This past weekend Karen and I went to visit our oldest daughter Tiffany and her beautiful family. Her husband Ben and their son Benjamin, our precious grandson, are always such a blessing with whom to spend time. Sunday we went to church and even had the chance to worship with a friend formerly from here now living in St. Petersburg. It is something I heard in church that I must share with you this morning.
Dr. Stephen Rummage, the senior pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, FL, is a fine man of God who preaches the Word unashamedly and unapologetically. He was preaching about our being adopted into the family of God and he told the story of a young lady who was speaking with her mother about her child’s dark hair. She could not figure out how their child got dark hair since she and her husband both had light hair. Her mother said, “Well dear, your father has dark hair.†The daughter replied, “Yeah but Mom, I’m adopted.†The mother shyly replied, “Yeah I know, I keep forgetting.â€
Immediately I began to silently weep in my seat sitting next to my beautiful daughter whom legally is described as my step-daughter. I call her my bonus daughter. I almost leaned over and whispered into her ear, “I keep forgetting.†However I knew that she would immediately know what I meant and most likely would began sobbing too. Plus, the Holy Spirit told me to sit and soak in that beautiful moment and that I was to write about it.
While I have not legally adopted my daughter, I have done so emotionally and spiritually. And that is why when I look at my precious grandson I keep forgetting that my blood does not run through his veins. What does run through him is my heart and soul. This is a small example of what happens when you give your life to Jesus Christ.
-
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.†(John 1:12-13)
This passage destroys the touchy-feely myth of the world that we are all God’s children. Being a child of God does not happen just by being born; you must be born-again. It is a birthright received from new spiritual birth, not physical birth. If ever there was a verse in the Bible that destroys the nonsense of the moral relativist thinking, it is John 1:12.
Last week we talked a lot about redemption and its necessity for new birth. It is through redemption that we are adopted into the family of God:
-
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.†(Galatians 4:3-6)
When we get adopted by God, we are not considered His adopted children. We are not merely additions to His original family; we are His family!
-
“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.’†(Isaiah 43:1)
We are His. I belong to God. Tiffany is my daughter, and no matter how much I keep forgetting that she is not my natural daughter I will naturally think she is.
So it is with our Heavenly Father, with one difference. He naturally thinks of us as His natural children because we have been born again supernaturally.
Is that you? Or are you believing the lie that you are a child of God by virtue of being alive? That is the complete opposite of what the Bible says about our natural lives:
-
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.†(Ephesians 2:4-6)
I pray that you will be made alive in Christ today.
In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4
If you’re receiving these devotionals for the first time and would like to receive them on a regular basis, please email me at jeffers221@bellsouth.net and use “Please add to Devotional List†as the subject.
-
Copyright © 2013 David Jeffers
Tags
Aletheia, Bible, Christianity, Culture, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Israel, Joy, Mercy, Morality, praise, Truth, Wisdom