Category: Level: Beginner

child of God the Father

I Am A Child Of God

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God actually adopts us into His family as His child when we believe in Christ (Rom. 8:15)! It seems too good to be true but it is. This is our new core identity and we need to remind ourselves of this daily. When we remember who we are we will find strength to become more like Christ. When people adopt a child they often go to great expense and effort. God did the same thing for us: the Son came to earth as a human and endured opposition and execution just so that God could adopt us as His child. And once He adopted us we became one of His heirs (Rom. 8:16). In fact, Scripture says that Jesus is our brother (Mt. 12:49-50 (Mk. 3:34-35); Heb. 2:11, 17) and just as He receives an inheritance from the Father so too we are fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). But Continue Reading →

cross forgiveness

I Am A Forgiven Child Of God

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In my early 30’s I had gone through over a year of excruciating physical and emotional pain. One day I was standing in the yard looking out over the sea and reflecting on what I was feeling and I realized that I was angry at God. This was not welcome news but I accepted it and started to tell God why I was angry at him. Even though I was afraid to express anger at God I pressed on because I trusted his forgiveness. When I was done there was no sense of rejection from him, on the contrary it was a big release and birthed a deeper relationship with God. It was okay to have my bad and tell him all about it. It’s interesting how a forgiveness mindset changes our view of ourselves and others. Without a forgiveness mindset our natural attitude towards our faults is to minimize Continue Reading →

glorious person man

Motivated By Our Future Perfection

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What motivates you to holy living? When you are tempted by something that others think is okay but you know it is unholy, what do you think about in order to strengthen your will and resist temptation? Scripture mentions several different motivations but one of them is the promise of being thoroughly holy and perfect one day. This might not seem logical at first. If God is going to perfect us anyway, why should we make a lot of sacrifice now in order to be holy? Why would the promise of future holiness motivate me to be more holy now? We can learn about this from John: “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” I Jn. 3:3 (NIV) Here God is motivating us to Continue Reading →

resurrection new adam

Jesus Makes Us Into New Adams

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Do you ever think about how wonderful it would be if you could be like Adam or Eve before they fell? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to live in perfect harmony with God and others? During the holy week when our hearts are so focused on Jesus and the end of his life it is helpful to remember why he came: so God could restore our Adamic nature and our Adamic relationship with God. In fact, Jesus does this and more! Remember that the old arrangement, or Mosaic covenant, that God had with his people did not succeed in producing a nation of people who loved God and followed his ways. The people could not produce a new garden on earth where everyone lived in harmony and prosperity. This was all rooted in the fact that they could not eliminate the corruption from their nature. The condemnation from the Garden remained. Continue Reading →

humility

The Unusual Humility Of William Seymour

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In 1906 something very unusual began happening in a small meeting in Los Angeles. People testified that the Spirit of God was coming upon them and filling them with joy and power and praise for God. Their lives were transformed. It was the beginning of the Azusa Street Revival which was the leading contributor to the biggest movement in the Christian church in centuries: Pentecostalism. It was also the second largest social movement of the 20th century after communism – and unlike communism it was still skyrocketing by the end of the century. In the year 2000 over 500 million Christians worldwide considered themselves Pentecostal or charismatic. The pastor of the church that hosted these meetings on Azusa Street was a black man named William Seymour. The meetings were filled with whites as well as blacks and many other nationalities. As news of the meetings spread many ministers spoke against Continue Reading →