From Slave to Friend …

Written by FAVORED1 on August 31, 2009 – 8:41 am -

Monday, August 31, 2009

I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me.
[John 15:15]

Good Morning Beloved,

WOW!… Where did August go? Time is flying!

OK, so this weekend I got to spend some time with family members I had not seen in ages. It was awesome! It is a blessing to spend time with genuinely nice people — who just happen to be family. I know all to well, that not everyone can lay claim to that testimony. Family members that are also friends… wow, what a concept! That is what Jesus was saying. We have been engrafted into His Family, and we are also friends. It makes a big difference. Relationship. I heard a preacher say once that, “rules, without relationship leads to rebellion”. God led by example on this one. He developed a relationship with Adam in the garden. He only gave Adam one rule… just one… ‘don’t eat from that tree over there’. He did not spend all His time ‘beatin’ on Adam and telling him what he could and could not do. It was literally ‘all good’. He walked with Adam. He enjoyed being in his presence and the feeling was mutual… until the fall. When Adam sinned, he did not want to face God. We do the same. When we fall short, we tend to run from God instead of running toward Him for help. God wants the same relationship with us that He had with Adam before. Remember when He said,

“Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” [Isaiah 1:18]

God is ‘shock-proof’. There is nothing that mankind can believe, conceive, or achieve that He has not seen a million times over. Can you imagine the wickedness and debauchery God has witnessed since He created Adam? Yet He calls us ‘friend’. The bible says that a ‘friend loves at all times”. I told my daughter that the mark of a good friend, is a person who has seen you at your absolute worst… and loves you anyway. When others throw up their hands and give up on you. When folks distance themselves from you… a true friend will be right there. They may get in your face and tell you about yourself behind closed doors, but outside they are ready to go down swinging back to back with you. A person does not have to agree with us %100 percent of the time, to qualify as a friend. The reverse is also true… not everyone who appears to agree with you all of the time is your friend.