Child of God

teknon: a child (of either sex) - Strong's Concordance

5043 téknon – properly, a child; (figuratively) anyone living in full dependence on the heavenlyFather, i.e. fully (willingly) relying upon the Lord in glad submission. This prompts God to transformthem into His likeness. - HELPS Word-studies

For the longest time I lived my life under my own strength. I handled all that life threw at me, relying on my abilities and sometimes some help from others. Culture and my parents taught me that a man had to be self-sufficient. If I had any challenges or hurdles to overcome, I and no one else had to deal with it. Not true.

Years ago, when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I became a child again. More so, a toddler beginning his Christian walk with God. I held His hand and He held mine. Somewhere along the line, though, I let go and walked on my own thinking, "I got this. This Christian life is easy." Wrong! My life fell apart. I lost my wife and children through divorce. I lost all that I owned other than what I could put in five plastic containers. Somewhere along the line, the idea that I was a child of God got lost.

A few years ago my senior pastor reminded me that I am a child of God, but mistakenly I thought it was a one-way deal. I thought, "Cool, God loves me as His child." I failed to understand that it was a relationship that went both ways. I was told that Christians need to depend on God, but I thought it was only when I was in deep trouble with something. Until recently, I did not grasp that it meant to be "fully" and "willingly" dependent on my heavenly Father, my Daddy.

I remember looking to and depending on my earthly daddy to take care of me. I could trust in and depend on him to provide me with everything that I needed, not always what I wanted. My heavenly Daddy is that and so much more. He desires that I depend and trust in Him to take care of my every need. He desires that I go to Him with EVERYTHING. Not just out of desperation, but to be fully dependent on Him for everything.

There have been times that I have been challenged with a task, but I just could not get it completed. I gladly handed it over to someone else who could take it on and complete it. In the same way, but before we even try to tackle it, my Daddy wants me to gladly hand over everything to Him so He can take care of them. For a moment, I have to be still and know that He is God, who can do all things for those who trust in Him. It doesn't mean that I won't have any part in it, it just means that I have to be sensitive to whether or not God wants me to be part of the outcome.

I am not a perfect child of God. There are times that I still do things on my own like a natural child would, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a child of God. God knows I'm not perfect. I am not fully dependent on God yet, but I'm a lot closer than I was just yesterday. Thank You Jesus, thank You Daddy.

The Real Battle

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. - Ephesians 6:12

This past weekend was an awesome weekend of teaching at the church that I attend by guest speaker Mike Erre, the new senior pastor at Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, California. The teaching was so remarkable on Saturday night that I returned Sunday morning to hear it again. It regarded a subject that I don't believe you hear being taught much about in most American churches today - spiritual warfare.

Over the last year or so, I've had the belief that American churches need to hear similar messages about spiritual warfare. It's not a comfortable subject for many. Too often we find the cause for our problems in other people and for good reason, and yet there is always the possibility that the cause for our problems are from the spiritual realm. It doesn't mean that all our problems are rooted there, but we have to start understanding that many of the trials and infirmities we deal with come from there.

Over the last several weeks, I had been dealing with a sense that I was short of breath and suffocating. I had people pray for me and even anoint me with oil to heal me, but nothing had worked. During Saturday night's service, Pastor Mike had sensed that there were people dealing with demonizing and he commanded the evil spirit to leave. In that moment I felt my sense of shortness of breath lift away and leave. It has not returned since then.

There are far greater things that the Scripture above addresses. These may seem great to many, but in the greater scheme of things, they are not that important. Our battle is not with the flesh and blood of Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, homosexuals or heterosexuals, blacks or whites or any other opposing factions. Our battle is with the spirits and demos causing the discord through their lies of pride, hate, envy, loneliness, anger and all the ills of the human spirit.

The war has been won through the self sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He has given us the foothold against the enemy like the Allied army had on the beaches of Normandy. Once they had their foothold, victory was assured. Our weapons are love, hope, reconciliation, forgiveness, peace and all that is good. Our enemy is not man or woman. It is evil in the spiritual realm.

Thank you, Mike Erre, for the healing, the encouragement to change my battle plan, and the inspiration for this blog.

Especially

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. - Galatians 6:10

Throughout the Bible you can find Scripture about love, compassion, helping the poor, widowed and orphans. We give money to our churches to help with their outreach ministries, many of whom are thousands of miles overseas. A lot of these ministries have the focus of reaching out to non-believers by showing them the love of Jesus through God's grace and mercy. The focus of these ministries need to continue to be on their successes to increase their impact for the kingdom.

This verse is very clear in saying that we are to do good "especially" to those who believe in Jesus Christ; the family of believers. This is not to exclude anyone one else, but more to exhort us to look out and care for those that believe in the Messiah. The key word for me here is "family". We are constantly confronted with making choices in our lives. There are those mundane everyday choices like what will I have for dinner or what movie do I want to see. Then there are the more serious choices we make regarding members of our family as opposed to a non-member.

What would you do if there was only one bite left to eat and on one hand you had your starving child that you could give it to and on the other there was another starving child who you did not know. There is no nobility involved here. The choice I would make would be to feed my starving child. My child is part of my family. That does not mean that I would not be grieving for the other child, but I would take care of my family first.

We are told to love one another, but even love has it's priorities. There are hard decisions to be made in life, but we have to obey what God teaches, even when it doesn't make sense at times.

The Beginning

Please let me start by first saying that I am NOT a biblical scholar or theologian. I've never had any formal biblical studies at a university or seminary. These are just my reflections on what God has said to me.

Yes, God has spoken to me, but not in an audible voice. He has been that still small voice that I have heard when there is no noise around me. The noise is not just audible noise, but the noise from the stresses and busyness of life; work, play, traffic, commitments, socializing, etc. He's also spoken to me through reading and meditating on Scripture and devotional reading, Godly words that He's given me through other people with their messages and advice, journalling, circumstances, and just admiring His creation.

Although influenced by the above, these are solely my thoughts. This is my way of sharing them and meant to reflect my faith in my Creator and Father. If you agree, disagree or are somewhere in between, GREAT! If anything, I hope this will encourage you in your journey and that in some way a blessing will come from this for you. Amen?

Stay tuned.....