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Family

We are sinners adopted by God into His family, learning to care for each other as family, and inviting others to experience the blessing of what it is like in God’s family.

God has always desired a people—an earthly family who would live in such a way that the world would know what He is like. Jesus said that those who live in His ways and obey His Father are truly His family. Through believing Jesus and His Gospel, God supernaturally placed us in His family in such a way that, whether we know it or not, we are now brothers and sisters with each other. As family we must grow in seeing it as our obligation to personally care for the needs of one another—both physically and spiritually. We disciple, nurture, and hold each other accountable to live with one another, as God sets forth in His Word. And ultimately our family is to be a blessing beyond itself out to those who are trying to “belong” somewhere else. Thus, God brought us INTO His family through Jesus SO THAT we could share our family with others.

Every human being is designed to belong. No one “arrives” here apart from a family, fractured and broken as it may be. And everyone seeks a group of people to belong to and with. In the gospel, we are adopted by a perfect Father as sons—fully accepted and loved. Our “belonging” is based on His work, not ours, and therefore cannot change. We don’t do good works to BE justified, we do them because we ARE justified (John 1:11-13). We are loved by our Father because of what Christ has done. When we fail to believe the Gospel, we try to find approval through connection to a church, a community, a group, or religious activities with a group of like-minded religious people. We prop them up as functional saviors who affirm and accept us; yet when they fail us, we are devastated. And it is certain that every one of them will fail to deliver the love and acceptance that the Heavenly Father gives.