My Father’s House/Everything I Have Is Yours/Keys/Adoption
Combining teachings in the Word is sometimes not the easiest thing to do. Just take a look at Rev. 1:6, for instance. That is the Scripture where John is revealing to us that Jesus has already made us KINGS and PRIESTS (KJV, NKJV, Young's Literal) unto God.
Wasn’t it a blessing when you realized that you were no longer the tail, but you were the head? Deut. 28:13 had become a reality for you. For me that meant I no longer had to feel inferior to anyone--according to God Himself I was the HEAD, not the tail! But in my worldly way of thinking what I had done was subjugate everyone else to me. The big “I” was now above and not beneath. It just took me some time to quit seeing through the eyes of my earthly understanding.
Another Scripture also was coming into play at that time in my life--the one about assembling ourselves together because the day was getting closer. Sunday came, I woke up, put on the armor of the Lord, placed on MY royal robe and MY crown, picked up the key to MY kingdom, and prepared to enter MY domain.
As I got close to the Church I began reaching for the key so that I could unlock the door. But wait. It was already open. Was there more than one key in MY kingdom? Since I was the priest and also the king, I should have control over who does or doesn’t enter.
Just how do we all function when everyone is a chief and there are no Indians? Does everyone in the Church you attend or the ministry you lead have a key to the front door?
Whose ministries are these anyway? We identify our work for the Lord many times by the person who carries the bulk of the weight or load for that ministry--quite often the person who began it. The Billy Graham Ministries, Joyce Myers Ministries, John Hagee...Mother Theresa...and on and on.
Do you think Billy Graham really believed that this ministry God had called him to start was his--Billy’s I mean. Probably not. These men and women read the Word, and the Word tells us not to boast because everything we have came to us as a gift from God.
Now let’s talk for a minute about the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Two brothers had grown up and were still part of their father’s household. One brother, the older one, was diligently working for his father. The other younger brother was working, but was wanting his freedom. So he approached his father and asked if dad would give him his share of the inheritance.
Leaving out the middle of the story, the older brother who was out working in the father’s field started towards home one evening, but realized there was something unusual happening. As he got closer he realized it was a celebration. When he finally got to the house he was confronted with the fact that the celebration wass in honor of his worthless, no-good brother. Big-Brother Syndrome had risen up in him.
One last thing--some thoughts on adoption gone wrong--needs to be added to this before we begin hashing through it. In my neighborhood when I was growing up there was a family who had two boys. I was very young at the time, so I was seeing from the perspective of a child. But what I saw was that the younger son was without a doubt being favored, blatantly favored. It was beyond my ability to comprehend. In my family there were three children, all of whom were loved. Why was the older boy in this other family being treated so poorly.
Eventually I got old enough to put into words what I was watching. My mother explained that the woman and her husband had tried for years to have a child, but had finally given up and adopted a son. They brought the boy home and were so grateful to have him. Then shortly after the boy arrived, the woman discovered she was pregnant. Once the REAL son was born, the older boy became a burden to her. I always thought she acted like she would have sent the older son back if she could have.
Here’s the thing. Every Gentile in the family of God has been adopted by Father God (Rom. 8:15). Do you think God will do to His adopted children what this woman did to her adopted son? I was friends with the older adopted boy. I know how he ached to be accepted as a real son--but he never was able to get his mom to give him equal standing in her life. The mother and father are long-since dead, but the rift they created between their sons remains today.
What do these Scriptures speak to us today, when read together, about how we view our position in the Body of Christ, in the Church and in para-ministries, as well as in how our attitudes and actions are shaping the environments in which we live and move?
There is much damage being done today to those who consider themselves to be Christian. (There is also much good being done, but that is for a later discussion.)
Have you been dishonored, hurt, squashed, or in some other fashion wounded while seeking to be in fellowship?
Or have you ever found yourself on the other end, wounding someone who is part of the Body of Christ out of ignorance or unintentionally?
Have you found yourself in the position of FEELING more important, more educated, or more worthy of being accepted than those around you?
Or have you found yourself in the position of being made to feel inferior, unaccepted, out of place, or in some other way pushed aside by those in your Church or ministries or those calling themselves Christians?
Let’s share some of our stories and really listen to each other. We must forgive what others have done to us and seek forgiveness for the damage we ourselves have done. Yet there are things we can learn from these harmful interactions. We’re here to help each other, learn from each other, and grow in the Lord.
Thanks for reading. A forum is a discussion. How about giving your input!
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