Adopted by God

Ephesians 1:3-14

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he^[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship^[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he^[c] made known to us the mysteryof his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

¹¹ In him we were also chosen,^[d] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³ And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Adopted

Pastor Brad has been talking about adoption at church and our church body is really on fire for adoption. Since I am an imaginative person when I think of God adopting us in I think of Brad’s children or some of the other families children. How amazing it must of felt to been adopted by these wonderful loving spiritual parents. To feel like you were abandoned and then found! To feel lost and unloved, but also know that these two people loved you so much; even when you did not come from their womb, enough to bring you into their family and call you theirs! They have to have that feeling of there must be something special about me for them to want me. There is something special about every person on this Earth. We are all His hands and feet and we all deserve to feel that love and security. God offers us that through Jesus. Through Jesus we can be in God’s family. He can be our father our Abba. 

Abundantly

I like to read the scripture in other versions to see something else pops out at me. In the message bible something did.

 V7-10 And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. 

Not just free; Abundantly free! Not just saved Abundantly saved! Not just covered abundantly covered! I like the thought of that. I used to say I just want to be  happy; now I expect to be abundantly happy because that is what God says I deserve. I should expect to be abundantly happy because He has provided everything I could possibly need to get there. He has mapped out how to obtain that happiness in The Word.

He has His eyes on Us

^11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

As a parent now I think about me having to watch my children struggle. Could you imagine watching your children make wrong decisions after another; degrade themselves, think badly about themselves, or be hurtful to others?! Everything we teach our kids not to be …..  and imagine a brick wall between them and you….. Too tall to climb.. to strong to bash through….to deep to dig under… Just with a peep hole for us to whisper through. Please come back to me… please you know this is wrong… come to me my child. All the while all you want to do is hold your child… even though they have been doing so much wrong… you just want to stroke their hair… look into their eyes and tell them you love them and no matter what they do you always will.

How hard this must be for our God…. To see all we do wrong, but not be able to get through to us. But when He does!!!!

Think back or forward to when your kids were in grade school. Mine is n 1st grade and when they walk out that door of their classroom and they look around for you and BAM there’s mom!!!! Her eyes light up and she comes running; THAT is the most amazing feeling ever. To jump on me and give me a hug and tell me as fast as she can about her entire day. I wonder if this is how God feels when we come running to Him? 

My Name

Children of God

John 1:1-18

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testifyconcerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 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.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

 

This scripture is just too full to even “just blog” about. So I will pick a few key things that stood out to me.

Everything (YOU) were made by Him. (God) The sinners were made by God, the drug addicts we made by God, that homeless man on the street was made by God, that child who is hungry was made by God, that dying country was made by God, those struggling lost teens were made by God, the old folks sitting alone are made by God. We all have the same light inside of us and it is our duty to show them that they are worthy. Just as worthy as us. Their value is not any less than us and we are no more than them. We are ALL children of God and we all have the opportunity to come into His family.

The darkness could not put it out. The devil cannot win. The devil has already lost. Our God is an ever lasting energizer God! His light will never fade, or stalled out. It will only grow stronger and He searches to find the darkness hiding within you so to set you free!

John came to witness and testify about the light, but he was NOT the light. Jesus is the light and we are all here to spread the word about the light.  In order to experience the light you needed to believe in Jesus; to have faith in the light. When you do so you become the Children of God. Born of God, anything but natural in this worlds ways. What I like about John’s coming is God never forgets to equip us, to warn us, He sent Joh along to prepare us. Maybe in attempts to not leave anyone in the dark for lack of knowledge.

The Word became flesh was Jesus coming to this world; and from Him we have all received grace.

Acts 2

The descent of the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost. (1-4)

This section is all so full of content! I could probably research and write pages on just this.

• Timing: Pentecost; a time where they came together to study the Word.
• Location: Jerusalem; Jesus previously in Acts 1 told them to stay there and wait for the Holy Spirit.

² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

Why violent wind?!?!

This was to signify the powerful influences and working of the Spirit of God upon the minds of men, and thereby upon the world. Thus the convictions of the Spirit make way for his comforts; and the rough blasts of that blessed wind, prepare the soul for its soft and gentle gales. There was an appearance of something like flaming fire, lighting on every one of them, according to John Baptist’s saying concerning Christ; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. The Spirit, like fire, melts the heart, burns up the dross, and kindles pious and devout affections in the soul; in which, as in the fire on the altar, the spiritual sacrifices are offered up. – Matthew Henry’s Commentary

What is speaking in tongues?

 Speaking in tongues is the New Testament phenomena where a person speaks in a language that is unknown to him.  This language is either the language of angels or other earthly languages (1 Cor. 13:1).  It occurred in Acts 2 at Pentecost and also in the Corinthian church as is described in 1 Corinthians 14.  This New Testament gift was given by the Holy Spirit to the Christian church and is for the purpose of the edification of the Body of Christ as well as for glorifying the Lord. …But there is an important point worth making here.  Some churches erringly maintain that you must speak in tongues in order to be saved.  This is a grave mistake since not all people speak in tongues because not all people are gifted by the Holy Spirit this way.- Matt Slick

The apostles speak in divers languages. (5-13) Peter’s address to the Jews. (14-36)

⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? …. ¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

I think it is funny; Peter says its only 9am these people are not drunk!

Christ’s scholars never learn above their Bible; and the Spirit is given, not to do away the Scriptures, but to enable us to understand, approve, and obey them. Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Peter spoke about all God had done, and the Jesus was the one set apart and now we are to be that set apart person.

From the first delivery of that Divine message, it appeared that there was Divine power going with it; and thousands were brought to the obedience of faith. But neither Peter’s words, nor the miracle they witnessed, could have produced such effects, had not the Holy Spirit been given. Sinners, when their eyes are opened, cannot but be pricked to the heart for sin, cannot but feel an inward uneasiness. The apostle exhorted them to repent of their sins, and openly to avow their belief in Jesus as the Messiah, by being baptized in his name. Matthew Henry’s Commentary

 ⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common.⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Could you imagine a world like this?!?!?! I would LOVE it! It would make other nervous I could imagine.   The greatness of the event raised them above the world, and the Holy Ghost filled them with such love, as made every one to be to another as to himself, and so made all things common, not by destroying property, but doing away selfishness, and causing charity.

That sounds like heaven to me! I would give anything to help another while my husband and family would think I am dumb. They will just spend it on booze I hear a lot. It is not up to me to judge what they do with the help that I give; it is up to me to give that help that Jesus gave us!