Good morning,
God’s expanding family
Doing things God’s way has always been dangerous stuff. The Old Testament is full of God’s awareness of our danger when we live during dangerous times or dangerous situations. When the children of Israel were wandering in a hot and dry land, stuck there for 40 years, the Lord gave this promise to Moses to share with his people. Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid of them! The LORD your God will go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you.”(Duet.31:6) The promise that God made then was repeated over and over again during the hundreds of years that the Jewish people saw themselves as God’s chosen people, living under his special care. Then Jesus came. He said he was the Son of God, but very few would believe him. When he ended up dying on a cruel cross at the insistence of the leaders of God’s special people, it left his followers in total confusion. When his followers discovered that Jesus was alive and had died in their place to pay for their sins, it didn’t occur to them that God’s family just got a lot bigger. Now God would accept any gentile into his family as well with all the rights given to legally adopted children. Paul reminds those of us who are Gentiles and who have trusted Jesus as our Savior, that we are a part of God’s eternal family. Paul wrote to the Gentiles in Rome, And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ(Rom.1:6) No matter how we feel on any given day, we still are children of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We may have become used to thinking of ourselves as the world defines us, but all that nasty input, we call it trash talk, is just a pack of lies.
It keeps getting better. We are not just God’s kids. We are kids that God loves dearly no matter what stage or age we have come to in our journey through time. Our Heavenly Dad knows the kinds of challenges we face as we go from infancy to maturity in our walk with him. He knows that we live in a world filled with deep darkness, but he sees us as holy children learning to walk in the light of his truth. He holds our hand as we stumble along and he generously gives us all the grace we need to keep on growing and following him on our daily journey through life here on earth. When God gives us his grace, he doesn’t demand that we earn it. We are so used to being treated well if we perform well that we can hardly get our mind around a Heavenly Father who is on our side no matter what we are going through. In a world full of driven people, surrounded by circumstances that are beyond our control, and haunted by feelings of our own inadequacy, our Heavenly Father offers us what he defines as his peace. God’s idea of peace is wrapped up in the word “shalom.” God knows that we will always be living in some sort of conflict, but what he promises us who trust him more and more, is a life filled with harmony with God and those around us. God’s kids can live with God’s filter that “all is well” both physically and spiritually because he is in perfect control. Thanks you Father! You are an awesome Father to all your kids.
Romans 1:6 And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Roy Wisner
