adoption

Have You Been Adopted?

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Have You Been Adopted?

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  Ephesians 1:5 NLT

“Have you asked Jesus into your heart Madeline?” I asked our grand-daughter as she sat on my lap.  P1030885

“Oh yes Poppy. Just last week.” she answered

“Then do you know what to do next?” I asked with a smile.

“Get baptized!” she said with a big laugh. And I’m getting baptized this Sunday.

Madeline is special to us because she is adopted and because after six grandsons she became our first granddaughter. I was so excited to learn that Madeline has accepted Jesus and become not just a part of our family but a part of the family of God. She is now adopted into both our family and into the family of God. In fact the only way for any of us to get into

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God’s family is to be adopted. He only had one Son born in the manger, but the rest of us get in by adoption. Becoming a Christian is such a simple thing. Jesus never said we needed go through any mysterious or complicated process. Instead He invited us to enter into His kingdom like little children. Just like Madeline all we have to do is to believe and ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior!

More Please!

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He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Romans 8:32 ESV

Most of us remember the scene from Oliver Twist as Oliver stands in line with a tin bowl in his hand waiting for someone to give him food. A small spoonful of soup is given him and when he sees it he looks up then and hesitantly asks, “Please sir, I want some more,”

How many of us in our prayer life feel a bit like Oliver?  We have asked God for help, comfort or strength and it seems as if the almighty has been a bit stingy with us. In fact if we were being entirely honest we might complain that while the plates of others are full, our portion seems very small indeed.

But God isn’t running an orphanage. He doesn’t ladle out thin soup so He can feast in private with the angels and some of the most holy of the saints. In fact God has broken down the orphanage door, snatched us up and carried us to His own home! By the miraculous and amazing love of Jesus Christ He has paid off our debts and gladly adopted us into His family as sons and daughters. We belong to Him and the portion He has given on each of our plates is more than enough. Our difficulty is not in the size of our portion but in the size of our cup. Jesus himself drank down our bitter cup so that He could not only give us a little more but that He could freely give us all things!

The New People

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For the entire ten years we lived in a rural Pennsylvania community we were considered the “New People”. I felt better when I learned that there were other “New People” just up the road from us.  They were from New Jersey and had lived there since the 1950’s!

In a more serious light the hysteria and anger over “New People” (Mexicans, Arabs, Muslims, Asians) has culminated in the most recent massacre in New Zealand. How we as Christians to respond must be linked to how Jesus responded to hatred and prejudice.  Jesus loved the immigrant, the stranger and amazingly so even His enemies. Jesus was not angry with Samaritans who had come from another place and worshipped differently than Jews.  Jesus did not protest about the brutal Roman rule or even agitate for the removal of Herod, who had murdered his cousin John the Baptist. Maybe Jesus was accepting of the “New People” because he knew what being rejected felt like. 20171231_232022

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1:10-11 NKJV

Change can be difficult and unsettling, especially if we feel we are threatened by those new and different circumstances. But no matter what situation we find ourselves in the only true place of peace and acceptance is not in being surrounded by “Our People”. Real peace comes as a result of being adopted into God’s family by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I was thinking how last Wednesday a friends of ours; who is one of those,  “New People” became a U.S. citizen. He and His family eat different food, speak a different language and has a different culture.  But today Raj and I both have exactly the same rights, responsibilities and privileges. In the same way, when Jesus laid down His life on the cross to pay for our sins, we gained the privilege of citizenzenship and includsion in the community of God. Yes as His children,  we may always be treated as the “New People”; but God calls us His own. How much more should we  be ready to embrace whoever He has allowed to live just down the street in our town?

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For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians 3:20 NKJV