God's True Children

"... there's no room in your heart for my message ... anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don't listen because you don't belong to God" John 8:31-47

Jesus does not give us freedom to do what we want, but freedom to follow God ... are we living our life doing what we want or do we seek God first in all we do? Jesus made a distinction between illegitimate children and true children. The religious leaders, descendent of Abraham claimed to be children of God. But their actions showed them to be true children of Satan for they lived under Satan's guidance. True children of Abraham (faithful followers of God) will not act as they did. Your church membership and family connections will not make you a true child of God. Your true father is the one you imitate and obey. ~ Life Application Bible.

This is true for many of us Christians today as we think of ourselves as child of God because we do certain things, or even say certain things. Anyone can say they know Jesus, but what they really mean is, they have heard of Jesus - read about Jesus, not necesarily know him. In order for one to know Jesus, one has to have a personal relationship with Him. For example, I may say I know Sarah whom I've met a few times, but I may not know her personally. Think about some people whom we know by name but do not spend quality time with them, or some whom we do go out in a group with them once a while but do not take the time to care about what they care about, do we know them personally? Certainly not. God's thumbprint is all over us, if we pray for the Lord to help open our eyes to see and ears to hear the truth, His grace and mercy upon us will help us learn the truth and gain understanding - if we earnestly seek Him. Knowing Jesus personally means knowing what is important to him, what He values, what He doesnt not like and all that list goes on just as you know your own friend personally. Loving Jesus means more than that ... as we may know many friends in a personal way but we may not truly love them the way we love others ... if we truly love Jesus, it means we do what is important to him, we value what He values, we hate what He hates, we do His will, not our will.

To accept Jesus as our Lord Personal Saviour means to know Him personally and to love Him. When He is the Lord of our life, that means He is above us, He is worthy of our love, He is worthy of our respect, He is worthy of our obedience ... we seek Him in all areas of our life, in our everyday life, we believe (words and heart) and trust (words and heart) in Him. Because we accept Him as our Lord, he is worthy of all we do for him and because we accept him as our saviour, that means we go to him with humility, submit to Him the bad sides of us, we surrender in obedience to His will. We die to our old self and we are now a new person - yielding to the Holy Spirit and bearing the fruits of the Spirit, let Jesus correct us, transform us and well equipped in all areas doing His will.

Some may accept Jesus as Saviour but do not accept Him as Lord. Some may accept Him as Lord but do not accept Him as their Saviour. Some may know Him in a personal way but do not accept Him as Lord and/or Saviour. Some may claim they know Jesus but in reality they are only acquainted to Jesus or might have just heard or read about Jesus but because they go to Church, and do certain things that other true Christian do, they think they know Jesus. Last but not least, some may even accept Jesus as Personal Lord and Saviour but do not love Him as their Personal Lord and Saviour. I am saying this not to condemn anyone because we all fall short of the glory of God, but our human heart is evil and our flesh is weak, we have a tendency to create our own little religion whether or not we think or say we know Jesus. I am definitely no better than anyone out there. There's no way we can get right with God, unless we (truly) accept and love Jesus as our Personal Lord and Saviour. If we claim we know Jesus and use His name day in day out, let's lift each other up, encourage each other, help each other as Body of Christ (the Church) and give Jesus a good name and not misrepresent Him. We can never claim that we know enough and we need to approach each day with humilty for Jesus says, "..unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:2) - We are to be child-like (not childish) with humble and sincere hearts just like children .. if you are not sure, you might want to work with children for a longer period of time, live with them and learn from them. Children are always very willing to learn - they may disobey, but they are very responsive towards teaching. The last thing we want to do is to shut off this responsive attitude to learning. When we do so, we set ourselves further and further away from the Lord.

Dear Lord Jesus, I want to get right with you, I want to know you and love you - to truly accept you as my personal Lord and Saviour. Thank you for your grace and mercy that I shall live yet another day, giving me the opportunity to repent and be the person you want me to be. I know that it is your will too that we love those around us, I also know it is your will that we take care of those who truly love you, I want to get right with you Lord and that means to get right with those around me too, love them truly the way you love me truly. With my own might and weak human flesh, I cannot do it, but Lord I am willing to let you take charge, let you be in control of my everyday life, nevermind my old ways and my own ways, and I know, with your grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, you will setup all the necessary resource for me to know and love you because this is your Will that we desire to know and love you. This can be done! In Jesus name, Amen.