SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 14 4
Jesus, Part II by Gayle Erwin
Whoever is “it” counts to fifty and says, “Here I come, ready or not!” When he turns
around the two-year-old is right there, covering his face and thinking: “I do not see you.
You do not see me.”
My own children would sometimes say to me, “Daddy, I am going to go hide in the
kitchen. You come find me, okay?” I love it. They did not know how to hide, in fact
when my son was about five, he saw a magician somewhere and decided he wanted to be
that. But it never worked for him because, you see, magic is totally dependent on
deception. And he did not understand deception. He tried and said, “Daddy, I am going to
play a trick on you, okay?” “Okay, son.” “I’ve got a rock in my hand, Daddy, and I want
you to tell me which hand it is in. Okay, ready?” “I am ready, son.” He makes an effort
with his hand and of course nothing happened because he just did not know how to
deceive.
My children were never able to understand how I always knew when they had done
something they should not do. It is because guilt came out of every pore in their body,
you know. If they came home innocent, they just came home. But if they came home
guilty, they came home whistling. And I would say, “What have you done?” “How did
you know?”
I wonder what would happen if we adults did not know how to deceive? Have you ever
thought about that? What would happen if we really did not know how to deceive each
other? It would change things, wouldn’t it? You recall, of course, when Adam and Eve
sinned in the Garden that they began to hide. They became children of darkness and here
began all the deception that we have suffered under for centuries.
But we are children of light! It is hard to hide things in the light. Have you noticed that?
If you are going to hide something, you just tend to hide it in the dark. A child is unable
to deceive.
I think when Jesus calls us to be His children one of the things He is calling us to be is a
non-deceiving sort of person, the kind of person that has no hidden agendas. Well, it is
similar to humility, isn’t it? What you see is what you get is how we are to be.
Jesus was a very open person. I am amazed at Him. He said He was the light of the
world, which also He said of us, by the way. And He said of us that we were a city set on
a hill. The Scripture says of Him that this was not done in a corner. This was right out in
the open, you see. In Him was no darkness at all. That is amazing!
So a child is unable to deceive. And I think God calls us not to be deceptive sort of
people—the kind of people when the world says, “Oh, you are a Christian. You are one
of the honest ones, the undeceiving ones, the open ones.” “Well, if we are not deceptive,
how are we going to protect ourselves?” That is God’s job, see. “Well, can we trust
Him?” Of course we can! We should try it some time to see His faithfulness.