Adopted into God's Family

The real struggle for me shouldn't be the occasional rude question about my son's identity [he is adopted] ; it should be the ongoing question about my own. 

Maybe the questions bothered me so much because they are being asked about me all the time, within the echo chamber of my own fallen psyche and by unseen rebel angels all around. "Are you really a son of the living God?‚ Does your God really know you?‚  Does this biblical story really belong to you?‚   Are these really your brothers and sisters?‚  Do you really belong here?"

 

The question of identity related to adoption was so desperate because it challenged the authenticity of my family. But more than that, it challenged the authenticity of the gospel. We veer from a fleshly self-sufficiency to a fleshly despair to a fleshly tribalism. And in all of this we lose sight of Christ. 

In adoption we find ourselves "in Jesus."

["And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."]

-Russell Moore, Adopted For Life.

Cited by http://www.gracedagain.com

Made New at the Core

One reviewer of Andrew Farley's book, God Without Religion wrote, "Never have I encountered a book that so clearly and biblically explains new covenant Christianity. If you want to dump the religious burden and live in the true freedom and joy of Christ, this book is for you."

Andrew has a compelling way of challenging any reader.  In God Without Religion he writes, "In all our talk about behavior, spiritual disciplines, and self-improvement within Christianity, I'm afraid we neglect the core message of the Christian faith -- death and new life. At its root, Christianity is really about dying and waking up a brand-new person. A fundamental exchange occurs within us at the moment we place our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Through our own death, burial, and resurrection, we become righteous saints, children of God. And this change is real and actual, not symbolic or figurative." He goes on to write, "There's a whole lot more to the new covenant than simply escaping law and being under grace. Grace won't work for just anybody. It's only intended for those who've been made new at the core."

-  Karl Kakadelis

www.undergrace.org

Pastor Sees Fruit through Exchanged Life Counseling

Dr. Solomon,

I am not sure, other than the grace of God how you have for so many years continued helping lead others to the Cross.  I have cried over and over after hearing the heartbreak and pain that people are willing to share.  For instance when I counseled a mom and her 17 year old daughter and found out that neither had EVER told each other that they love them, or even hugged.  To hear and see them finally crucify self and love each other was almost more than I could bear.

Again thanks for your faithfulness.  Pray for me I really want more training and so desperately want the Holy Spirit to work in me and through me and flow out of me.

God bless,

- J. (Florida)

[Learn about this personal ministry approach through Dr. Solomon's book, Handbook for Christ-Centered Counseling. Or, consider attending a GFI training event!]

Two Needs in Discipling

I would say that the two greatest problems among Christians are a lack of understanding their position in Christ and a lack of knowing God as their Father.  

They have no family image; therefore they feel cut off from other family members, members of the body of Christ, as well as feeling alienated from God. Our fellowship is made solid only as we renew our thinking about God.

God made us to enjoy Him. It is difficult to always enjoy a teacher, or a lord, or a commander in an army. God is our Father, and we are to enjoy Him forever. 

What a comfort to enjoy God like that! I can act as a child and treat Him as a father. I am free to fail, free to speak what is a concern to me, free to be myself, free from fear, free from guilt.

 God, through the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, has adopted you into His family through faith.   

- Dan DeHaan, The God you can Know. 

NO MIX OF OLD WITH NEW

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?" And He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?" Luke 5:33-34

These verses show that Jesus, who is the bridegroom, entered this earth to introduce a new way of life. His thoughts about fasting were not the thoughts of the Pharisees. In Luke 5:27-32, Jesus shows that He had come to introduce a new way of relating to sinners. In Luke 6:1-11, Jesus introduces a new way to treat the Sabbath. He permitted his disciples to gather corn on the Sabbath. He healed a man on the Sabbath.

With His illustrations in Luke 5:36-39 of not using new material to patch old material and new wine with old wineskins, Jesus again teaches the same message. He is laying the groundwork for the introduction of a New Covenant. In Hebrews 8:13, the author writes about the Old Covenant, "In that He says, 'A New Covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." The Book of Hebrews is about the New Covenant.

In 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, Paul writes, "… our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." The entire third chapter of 2 Corinthians 3 contrasts the old covenant with the new.

In Luke 5:39, Jesus says, "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.' Does this not show the hesitation of those who have lived under the Old Covenant for years to turn to the New Covenant.

We live under the New Covenant when we live out our union with Christ.

- David Kuykendall

Visit our web site at www.livingbygrace.org.

NOT CONFORMED BUT TRANSFORMED

by David Kuykendall

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. " Romans 12:2


In Romans 12:1 Paul writes, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

In Romans 6:13, Paul tells his readers to "make available to God their members as instruments of righteousness." When we understand that with the word "members" Paul is talking about our bodies, we see that Romans 12:1 is the same as Romans 6:13. The 6:13 command is preceded by four other commands. It could very well be that Paul has in mind those other commands also in his statement in 12:1

By beginning Romans 12:2 with "and," the passage indicates that there is a relationship between making our bodies available to God and not being conformed to the world but being transformed.

Believers who talk like people of the world often talk, go where they often go, do what they often do, laugh about what they often laugh about are being conformed to the world. Like the unsaved the believer is walking in the flesh.

In Romans 8.5 Paul writes, "When we walk in the flesh, our minds are on the things of the flesh. When we walk in the Spirit our minds are on the things of the Spirit."

We walk in the Spirit when we are filled with the Spirit by living out our oneness with Christ. When believers walk in the Spirit, their minds are on the things of the Spirit and they are continually being transformed into the likeness of Jesus. And Jesus is increasingly seen in them.

Copyright © 2000-2005 David Kuykendall Ministries. Used with permission
www.livingbygrace.org.

The Reign of Grace

"God's grace is given freely and undeservedly, but not without intent and implications.  We dare not try to privatize or domesticate the significance of God's grace.  We have been called into a dynamic love affair--one that gives more than we could have ever hoped, and demands more than we would freely give.  

To receive God's grace in Christ is to be brought into a revolutionary reign, not ushered into a quiet rest home!   God's love is as disruptive as it is delightful, as demanding as it is delicious!   God loves us exactly as we are today, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are and where we are."

Scotty Smith, The Reign of Grace

source: www.gracedagain.com