Breakfast For Your Soul

Wednesday, May 7, 2010

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

[Ephesians 3:14-21]

FAMILY JEWELS

Good Afternoon Beloved,

This is one of my favorite scriptures.  My God is ABLE!  As I was reading this, I saw something else that jumped out at me.  The part about all of the “family” of earth being named for Jesus Christ.  Remember Jesus is called the “Last Adam”.  We are all natural descendants of the “first Adam”, however we have been given a choice as to whether we choose to be part of the family of the “Last Adam”. The way has been made, the invitation given to each and every member of the human “family”, however, God graciously gave us free-will to choose. Considering the alternative, I don’t know why anyone would choose not to be.  I suspect it is because they don’t really believe what He said.  Family… I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.  Saturday, I attended a memorial service in honor of my late Grandmother Frances Adele Hockaday — she was 93 years old.  I did not know a lot about her, had only met her a few times.  She had nine children including my dad and seven are still alive.  Five of them attended the service.  It was interesting looking at people so closely related and yet total strangers.  Happily, steps were taken to rectify this with several family members.  However, it made me think about all of the people I’ve been blessed by God to have as part of my life.  They are my ‘family’.  We are connected through our heavenly Father and through common bonds that we share.  I once heard it said “friends are the family we choose” … I think that is a pretty accurate sentiment, but it is even deeper.  We are all part of the human family, we’re just more connected to some than others.  Just like in a natural family, there are personalities that just click better.  The love of Jesus binds and unites us.  We are a stronger family because of Him.  When we come into faith and the knowledge of our place in the ‘Family of God’, I believe we really start to truly live.  It is more than just being a part of a local church.  I’ve gone to many different “churches” in different states, different cultures, different styles of music, but the Spirit is the same.  I get the same feeling of being amongst family.  That is how it will be when we get home to Glory. Denominations will be completely unnecessary.  There will be no fear or pride.. just God.  Pure, complete, unrestrained praise and worship of our Heavenly Father.  Pure enjoyment of our brothers and sisters without silly arguments, misleading ‘wacky’ doctrines, confusion, suspicion, jealousy etc… etc… etc…  Family.. the way it was designed to be.. Hey… here’s a thought.. why not practice now.. let’s be the Family of the True and Living God! Living in holiness, peacemakers, lovers of all that is good… allowing our light to so shine before men that all may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in Heaven!