"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, " Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ," Rom 8:15-17
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families reports that in fiscal year 2009, 114,562 children were waiting to be adopted in the United States. As you might guess, some of these children come from the most dire situations imaginable. All are in need of love, family, understanding and nurturing. For all intents and purposes, they need to be saved from their situations.
Their situation is analogous to ours outside of Christ. We are misguided and in need of things we cannot ourselves supply. We need someone to take us in, teach us right from wrong, good from bad and develop us into productive citizens of the kingdom.
I am pleased to say that many from our local congregation have followed God's great example and taken children in need into their homes and made them family. Wonderful organizations like Christian Family Services also exemplify God's great gift of benevolence and love through adoption services.
Beloved we who were once lost are now found. We who were once alone are members of God's family. As members, as children of the Almighty, as heirs, we have been given the right to call upon Him as "daddy" (Abba), the most intimate of addresses for our common Father. He cares for us and loves us so much. Let us rejoice in his kindness, even as those wonderful children do when they are made a part of an earthly family.
Loving Like Jesus,
Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment