The Good Of The Father (All In The Family) # 1982

 

Beloved, we are now children of God, and it was not yet manifested what we shall be.  We are aware that, if He should be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him according as He is 

First Epistle of John 3: 2, Concordant New Testament 

Growing up, my family life was not much to brag about.  My own parents were divorced when i was young, and I grew up being raised in a single parent home.  I don't give my mother any discredit for the way she raised my brother and I, for she was doing what she needed to do.  So it is that I can trace my earthly family roots back to a somewhat jumbled mess of relationships.  I didn't have it like most people.  Or did I?  My mother, being a believer in Jesus and follower of God, would often tell her son that I was indeed a son of God.  Of course, back then I was much too young to understand the treasure of that identity that I know today.  I had yet to grow into my understanding of my own life in the family of God.  So much was my misunderstanding, that I all too often refused to see God as my One true Father, knowing that my own fathers choices had destroyed his family relationship.  When others in the church would affectionately refer to God as "Daddy," I cringed.  For if God was anywhere like my earthly father, I wanted no part of a life with Him.  For her part, my mother did her best to assure me that God was nothing like my dad.  For He had chosen me {Paul to the Ephesians 1:4}.  He has created me in His very likeness {Genesis 1:27}.  Above all, He has called me His own {Johns Account 10:27}.  If I had known and understood my special place within the Father that I know today, it might have made my younger years a bit less trying.  Yet I have also been blessed that my own mother had a heart for the Lord which she shared with her son.  

Yet whoever obtained Him, to them He gives the right to become children of God, to those who are believing in His name, who were begotten, not of bloods, neither of the will of the flesh, neither of the will of a man, but of God

Johns Account 1: 12-13, Concordant New Testament 

So it is that I am a part of the family which has not been conceived through blood or the flesh of man, but of the Father {Johns Account 1:12-13}.  There is no similarity between my relationship with my earthly father and God.  However, despite his wrong choices, I do agree that my father shares in the same lineage as I do.  We both share in the lineage of the family of God.  My mother seemed to understand this truth while my father did not.  Too many people within the mainstream church will chafe at the idea that all share in the family lineage of God.  This is the same misunderstanding that leads too many Christians to believe that heaven is a special place reserved for those who behave the best in Gods eyes.  For the church, salvation is a black and white issue, with the good being rewarded and the wicked punished.  Yet what do we, as the family of God, have to do with the judgement of mankind?  We do well to remember that it is by the love and grace of the Father that one is saved {Johns Account 3:16-17}.  We also do well to remember that all share a place in the Fathers heart.  This truth that all will come to know the Lord, known as universal salvation, has also been a major contention of those in the church.  Again, in the teachings of the mainstream church, the wicked must be punished and the good and faithful rewarded!  The apostle Paul speaks to the truth that it is not our works which guarantee our salvation {Paul to the Ephesians 2:8-9}.  This takes our salvation out of our hands and places it exactly where it belongs, with God.  Who are we to say whom God should save?  The truth is, the desire of the Father is that all of His children, all of His family, would come to know Him. 

~Scott~