Compatibility With God

Posted on February 23, 2011 by LovingLikeGod.com

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The problem with being a created child is that created children are incompatible with God. God is hoping for begotten children. This, it seems to me, is a big area of misunderstanding. It shouldn’t require a power point presentation to explain the difference between an adopted child, and a begotten one, (even a chimpanzee can be adopted). Yet these two are seen to be the same thing by most believers.

Here is how I have come to understand the difference as used in the New Testament record. Adoption has to do with a legal transaction. You just can’t go down the street walking off with other people’s children. That is illegal. The fact is, according to “the Law,” in our flesh, we are/were so incompatible with God, it would have been illegal for Him to adopt us. At the cross, God took care of the legalities, (Ephesians 2, and Colossians 2) making it possible to adopt us. Having done so, He poured the Spirit of His only begotten Son into our hearts so that we too would be begotten children, children compatible with the fellowship of  The “Godhead,” Galatians 4:1-7

What we need to get is the magnitude of our inheritance in Christ. It is enormous – wholly other!

Yes, I’m going someplace with all of this. I’m heading for the oneness that Jesus prayed and died for, John 17:21.

Posted in J.Ferris: Relationships | 5 Comments

Many Brothers

Posted on February 22, 2011 by LovingLikeGod.com

In my last post I asked a question: “What is God hoping for?” No answers so far in the comment box. (I really am looking for a conversation here, :-) )

Here are a few of many verses we could have chosen that help us find the answer:

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9 NIV

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.“ John 1:1, 2 NIV

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.“ Romans 8:29 NIV

“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” [Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7] meaning one person, who is Christ.“ Galatians 3:16

Speaking of His own death, Jesus said: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.“ John 12:24 NIV

Any thoughts? :-)

Posted in J.Ferris: Intimacy | 3 Comments

What Is God Hoping For?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by LovingLikeGod.com

Returning once again to Romans 8:20, why would The Creator frustrate His own creation? Having frustrated it in hope, what was He hoping for? Romans is careful to tell us that neither the creation nor created things were responsible for the frustration, but the Creator Himself. When did this happen? What happened? Why?

Romans 8:24 asks the question, “Who hopes for what they already have?” To frustrate a creation, one must first have a creation, so the creation must have already been created at the time it was subjected to frustration. It must have been before “the fall.” The frustration was already in the garden before “the fall,” and was a contributing factor leading to “the fall.”

What was God hoping for, which is to say, What was it He did not already have? Why did He neglect to create what He was hoping for? Was it an oversight on The Creator’s part? We think not. It could only be there must have been something The Creator could not create – something He was hoping for that frustration could facilitate.

The answer is at once simple and profound. Any thoughts? :-)

Posted in J.Ferris: Intimacy | 2 Comments