Members of His Family

I remember a time in my life when I was so sure I had to have been adopted. I didn't talk like my siblings. I didn't act like them. I constantly wondered where I'd come from because the thoughts that I had just didn't line up with everyone else's. It was a confusing time for me. I wanted to fit in, but I couldn't because I was uncomfortable.

What I just described is the reality of the Christian. We were born into one family, but have since been adopted. We can't talk like or act like people in the world. We know where our peers come from, but are constantly reminded that we come from somewhere else. We exist in a world that can never be comfortable.

God adopted us into His family by the blood sacrifice of His son Jesus. The bible tells us that though we are in this world, as children of God we cannot conform to it. The world speaks of death and commits acts of destruction, but our words are of praise and our hands are busy helping to rebuild lives. We walk in truth and our desire is to be just like Christ. We are uncomfortable in this place because our spirit longs to be reunited with our Father. So peculiar are we that we face constant persecution and ridicule.

But, we are not alone. Our belief in the blood sacrifice that Jesus made at the cross placed us in the family of the most High God. Membership in this family is not to be taken lightly. We must bear the burdens of our brothers; loving them when they have mistreated us, and praying for them when we have been used. Our commitment is to let no man come between us because we are one; one body born of Christ. The bond that we have is rooted in love, watered with patience, and fertilized with forgiveness. Our family tree consists of farmers, liars, carpenters, whore mongers, princes, thieves and Kings. To the naked eye, we may not all look alike. However, the members of this family can easily be identified because we all have been born of the spirit of God.


John 1:12-13
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Adayinthelife :-)

Walking Away

If you walk away from everyone who hurts you, who will be left?

This question is one that I've wondered about from time to time. It's easy to walk away when you're hurt and embarrassed. It's easy to let your friends, your feelings, and your being fed up with faults lead you to the door.

But what happens when you get there? What happens when you physically leave, but you're still connected spirit to spirit?

"I can't trust again. I won't hurt again. I'm done."

The words tumble out, your body moves, but your spirit is still tied to the one...

The one they don't want you to love. The one they told you to walk away from. The one that more than one they wish they had because they know his love is true.

But you said you had to leave. You had to "do what's best for me". Tell me how you expected to be whole when you walked away from your other half?

Adayinthelife :-)

No More Lies

Proverbs 19:9

A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will perish.

Have you ever noticed just how easy it is to get caught up in the midst of a lie? Take for the example the lies we tell when we we explain why we didn't answer our phone.

"My phone battery was dead. I was in the middle of something. And my favorite, I don't have a missed call."

The truth is you were watching t.v., mindlessly staring at the paint on the wall or you just didn't feel like talking. Instead of giving any one of these truthful responses, we relax our way into a lie. A lie that lacks purpose. A lie that is so inconsequential that we forget that it is a lie as soon as we utter the words. 

Would you lie if you believed that the penalty was death? That is a simple enough question and I'm certain that if you or I were seriously faced with it we would say no. No, I will not tell a lie if death is the penalty. The problem is that death is in fact the penalty, 

When we lie it causes a separation in our relationship with God. This separation is a form of spiritual death. Each lie that is told, kills something in our spirit man. This causes our spirit to focus all of its attention on fighting off the effects of the lie. 

Every lie that we tell leaks poison into our spirit man. The infection enters and promptly begins to shut down our spiritual organs.  During this time, our flesh grows stronger so we may appear to be happy, relaxed, or in complete control. The truth is the lie is killing us. It is blocking the once clear artery reserved for carrying truth. And though the lie may not immediately stop our natural heart from beating, continuing to harbor the infection in our spirit will force us to remain separated from God. The longer we are separated from God, the harder it is to return to the Truth.

Adayinthelife :-)

Don't Forget Where We Came From

Psalm 133:1

"How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!"

I grew up in a family that loved to go to church. We went to Sunday school, Sunday morning service, Sunday night service, BTU, bible study, and fifth Sunday congress. We also spent time at the sanctuary on Saturday mornings to clean the church. The pastor ate dinner with us at grandma's house on most weekends. Back in those days, we even went on outings with the church to places like Board Walk & Baseball and Lithia Springs.

In those days, our family was united. Disagreements may have arisen, but anger never lingered. We worked hard to make sure that everyone had a foundation that was not just the activity of being at the sanctuary. We worked hard to make sure that everyone's foundation was God. When I think of those days, I wonder when did we forget where we came from?

When did we forget about the shared responsibility of training up a child? When did we forget about the importance of prayer and living peaceably with each other? We used to huddle up and pray when someone was going through. Now, we turn our backs and act like our brother's turmoil or our sister's heartache is their problem. What happened to bearing each other's burdens is what I wonder. Then I wonder what happened to our love of going to church?

Have we gone so far away from God that we can't remember what we learned in the sanctuary? Have we forgotten learning John 3:16 in Mrs. Benton's class, or retelling the story of Jesus's birth for Christmas and His death for the Easter play? Maybe we can't remember the sadness we felt when we learned that Cain killed Abel. Remember we vowed that we would never treat our family that way. We said that we would love each other the way that Jesus loved the world. But somehow, the love of the world has clouded our view and I wonder do we remember that our foundation is and always has been God? 

1 Corinthians 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,[a] in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Adayinthelife :-)

CEO

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds"

Hebrews 10:24

When I was young, I used to dream of climbing the corporate ladder. I thought that the thing to do was to work really hard until I was the CEO of a fortune 500 company. I would have to step on a few people on my way up, but that was just a part of how it worked. If I wanted to climb the ladder, I had to be cutthroat. I couldn't spend time thinking about the people that I would pass along the way. I had to have a singular focus. It was me or them. Only one person could be at the top. 

Thankfully, I let go of that dream. I didn't realize it at the time, but there was no way that that dream could come to fruition along side a life of service to God. For starters, if we are selfishly pursuing our own dreams, that leaves no room for us to pursue God. To add to that my dream included purposefully hurting the people that I was commanded to love. Love thy neighbor cannot coexist with a singular focus to advance to the top.

The dream I once had was not mine alone. In America, being the best is the dream. It is one of the things that our country is founded on. We are taught that hard work and perseverance will pay off. You can be anything that you want to be. My question is who wants to be a soul winner? Who wants to work hard and persevere in the work that God has set before the Christian body? We won't be able to have a singular focus. We won't be able to step on others as we rise to the top.

We will have to operate as a team relying on our brothers and sisters. We will need the team for this work. Some will be needed so that the team can show the world what it means to give and receive God's help. Others will be needed so that the world will see live examples of what happens when two or three are gathered together. We will work beside a great many to help a countless number of others to know the truth about God. 

Most of us will work diligently for God and never become CEO of anything, but really Christians should we be concerned about being a CEO when the CEO is God?  

"We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Romans 15:1

Adayinthelife :-)