Christian Living

  In an ideal family, there is a father, a mother, sons, and daughters. Children may become members of a family by birth or descent , but they may also become members through adoption . What qualifies you and me to become part of God's family? Our key passage is Ephesians 1:3–5 : “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us  in the heavenly realms  with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will...” (NIV). The central message is simple: We are part of God's family by adoption. You and I are not part of the family of God by birth but by adoption. Praise the Lord!   Understanding Spiritual Adoption Adoption is the act of God's grace by which He places us as sons and daughters in His family, the ones who receive Jesus Christ a...

In the Bible, Abraham is highly respected and esteemed because he became the father of the nation of Israel. Through him, a nation was born and God promised that through him He would make a great nation that would become a blessing to others. In the same way, people throughout history have been honored as founding fathers because of the role they played in establishing their nations or shaping their future. The idea of a father of the nation therefore points to something deeper: a nation is a family. If we speak of a founding father, then we must also think about the people of that nation as members of one family. This brings us to an important question: What does it really mean for a nation to live as a family?   What Happens When a Nation Stops Behaving Like a Family? What happens when those people no longer think, act, and behave like members of one family?  The result is chaos. There is confusion, conflict, division, lovelessness, and sometimes even competing centers of au...