sins and rose again from the dead as evidence that we who believe in Him are decalred righteous before God." The boy turned and headed for home, but I asked him as he left, "Do you know Jesus?" He turned briefly and said, "I don't know; I think so."

Now I realize that's a lot of information for an 11-year-old boy who's never heard anything of the sort. But it's a seed. Perhaps he went home and chatted with his parents about it. I'm confident that, Lord willing, we'll enjoy his company again. And with my daughter's help, maybe we bring up the Gospel again (Deuteronomy 6:7; 11:19).

On a lighter note, much ado was made of last Tuesday being 06-06-06, because of the seeming signifigance of 6-6-6 from Revelation 13:18. Sam Storms wrote a humorous article on this. Read it here: http://justinchilders.blogspot.com/2006/06/number-of-beast-666.html

Storms mentions, "The name of the Son of God is said to be 888, the sum of the Greek letters of the name Jesus (Iesous). It has then been pointed out that 777 stands for completeness or perfection, 888 stands for more than perfection (i.e., Jesus), and thus 666 stands for imperfection, which is Antichrist." I learned today, as a novice fan of horse-racing - after all, I live in Derbyville, USA (Louisville, KY) - that the winners of this year's triple crown races (Barbaro - Derby, Bernardini - Preakness, and Jazil - Belmont) all wore the number 8, which meant that if you had wagered a pick 3 on the Triple Crown 8-8-8, you'd have won big.

Bet on 888, Jesus, especially when the world says watch out for 666.